will be we have one of our missionaries teaching this morning and I asked brother Eddie Smith if he knew who was teaching and he did he knew his name because I asked him he said to know I said that's right that's right And it is her brother, Dano. So that is how you see his name written on there. Of course, we had to ask him if we wanted to get his name right. And so it is Dano. So he's going to come and teach for us this morning. Come on, bro. We're not surprised at all, but this is my wife, Sabrina, and we've got three boys, Amaris, Theo, and Felix, and they, of course, are in their respective classes, but if we could turn this morning to Matthew chapter number nine. In verse number 36. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. Father, we thank you this morning that we have a beautiful day, a sunshine, warm day. But Lord, we ask that you would meet with us this morning and give us something from this lesson that you would have us to see, have us to learn, and help us to apply it to our lives. In Jesus' name, amen. In verse number 36, it says, but when he saw the multitudes, the he it's talking about is Christ himself, King of kings, Lord of lords, God of heaven. That's who he is. He saw the multitudes. He didn't just notice them, if you will. For our understanding, he didn't just notice as we would and go on, but he mentioned it to his disciples. It says, but when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. He had compassion on them, but he didn't just have compassion, he was moved with compassion. Compassion makes us do something about it. We can't just notice it, that's having a love, but compassion, true compassion, forces us to do something about it. So he was moved with compassion on the multitudes, and the multitudes is a picture of the lost all around us. But he didn't stop there. He said to pray for laborers. One thing I want to step back on before I move on to the next point and look at is the reason why they were tired, they fainted. It says, because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. They say that there are over 15,000 religions in the world today from a Religious perspective, you can understand why these people, the Jews, were tired. But the multitudes are tired all around us. We see them every day. Rarely do you see a true smile on their face. You wonder why they're tired. They're looking for something. They're looking for answers. With 15,000 religions out there, and scripture says there is but one way, You can understand why they're scattered abroad and sheep having no shepherd. They don't know who that great shepherd is. This is why they were tired. If you put sheep out front of the shepherd and you drive them, they're gonna scatter. But the shepherd out in front and the sheep will follow. You can put them on a cliff on the edge of a cliff, and you can step out in front of them, and you won't lose a single sheep walking across that mountain. But you put the sheep out front, and you're gonna lose every one of them. That's mankind. If we're leading ourselves, the blind leading the blind, we're gonna go astray every time. But if we follow Christ, as we're supposed to, we won't stray. Next he said to pray for laborers. But let's read verse 38 before we go back to verse 37. Pray ye therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. We have a prayer request, a command, to pray for laborers to go into the field. And if For illustration's sake, we didn't even look at verse 37. We wouldn't understand the backstory of the request. We just didn't pay attention to it. There's one there. We have it in scripture. But look at it this way. The prayer requests were made this morning, and if we didn't know the backstory to them, yes, we can pray, but we can't pray like we ought to. small church family here, you get to know each other's needs, you get to know each other's hearts very easily, but we have to pay attention, we have to learn those needs, where they are, what they are. Just for illustration's sake, there's a prayer request made this morning by a brother or sister in Christ, and they have a prayer request, so-and-so's been hit with cancer, they've got cancer, You can tell in their voice how broken they are, that there's something more, there's more details to it. So you ask them, you know, just, I need to pray like I ought to for this request. Give me more details. What are they? See, it's a little girl, my niece. Right there, it's a family relation. It means a lot to this person. Niece implies, depending on the age of the person that asked the quest, it implies youth, but they say she's three. Now it's very young youth. We've got a three-year-old. In our mind's eye, no child should ever deal with cancer. And it burdens our hearts, but it doesn't get a hold of our hearts like it ought to, like it touches our hearts, until these next words. And the doctors say it's terminal cancer. In our hearts, in our minds, we want to get the church together. We want to pray and ask God to spare this child's life. Not just because it's a child, but because they've got terminal cancer, something that they should never deal with. But we want to get the church together and pray to the point where they no longer have cancer. The lost are in the same condition. They've got a terminal illness. We all have a terminal illness, but it's called sin. And the wages of sin is death. So they've got the same terminal illness. Now we can look back and read verse 37 with the understanding that there is a big emphasis, a big need to know why the request. Then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. God himself is asking us to ask him, the Lord of the harvest, to send forth laborers into his harvest. Much like this prayer request that I mentioned, God has the same request, and why does He give us this request and this wording? He's asking us to get involved, to pray for missionaries, to go to the field, to reach souls. It worked the same way, very much the same way in my life. I was reading a book about the martyrs in Italy. I'd never heard of missionaries or any other gospel work in Italy. But reading this book about the martyrs, when I finished that section dealing with Italy, I just had a burden to pray for somebody to go reach these people once again. So many years ago, the area had so many believers, and today there's very, very, very few believers. But we can reach this country again, of Italy. We just need somebody to go. So God, would you send somebody to go and reach these people? Just not me. I didn't want to go. And that's very much what I said. But God used that over time, about two years, to work on my heart, soften me to the mission field. I'm not giving myself props or anything, but he used that to work in my heart. We must be ready to go to the field, if God asks. But he used a prayer, a request for somebody to go to the field, to work in my heart. And then he said, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. something you'll see in the video tonight, but with only 18 missionaries in Italy, you can understand that there's a great need. There are 62 million people in the country, and there are only 18 independent Baptist mission works that we can find, and that's talking to the missionaries that are there. And even some of them say that there are some of the missionaries there that are strictly to the military, U.S. military in Italy. So they wouldn't really even count those. But as far as the missionaries that are in the country of Italy, there's 18. That's over 3 million people that each missionary would have to reach just to consider that country reached for Christ. There's a lot of work to be done. And we understand now the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Next he said, to pray for laborers. If we only read verse 38 and then follow the command, we can follow the command. but without the understanding of what the need really is. So like I said, we can't truly pray for the need. We simply have a head knowledge, not a heart knowledge. Hudson Taylor was asked this, how long have you had the glad tidings in your country? And his reply was some hundreds of years. The gentleman replied again, what, hundreds of years? My father sought the truth and died without finding it. Why had you not come sooner? England had had the gospel for more than 200 years. The U.S. is in the same condition. You see, Italy had the gospel at one point. Have you ever read the Book of Romans? Italy had the gospel. There was Christians there in the city of Rome. But today, there's no huge movement of churches. This question haunted Hudson Taylor to his dying day. Why? Because there was missionaries that had already gone to China, but they were reaching the Englanders, the English, that were on the outskirts of China. They weren't reaching inland to reach the souls. and it is often the newest believer that is the most on fire for God. The newest believer realizes just how much of a burden that they have for the lost around them. They've been forgiven much. They didn't grow up in church. They realize that there are people all around that need the gospel as well. Look over in Matthew chapter 28. He commands us to tell others. Verse number 18. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Go ye therefore and teach all nations. We're supposed to give the gospel to everyone we meet. Turn over real quick, if you will, to Mark chapter 16. And verse number 15. And he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. You ask why the difference in wording there? In the time that the scripture was written, there was two different classes of people in everything that I've been able to study and understand. There was two different classes of people. There was those that had achieved the social status of people and those that were less than. So when Matthew says, preach the gospel, I'm gonna read it, to teach all nations, Christians could have reached somebody of every nation. and considered the country reached. They could have reached the people of those nations. But when Mark says, preach the gospel to every creature, there's no social class differences. It's everyone. Finally, the, we must keep in focus these last words of Christ. Why? Because they're the most important. Often as a culture, we put a lot of emphasis on a person's last words. And because of that, we've gotten a lot of recorded history because of that. But these are Christ's last words, and we don't put a lot of emphasis on it much anymore. We know it, but it hasn't become a heart knowledge. It's become a head knowledge. Do we really live it? I said lastly, but think of it this way. David Livingston said this, if a commission by an earthly king is considered an honor, how can a commission by a heavenly king be considered a sacrifice? You can ask the missionaries here this week, they've probably gotten the same question. So what are you sacrificing to go to the field? Not trying to be boastful, but it's temporal things. We're sacrificing temporal things for the eternal things. Souls are the only eternal thing. We can't take anything else with us. Family relations, though they mean a lot to us, those are temporal. Provided they know Christ, we'll see them again one day. But those souls that we're going to go reach, if we don't go and reach them, we'll never see them, because nobody will reach them. We can't put our job off on someone else. God gave it to us as individuals. So who in our community, who in our mission field are we going to go reach? God's put us, each one of us, in our area, whether that be in our neighborhood, at our workplace, in our own families, as a mission field. Have we reached them all yet? I dare say no. There's somebody in our hearts, in our lives, that God has burdened our heart for, that we can go and reach. So how much are we willing to sacrifice to go to reach them for the money? All right, when you said that about the martyrs, I don't know exactly all the thought process that went into putting you in this class, but we will be teaching on the Waldensians very soon. And the Waldensians, I assume, are the martyrs that you were speaking of in northern Italy, I believe it is. The Waldensians, Peter Waldo, will be teaching on that. And so when we're teaching, we're gonna be teaching on martyrs. And when we do that, when you're thinking about the Waldensians, that's where he's going. And I never knew the number of missionaries in Italy, 18, or the exact population. I could have guessed the population a lot closer than I could have guessed the missionaries. But not only is it just 62 million people, What else is in Italy? The Pope. And if we go out on visitation here, the ones that go every week, they can tell you a couple times a month, you'll see a Catholic. Maybe two or three times a month. And you know how hard it is to reach one here. That's where he's going. Everybody, basically, will be Catholic. And so he has a very hard road to hoe, as we say around here. I don't know if they say that in Michigan or not. But he's gonna have a very difficult job. And I think we all start, as he did, maybe not all, I'm sure not all, but most will start with, Lord, somebody needs to go. And not just to Italy, but everywhere. Somebody needs to go to Davidson County, and we might pray for those that go, but we need to pray that we go ourselves. And that's what missions is all about, and he incorporated it very well, that it's not just Sidley, but it's people we know. And it's that compassion. You gotta have compassion for people. I'll tell this quickly, I hope I get it correct. A story I read one time, it was in a poor country, and these people were on a tour, and they saw the children in the street, and they saw this one particular child. She was dirty, hungry, looked like, and just no one watching her. So one of the tourists said to the tour guide, he said, where's that poor child's parents? Where is, why isn't anybody watching her? And he said, well, she has a mother. She has a mother that loves her. She has a mother. And he says, well, why isn't she taken care of? And I'm getting the story wrong. Excuse me, but in other words, she was concerned about that little girl, but she didn't love that little girl. She didn't have compassion, so she didn't do anything. She saw, she was aware, but she didn't do anything. We see people, we're aware that people are dying to go to hell, but we have to have compassion. I think that's a very good lesson, brother, on Adam Matthew. We'll pray and we'll be dismissed. Lord, we thank you for this day that you've given us. We thank you, Lord, for each one that's here. Lord, as he read out of the word of God, Lord, Christ, our Savior, ask us to pray for laborers. Lord, we do need to pray for laborers, Lord, and in our own area, Lord, we need to be the laborers. Help us to do that, Lord. Be with each one this morning, Sunday school class, Lord. Be with Brother Baker at the 1030 hour. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.