Open your Bibles this evening to Matthew chapter nine. Matthew chapter nine. I trust this is a passage familiar to most, if not all of us. And yet I also trust that because the word of God is living and active, that a new light can come forth from this portion of God's word, no matter how familiar it might be. So Matthew chapter 9, we'll begin reading at verse 35 to the end of the chapter. because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Four points this evening. First of all, the privation. Secondly, the pity. Thirdly, the potential. And fourthly, the prayer. So the privation, the pity, the potential and the prayer. This evening I want to do some heart work, your heart and my heart. And why? Because salvation is not just fire insurance, but we're saved to become more like God while we are yet alive on this planet where he's placed us. And that's critically important, both for evangelism and for the mission of the church. Because you and I, in becoming more and more like God, are to have more and more of His heart and the heart of Jesus Christ, specifically for the lost. So, first of all, deprivation. Look at v. 36 with me, if you will. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them. Why? Because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. I want to ask you this evening, how do you see people around you? How do you see people that you come into contact with every day? Your neighbors. Do you know them? Do you have opportunity to love them? Do you realize that loneliness is an affliction for most of the people in our society today? How do you see your co-workers? How do you see your unbelieving family? How do you see your unbelieving friends that you come into contact with each and every day? Jesus says that if they are not Christians, they are harassed and helpless, or if you will, hopeless and helpless. A new term has entered our social vernacular in American society today. Deaths of despair. People dying deaths of despair. People that are hopeless in life, have absolutely no idea why they're here, where they're going, or what it's all about. Since 2010, 40% of men under 30 have committed suicide. These are people that fit the description of what Jesus says here. That are hopeless and helpless. They are despairing of life. I know because I was one of them. My goal in life was to die before I turned 30. I had been discipled by Peter Townsend of the Who in the song, My Generation, when he said, talking about my generation, I hope I die before I get old. And that old, my generation, was 30. And I pursued that with relentless abandon, reckless abandon, to die before I was 30. Because life was meaningless. Life was despairing. It had no point. It had no purpose. So go for all the gusto you can and die before you're 30, before you get old. These are the people that populate your neighborhoods. These are the people that populate your jobs. These are the people that populate maybe your families as well. who suffer from being helpless and hopeless. Look at the text. Jesus uses an image of a sheep, like sheep without a shepherd. Believe me, I grew up in the Bronx, so I don't know much about sheep, alright? But, I can tell you, I've seen sheep when I visited Israel, and when I lived in the Midwest, and when they don't have a shepherd, you have some of them going this way, and some of them going that way, and they just wander aimlessly in one direction or another, looking for some grass to eat. The shepherd has to corral them. The shepherd has to guide them. The shepherd has to direct them to fields where they can feed and where they won't go off and they won't get slaughtered by other animals and where they won't get lost. Jesus says those people that populate those around you are like sheep without a shepherd. They're wandering aimlessly in this world not knowing why they're here, not knowing where they came from, not knowing where they're going, They're hopeless and they are helpless. Think of the word which we often use in our evangelical vocabulary to describe unbelievers. They're lost. Lost. Meditate on that for a few thousand years before you go to sleep tonight. What does it mean that they are lost without God and without hope in the world? Those are your neighbors. Those are my neighbors. You see, what I'm suggesting, or if I put it this way, what Jesus is suggesting, is that you and I need corrective lenses. Not just to see with more clarity, but to see those around us as He saw them. To see those around us as God sees them. Do you? Will you? Secondly, look at Jesus' pity. In verse 36, He had compassion on them. He had compassion on them. That is, to be moved in your guts with pity for them. Your need, my need, is to feel compassion because of their need. When we see that they are hopeless, when we see that they are helpless, when we see that they are wandering, when we see that they have no idea where they came from, where they're going, why they're here, is to have compassion on them. To pity them for their sad estate. In the New York metropolitan area particularly, we need to do this. Because it doesn't come naturally. No less in New Jersey than it does in New York, alright? We have crowds, we have crime. It naturally makes you, makes me at least, makes me callous, makes me hard-hearted, makes me tough. And if I can tell you honestly, I often lack compassion on those around me. because of the hardness of having to live in the metropolitan area, to live in New York City, to have to deal with people that are hard to deal with themselves. And yet Jesus says, no, you're to have compassion on them. You're to pity them. Sinclair Ferguson, my professor at seminary, said this with respect to evangelism. He said, evangelism is not something you do. Evangelism is first and foremost something you are. And if you're to be used in the hands of the Lord to be an evangelist, to tell others about Jesus Christ, to tell the dying where they might find life, to find the hopeless where they might find hope, to tell the lost where they might be found by the Lord Jesus Christ, then you must have compassion. You must have compassion, you must pity those who are hapless, hopeless, and helpless, those around you. You and I, no matter how hard it may be to live in the metropolitan area, cannot succumb to callousness and hardness and be tough with respect to the circumstances around us. We need to always be compassionate and pity those around us who are like sheep without a shepherd. Third, look at verse 37, and the potential. Jesus changes the metaphor here. Earlier, He talks about sheep without a shepherd. Here, He uses an agricultural metaphor specifically, that of a harvest. He says, then He said to His disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Note the contrast there. The harvest is plentiful, The workers are few. Do you believe that the harvest is plentiful? Where is the harvest field for Pompton Plains Reformed Bible Church? Where is the harvest field for each of you and your families? Where is the harvest field? I understand that Victor Atala was here this morning. I know him. He has a great ministry to Muslims around the world. Would you say that, well, that's a harvest field for sure. To reach the Muslims in the Middle East. To reach the Muslims in Indonesia. To reach the Muslims in eastern Michigan. To reach the Muslims in whatever it was that he had told you about this morning. And that's certainly true. But can I suggest to you something different? The harvest field for you is where you live, work, study, and play. The harvest field for Pompton Plains Reformed Bible Church is not Indonesia, or the Middle East, or eastern Michigan. It's outside these walls. It's when you walk out the doors of this church. It's when you go back to your homes, back to your neighbors, back to your place of work tomorrow, where you live, work, study, and play. That's your harvest field. Have you ever thought of that as your harvest field? I believe and I know this congregation for a number of years, that you are strongly in support of missions. No congregation has done more with respect to the efforts of church planting in classes east than Pompton Plains Reformed Bible Church, and you're to be commended for that, sure. But I'm suggesting to you that your harvest field is not supporting planting a church wherever it may be, or you have supported planting churches in the past. Your harvest field is here, where God has placed you as a congregation. Your harvest field is where you live, work, study, and play. And I strongly suspect that you don't look at that as your harvest field. And I think you should. Your harvest field is not some faraway place. Your harvest field is not even New York City, where you've supported me in my ministry for many years. Your harvest field is where you live. It's where you work. It's where you study and go to school. And it's where you play and recreate. That's your harvest field. How do you see people? Let's get back to that. How do you see people? I think most Christians, at least in my experience over the years in missions and in pastoring work, most people see unbelievers as machines. Think of your barista if you go to Starbucks. Maybe you don't, but think of barista at Starbucks. You go in, you order your coffee, you pay your money, you get your coffee, you leave and drink your coffee. They're just machines. They serve you your coffee, but they're a never-dying soul. They're a never-dying man or woman. They're a person who is lost. They're a person who is hopelessly lost. They're a person who is helpless apart from Jesus Christ. I submit that if we're Christians, we cannot afford to let ourselves view people as machines. That's the harvest field. Or how do you see people, other people, perhaps many people I've experienced, see just a landscape. The people you see every day blend into the background and the back trap of your day. They just become part of the landscape that you travel through from home to work and back again, or to school and back again, or whatever, but they're just part of the landscape. Jesus says that's your harvest field. The harvest is plentiful, and the workers are few. It's not just Murphy in New York, or Victor Atala in various Muslim populations around the world, the jubellos in Papua New Guinea. It's you. You're the workers. And Jesus says the workers are few. They're few because we don't see the harvest field right in front of us. We don't see the people in front of us as hopeless, haggard, helpless. We see them as machines, or we see them as just blending into the landscape. God is the Lord of the harvest and people need a work of grace and they need the miracle of new birth in order to be translated from darkness to light. From the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. They need workers to bring them a message of life. They need you and they need me. Lastly, look at what Jesus says here in verse 38. In the NIV, it says, ask the Lord of the harvest. Of course, we do that by praying, all right? Some of you, I believe, are looking at the ESV, and the connotation of ask here is much more vivid in the ESV. It says, pray earnestly. Pray earnestly for the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest field. The first thing that's needed is not to hear a sermon like this and be reminded of our Christian responsibility. The first thing that's needed, according to Jesus, is to pray. is to pray, and not just to pray, Lord, I pray that you would send more missionaries to the Middle East to work with Middle East Reform Fellowship, right, Victor Atala, or to send more missionaries to Papua New Guinea to work with Jubello, Ray Jubello's son, or to send more missionaries, no, it's to pray earnestly, pray earnestly, prayer, God's miraculous work of harvest is to be preceded by prayer. And I can tell you that in the history of missions, in the history of God's work in the church, God loves to answer such prayer. You may or may not be familiar, those of you that have been around here for a while and have known me since I moved back to New York, are familiar with the fact that we started our ministry as a response to the terrorist attacks of September 11th, and we did that down in the financial district. As a matter of fact, we started on Fulton Street. We started on Fulton Street in the financial district because Ground Zero, where the towers were, were at the western end of Fulton Street. And 850 yards east was where we started on Fulton Street when we first planted the church 21 years ago. If you've ever read a book, and if you haven't, I commend it to you. It's a Banner of Truth book. It's called The Power of Prayer. It's a book about Jeremiah Lamphere. Jeremiah Lamphere started a revival in the Dutch Reformed Church on Fulton Street back in, I think it was 1854. Let me read you an account of this. Just one man. He asked the Lord, Lord, what can I do? And this is what he did. He printed up a handbill. A day prayer meeting is held every Wednesday from 12 to 1 o'clock in the Consistory Building in the rear of the North Dutch Church, corner of Fulton and Williams Street. This meeting is intended to give merchants, mechanics, clerks, strangers, and businessmen generally an opportunity to stop and call upon God amid the perplexities incident to their respective avocations. It will continue for one hour, but it is also designed for those who may find it inconvenient to remain more than five or ten minutes, as well as for those who can spare the whole hour. Accordingly, at 12 noon, September 23, 1857, the door of the Dutch North Church was opened, and faithful Lamphere took his seat to await the response to the handbills he had distributed in the business district. Five minutes went by, no one appeared. The missionary paced the room in a conflict of fear and faith. 10 minutes went by, still no one came. 15 minutes passed. Lamphere was yet alone. 20 minutes, 25, 30. And then at 12.30 p.m. a step was heard on the stairs, and the first person appeared. and then another, and another, and another, until six people were present and the prayer meeting began. On the following Wednesday, October 7th, there were 40 intercessors. Thus, in the first week of October, 1857, it was decided to hold a meeting daily instead of weekly. Within six months, 10,000 businessmen were gathering daily for prayer in New York, and within two years, a million converts were added to American churches. Undoubtedly, the greatest revival in New York's colorful history was sweeping the city, and it was of such an order to make the whole nation curious. There was no fanaticism, no hysteria, simply an incredible movement of people to pray. Pray earnestly that the Lord would send out workers into the harvest field. Charles Spurgeon was a magnificent preacher, often referred to as the Prince of Preachers in London. Had a magnificent assembly of people that responded to his preaching. Numerous, probably untold, numerous numbers of converts that he had. When Spurgeon was asked the secret of his ministry, he always replied, my people, pray for me. It was said that on Sunday morning before worship, the basement of the congregation was filled with people who were praying for the worship services that would be held that day. Pray, pray, and pray earnestly. God loves to answer such prayer. Now, I don't know about you. I know this congregation a long time, but I don't know everything about this congregation. But I know something about a lot of congregations. And what I know is the prayer meeting of the church is the least attended meeting in just about every church I've ever known. Calvary Baptist Church, when they had 1,100 members, would have a Wednesday prayer meeting and maybe 40 people would show up. Our own church. being honest with you. Prayer meeting is the least attended meeting of the church. We sought to correct that by adding a women's prayer meeting in the morning and a men's prayer meeting at night, every morning and every night, instead of just a midweek meeting. That's improved somewhat. But prayer, we don't take prayer seriously. Truth be known, I don't take prayer seriously. But Jesus says we're to ask, that is pray, and the connotation of the word, as the ESV appropriately captures, correctly captures, is to pray earnestly. Not just articulating words, but to pray earnestly. You know what it is to pray earnestly? Pleading, begging, imploring, entreating, urgently, intense, and continual pleading. And I tell you, when you pray like that, your heart aligns with God's heart. That's what's called for by Jesus here. So I ask you, will you do that? Will you do that? Every revival in the history of the church has been spurred by preaching. The book of Acts, for example. The primary concern of the church is for fervent corporate prayer for the salvation of sinners. In Acts, preaching is better than miracles. Prayer precedes preaching, and corporate prayer has priority over private prayer in accomplishing the mission of the church. We need to pray, and we need to pray fervently. that the Lord of the harvest send out workers into his harvest field. Why? Because the harvest is plentiful. The workers are few. I leave you with two particular concerns. Whenever I have opportunity to teach evangelism, either in my congregation or in other congregations which come and ask me to speak about that, I always emphasize the importance of prayer, fervent prayer for this, but I leave you with this. Many people do not engage in evangelism for a variety of reasons. It's not my intention this evening to address those. I've done it at other times. I will do if you invite me back in the future. But I always leave people with one simple thing you can do. Everybody can do this. And it's pray. Pray. You don't have to talk to anybody if you're afraid to talk to people. You don't have to confront somebody with the claims of Christ if you're kind of scared to do that. You don't have, all you have to do is pray. So I leave you with this as a point of application. As Jesus says to pray, that the Lord of the harvest would send workers out and because the harvest is plentiful, the workers are few, pray, here's a prayer. Two simple prayers. One. Lord, I pray this prayer every morning. I have it on my screen when I turn my computer on in the morning. A little sticky. Lord, I don't ask for much today, but give me your heart for the lost. Lord, I don't ask for much today. Give me your heart for the lost. Secondly, pray for one person. where you live, work, study, or play, that you know is not a Christian, that you know is like a sheep without a shepherd, that you know is harassed and helpless, hopeless, without God and without hope in the world. Just one person. Pick that one person and pray for them every day. Simple. Anybody, everybody can do that. Pray for that one person. Lord, give me an opportunity to talk to that one person. Lord, I pray that you would work in the heart of that one person. Lord, I pray that you would provide an open door. to talk to that one person. Lord, I pray that You would make that one person receptive and responsive to what I have to say. Lord, I pray that when that open door and that opportunity comes, You'd give me courage. Not to be afraid of people. The fear of man is a snare, Proverbs says. Give me courage. Give me faith to trust You. That it's Your Word. That their reaction is not to me, but to You. Pray for that one person each and every day. And pray, Lord, I don't ask for much, but give me Your heart for the lost. And why I say to do that is when God opens the door and provides an opportunity to talk to that one person, It'll be virtually impossible not to say something because that's what you've been praying for each and every day. So Jesus concludes this section with a point of personal application, which is prayer. Ask, pray. Connotation, pray earnestly. And I've given you two suggestions as to how to do that each and every day. You don't have to be like me going out on the streets and talking to people. You don't have to be like a Gideon going around distributing Bibles. You don't have to be like Victor Atala traveling the world trying to address Muslims and bring them to know Jesus Christ, who is God, not Allah. You just have to pray. Now, will you do that? Will you do that? One thing. One point of application. Jesus lays before you and lays before me this evening. Pray earnestly. The Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest field. It's plentiful. The workers are few. Let's pray. Lord Jesus Christ, we confess before you our shortcomings, our fears, our failures. And we ask that you would forgive us. We know that with you there is forgiveness, therefore you are to be feared. And that you are the Lord of the harvest. We ask that you indeed would give us your heart for the loss. We ask that you would give us your eyes to see people, not as machines, not as part of a landscape, but as those who are hopeless, helpless, without God and without hope in the world. That you would move our bowels to be filled with compassion to take pity upon them. And that you would give us your heart. that you would give us a heart for the lost, that you would give us the heart of Jesus Christ who came to seek and save sinners. And we ask that you would answer those prayers to bring glory to the name of Jesus and to you, his father and ours. Amen and amen.