All right, Matthew chapter nine.
Now, for those of you that weren't here last week,
we started preaching through Matthew chapter nine,
but we only got halfway through it.
Okay, and the reason for that was
because we had a church meeting last week
where we discussed the financials.
And if you guys have any questions for me,
please feel free to ask about any of that.
We discussed the financials,
we discussed about the future of this church,
and we also discussed on the eternal sonship of Christ
if you're interested, we'll talk about it later on, okay?
But there were three key things
that I wanted to talk about in the meeting last week.
So I only preached through half of this chapter.
So we'll be covering the next half tonight.
So we're gonna be reading from Matthew chapter nine
verse 18 to the end of the chapter, okay?
So from verse number 18.
But look at verse number 37 first.
Matthew chapter nine verse 37.
The Bible reads, then say he unto his disciples,
the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.
The title of the sermon tonight is the laborers are few.
Okay, this is a reality even in the time of Christ
as it is today, okay?
Those first of all, there are believers out there,
it's not many.
And then there's very few of those believers
that actually attend church on a regular basis.
And of those that are attending church on a regular basis,
there's even a few of them that actually then go out
and is a laborer of the Lord,
going out and preaching the gospel.
And so this is a true thing
that in the time of Christ,
the laborers were few as it is today.
You know, and I hope as we go through this,
as we go through the book of Matthew,
that you're encouraged to become
a laborer for God yourself.
Okay, it's one thing to come to church,
you come to church to be served.
And a lot of people call the church a church service,
because you come to be served,
you come to serve one another.
Hey, but it's not just about getting served.
It's about laboring.
It's about doing the work for God that he's left us to do.
So let's start off in verse number 18,
Matthew chapter nine, verse 18.
While we speak these things unto them,
say, what are those things?
Well, you should have been there last week.
You can read it in your own time.
But it says, behold, there came a certain ruler
and worshiped him saying, my daughter is even now dead,
but come and lay thy hand upon her and she shall live.
So we see a rule, a certain rule,
this is a man of authority.
Okay, I'm not sure whether he was a religious ruler
or just someone that held like a government position,
someone that was high up.
And he comes to Jesus because his daughter,
he says, is now even now dead.
In the other gospels, she was close to death.
And I think what he's saying here
is that she's close to death.
She's going to die, all right?
But he comes, he doesn't just say that.
Look at the beginning there.
He says, there came a certain ruler and worshiped him.
Hey, this ruler came to Jesus Christ.
He didn't just see and hear the great miracles of Jesus,
but he worshiped him.
Hey, who are we to worship according to the scriptures?
It is only the Lord God.
So we need to understand this ruler comes,
he knows who Jesus Christ is.
He knows he's not just his healer who does miracles.
He worships him because he realizes
that Jesus Christ is the God of the Bible.
He realizes he's the God of the scriptures,
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And that's why he comes and worships Christ.
And what I want to show you as we go through these gospels,
it is my opinion,
and I think I can prove this quite well from the Bible,
is that everybody that either got healed
or got their servants or children healed
were believers in him,
were people that are already saved
under the Old Testament.
And this is something you need to understand.
A lot of people have a hard time understanding this,
but when Jesus Christ was walking the earth,
as we read through the gospels,
the New Testament is not yet in effect.
We're still operating under the Old Testament, okay?
And we know in the New Testament,
we're required to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We're required to believe on his death,
bear him resurrection.
But a lot of that was clouded under the Old Testament.
Yet, even though that understanding of Christ was clouded,
that was still saved by grace through faith
without the deeds of the Lord, still.
And so what we have in the Old Testaments many times
are people that are already saved.
People that are ready,
they hear of Jesus and say, hey, that's the Messiah.
Yeah, you know, because they're already saved.
They already had the Spirit of God in them.
And so when this ruler comes,
he just comes and worships Christ.
Because this man's already saved, you know?
And he's acknowledged that this is the Christ.
This is the Messiah.
This is the promised one that's come, all right?
Now, if you can, just keep your finger there.
Turn to John chapter five.
Keep your finger there in Matthew nine.
Turn to John chapter five.
Because I just want to prove this to you from the Bible.
John chapter five, verse 46.
This is Jesus arguing with the Pharisees.
And he says in verse 46,
for had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me,
for he wrote of me.
So when Jesus says there, for had ye believed Moses,
obviously these people are living
hundreds and hundreds of years after Moses.
What's he talking about?
He's talking about the writings, the scriptures, you know?
The first five books of the Bible
are known as the books of Moses.
He says, look, if you just believed
the Old Testament scriptures, you would have believed me.
Okay?
So what is he saying there to these Pharisees,
these so-called religious leaders?
You don't even believe the scriptures.
You don't even believe the Old Testament.
You know, you get up there, you teach from it.
You know, you have your career and your job's based on it,
but you don't even believe what it says.
And the proof of you not believing it
is that you don't believe on me.
Look at verse number 47.
But if you believe not his writings,
how shall you believe my words?
Okay?
So we see that if someone believed Moses,
they would have believed on Jesus.
And so in the Old Testament days as Jesus was going on,
we have, of course, people that are saved.
Okay?
Even though Israel was a wicked nation,
there was a lot of darkness,
we also know that John the Baptist
came as a forerunner to Christ,
and John the Baptist was getting a lot of people saved.
You know, there were thousands coming to hear him.
Preparing the way of the Lord.
And so when Jesus comes, they're like,
yeah, that's the one we've been hearing about.
You know, they're saved, they've got the Spirit of God.
He's confirmed that.
They follow after Christ because they're already saved.
All right?
And then obviously you have another group of people
that are not saved.
And then they, you know, by hearing Jesus Christ,
the preacher of Christ, they then get saved, okay?
And believe in Christ.
And then obviously you have the final group of people
that were never saved.
And no matter what miracles Jesus Christ did
in their presence, they still didn't believe.
Okay?
So that's just the reality.
I want us to paint that picture for you as we go on,
because I believe all these people that got their
healings done, except for demon possessed people,
but everybody that was healed or had other people healed,
you know, Jesus Christ over and over and over and over again
points to their faith as the reason why they were healed.
All right?
Now, he doesn't point to the man's faith here,
but you can see if this man's worshiping him,
he's clearly got his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Okay?
So let's keep reading, verse number 19.
And Jesus arose and followed him.
And so did his disciples.
And behold, a woman which was diseased
with an issue of blood, 12 years, came behind him
and touched the hem of his garment.
For she said within himself,
if I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.
Hey, does this woman with this issue of blood
have faith in Jesus?
Absolutely.
She thinks if I just touch his clothing, I can be healed.
I can be made whole.
Okay?
Let's keep reading there in verse number 22.
But Jesus turned him about and when he saw her,
he said, daughter, be of good comfort.
Thy faith have made thee whole.
And the woman was made whole from that hour.
Hey, she was healed from her issue of blood,
that very moment that she had placed her faith
in Jesus Christ there.
Okay?
But you can see Jesus points to her faith
as the reason why she was healed.
Hey, she had her faith already placed on Jesus Christ.
Now, the book of Matthew doesn't expound
on this woman very much.
So again, keep your finger there.
Let's turn to Luke chapter eight,
because I want to show you something about this woman.
All right?
Luke chapter eight, verse 43.
Because yeah, the book of Matthew just touches on it briefly.
The book of Luke goes into a lot more information.
Okay?
Luke chapter eight, verse 43.
It says, and a woman having an issue of blood 12 years,
which had spent all her living upon physicians,
neither could be healed of any,
came behind him and touched the border of his garment.
And immediately her issue of blood stanched.
And Jesus said, who touched me?
When all denied.
Peter, listen.
When all denied.
You know who that includes?
All.
That includes even the woman that touched him.
Because Jesus asked the question, who touched me?
They all denied.
Even the woman that touched him.
You see that?
Okay?
She's embarrassed.
She's shy, whatever it is, she's timid
to say she was the one.
And it says, Peter and they that were with him saying,
I said, master, the most truth from thee
impressed thee and sayest thou, who touched me?
Peter says, look, you're walking.
There's thousands of people.
Everyone's touching you, Jesus.
Everyone's grabbing your garment.
Everyone's bumping into you as you walk through.
Why are you asking who touched me?
Yeah, but Jesus knows about something specific
that happened in verse 46.
And Jesus said, somebody have touched me.
For I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.
He says, there's some sort of power.
There's something that's come out of me.
I know someone touched me.
And of course, Jesus is God.
He knows who touched him.
All right?
Why do you think he's doing this?
Look, verse 47.
And when the woman saw that she was not hid.
You see, she was trying to hide.
She was denied.
I didn't touch Jesus.
She was trying to hide behind other people.
It wasn't me.
Jesus says, no, I know someone.
And she says, look, now she realizes I'm not hid.
Jesus knows it was me, right?
She was not hid.
She came trembling and falling down before him.
She declared unto him before all the people
for what cause she had touched him
and how she was healed immediately.
And he said unto her, daughter, be of good comfort.
Thy faith have made thee whole.
Go in peace.
And what I want to bring to your attention there, guys,
is that we all, maybe not physically,
or maybe even all of us physically, okay, by prayer,
but we've all been healed by Jesus Christ.
We've all been healed by the sickness of sin, okay?
Of our eternal destination to hell.
We've all been touched with that infirmity
because of our sin nature, okay?
But we've all reached out as it were
to touch that hem of the garment, right?
We've all reached out in faith to Christ,
you know, believing that he died for our sins,
that he gives us eternal life through his blood,
through his sacrifice.
And we've all been healed.
But you know, a lot of us guys, and maybe many of us here,
we're gonna be the ones that hide it.
And it'll be a shame to speak
about what Christ has done for us.
And Jesus says, look, I know someone's been healed.
I know because there's been virtue that's come out of me.
You know, and sometimes we try to hide in the masses.
We hide behind things.
We don't want people to know about their healing
that Jesus Christ has given us.
But what does Jesus want from this woman?
He wants her to speak out.
You know, stop hiding.
And we see there in verse number, what is it?
Verse 47.
It says halfway through,
she declared unto him before all the people.
I love that Jesus, she's trying to hide from everybody.
And Jesus makes it declare it to all the people, right?
And that's what Jesus Christ wants from us.
That's what he's left us to do,
that we would declare his free gift,
that we would declare his grace,
you know, his gift of salvation to all the people.
And that touches on about the laborers.
We need more laborers in Australia.
You know, what is it, 24 million?
You know, 5 million in Sydney, the population.
I mean, at least on the Sunshine Coast,
it's like 320,000.
You know, I mean, you guys have more work to do
than what I do up there, right?
But look, Jesus Christ wants laborers.
Jesus Christ wants people that will openly confess
what Christ has done for them.
Now, go back to Matthew chapter nine, please.
Matthew chapter nine, verse 23.
If you've forgotten already,
Jesus was on his way to heal that girl
that was close to death.
And then he got distracted by this.
But verse number 23, it says,
and when Jesus came into the ruler's house
and saw the minstrels,
minstrels are musical instruments,
like flutes and things like that.
So, saw the minstrels and the people making a noise.
So what had happened is this young girl,
the Bible tells us in the book of Luke
that she was 12 years old.
It doesn't say it in the book of Matthew,
but in the book of Luke, she was 12, the Bible says,
that these people are mourning because she had died.
And I guess their custom was to play musical instruments,
maybe a somber mood or whatever.
They're making a noise, they're weeping because of her.
And then look at verse number 24, it says,
he said unto them, give place,
for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth.
And they laughed him to scorn.
Okay, now this girl was dead.
I mean, physically speaking, she was dead.
But when Christ speaks of her,
she says, look, she's just sleeping, all right?
And this is one of the most beautiful things
that we have as believers,
is that truly in God's eyes,
if you're saved, you will never die, okay?
Yeah, we'll have this physical death.
Yeah, even if you make the rapture,
even if you make the resurrection,
this flesh will be changed anyway.
This flesh will be changed
to that incorruptible flesh to come.
But as far as we're concerned,
quite often you'll see this in the Bible.
They're talking about believers in the grave.
And the Bible just says, look, they're just sleeping.
They're asleep in Christ, okay?
And of course, their soul and spirit is with God.
And come the resurrection day,
that soul and spirit will return with Christ,
be reunited with that body, which will be changed
into that new resurrected body like Christ.
And so shall we ever be with the Lord.
That's gonna be an amazing time.
But this should encourage us if we have loved ones,
if we have friends that are saved, that have died.
Listen, they're just asleep.
And one day they're gonna wake up
and we're gonna see them once again.
It's such a beautiful encouragement,
such beautiful comfort that God gives us,
that as believers, we're just asleep when we're dead.
It's not the end of us.
There's going to be a resurrection, we'll be back.
But look at verse number 25.
And when the people were put forth,
he went in and took her by the hand and the man arose.
And the fame here of went abroad into all the land.
Jesus Christ, amazing power, the power of God
to raise even the dead back to life.
And what an amazing thing.
Now there's something I want to show you very quickly.
Just back in the book of Luke,
keep your finger there, Luke chapter eight.
Because the book of Luke really does expand
on these stories a lot more.
But Luke chapter eight, verse 42.
Luke chapter eight, verse 42.
I'll just turn there myself.
Luke chapter eight.
Verse 42.
It says here,
for he had only one daughter about 12 years of age,
and she lay a dying.
But as he went, the people fronged him.
So then I just wanted to show you that this young girl,
she was about 12 years old, okay?
She was about 12 years old.
Now drop down to verse 54.
Verse 54.
It says, and he put them all out and took her by the hand.
And God saying, made arise.
And her spirit came again and she arose straight way.
Now the next words make him laugh.
And he commanded to give her meat.
And her parents were astonished,
but he charged them that they should tell no man
what was done.
Actually, no, I've got this confused, sorry.
It's not a funny bit.
But there's another time when Christ healed some.
Oh, no, that was Peter's.
Sorry, I'm getting confused.
I'm getting so confused.
When God Christ heals Peter's mother-in-law,
she's been sick and then she gets up and she serves him.
She serves him a meal.
And I find that interesting because when God heals,
when Jesus Christ heals, it's instant.
It's a full healing and they're able to serve.
They're able to follow after Christ and do amazing things.
And I'm reminded of these charlatans.
I'm reminded of these TV evangelists.
These TV evangelists that try to put on a show
about their healing and stuff.
And it takes forever.
I mean, they're trying to heal someone
or they're trying to cast out a devil and it takes hours.
It takes days and it just keeps happening.
They're trying to heal or just moment.
But when we see when Jesus Christ heals,
it's done immediately because we see the power of God move.
We see the spirit of God move.
It's not a show.
It's not pretend.
It's for real, okay?
And I'm just reminded as I go through these stories
about Christ healing, how instant it is.
And then we see it again,
the Benny Hinns or whatever of this world.
So-called healing, but the people are still struggling.
In fact, I had a family friend,
I would call him Theo or uncle
because close family friends, he was dying of cancer.
And for whatever reason, he thought,
in a wheelchair, he went to a Benny Hinn.
Benny Hinn, right?
Not Benny Hill, Benny Hinn, Benny Hinn.
Yeah, anyway, he went to one of those
and he was like, God's gonna heal me.
I just know what's gonna happen.
And then shortly after that, he passed away.
But when Christ heals, it's done.
When Christ heals, it's done.
It's like your salvation.
Once you've been saved,
once you put your faith on Christ, it's done, okay?
It's not this long process.
It's not like this drawn out process.
It is done instantaneously.
Let's go back to our Matthew chapter nine.
Matthew chapter nine, verse 27.
And when Jesus departed thence,
two blind men followed him, crying and saying,
thou son of David, have mercy on us.
So Jesus Christ is passing through two blind men.
They don't know, they can't see who that is, okay?
But do you think these blind men are saved?
Just want your thoughts on it.
What do you think?
What do they say to him?
Thou son of David, have mercy on us.
What do you think that means, thou son of David?
What do they recognize about this Jesus
that's passing through?
You wouldn't call anybody like just the random person,
a son of David, okay?
Because you don't know if that person's really down
the lineage of King David or not, okay?
You guys, just go back to Luke chapter one, please.
Turn back to Luke chapter one.
Again, just keep your finger in Matthew nine.
Keep your finger in Matthew nine.
Turn to Luke chapter one, Luke chapter one.
While you're turning, I'm going to read to you
from Romans chapter one, verse three.
Romans chapter one, verse three, it says this.
Concerning his son, Jesus Christ our Lord,
which was made of the seed of David
according to the flesh, okay?
So the seed of David, Jesus Christ,
it was prophesied that he would be that seed of David
that came in the flesh, all right?
Now you guys are in Luke chapter one, look at verse 31.
Luke chapter one, verse 31.
And behold, thou shall conceive in thy womb
and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus.
He shall be great and shall be called
the son of the highest.
Hey, who's the highest authority?
It's God the father.
Hey, this is the son of the highest.
This is the son of God.
It says, and the Lord God shall give unto him
the throne of his father, David, right?
And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever
and of his kingdom, there shall be no end.
And what an amazing prophecy there
or speaking of Christ, the greatness that he is.
But it says here that God would give Jesus
the throne of his father, David, King David.
And so when you have these blind men saying to Jesus,
you know, they're son of David, what are they saying?
They're saying, you know, you're the son of the highest.
They're saying, you've been given that throne of David.
Is this saying that, hey, you're going to reign
over the house of Jacob forever, you're eternal, okay?
They know who Jesus Christ is, even though they're blind.
Okay, they can't see him in person,
but they call out to him, thou son of David,
have mercy on us.
Go back to Matthew 9, verse 28.
Matthew 9, verse 28.
And when he was coming to the house,
the blind men came to him and Jesus saith unto them,
believe ye that I am able to do this?
They said unto him, yea, Lord.
Then touched to you their eyes saying,
according to your faith, be it unto you.
You see, once again now, the faith of the blind man.
You know, Jesus Christ is pointing according to your faith
because you believe in me, because you're trusting me.
That's why I'm going to heal you.
You know, guys, you know, we pray,
we have requests that we need to bring before God.
You know, God wants us to come in faith.
You know, come knowing that God can heal us, you know?
And sometimes, you know, it's nothing wrong with this,
but we pray and we say, God, if it's according to your will,
it's sort of like, it's almost like there's a bit of doubt.
It's almost like, yeah, if it's your will, God,
you can heal me or you can do this.
We should be going in full faith,
knowing that God can answer prayer,
knowing that God can heal.
And if he doesn't do it,
it's just because the answer was no.
Or if he doesn't do it,
it might be because he's answered it another way.
Okay, than what we expected.
But we ought to come to Christ
the same way these blind men came, full of faith.
Verse number 30, verse number 30.
And their eyes were open
and Jesus straightly charged them saying,
see that no man know it.
Don't tell anyone, I told you why before, right?
Because Christ already had these multitudes of people.
He was trying to go from town to town,
trying to make his way easy and preach to different people
one moment at a time,
but the multitudes would be slowing him down, right?
But they can't help it.
Look at verse 31.
But they, when they were departed,
spread abroad his fame in all that country.
Jesus, don't tell anyone.
It's like, how can we not tell anyone?
We were blind, now we see.
And then they spread the fame of Christ.
Verse 32, and they went out,
behold, they brought unto him a dumb man
possessed with a devil.
The dumb man is a man that can't speak, yeah?
Why can't he speak?
Because he has a devil.
This is a demon-possessed man.
And when the devil was cast out,
the dumb spake and the multitudes marveled,
saying it was never so seen in Israel.
But look how the Pharisees respond.
Look how these religious leaders respond.
You think they're rejoicing over the fact
that the devil's been cast out?
No, they respond in verse 34.
But the Pharisees said he cast about devils
through the prince of the devils.
They're saying that Jesus is doing it
through the power of Satan.
What are they accusing Christ of being the enemy,
the accuser of the brethren?
They're saying Christ is of the devil.
What in the, how?
How can they possibly say such things?
You know, what they're saying here
is known as the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost.
What they're saying here is a sin that cannot be forgiven.
All right, now let me just show you this very quickly
because we are gonna touch on this later on,
but turn to Matthew chapter 12.
So when we get to chapter 12,
of course we'll talk about it a little bit more,
but I just wanna show you this.
In Matthew chapter 12, verse 24,
Matthew chapter 12, verse 24,
a similar thing happens.
Another event takes place where Jesus cast out a devil.
But in Matthew 12, 24, it says,
But when the Pharisees heard it, they said,
This fellow doth not cast out devils,
but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.
Now drop down to verse 31, drop down to verse 31.
And this is Jesus speaking, he says,
Wherefore I say unto you,
All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men,
but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost
shall not be forgiven unto men.
So what does that mean?
It means they cannot be saved.
Once you have blasphemed the Holy Ghost,
if you make the accusation that Jesus is of the devil
and his power is of the devil,
that's blasphemy of the Holy Ghost,
this person will not be forgiven.
So surely not, come on.
We'll keep reading, verse 32,
And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man,
it shall be forgiven him,
but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost,
it shall not be forgiven him,
neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
Hey, even into eternity, they will not be forgiven.
Now, let me explain a couple of things here very quickly.
Number one, when we come to a passage like this,
we need to first establish ourselves in the fundamentals.
We know that salvation is by believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ, all right?
So if you have a concern,
oh man, have I blasphemed the Holy Ghost?
Have I done that in my life?
Well, first of all, have you believed on Jesus Christ?
And if you have believed on Jesus Christ,
if that's something you've done
and you know what he's done for you,
you put your full faith and trust in Christ,
then you did not blaspheme the Holy Ghost in your past.
Because it would be impossible for you to believe,
if you had done that, all right?
And the next thing we know is that once you are saved,
it's called everlasting life for a reason.
It's called eternal life for a reason.
It's because once you're saved, you're always saved.
It's eternal, it's forever.
Christ has paid for all your sins.
So once you're someone that has believed on Christ,
you are saved, you cannot blaspheme the Holy Ghost.
Otherwise, you're basically thinking
you can lose your salvation, okay?
So when you come to passages like this
and you're like, what does that mean?
What is that about?
You start with the fundamentals,
salvation by grace through faith, okay?
If I can believe that, then I wasn't a,
this is basically the doctrine of reprobates, okay?
This is about somebody that just cannot believe on Christ
because their ability to believe
has been taken away from them, okay?
And these Pharisees, these religious leaders had done so.
They had blasphemed the Holy Ghost
and they could not be saved, okay?
Neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
It was impossible for them, okay?
They had blasphemed against the Holy Ghost.
Anyway, we'll touch on that
when we get to Matthew chapter 12,
but I just wanted to show you this
because they say the same things in this chapter.
Let's go back to Matthew chapter nine,
Matthew chapter nine, verse 35.
And we're wrapping up now.
Matthew chapter nine, verse 35.
And Jesus went about all the cities and villages
teaching in their synagogues
and preaching the gospel of the kingdom.
So you know what?
Jesus wasn't just about the healings.
Jesus wasn't just about the miracles.
His goal was to preach the gospel,
the gospel of the kingdom, all right?
That's what Jesus Christ was doing.
He was preaching the gospel
and showing that people were trusting on him,
people were getting saved,
and then says in healing every sickness
and every disease among the people.
But when he saw the multitudes,
now notice this, when Jesus sees the multitudes of people
seeking after him, he was moved with compassion on them
because they fainted and was scattered abroad as sheep,
having no shepherd, okay?
When Jesus Christ sees the children of God,
the people of God scattered,
he has compassion on them,
especially for those that are like sheep
without a shepherd.
And you know what, guys?
I'm not boasting, I'm not,
honestly, I'm not trying to be prideful,
but I've been given the office of a bishop,
the office of a pastor.
And if you're someone that desires that,
if you're like, oh, I'd like to be a pastor,
the first thing you need to understand
is you need to be like Jesus.
When you see the people of God
and you see the multitudes,
you need to be moved with compassion
on the children of God, okay?
Moved in compassion.
You know, when you hear about places
that don't have a church, a good church,
when you hear about areas of this nation
that does not have a soul-winning church,
that there are people not going out and knocking doors,
it ought to cause you to weep,
it ought to cause you to grieve in your heart,
to have compassion on these people
that don't have a shepherd.
And you know, the reason this church exists,
the reason this church exists on a Tuesday night
is because, honestly, I was moved with compassion, right?
When I saw people of God without a church
or, you know, I'm sure which one to attend
and I saw friendships that there once was,
but for whatever reason now,
you know, you'd separated going your own ways.
I had compassion.
You know, I had compassion.
You know, and I saw sheep having no shepherd.
You know, I don't know how sustainable it is
for me to keep coming every week, right?
But I'm gonna keep doing it
while I have that compassion in me, right?
Well, the compassion in me for you guys,
but this church exists as we are because of compassion.
All right?
So let me just say, once again,
if you have a desire to be a pastor
and you have no compassion on the people of God,
it's not a role for you, okay?
Because decisions you make affects people, okay?
The things that you preach influence people, okay?
And if you don't have a heart for the people,
you know, a pastor is probably the last thing
you should be thinking about, okay?
Because you can cause damage
instead of bringing compassion to these people.
Let's keep reading verse 37.
Then say, pee unto his disciples.
The harvest truly is plenteous,
but the laborers are few.
And I already said there are 24 million in Australia.
The harvest is plenteous here.
Whatever city you go to, whatever town you go to,
there are people seeking the Lord.
There are people seeking to know,
how do I, what do I need to do to be saved?
You might need to knock a hundred doors
to find that one person.
But when you find them, it's worth it, isn't it?
When you see your soul saved and you see them,
call upon the name of the Lord, it's worth it.
Maybe you spent hours knocking doors with no success.
Maybe you spent hours of people
slamming the doors in your face, whatever.
You know, you suffer from heat stroke or whatever.
But when you see that one, believe on Christ,
receive that salvation.
You know, there's so much joy there.
But the harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few.
The laborers are few, guys.
I mean, I don't know.
I mean, if I took a number of how many people
were actively, just weekly, let's say weekly,
just, I'm not saying every day or anything like that.
Just once a week, people that were actively,
weekly going doors to those soul winning
with the right gospel.
Forget the Mormons and the Jehovah ministers,
you know, cast them out.
You know, but just people that believe.
I mean, how many in our nation of 25 million people
are actually doing this on a consistent basis?
Not many, but it's the same in Jesus' time.
It's the same, right?
Look at verse number 38.
What do we do about this?
What do we do about the situation?
Verse 38 is a command.
It's not an option, it's a command.
It says, pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest
that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.
So what's the command that God says to us?
Pray that there be more laborers, right?
And here's the thing.
When you're praying for laborers, I promise you this,
God's gonna say, you should be laboring, okay?
You should be one of those that are out there
laboring and then praying that God will add more laborers.
It's all our responsibility, guys, to get the gospel out.
I know for some people it's harder than others,
but we should try.
You know, even if it's in our space of work
or whenever you have family or friends
or, you know, you spend a private time with somebody
that you know is a non-believer,
you know, you should be moved with compassion.
You should be moved by knowing that if this person dies,
this person's going to hell, you know,
and give them that gospel, give them the good news.
I don't know how pastors preach week in, week out
of the Bible and don't preach on soul winning.
It's in every chapter.
It's always there.
You know, even if I was trying to avoid soul winning,
I couldn't, you know, if I'm trying to preach
through the Bible, that is, you know.
It's the work that God has left us.
Now I want to show you this because not only
did Jesus command to pray for it, the prayer gets answered.
Yeah, but it doesn't get answered in the book of Matthew.
Again, you're gonna have to go to the book of Luke.
So grab your Bibles, turn to, actually no,
before you turn to Luke, just turn to the next chapter,
Matthew chapter 10, Matthew chapter 10, verse five.
So we need the end, right?
We're saying Jesus Christ is saying,
pray for more laborers, yeah?
But now you get to chapter 10, Matthew 10, verse five,
look at verse number five quickly.
It says, these 12, Jesus sent forth and commanded them,
saying, go not into the way of the Gentiles
and into any city of the Samaritans, enter ye not,
but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
And as ye go preach, saying,
the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
So we see that after Christ prays for more laborers,
he sends the 12, yeah?
You guys see that?
He sends the 12 apostles, all right?
Now, go to Luke chapter 10, Luke chapter 10,
Luke chapter 10, and verse number one.
Luke chapter 10, verse number one.
So this is after, you know, chronologically speaking,
this is after Jesus already sent the 12, all right?
They come back, now we're in Luke chapter 10, verse one.
It says, after these things,
the Lord appointed other 70 also,
and sent them two and two before his face
into every city and place whither he himself would come.
So not only are they now 12, but you know,
Christ said, pray for more laborers, what happens?
There's more laborers.
Okay, there's 70 other more laborers.
Now you've got 82, is that right?
70 plus 12, 82, laborers going two by two,
preaching the gospel.
Now look what he says to these other 70, verse number two.
Therefore said he unto them, the harvest truly is great,
but the laborers are few.
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest,
that he would send forth laborers into his harvest.
So he said that to the 12, they go out, they pray about it.
Now there's another 70, all right?
He says to the 70, pray for more laborers,
the laborers are few, okay?
But I just wanted to show you there
that even if we had 70 people in this church,
70 laborers going out and preaching the gospel in Sydney,
still the laborers are few, okay?
Still the laborers are few, all right?
But I also wanna show you, they started with the 12,
they prayed for more laborers,
then we had another 70 join up, okay?
So all that to say this, guys,
is that we should take that command of Jesus Christ seriously
to pray for more laborers,
and he will add more laborers to this church.
And if you're someone that wants to grow this church,
say, Lord, please add to this church.
Hey, you need to be here.
You know, you didn't try to be here on a weekly basis.
You need to try to be here on the Tuesdays that we meet.
And if in the future we have services on a Sunday,
then be there for the services on Sunday, okay?
It's not the same thing.
We're praying for laborers, but we should be laborers first.
You know, we pray for more people to come to this church,
but we should be coming to this church
on a regular basis, all right?
So I just wanna show you those things, guys,
that we are called to be laborers.
We're not called to hide what Christ has done for us,
you know, like the woman with the issue of the blood.
You know, Christ wanted her to confess to everybody
what Christ had done to her.
Said, I don't know how to do it.
I don't know how to preach the gospel.
Look, you can just start by saying
what Christ has done for you.
You know, you can start saying,
hey, I didn't know I was on the way to heaven.
I didn't know what it took to be saved.
But now I understand that Christ died for my sins,
that He rose again on the third day,
and all I have to do is believe in Him.
It's a free gift.
You can start there, you know,
if you're not skilled with how to present the gospel.
You know, but please, guys, as a church, you know,
we ought to have a tear in our eye for this city.
This city, Sydney, is a wicked city.
It's a wicked city, and it's getting worse.
You know, people need the Lord.
You know, people need the righteousness
of Jesus Christ imputed upon them.
You know, and the only way we can do that
is by preaching the gospel.
You know, I'm not going to, you know,
wait for another church to step up and do it.
I hope they're doing it, I hope they're doing it.
But it's our responsibility,
it's our church's responsibility to make sure, you know,
we're actively going out and preaching the gospel
on a regular basis.
All right, let's pray.