Please take your Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9. I'm gonna pick up in our reading in verse 35 and read to the end of the chapter. 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. And 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. Let's pray. Father, we ask for your help in this time. We need to understand this passage before us if we're to have an impact in the world around us. It wasn't long ago that many of us were like sheep with no shepherd, harassed and helpless in this world, but you, in your grace, called us out of darkness into light. And we live in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation who still is in that hopeless state. And we need the heart and the eyes of Christ to impact the world around us, Lord. So reset our thinking this morning, we ask. In Christ's name, amen. I want to begin this morning with three questions, three questions that I think this passage helps us answer this morning. So when you look at the world around you, how do you feel, what do you see, and what should you do? So when you look at the world around you, how do you feel, what do you see, and what should you do about it? When I refer to the world around you, I'm specifically talking about the people, the people with whom you do life, the people with whom you work, your neighbors, your family, the people that share the surrounding culture. When you look and you consider these people, how do you feel, what do you see and what should you do about it? And there are a number of ways we could answer these questions. At times I think we feel frustration. I think we feel sometimes bewilderment. Sometimes a righteous indignation with the world around us. Sometimes an unrighteous indignation with the world around us. We see chaos and craziness, confusion, and maybe a lot of other words we could put into these categories as well. And what do we do about it? Well, sometimes we laugh, sometimes we cry, sometimes we complain, sometimes we lament, shake our heads, and a lot of other responses as we consider the world around us. But this morning, we come to a passage of scripture where Matthew takes us inside the heart and the mind of Christ. And he lets us look through the world through the eyes of Christ. And he records these instructions from Jesus to his disciples about what we're to do, about what we see. And so from this passage, I want us to learn this morning from the example of Christ and how he viewed the lost world. And our prayer is, as I just prayed this morning, that this would reset us and refocus us in order to see the world around us appropriately and feel the appropriate responses and to have the appropriate responses. Now, as we look at these verses, we need to note that we need to know where they fit within the larger context of the book of Matthew. These verses, verses 36 through 38, they serve as both the conclusion of the previous section, and they serve as the introduction to the section to come. So verse 35 is the conclusion to the previous five chapters of this lengthy section, and verses 36 through 38, they introduce this new teaching section that's just about to come to us in chapter 10. So let's start by examining verse 35, right? So Matthew tells us in verse 35 that 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. Now, the question is where have we heard a verse very similar to that before? Does anybody have the answer? My work has not been very good over these last several months, right? Chapter 4, verse 23, right? Chapter 4, verse 23, Matthew says something almost identical. And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So Matthew tells us, that Jesus, as he conducted his earthly ministry, that he primarily engaged in two activities. He was teaching and preaching, and he was healing every disease and affliction. And then in the chapters that follow, these lengthy chapters from chapter 5 to chapter 9, Right? He gives us an example of the kind of teaching and preaching that Jesus was doing in the Sermon on the Mount, chapters 5 to 7. And then in chapters 8 through 9, he gives us nine miracle stories and gives us examples of the kind of healing ministry that Jesus had. And then he finishes it all in chapter 9, verse 35, with this summary statement that matches the summary statement of chapter 4, verse 23. Now in our studies, we have referred to these activities of Jesus as being kingdom preaching and kingdom miracles. Kingdom preaching and kingdom miracles. We call this teaching and preaching ministry kingdom preaching because this is exactly what Matthew tells us Jesus did in verse 35. That he was proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. Well, the question is, what is this kingdom that Jesus was proclaiming? And I would submit to you that this is the kingdom that was promised in the Old Testament. that Messiah would come, sit on the throne of David, and rule and reign in peace and justice. Remember in Luke, when the angel comes to Mary and says to Mary, you're going to have a son, and he's going to be the one who fulfills his promise and sits on the throne of the son of David and rules. This is the kingdom that they were talking about. In fact, one commentator who I greatly appreciated, He's no longer alive and who holds a different eschatological position than I do. I was reading his comments on Matthew this week, and he says, you know, what is this kingdom? And he says this, he says this kingdom that Jesus was proclaiming was not specifically stated here, but it was probably referring to the rule of God. And I don't think that's an accurate understanding of what the kingdom is that Jesus was proclaiming. There is a sense in which the kingdom of God is his rule and reign everywhere in all places. But specifically, Jesus is referring to a specific kingdom here. The kingdom promised in the Old Testament that is fulfilled in Jesus the Messiah. Okay, and this has been the dominant message of the kingdom all throughout the book of Matthew to this point. Right, you remember in chapter two, when the wise men show up, and they show up in Jerusalem, they start asking around, where is he, who is to be born, king of the Jews? And Herod gathers the religious leaders, and he says, you know, what's he talking about? And the response is to go back to Micah chapter five, where this Davidic king is promised to come and to rule and to reign. He's gonna be born in Bethlehem. And so when Jesus shows up here on the scene and Matthew records this teaching, he's not recording a different kingdom or mentioning a different kingdom. He's continuing with the same kingdom theme that Jesus is proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven is at hand because the Messiah has come. And we should note that the part of this kingdom preaching that Jesus was doing was also about how one becomes a citizen of the kingdom. They become a citizen of the kingdom by rightly relating to the king through repentance and faith. That's how the book of Matthew begins too with John the Baptist, right? Remember John the Baptist says, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. In other words, he tells the Pharisees, it's not enough for you just to say, well, we have Abraham as our father. It's not enough for you simply to have the right ancestry. You have to rightly relate to King Jesus through repentance and faith. And Jesus is proclaiming the same message as he proclaims the good news of the kingdom. So this was his kingdom preaching. But he also engaged in kingdom miracles. Now what does it mean when we call them kingdom miracles, right? So he was teaching and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and he was healing every disease and every sickness. I'm referring to these as kingdom miracles. And the reason I call them kingdom miracles is because I think if you were to look at why Jesus was performing these miracles, it would be to reveal his identity as king. Now I think if you ask the average Christian across the world today, why did Jesus do miracles, the most common answer you would get is that he did miracles to show compassion on the sick and the afflicted. And that's certainly true. It was one of the primary reasons Jesus performed miracles was because he had compassion on these people. In fact, Matthew 14, 14 says this, when he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them and he healed the sick. Okay, so compassion was a primary reason for Jesus' miracles, but there's another reason for Jesus' miracles, and that was to reveal his identity as king. Right, so we're going to come to this passage in a few weeks, but in John chapter 11, when John the Baptist is in prison, And he starts to doubt whether Jesus is the Messiah. And so he sends some of his disciples to Jesus, and they ask him, John wants to know, are you the one, or should we look for another? And this passage always frustrated me because Jesus doesn't really answer his question. And I was thinking, Jesus, just say yes or no. Just answer John the Baptist's question so he can die in peace, all right? But that's not the answer Jesus gives. Instead, Jesus says this. Go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk. The lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the good news preached to them, and blessed is the one who is not offended by me. So Jesus' answer is actually better than yes or no. Because what Jesus essentially says, he says, I'm not simply gonna tell you whether I'm the Messiah, I'm gonna show you that I'm the Messiah. Go and tell John what you see and hear. And in Jesus' answer, he's giving an allusion to Isaiah chapter 35 with the kinds of things that will happen when Messiah comes to this earth. The deaf will hear, the blind will see. And John, knowing his Old Testament scriptures, would have said, oh yeah, I shouldn't doubt the Messiah at all. Because obviously, his kingship is evidenced by the miracles that he performs. In fact, as the passage continues, as you look here in chapter 10, you know, Jesus is doing these miracles, but in chapter 10, he's gonna give the apostles the same ability to perform healing over sicknesses and disease, and the message that's attached to their miracle working, we see in 10.7 is this, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Right? So there's a connection here between the miracles that Jesus worked, revealing his identity as the king. So verse 35 serves as the conclusion for the chapters that have preceded it. And now, Matthew is ready to move into a different book, and we see that verses 36 through 38 introduce this next section. In chapter 10, that Pastor Mike read in our scripture reading, Jesus is about to send the 12 disciples out into the earth to do ministry. But before he does, he's gonna teach them about the kinds of things that they're going to face. But before he trains them, before he sends them out, In verses 36 through 38, we get a window into Jesus' heart for the lost people of Israel here. We get a window into Jesus' heart and his compassion and his desire that we pray for the loss. Now, in chapter 10, we're gonna see that the first instructions go only to the house of Israel, but by the end of the book, there will be a shift and it's gonna go to the ends of the earth where the good news is preached. But here in these verses, as I said, we get a window into Jesus' heart. So these verses introduce the next section to come, as we'll see in the weeks to come. Okay, so we've set this passage properly in its context within the book of Matthew. Now, let's turn our attention to Jesus' heart and let's learn from it this morning in these passages. I want to come back to those three questions I asked in the beginning. When you look at the world around you, how do you feel? What do you see and what should you do about it? Okay, and we're gonna learn from Jesus here in this passage. So what should you feel? Well, notice that verse 36 says, observes the crowds around him, and we're not sure here, because the verse starts with this word, when, and not sure if it's referring to a specific situation, or if you would say it like this, whenever he saw the crowds. In other words, as Jesus observed the crowds throughout his ministry, okay? But there's a situation here, and it tells us that when he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them. So this is what Jesus felt. as he gazed across the crowds before him. He had compassion. This word compassion that's used right here in this verse is an interesting word because in the New Testament, it's only used of Christ. or it's used by Christ in three different parables, okay? But no one else in the scriptures is described by this term as compassionate except Jesus, or Jesus uses it in a parable, right? So in Matthew chapter 14, verse 14, Jesus is moved with compassion and he heals the sick. In Matthew 15, verse 32, when Jesus feeds the crowds that are before him, he feeds them because he had compassion on them. In Matthew chapter 20, verses 34, Jesus heals two blind men because he had compassion on them. The only other place where compassion is used for someone other than Jesus is the Good Samaritan, as Jesus uses it in a parable, that the Good Samaritan had compassion on the man who had been robbed and beaten. What we notice about the compassion of Jesus is that it always produced action. So he had compassion and he healed. He had compassion and he fed. He had compassion and he healed. In this passage, he had compassion and it leads to prayer and sending out his disciples into the world to proclaim the good news of the kingdom. So Jesus was not like that kind of compassion where he saw and he felt pity but didn't do anything about it. His compassion always moved into action. Now, how do we know, and I say this, how does Matthew know about the compassion of Jesus? Well, this is an interesting connection between the passage we just preached from, or just studied on Sunday night as we looked at Matthew's calling back a few verses. In fact, if you want to turn back there, you can see this before you. In verse nine of chapter nine, Matthew experienced the compassion of Jesus firsthand. Okay, Matthew is a tax collector sitting at the tax booth, and Jesus says to him, follow him. And unless we understand the nature of tax collectors in this day, and the world's hatred for tax collectors, and their selfishness, and the way they cheated cheated their own people, we don't understand the significance of Jesus singling out Matthew of all people and saying, follow me. And what he's saying there is follow me in spite of the fact that you are one of the prominent sinners of our society. Okay, so Matthew experienced the compassion of Jesus, but then he sees it in the next verse, it says, and Jesus reclined at the table in the house. Behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. Luke tells us that Matthew actually threw this party. in his own house on his own dime for Jesus to introduce his friends to Jesus. And so here we see the compassion of Jesus ministering to these lost and depraved sinners. And the Pharisees even complained, right? Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus says, listen, I came not to minister and to be a physician to those who are well, but to find the sick. This was Jesus' heart that we see on display here as he had compassion on the world around him. Matthew no doubt witnessed this on several other occasions. One author in writing about the compassion of Jesus said this, this is more of a characterization of Jesus rather than a mere depiction of emotion. In other words, what he's saying here is that Jesus doesn't just feel compassion, but at his very core, he is compassionate. which is what we find in Matthew 11 when he says, come to me all who are weak and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Now, we are to learn from the compassion of Jesus. So how do you and I feel when we consider the world around us, or what do you and I feel when we consider the world around us? Do we, have a heart of compassion like Jesus had that moves to action. As we've already said, there are many things we feel when we look at the society around us. We feel frustration, we feel anger at times, we feel hopelessness, but one of the worst feelings we can feel is that of self-righteous indifference toward sinners. But if we are to be like Christ, then we have to have genuine compassion. I'm not just trying to tug on your heartstrings this morning or get you to feel some sort of emotion like if you put up a commercial of needy people and you think, oh, that tugs on my emotions and I feel bad, but it doesn't result in anything. I'm not trying to do anything like that. But when we look at the world around us, I don't want us to feel a sense of disgust or frustration or indifference. But we have to tune into the mind of Christ here so that we understand what it means to look at the world with compassion. I think one of the ways to describe this is to think about how a parent feels when their child has to go through some sort of painful experience. Especially a mother, right? Because they tend to be a little more empathetic. Dads sort of say, rub some dirt on it and you'll be fine, right? But mothers tend to be a little more empathetic Okay? We say something like this, I would rather experience this a hundred times than see my child have to go through this circumstance. It's that compassion about, I would love to take their place so that I don't have to feel this. In fact, we pick up on this kind of compassion in Paul's words in Romans chapter nine. Romans chapter nine, Paul says, I am speaking the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit. Listen to what he says. He says, I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. What Paul's saying there is about his own people, that he wishes that he could be accursed and that he could be cut off from Christ to see his own people, His own people, the Israelites, come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ because they had rejected Him. This is what it means to have compassion, that we would prefer to be in their place in order that they might be in our place of knowing Christ. So if we're gonna have the heart of Christ, then we must have compassion for lost sinners. Now, we won't have that compassion unless we see the world through Jesus' eyes. So that brings us to our next question. First was what should we feel? Secondly, what should we see? As we look through the eyes of Christ in this passage, we're actually going to see three things that Jesus saw. The first thing that Jesus sees here is he sees helplessness. Look again at this verse in verse 36. It says that he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. In other words, what Matthew's telling us here is the reason for his compassion was rooted in their lost and helpless state. The terms that are used here in this verse are harassed and helpless. And they can be translated in a number of different ways by different translations as they are. But the idea behind this phrase is this, torn and thrown down. Okay, that's probably the most accurate translation, torn and thrown down. Right, so the King James uses the term faint, The net Bible uses the term bewildered, but those terms don't communicate the rough nature of these words. It's more than that. It's that they're severely troubled. And the image here is, if you've ever watched one of those videos or a clip where a predator attacks some sort of animal and has it in the jaws of his mouth and is turning back and forth viciously trying to kill this prey. Okay, and it's that image of what Jesus sees when he looks at the crowd around him. They are they are war-torn They are torn and they are thrown down. He's looking at people who are utterly distressed and persecuted and helpless He describes them here as sheep without a shepherd, which is an analogy that's rooted in the Old Testament and in common condition of God's people who have no one leading them spiritually. It's interesting that not only is Jesus making a statement about their pitiful nature here, that they're helpless, but he's also giving sort of a backhanded, scathing rebuke to the religious leaders. Like one of the reasons why they're torn and helpless is because the people in positions where we're supposed to minister to them and teach them the truth, We're actually twisting the truth and not leading them in the ways of righteousness. And so as Jesus looks on them, he has compassion, and he sees them as they truly are, war-torn and helpless. Now again, we're to learn from Jesus here. If we're going to have compassion, then it's going to mean that we see individuals as being lost and sheep without a shepherd, enslaved to sin. And yet, the more common response for us is, I think, when we look at this world around us, is to see people who don't know Christ as enemies and a people who are opposed to Christ, right? So in our world, we might see people who have a different political position as we do, or different ideas about gender and sexuality, or about abortion, or people that give themselves over to the vices of drunkenness and immorality, and we look and we see them being directly opposed to everything that we as believers believe, and they are enemies of the cross of Christ, but we will never develop compassion for them. if we don't see them as Christ sees them. Paul describes them in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4, as people whom the God of this world has blinded their minds to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of God. So in other words, these kinds of people, they're guilty, active sinners. But at the same time, they're victims because their souls have been held in the grip of Satan and enslaved to sin, and they're unable to see the truth. And that's how we have to see the world around us, that these people are unable to see the truth unless God opens their eyes. And so when Jesus looks out the world, the first thing he sees is he sees helplessness. But there's a second thing that Jesus sees in this passage, and that is he sees opportunity. He sees opportunity. So Jesus moves, his words move from compassion to a sense of hope. Notice what this verse says. Let me just get back to this passage here. It says when he saw the crowds, he had compassion for they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. And then he said to his disciples, listen to this, the harvest is plentiful. Okay, so Jesus here sees opportunity. The term harvest, most of the time when it's used in the scriptures, is referring to judgment, where there's going to be some sort of harvest where Christ separates the wheat and the tares. But here, Jesus is saying that the harvest is an opportunity to bring citizens into the kingdom through the preaching of the good news of Jesus Christ. So it's interesting that Jesus here looks at the people around him, sees them in their helpless state, but what he sees is an opportunity for harvesting the fruit of the kingdom. Now again, I don't think this is how we think. We see the work that is before us of evangelism and the number of unbelievers and the strong opposition to Christianity, and we think the world is stacked against us. We'll never be able to make a dent in what we see. But when we look at the eyes of Jesus, we look with the eyes of Jesus, then we as well will see opportunity. Several years ago, there was one of the guys who spoke here a number of times, Brian Treanor. He served as one of the academic deans at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary. And we were at one of these dinners where they talk about the seminary and how things are going. They're talking about the recruitment of new students to come in and prepare for ministry and study at the seminary. And he made this statement. He was kind of talking about how he talks to possible students or prospective students that might come in to prepare for ministry. And he said, Detroit is a place of tremendous opportunity. Now, that's not usually how we think about Detroit. It might be a little bit rougher or something like that. But what he said is, if you're interested in preparing for missions, then what other place would you want to go to prepare? Because he says within a mile of the seminary, we've got Dearborn. You don't even have to go to the Middle East to go to the mission field. The mission field is right here on our doorstep. And I don't think we always think about that. We don't think about it in that light of the opportunities are around us, but he was right in the way that he described the opportunities before us. And that's something of what Jesus sees. Jesus sees the lostness around him, and instead of seeing only lostness, what he sees is opportunity. The harvest is plentiful. God has prepared people who will repent in faith and believe in the gospel, and it's our responsibility to see the harvest, and to reap what God has prepared. So everywhere we look, there are opportunities, there are souls prepared for entrance into the kingdom. Okay, so Jesus sees helplessness, he sees opportunity, but then the third thing he sees in this passage is a shortage. He sees a shortage. Notice what he says. The harvest is plentiful, but what? But the laborers are few. This gives us a window into how Jesus plans to accomplish his work. He comes to provide redemption and it's applied to sinners, but it happens through believers sharing their faith with others. Okay, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. It comes by people like you and me faithfully sharing Christ with those who don't know. Now we hear that and we think, that's the plan? That's not a good plan. Not only are there a shortage of labors, but the labors Christ have, they're not even very good labors, all right? And so how is this going to be accomplished? But in God's grace, he works through weak and feeble people, like you and like me, to accomplish his purposes, and at the end, he gets all the glory, because we know it's not these weak and feeble people that are able to accomplish this. But the reality is, there are few, too few workers. And those of us who are workers were inept. I'm reminded of my uncle. He was a farmer, or is a farmer, in Pennsylvania. And every year we would visit his farm. And he was both a chicken farmer and he had crops out in the back part of his property. So he had two big 100-yard barns of chickens with two floors on each side. Their eggs would no longer be accepted in Michigan, we can say that. But one time I had the opportunity to work with him. just for like an hour, where a semi-truck backed up a semi-truckload of peeps, baby chickens, and we would just dump them off of crates and dump them off of crates, and it was the most disgusting job I had ever worked, and I knew chicken farming was not going to be in my future, and at the end he paid me five dollars, like it was not even worth it. You know, so never again. That was my last time. But in the back of his property was a really pretty setup, just rolling cornfields in the hills of central Pennsylvania that just went on for as far as you could see, right? And at the harvest time, You know, there's work to be done to bring in all that crop, but when you're looking around, and I'm sure as he does at times, he had this feeling of, there's a tremendous amount of work, and I look at the crew here with me, and there's not much help. And that's something of what Jesus sees, like when he sees that the harvest is plentiful, but there aren't enough labors. Okay, there's a shortage of labors. And so the next logical question then is, well, what are we going to do about it? Right? What's Christ going to do about this shortage of labors? And that's where we get to this last passage, right? So what do we ask this last question? So what do we feel? What do we see? And then the last question is, what should we do about it when we look at the world around us? And that's where Christ goes next. Now, in our American independence, where the mindset is, let's pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, our first reaction to hearing that there's a shortage of workers to get the job done is, well, let's get to work. What are we waiting around for? Let's get out and get busy and get things done. And that's where we would expect Jesus to go first as he's giving these instructions. We expect him to say something like, well, the harvest is plentiful, but the labors are few, so we better get working. We can't waste any time. We've got to get out there. But he says something different first in verse 38. He doesn't say, let's get busy working. He says in verse 38, therefore, Okay, because the harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few, therefore, notice what he says here, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. That's a staggering statement there, and I think one we would not expect unless we've read it before. Because the first thing he says is not get to work, but the first thing he says is pray. Now he will, in Matthew 28, say, go. Go and get the job done. But here he says, pray. Pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send laborers into the field. But notice here he says, pray earnestly. That's a convicting word right there, isn't it? So let me, I want you to think about this. When was the last time that you prayed earnestly that the Lord would send laborers into the field to reap the harvest that he has prepared? If we're honest with ourselves, it probably wasn't this morning. It probably wasn't last week. It might have been a long, long time. since we last prayed and prayed earnestly that the Lord would raise up people to faithfully proclaim the message to see the harvest reaped. The truth is that it's been a while for us, and so burden for the loss is just not something that occupies our attention. We only pray this way. if we have the mind of Christ. Now, one more thing before we conclude this, what I think is a really neat passage. So those who have compassion, and those who see the world as it truly is, like sinners lost and shepherd without sheep, and those who believe that the harvest truly is plentiful and that the laborers are few, and those who pray earnestly for the Lord to send workers into the harvest. You know what's interesting? Those are the people that the Lord sends out. Right? Just look at this passage and how it unfolds in verse 35. Then notice the next few words of verse 1 of chapter 10. And then skip down to verse 5. These twelve Jesus sent out. So in chapter nine, he's telling them, listen, the harvest is plentiful, the labors are few, I want you guys to pray. And then the same ones who pray are the same ones who are eventually sent out. Because those who pray have the heart of Jesus and cannot but help themselves start to get busy in the work of Jesus. So when you look at the world around you, what do you feel? Do you feel compassion on the lost? And what do you see? Do you see the world as being lost and scattered about as sheep without a shepherd? And what should you do? Well, brothers and sisters, we should pray. And pray earnestly that the Lord will raise up workers so that the harvest might be reaped. Let's pray together. Father, we're thankful for the opportunity to have this window into the mind of Christ and the heart of Christ. Honestly, we're so busy with life and going here and there. As we come this morning, we're not even prepared to hear these words. And the reality is we may just walk away from this gathering this morning and dismiss what we've heard, not because we don't ultimately care, but because we're just busy and distracted. So Lord, I would ask that you would allow the Spirit to take these words and to impress them on our hearts because we can't overlook this passage. We can't overlook our responsibility to be like Christ and have compassion on this world. We can't miss what we see around us. We can't divide things into political parties and ideologies. We have to see two categories of people, those who do know you and those who don't know you, and those who don't know you. Lord, the harvest is plentiful. And so we come to you this morning asking you to transform our hearts that we would see the world as you see the world. And then asking us, Lord, that you would give us the strength to pray and to pray earnestly that you would help us get busy for work. Some people you'll call across the ocean, some people you'll call across the street, but all of us, Lord, have the responsibility to be busy about the task you've called us to. Lord, we want to please you. We want to see this harvest reaped. And so we ask you this morning to change our hearts and to use us in this way. For it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.