Getting On Mission: Why should I care?
- I care because people are Hurting. (Matt 9:36)
- I care because of where people are Heading. (Matt 9:37)
- I care because God Does. (Matt 9:37b-38)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
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If this is your home church, or if you're visiting here, if you're involved in another church, a question you need to ask is what kind of a church is this?
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And I want to share with you just - this is going to be reviewed for a lot of you, but for some of you this might be new information.
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But we need to constantly go back and evaluate what kind of a church is Harvest Bible Chapel, Pittsburgh North.
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Harvest Bible Chapel sits on four pillars.
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Our first pillar is proclaiming the authority of God's Word without apology.
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We believe that God wrote a book.
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And we are not shy about saying what God said.
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Our second pillar is lifting high the name of Jesus in worship.
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That's why we spend so much time in passionate worship.
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It engages our emotions in being worshipers for God corporately in music.
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Our third pillar is believing firmly in the power of prayer.
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And I've spoken about this so much from this podium.
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All of the ways that we've seen the Lord answer prayer, even in this little congregation, has been astounding.
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Very specific prayers answered, people healed, and genuine modern day miracles that we have seen.
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We believe firmly in the power of prayer.
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And our fourth pillar is sharing the good news of Jesus of boldness.
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And we're going to be spending some time talking about that today.
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But how do we go after this mission?
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If this is the mission of the church - the four pillars - the mission is to make disciples, to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission in the spirit of the Great Commandment - that's our mission statement - how do we go after that?
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Well, at Harvest Bible Chapel, we believe that the disciple of Jesus Christ does three things.
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A disciple of Jesus Christ Worships Christ.
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Worships Christ.
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That's why we worship corporately, and we encourage you to worship privately.
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Be in prayer and in God's Word and worshiping in private and in your home.
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We believe a disciple worships Christ.
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We believe a disciple of Jesus Christ walks with Christ.
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Again, that's your personal walk.
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It's also being involved in a small group, because one of the biggest ways that God's going to be at work in your life and the people.
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And we believe at Harvest Bible Chapel that a disciple works for Christ.
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A disciple worships Christ.
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A disciple walks with Christ.
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And a disciple works for Christ.
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Involved in sharing the weekly kingdom responsibility.
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We want to see everybody involved in ministry at the church because we believe according to God's Word that God's equipped every one of us to be involved in ministry.
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And as we've been talking about so much this past year, Our whole ministry year last year hung on just one verse really.
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Acts 1:8 When Jesus told the disciples, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." And this statement, this power that Jesus gave us by His Holy Spirit, I want you to notice that Jesus said I've seen my witnesses in Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
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To the disciples, Jerusalem was the neighborhood.
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That was where they were.
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Judea and Samaria was the surrounding community.
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And the ends of the earth, obviously, international missions type stuff.
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At Harvest Bible Chapel, you could be asking, "Well, how does this church do evangelism?" "What does this church do for outreach and evangelism?" Well, looking at what Jesus prescribed for us, Jerusalem - that's your neighborhood.
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Those are the people you work with.
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That's your family.
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We encourage you to invite people to come and worship with us here at church.
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That's your Jerusalem.
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Judea and Samaria - the surrounding community.
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Every small group at Harvest Bible Chapel involved in some type of community outreach.
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You know, every quarter, getting out and doing something in a community to show the love and share the word of Christ.
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Ends of the Earth, mission trips.
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Our youth has gone to Kentucky just this past summer to do a mission trip.
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Remember a couple years ago, we'd gone to Moldova, to Romania, to Thailand.
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We've certainly been going after this ends of the Earth thing.
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That's how we do evangelism at Harvest Bible Chapel.
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Four pillars.
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One mission.
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To make disciples.
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And at Harvest Bible Chapel, I have to tell you, we are so blessed to have the people involved in ministry here that we have.
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It's a joy for me as a pastor.
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And that's one of the reasons I love this video so much.
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I was in the cleanup crew.
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I wasn't trusted to be on the roof.
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But that day was such a blessing for me.
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As I was looking at people working and making food and cleaning up, I thought this is the kind of a church that I have the privilege of being a part of.
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A church that would see one of its members in need and say, "Ok, we're all going to rally around and love this family and meet this need.
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And some of you have probably heard me say it a dozen times, I just love the people in this church so much.
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And we want to take a few moments this morning to show our appreciation specifically for all of our volunteers who help in various capacities of ministry.
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And I ask Corrine if you would come up.
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And just as a church, we want to formally and publicly express our gratitude and appreciation for everybody that serves in this church.
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Thank you, Corinne.
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You know, Romans 13, verse 7 says that we should give honor to whom honor is owed.
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And we had a banquet planned, and unfortunately, most people were unable to make it.
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probably too busy serving Christ to take the time to have a dinner to be acknowledged for that but we just love and appreciate our volunteers so much so the turning your Bibles with me please to the book of Matthew in chapter 9 we're taking a little break from Acts just a one-week break we're going to be jumping back to Matthew chapter 9 we're going to be starting in verse 35 because We're just finishing a ministry year, and next week we're about to start our next ministry calendar year.
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So it's sort of a time of excitement.
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We're sort of spending this week placing the ball on the tee ready for kickoff.
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And as a pastor, one of my jobs certainly is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.
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And I believe part of that is to to motivate people for ministry.
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And you know, I could motivate you for ministry by trying the guilt technique.
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I could try the guilt technique.
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You know, I could beat you up and say, you lazy people, there's work to be done and a lot of you people are just sitting there.
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But I'm too nice to do that.
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Don't laugh, I am too nice to do that.
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I've heard some of you laugh.
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I am too nice to do that.
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I'm too nice to do that.
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I could guilt you by making you feel bad for someone else.
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Saying if you're not doing what God's called you to do, then the work's being piled on someone else.
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That's why when we're recognizing our volunteers, some people are standing up three, four, five, seven times.
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I don't think Sherry sat down the entire time.
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She's like, yeah, I'm on every team.
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I'm not going to guilt you.
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I'm not too nice to guilt you making you feel bad for someone else.
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I'm not even going to guilt you by making you feel bad about yourself.
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If you don't feel the need to get involved in any type of ministry at Harvest Bible Chapel, then maybe you don't know the Lord.
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Because the Bible is clear that every member of the body of Christ has a particular job to do.
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And if you're not doing something, maybe you don't have a gift.
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you don't have a gift, maybe you don't have the Spirit, and...
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No, that's not how I roll.
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That's not how the leadership of this church rolls.
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And quite honestly, even if we did decide to roll that way, it wouldn't be effective, would it?
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If I tried to guilt people into serving, how long do you think that would last?
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A couple weeks? A month?
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We need to be rightly motivated for ministry.
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To get involved in small groups, to get involved in outreach, to get involved in whether it's fixing a roof or serving a meal at Ronald McDonald House or any of the other things that we have done or are planning to do, we need to be rightly motivated to get involved in ministry unto the Lord.
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Because it's so easy for us to lose our passion.
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It's so easy for us to get off mission.
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It's so easy for us to choose not to think about the condition and the destination of lost people.
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And I want to ask you this morning, do you care?
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Do you care?
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In other words, Harvest Bible Chapel, do you want to play church?
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Or do you want to be the church?
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We've gone through Acts 1-12.
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We've seen through the foundation of the apostles what the church was supposed to be what the church was supposed to be doing.
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Do you want to be the church?
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Or do we want to rent this room every Sunday and play church?
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Jesus' last command is our first priority.
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And we must have the heart and mind of Christ in going after His mission.
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I want us to look at Matthew 9:35-38.
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Then we're going to go back and pick up a few things from this passage.
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Let's read it all first of all.
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Verse 35, "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.
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When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd." He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
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Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." I want you to note first of all, verse 35, this is important.
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Jesus was giving the message and meeting needs.
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Did you see that?
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It says he was teaching in the synagogues and proclaiming the gospel, so he was sharing the gospel.
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But it says that he was healing every disease and every affliction.
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So I want you to see that Jesus was giving the message and meeting needs.
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Did you see that in the text? Did you see that?
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What's the big deal about that?
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The big deal about that is too many churches - I've said this a thousand times - the extremes right there are some churches are like you know it's just about the message you just preach the gospel and get them the gospel and that's all that matters but they have no mind or care to do anything to meet people's needs they don't care just get them in the church will preach at them and get them in here next week will preach at them again but what about their hurt that's going on between Sundays well just get them in here we'll preach a gospel to them they have no mind for that but I guess even more recent the pendulum sort of swung to to the other side, where you have churches that are going light on the Word of God, light on the Gospel, and we're just going to love people and we're just going to feed people.
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And it's not important if we share the Gospel with them.
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We're just going to love them.
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And if we love them, eventually, they'll come to know God.
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They're not going to come to know God apart from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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But you see, Jesus didn't have some lopsided approach.
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He did both.
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He loved and ministered to people while He was sharing the gospel with them.
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So in our church, we proclaim the gospel, we get into God's Word in our small groups, we do outreach, we do mission work.
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With these things, whether it's the message or the meeting needs, those can be kind of plug-and-play.
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Meaning, it's easy to get anybody plugged in and doing this stuff.
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What I want to focus on today, when it comes to being motivated for ministry, motivated to get involved in a church, motivated to make disciples, the most important thing about that can't be learned.
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It can't be plug and play.
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The most important thing is having passion for lost people.
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We see in this passage, this is the thing that motivated Jesus.
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And this is the thing that must drive us.
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Compassion.
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Do you care?
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Do you care?
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There might be somebody here this morning saying, "Why should I care?" That's a great question.
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I'm going to give you three reasons why you should care.
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It's on your outline.
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Why should I care?
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Number one from our text, I care because people are hurting.
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Look at verse 36 again.
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"When he saw the crowds..." Now, remember, we walked through the book of Mark for two years, and Jesus was constantly having crowds come after Him and wanting healing and wanting His teaching, and they were constantly, constantly coming.
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In Matthew 9, "When he saw the crowds, Jesus rolled His eyes.
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Here we go again.
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They just never give me any time off.
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Is that what your Bible says?
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What does it say?
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When He saw the crowds, He had what?
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What's your Bible say?
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Say it. Say it loud. Come on.
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What did He have?
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Compassion.
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He had compassion.
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That word literally means "suffer with." It means somebody's hurting, Because you see somebody hurting, you're hurting too.
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That's what compassion means.
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Jesus saw these crowds coming and He was hurting with them.
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How are they described?
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Look at the next phrase.
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It says, "because they were harassed and helpless." The Greek literally means they were exhausted.
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They were tossed aside.
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like garbage.
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That's how the people felt.
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That was the condition they were in.
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Most importantly, that was the condition in which God saw them.
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He didn't see them as annoyances.
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He didn't see them as ministry opportunity or money-making opportunity, rather.
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He saw them as these are people that are hurting.
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They're harassed and they're helpless.
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Again, exhausted, people worn out with life.
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Do you think people like that live around here?
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People that are just completely worn out with life?
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I've had enough.
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I can't do this one more day. I can't do it.
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Do you know people like that?
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I promise you, you do.
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What's the other word?
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Helpless, again, tossed aside.
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People that feel insignificant.
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People that feel worthless.
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People that feel like they don't really have much meaning in life.
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I just feel abandoned.
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Like everybody else has their thing going on.
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I can't get my thing going on.
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And I feel like nobody would even care if I wasn't here.
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You know people like that?
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I promise you those people live in your neighborhood.
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I promise you those people are working next to you.
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What I want to encourage you, church, as we talk about being motivated to do ministry, motivated for evangelism, motivated for discipleship, we need to see people the way Jesus saw people.
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How many times do we make excuses - and I've been guilty of this - we make excuses not to help someone.
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Oh, that person's hopeless.
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That person is just an addict.
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That person will just - if I help them, they'll probably misspend the money and spend it foolishly.
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We make excuses.
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We need to remind ourselves that people are not the enemy.
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People are the victim of the enemy.
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And according to the Bible, people apart from Jesus Christ are dead.
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Okay?
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They're not bad people.
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spiritually dead people.
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And even if they're just hurting themselves.
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That's one of the reasons I hear people give for not wanting to help.
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"Well, that guy's a drug addict, and he made his own bed, he's just going to have to lie in it." And somehow we justify not having pity on somebody because they brought the hurt upon themselves.
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Like yeah, we feel bad for somebody that's been abused, as we should, We have no pity for the person that's hurting themselves.
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Sometimes I think that should make us pity them even more, not less.
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This person is destroying themselves.
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They don't even realize it.
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They can't stop doing it.
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You know, we think we know people.
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We think we understand what's going on in people's heads and in people's hearts.
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But the Bible says that Jesus knew what was in a man.
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Jesus knew what made people tick.
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Jesus knew the thoughts of every person that He encountered.
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Do you think Jesus knew what was on the hearts and minds of these crowds as they were coming?
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Do you think Jesus knew?
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Do you think Jesus realized what was going on in their hearts?
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Of course He did.
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But He was still moved with compassion.
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From Jesus' divine perspective, He saw that these were sinful, selfish, miserable people.
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Instead of saying, "Well, no one bothered with them." He was moved with compassion.
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And compassion isn't just feeling bad.
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Some people want it to stop there.
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They think compassion is - I watched the Sarah McLachlan song, the commercial where they're beating the puppies or whatever, and they play this song.
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You know what I'm talking about?
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And we're like, "Oh, I feel so bad for the puppies." That's not compassion.
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Maybe you do feel bad, and you should feel bad about that, but that's not compassion.
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Compassion is when those emotions drive you to do something about it.
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That's real compassion.
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It's being moved to do something.
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Sadly, I see people - they're more moved by seeing the sports team lose, or seeing who gets voted off of their favorite singing show, or what character gets killed off on your favorite TV program, we're more moved and emotionally affected by those things than we are over someone who's destroying themselves.
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We have more sadness over those things than sadness that somebody is lost and hurting.
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I care because people are hurting.
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People are hurting. Do you care about that?
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of his Bible chapel, recognizing the people that are hurting and going after them with compassion, we call that "red apple evangelism." What do you mean "red apple evangelism?" It means that they're ripe.
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They are ripe for the Gospel.
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The circumstances of life prepare people for the Gospel.
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You know, the guy that thinks he has everything going on - he's got money in the bank, everything's good - Like the person whose whole world comes crashing around them, realizing that their thing isn't working.
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That's why we need to be on the lookout for the people around us who are hurting.
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The people around us who are harassed and helpless.
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Those are our best opportunities to share the living hope of Jesus Christ.
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Can you do that?
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Sometimes when it comes to evangelism - Pastor Jeff, I'm with you right here.
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I see people are hurting, and I know I should say something, but do you know when it comes to evangelism, what it's like for people?
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Did you ever get a really weird gift and you're just not quite sure how to respond to it a thank you letter for the gift.
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Aaron and I got a gift right after we got married.
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A dear sweet lady got us this gift, and to this day, I don't understand it.
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It was a basket, and in the basket was a beanie baby and a smock that you would wear if you worked at Dairy Queen.
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Like a little flowered apron thing.
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And it was very nice of her.
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I mean, the woman, she put it in the basket and she had it all wrapped up, It was really nice.
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And I sound like a jerk, I know.
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I'm just saying I didn't understand the gift.
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Somebody looked at me and thought, you know what Pastor Jeff could use?
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As a smock.
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I just didn't understand the gift.
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I appreciated it.
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What I'm saying is it made the thank you note a little awkward.
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Like what do you say about that?
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Like, thanks, my old smock was wearing out.
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You know, I've been telling Aaron when we have enough money, by a beanie baby, I just didn't know what to say.
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I mean, I wanted to say something, but I wasn't quite sure what to say.
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I think sometimes church, that's how we are with evangelism.
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Like, I should say something.
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But I'm not sure what to say.
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That person's working beside you and you see she's hurting.
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You see that she's gone through some stuff in her life.
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Do you know what I'm talking about?
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I just want to say something to her.
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But I'm not quite sure what to say.
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What is your sharing your testimony?
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As much as I tell you don't make it about you, sometimes it helps a person if you do make it about you in this sense to say, you know what, what I've found in my life is the hope that I have in Jesus Christ has really been an anchor for my soul.
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I've gone through some hard things myself, and what I've found is I don't have the strength to get through it, but my relationship with God through Jesus Christ has really...
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has really been the thing that's held it together for me over the years.
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Maybe you just share a brief testimony like that.
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Maybe just a short but clear gospel presentation.
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To say, you know, I understand you're hurting.
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Let me tell you the good news.
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We live in a world full of bad news.
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I want to tell you some good news.
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The good news is the Bible tells us God loves you.
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God loves you so much that He came to this earth as a man I've died on the cross to pay the penalty for all the wrong things that I've done and all the wrong things that you've done.
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And by receiving this gift that God's given us through His Son, we can have eternal life.
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We can have the promise of heaven.
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We can have peace in the hardest times.
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Maybe you just share a clear gospel presentation.
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Or the easiest thing is maybe you just invite Him to church.
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Say, "You know what, I understand that you're hurting.
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I would love for you to come to Harvest Bible Chapel.
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We have a great group of people in our church.
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We have some fantastic small groups.
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And I know there's just some people in our church that would love you, and want to help walk with you through this difficult season of your life.
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But when you care enough, you're going to say something and you're going to do something.
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We see again in our text, that's what moved Jesus.
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"I care because people are hurting." I care because people are hurting.
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getting on mission why should I care? I care because of where people are heading. Look at verse 37 again. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful." Stop there for a second. Harvest terminology.
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This might come as a shock to some of you, but when the Bible talks about harvest, and it's in our church name, when the Bible talks about harvest it has to God's judgment. Did you know that? Isaiah chapter 17, Joel chapter 3, Matthew chapter 13, Revelation chapter 14. I can give you some others. But when the Bible talks about harvest, it's always in the context and connection with God coming back in judgment. So what does Jesus mean here? Well, a plentiful harvest means that our evangelism must have urgency. That's what Jesus is talking about. He's lost and harassed and helpless people, not only are they miserable in this life, but they're heading to judgment.
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I care because of where people are heading.
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That should be a motivator for us for evangelism.
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Imagine it's 3 in the morning and you're sleeping and you open your eyes and you see that the neighbor's house is on fire.
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And from your vantage point, You can actually see that your neighbor is laying on their couch sleeping while their house is burning around them.
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What would you do?
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What would you do in that situation?
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Would you roll over and say, well, you know what?
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My neighbor's probably not interested in me forcing my beliefs on them about fire and about the dangers of a burning house.
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I mean, I don't want to be pushy.
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They might look at me as some kind of like fire marshal type nut.
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I just don't want them to think less of me if I go and tell them that I don't think it's right that they're living in a burning house.
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Is that what you'd do?
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Or would you do whatever it took to get them out of there?
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While you're dialing 911, you're screaming, you're banging on the door.
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Some of you would kick a hole through the wall and drag them out by their hair if it meant saving their life.
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Why? Because it's urgent.
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You're like, I can't call them tomorrow at 9 AM and tell them what I think about fire.
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They're having a problem now.
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And you see, that's how Jesus saw the multitudes.
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These are people that are heading to an eternal destination.
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Hell is real.
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And real people are really going there I'm talking to God's Word. Do you care?
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General William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, once said that when he has a candidate that's training for officership, he said, "You know what I would like the most important part of their training to be when somebody wants to be an officer in the Salvation Army?" He said, "I'd like to send them to hell for 24 hours." What kind of a motivation do you think somebody would have of 24 hours in hell, knowing that there are some people that are going to be spending eternity there apart from Jesus Christ.
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That's what this harvest terminology - I care because of where people are heading.
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And finally today, we could have just started here and had a much shorter sermon.
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I care because God does.
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That's why I care.
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because God does.
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Look at verse 37 again, second part.
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Jesus said, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few." This is the other big problem.
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Not just that the need is so great, but Jesus said there are not enough people to meet the need.
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Why are the laborers few?
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Why is that?
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Who are all these people sitting in churches?
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Who are all these people that have received God's grace that have supposedly been transformed by God's Holy Spirit?
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Who have been given power to be witnesses?
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Who are all these people that received God's grace and are silent about it?
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The truth is I don't care about these churches.
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I care about this church.
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What kind of a church are we?
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Are we a church that cares that God cares about?
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Are we a church that cares about the thing that moved Jesus?
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God cares.
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And He chooses - listen to this - God chooses to show the world that He cares by using you.
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"For God so loved the world of His only begotten Son.
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God's love for the lost prompted Him to send His Son.
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And in the days in which we live, in the church age, in the new covenant days, how does God show a lost and dying world that He loves them?
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You will receive power.
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You will be My witnesses.
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We are the representatives of God.
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We are the people that should be going into our communities saying, You need to know that God loves you.
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We do that by showing love ourselves.
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Empowered by God's Holy Spirit.
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Like, man, you sold me.
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So what should we do?
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We shouldn't even be sitting here.
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Let's just go out the door and start banging on people's houses and doing whatever it takes.
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We'll do one of those protest traffic blocks on 19 and just go car to car and tell people.
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There's actually a step one that Jesus commands us specifically.
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Look at verse 38.
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"The harvest is plentiful, and labor is reviewed, therefore..." what?
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Jesus said, "Therefore pray earnestly." The command specifically, Jesus said, because of this need, because of the compassion that I have I've lost people.
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Because of the passion that I have for the mission, Jesus said the first thing you need to do is pray.
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Pray how?
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He says pray earnestly.
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Pray earnestly.
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Pray earnestly for what?
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The Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
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Your prayers let you participate God's eternal plan.
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This has to be step one.
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If you don't make prayer the priority, you're going to lose steam real fast.
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If you're going to base your zeal for mission on just one sermon, or one Billy Graham book or pamphlet that you wrote, you're going to lose steam fast.
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Jesus said the first thing you need to do is pray.
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Get on your face and cry out "Lord, do you care?
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Do you care?" Well, I do.
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And I know that you do too.
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It's good for us to get back to God's Word today and say, "Why do we care?" Why do we care?
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We care because people are hurting.
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People are wandering around out there, Jesus said, like sheep without a shepherd.
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We call a sheep without a shepherd dead, right?
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How long does a sheep make it without a shepherd?
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Not long.
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People are lost and people are hurting.
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I care because people are hurting.
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I care because of where people are heading.
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Jesus said there's a harvest, and the Bible over and over and over talks about this harvest coming at the end times.
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We're just passing through this life.
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We're heading for eternity.
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And our goal is to take as many people with us And I care because God cares.
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This is the thing that fired Jesus up.
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This is the thing that should fire me up.
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And I know it's the thing that fires you up.
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A lot of times I'm saying, "Okay, this is what the Word of God says.
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So my encouragement to you this week is to apply this." But actually we're going to do something a little different today.
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Why don't we apply this right now?
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All in favor?
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Applying the Word of God right now?
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Let's do it. I want you to stand up.
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Go ahead, stand up.
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And I want you to get in groups of like four people.
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Just get in groups of like four people.
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Find some people near you.
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I want you to get in little groups.
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And we're going to do exactly what Jesus told us to do.
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We're going to pray.
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Today I want you to pray about two things.
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of your groups, I want you to pray about two things.
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We're going to spend a few minutes.
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I want you to pray for our workers here.
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I want you to pray for our workers.
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Our elders, our ministry team leaders, our ministry teams, our small groups, our youth group.
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I want you to pray for the workers that are involved in ministry here.
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Specifically, I want you to pray for God to raise up more workers.
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I want you to pray for God to send more workers, more laborers for His harvest. Will you do that?
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Get in your groups.
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Let's just spend a few minutes.
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And after this time comes to a close, I'll lead us in a closing prayer over our whole congregation.
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And then we'll have our closing worship song.
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Let's pray.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Matthew 9:35-38
Pop quiz! Without looking, can you state the following about HBC?
- Mission
- What is a disciple? (hint: 3 Ws - A disciple...)
- 4 Pillars
(discussion leader: answers are below!)Why is it important to both preach the Gospel AND minister to people’s needs (Matt 9:35)?
How was the condition of the people in Jesus’ day (Matt 9:36) like the condition of people in our day? How should we respond?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.