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When Jesus walked this earth 2,000 years ago,
it was in a physical body. He laid aside His omnipresence and was only at
one place at a time. For this reason He spent His time moving about, going
where people were and meeting their needs.
v. 35 This is the Messiah Modeling the
Ministry for us. Never did Jesus sit back and wait for the people to come
to Him, He went out where the people were. Please note: nowhere does the
Bible command lost sinners to come to church…but it does command us saints
to go out into the highways and hedges and compel people to come to church!
Do you like it here at GBC? Are you proud of your church? Would you like
to share it with many others? Ok then, go ahead!
Last week we took a survey and found that
most everyone here did not COME to Jesus, but rather were BROUGHT to Jesus.
We dare not neglect people whether they live
in a mansion or a slum, are upper class or lower class, up and coming or
down and out…our job is to be the salt of the earth, and we must get the
salt out of the shaker and encourage people to come and dine!
Notice:
1. The Compassion
of the Savior
v. 36a “When He saw…” What did
He see? Not just a bunch of bodies…not just a crowd. It wasn’t a
superficial glance like we make. He saw souls and hearts. He looked beyond
their faults and saw their needs.
Ill.—what you notice about somebody reveals
what is truly important to you. When I walk past a shoe shine man he looks
at my shoes, because he sees every person as a potential customer. The guy
in the cell phone booth glances at my phone to see if I’m up to date,
because he sees people as potential customers. When I drive onto a car lot
the salesman checks out my car…well, that’s because it’s a sweet ride!
J
Would to God that we were all, first and
foremost, in the soulwinning business. Oh that we would see every person as
a potential convert for Christ…oh that we would see in each of them their
precious soul which WILL live forever or die forever somewhere for all
eternity!
Relatives—you see one another at times here
on earth, but you’ll be separated for all eternity if you don’t see their
soul, swallow your pride, and speak up!
Neighbors—you look after their stuff
sometimes, but you need to look after their soul!
Friends—you talk about everything under the
sun except for the main thing God left you here to share with them!
Co-workers—God planted you in a unique place
for a specific reason, and no one else on earth has that opportunity w/ that
person but you!
Jesus is our model for ministry in the way He
saw people, and saw their needs.
Then He was moved w/ compassion for them.
The word compassion is used in the gospels only to describe Jesus…it means
“stirred at the deepest level.” This means he didn’t just see a man w/
leprosy, but He felt His pain and rejection, loneliness and isolation. He
didn’t just see a man whose daughter had died, but felt his sorrow and
bereavement. He saw His broken heart, and even better, His heart broke
right along w/ him! And Jesus didn’t look on an adulterous woman in the
judgmental way we often do, but rather in love and compassionate
forgiveness, wiping her slate clean!
How about you? When you see someone living
in the filth of sin…does it only disgust you, or does it move you w/
compassion? When you see an abuser, does it only anger you, or are you also
moved w/ compassion? Has your heart become stone cold, or can it be moved
with compassion for others?
Ill.—William Booth started the Salvation
Army. But what led him to do that? Here’s the story: One night he
couldn’t sleep and went for a walk thru the slums of London. The rain was
beating down that night on the derelicts asleep on the street, and it broke
his heart. He went home and when his wife asked where he had been he
replied, “I’ve been to hell.” He saw the homeless as more than just drunks
and losers, and remembered they were once somebody’s baby, and used to be
loved, and rather than blame them for their condition and keep walking, he
decided that night to do something about it, and give them another chance to
make something of themselves. His organization was started with the idea of
giving the homeless a hand up, not just a handout. Sure, many turn around
and return to their old ways, but compassion made way for thousands to be
saved and their lives changed!
Anyone can be saved, and
the worse your life is, the more you have the privilege of
being forgiven for!
Ill.--
A converted cannibal on a South Sea Island was sitting by a large pot
reading his Bible. An anthropologist saw him and was curious as to what he
was doing. He approached the native and said, “What are you doing?” The
cannibal replied, “I’m reading the Bible.” Upset, the anthropologist then
said, “Don’t you know that modern man has rejected that book?” The cannibal
looked him over and said, “Sir, if it weren’t for this book, you’d be in
that pot.”
Many of us live in a cocoon of our own
making, and we’ve forgotten what it was like to be in bondage to sin and far
from God. It wouldn’t hurt you a bit to take a walk in the ‘bad’ part of
town once in a while, or make some visits w/ me to the jail or the hospital
or shut ins, or a special needs center near you! It would do you some good
to work in kids ministries or assist on a van route and see some boys and
girls from homes of dysfunction, who are looking for someone to really love
them…it might as well be you…and you’ll be doing more than helping them…it
will change YOUR heart!
Ill.—In Bible college I went on weekend
ministry extension to a local apartment complex, the Sunrise Apartments in a
poverty stricken area of Pensacola, FL. A friend and I started the Sunrise
Bible Club and went out each Saturday morning. We didn’t have to knock many
doors before word spread, and kids would run out to the courtyard each week
to play games with us, have storytime, and many got saved. During gametime
there wasn’t enough of us to go around. The kids said, “swing me next”,
“carry me on your shoulders”…but I’ll never forget the little girl
Crystal—she didn’t want to play, but waited in line for attention, and when
it was her turn said, “hold me!” I picked her up, and was taken back by how
firmly she squeezed me, like she didn’t want me to ever put her down. Then
she said, “love me!”
It’s time for the church of God to have a
return to real compassion, and stop looking at our ministry as something
somebody else in the church does or something that happens on this platform,
and realize that we all need to take personal responsibility and get out
where the action is and love people!
That’s the compassion of Jesus…
2. The Condition of
the Sinners
v. 36
The Bible compares people to sheep.
Isa 53:6
All we like sheep have gone astray…
Ps 100:3
…we are his people, and the sheep of his
pasture.
Ps 23:1
The LORD is my shepherd…
Let’s take a look at ourselves for a moment,
as the sheep that we are. What can we learn about ourselves from this
illustration?
In Mt. 9, it’s a picture of sheep that have
been attacked by a wild animal. They are apart from the flock, alone, and
have no shepherd.
Listen here: sinners w/out Jesus are like
sheep w/out a shepherd. Without Jesus they
have no protection.
In v. 36 Jesus had compassion because they
‘fainted.’ This means they had been skinned, fleeced, and tossed aside.
The very religious leaders of their day that were supposed to be looking out
for them were using them and abusing them. They didn’t love them. What a
picture of our world today! Pastors and priests using their power over
little boys and girls is clearly wrong. And when we see those in it for the
money and greed we are sickened. But I submit to you that it’s also wrong
for churches to view people as numbers instead of names, as workers instead
of worshipers, and as people for their own ego and their own kingdom instead
of for the kingdom of God!
Political leaders, instead of caring for
their constituency, use and abuse them, and if they care at all, many only
care about their vote!
People today are led more by Hollywood, the
media, and popular opinion than anything else. Let me remind you that Satan
wants to use the TV industry to subtly change you…to get you to laugh at
filth and be more tolerant of perversion, to get you to treat your family
the way those on that show do, to get you to accept a liberal mindset of
life and current events, etc.
Truly America is being fleeced from all
directions! They need the Good Shepherd! Without Jesus they have no
protection…
Without Jesus they have no
direction.
v. 36 “scattered abroad”
Remember that when the Bible calls us sheep,
that’s not a compliment. We think, oh, what cute and cuddly little fluff
balls. But sheep are not swift, sheep are not smart, they are dumb,
defenseless, and directionless. Congratulations, that’s us today! J
Without a shepherd, sheep will wander
aimlessly for days until they die.
Ill.—ever had a dog that you decided to take
a long drive with, and your car found its way out to the country? / you felt
like you owed it to him, having been tied up so long…somehow he got out of
the car and you couldn’t catch him…oh well, maybe he’ll find a better home!
/ you get back to your house and there he is on the front porch, wagging his
tail! Why? It’s because he has a built in sense of direction.
Sheep don’t have that sense. They actually
will follow each other. They will wear ruts in the pasture from following
one another back and forth, aimlessly. “Why am I walking this way? I’m
just following the wooly hiney in front of me!”
Teens are a good example. One of them tries
a cigarette or alcohol and the others have to try it too…they follow right
along like dumb sheep!
Clothing designers invent new lows in
indecency and immodest apparel, and everyone follows along—“let’s see…what
new area of my body have I not revealed and highlighted yet?…what’s the
newest place to allow to hang out…or tattoo…or pierce? And everyone just
follows along like dumb sheep!
I thank God for a home in heaven…that I’ll
get someday. But Jesus has given me more than that…He’s given me something
right now: direction! A purpose in life, a reason to live. Fulfillment is
something I enjoy now because I know where I came from, I know why I’m here,
and where I’m going. I wouldn’t take a million dollars for that! So don’t
tempt me by offering! J
Look at this world…people blindly following
each other, and they’re all in a hurry, but none of them really knows where
they came from, why they are here, or where they are going.
Ill.—somebody flies past you on the road /
you think it must be an emergency…he must have a pregnant lady in labor in
the back or something / then you pull into your destination, which was McD’s,
and there’s that same guy, chomping down on a Big Mac! Oh good, disaster
averted by emergency panic driving skills!
Ill.—pilot radioed to passengers on plane
over the Pacific / “I’ve got good news and bad news…” / “the bad news is we
are lost, and I don’t know where we’re at…the good news is, we’re making
great time!”
Everybody’s in a hurry but nobody knows where
they are going! And the longer you live and the older you get w/out a
shepherd, the more futile and meaningless life will become. The devil has
no happy old people…mark it down! But make Jesus your shepherd and He’ll
give you not only protection, but direction for life!
We’ve seen the compassion of the Savior,
and the condition of the sheep…
3. The Commission
of the Saints
v. 37-38 Jesus changes the illustration and
uses a different figure of speech to make His powerful point. Now He moves
from the flock to the field…don’t miss this:
The flock pictures
the fact that we need God.
The field pictures
the fact that God needs us.
I don’t know exactly why God has chosen to
spread the gospel using us, but He has. And here’s the problem. It’s
harvest time…the crops are ready…there’s a world of opportunity. But
there’s a shortage of laborers to bring it all into the barn!
v. 37 is my life’s verse because thru it I
answered the call to ministry. It speaks to me because it says there’s much
to be done and few to do it. It’s the greatest opportunity in life…and you
don’t have to be a full time Pastor to take part!
There’s a great harvest of people out there,
looking for something…looking for someone who is real to bring it to
them!
The problem is not the lack of great
prospects, but the lack of laborers going out and bringing them in.
Song: “My House is Full”
We all enjoy coming into God’s house…I enjoy
the house of God as much as anybody…food, fellowship, learning, praising and
worshiping. It’s nice being ‘in the house.’ But the song says “Push away
from the table, look out thru the windowpane, just beyond this house of
plenty lies a field of golden grain…”
It’s nice to hear inspirational preaching and
I’m glad you like it, but I don’t feed you just so you can get spiritually
full and fat…it’s so we can all go out into the field and labor in the
energy of the Spirit. Spiritual calories and Biblical carbs are something
we are supposed to take in and then burn up in service!
v. 38 An important lesson I hope I’ve
finally learned: God’s method for recruiting workers is prayer. Don’t be
guilty as I have been at times, at just doing the legwork of asking anybody
and everybody if they will help, until you find someone who can’t say no or
out of guilt says, I guess if no one else will, I’d better do it.
I’ve been praying specifically for people in
key areas, and God has been bringing them in to the church, and laying on
their hearts to help, and with their gifts and ambition and the Lord’s
calling behind them, they will do a much better job than anybody I could
recruit on my own…pray for laborers! And don’t be surprised if, while you
are praying, God lays it on your heart to be the answer to that prayer!
The end of ch. 9 the Lord says to pray for
laborers…then in ch. 10 the Lord calls the very ones who were praying about
it, and He sent them out. Having a burden and praying will lead to
compassion, and motivation to answer the call ourselves, as God leads.
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