Matt 9

I wonder what would happen in our community if we took the last verses of this chapter and made them our calling.  

Matt. 9:36-38 Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” 

Meditate on this these thoughts for a moment.

God is deeply concerned about lost people.

There are not enough people taking the message of the Gospel to these lost people.

We should pray that God sends more people into the throng of hurting, lost people.

This raises a huge question in my mind though.  Why do I need to pray for God to do this? If he has compassion on the lost, why doesn’t he just send out workers without our prayers? 

       I don’t have a comprehensive answer to my question, but part of the answer is that God primarily works through his Church to accomplish His Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).  We, the people of God, are His instrument to take the good news to the lost; both those close to us and those far away.  In light of this truth, prayer is a huge part of evangelism.  

Maybe we could reword the verses above as follows: “Seeing the people of North Lake Tahoe, Let us have compassion on them because they have been taken captive by their passion for fun and pleasure but have no true, meaningful purpose.  We need to pray for them and ourselves that we have enough compassion and courage to tell them about the Great Shepherd who will give them the highest purpose of following Him; which produces true lasting joy.”