Pray and Go

Dr. Jeremy R. Roeder

Time to Rebuild • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented 5 years ago

Matthew 9:35–10:1

Evangelism

Vision

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Transcript

Intro

When Apple Computer fell on difficult days a while back, Apple’s young chairman, Steven Jobs, traveled from the Silicon Valley to New York City. His purpose was to convince Pepsico’s John Sculley to move west and run his struggling company.

As the two men overlooked the Manhattan skyline from Sculley’s penthouse office, the Pepsi executive started to decline Jobs’s offer.

“Financially,” Sculley said, “you’d have to give me a million-dollar salary, a million-dollar bonus, and a million-dollar severance.”

Flabbergasted, Jobs gulped and agreed—if Sculley would move to California. But Sculley would commit only to being a consultant from New York. At that, Jobs issued a challenge to Sculley: “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want to change the world?”

In his autobiography Odyssey, Sculley admits Jobs’s challenge “knocked the wind out of me.” He said he’d become so caught up with his future at Pepsi, his pension, and whether his family could adapt to life in California that an opportunity to “change the world” nearly passed him by. Instead, he put his life in perspective and went to Apple.

Many people don’t recognize a chance to change the world. Part of the Christian message is letting people know what a difference the gospel makes.

PRAY

Recap

For the last several weeks, I have been challenging all of us, including myself, to commit to win one person to Christ this year.

There is a reason why I said one person and one person alone.

It really all goes back to the Sunday before the new year when I started a series that we’re still in called “Time to Rebuild.”

We went through a Six-Step Plan for Living a Successful Christian Life, then began to look at John 15 where Jesus talked about how there are two types of branches in the vine tree, those that produce fruit and those who do not produce fruit. We looked at three types of fruit that a true branch, a believer, produces, namely..

1. Conversions

2. Righteousness

3. Christ-like Character

We spent some time on each of the three fruits but I emphasized the first type of fruit, conversions/leading people to Christ, and I did so for a reason.

Evangelism was Christ’s Mission

First of all, that was Christ’s mission, it was His purpose for coming to the earth. He said that He came,

Because the sick need a physician, not the whole (Matthew 9:12; Luke 5:31)

To seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10)

To lay down His life for us (John 15:13; 1 Jn. 3:16)

To give His life a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45; 1 Tim. 2:6)

Jesus stepped into the cosmos that His own hands have made to be the substitutionary atonement for mankind. He came to satisfy the wrath of God that each of us deserve to face.

Evangelism was Christ’s Command to Us

Secondly, I emphasized leading people to Christ because that was Christ’s command to us as He was leaving the earth.

We looked at the 5 times the Great Commission was given in and noted how Jesus said,

To preach the gospel

To take the gospel everywhere

To do it until He returns

To do so because He commanded us to and because there are scores of people who are lost

To do so with His authority, with confidence, and assurance that we would be doing so with His power and presence

Evangelism Glorifies God

We found out in John 15:8 that God is glorified when we lead people to Christ.

Why? Because every time a soul is saved, the grace, mercy, love, and transforming power of God is on display and points people to God, resulting to Him being praised.

The Challenge

So, the challenge that I set before you over the last several weeks has been that you commit to win one person to Christ this year.

Then, seek to disciple them.

We saw that it was Christ’s commission, His command to us, and part of growing as a Christian.

But it also falls in line with what we as a church are here for.

If I were to ask you, what is the purpose of Memorial Baptist Church?, what would you say? (Keep answer to yourself)

If I were to get personal and ask you “Why do you come to MBC?” what would you say? (Keep answer to yourself)

If I were to ask you, “Where are we as a church going in the future? or Where would you like to see the church in the future?” what would you say? (Keep answer to yourself).

Last question, “What do you think God wants us to prioritize here?”

These questions should get us to think about what our church is here for, why you come to church, where the church will be in the future, and lastly, what should be one of the priorities of the church.

There can be a number of answers to each of the questions that was asked, but if evangelism is not at the top of the list, it should be.

I want to challenge you tonight, from the passage we’re going to look at, to Pray and Go

Pray and Go

If you will, please turn with me to Matthew 9:35 tonight.

We’re going to be looking at verses 35-38, then we’ll look at the first verse of chapter 10. Let’s go ahead and read the text.

Jesus just ended a preaching circuit and when He returned, v. 36 tells us that “when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them.”

This means that He was so affected, that He was inwardly moved.

He saw the people as hopeless, like sheep without a shepherd.

How do we view the lost?

Do we look at them with the same concern and compassion that Christ did?

I want to point out a few things to you from this passage:

The Harvest is Plenteous (v. 37)

Jesus said the harvest is plenteous (v. 37)

Now, pay close attention to the word “is.”

It doesn’t matter if you read this in English or Greek, it means the same thing.

It is describing a reality at the current moment.

It was a reality before Christ said this, while He said it, and it still is a reality.

There are scores of people who need Christ.

He didn’t say that the harvest “was” plenteous or “would be,” He said it “is.”

~ Notice secondly…

The Laborers are Few (v. 37)

Jesus said the laborers (workers) are few (v. 37)

This has always been an issue.

There is a lot of work to be done and very few people doing the work.

You could easily apply the 80/20 principle here…80% of the work is being done by 20% of the people.

This actually may be a little too generous though.

There is always a need because there are always people who are sitting idle, waiting on others to do the work.

~ After pointing to that the laborers were few…

Pray for Laborers (v. 38)

Jesus commanded His disciples to pray for laborers (v. 38)

This is easy to do, is it not? Anyone can pray.

Praying doesn’t require anyone to be moved out of their comfort zone.

People typically jump on the opportunity to do what Jesus said.

They say, “Wow, there’s a need…I’ll be praying that God will send someone to help.”

Is there anything inherently wrong with doing this? Absolutely not.

You see, the harvest field was before the disciples, and Jesus made them aware of the fact that it was a vast field and in need of laborers.

The same is true for us today.

We have talked about the statistics and demographics of Park Slope and the surrounding communities, so we know there are a lot of people who need Christ.

We, just like the disciples, are aware.

I even believe we’re praying for the community and specific individuals in the community.

But, I want to show you something…look at Matthew 10:1. (READ)

Notice the progression with me. Going back to Matthew 9:37, Jesus said:

The harvest truly is plenteous (9:37)

The laborers are few (9:37)

Pray for laborers (9.38)

Now go and be those laborers (10:1)

We are the Laborers

In a sense, the disciples were the objects of their own prayer, whether they knew it or not, and they were the answer to their own prayer.

Jesus said, Pray and Go!

Our Vision

Several weeks ago, Pastor Christopher, Danniel, and myself sat down and hashed out some ideas about what we could have as a vision for this church.

A vision is simply a preferable future.

There is a necessity for a vision because it:

Clarifies direction: Tells you where you’re going

Focuses the future: Gives the goal(s) to work towards (light at the end of tunnel)

Motivates going: The fuel that drives the car(strategy) to reach the destination (preferable future)

Sustains a ministry: Helps in difficult times and the church not to lose focus

Reach

The very first word in our vision is Reach. Why? This is the most important thing we can do.

Our church may do a lot of good things, but if we’re not reaching people for Christ, we’re failing.

If we give lip service to the importance of leading people to Christ, yet don’t put feet to it, we’re failing to do what God in His sovereignty has placed us here to do.

I want to go back to my challenge.

If we all commit to lead 1 person to Christ this year, what would that look like a year from now?

Let’s look at it together, but as we do I want you to think about something.

The purpose of establishing a vision is not to create some false hype and unobtainable dreams.

No, it is to create a tangible, preferred future, and a strategy to achieve that preferred future.

So, don’t think of what we’re about to look at as hypothetical.

Rather, think of it as realistic, because it is.

Everyone Reach One Person

If everyone committed to lead 1 person to Christ in 2019, with God’s help, 8 people would to Christ.

If we keep the same pattern for 2020 as it is for this year, what began with 8 people committing to lead 1 person to Christ in 2019 would be 16 people committing to lead 1 person to Christ in 2020.

Look at the table and notice what 7 years from now can look like .

Start Finish

2019 - 2020 8 16

2020 - 2021 16 32

2021 - 2022 32 64

2022 - 2023 64 128

2023 - 2024 128 256

2024 - 2025 256 512

2025 - 2026 512 1,024

Seven years from now, if we all just commit to lead 1 person to Christ per year, our church would grow dramatically.

But, more importantly, we would be faithfully and obediently doing what Christ told us to do. He told the disciples to Pray and Go, and it applies to us as well.

Listen, I know there may be people who think this is impossible to do.

If you say, “It’s impossible to have over 1,000 people,” here, I would lovingly disagree with you and challenge you that you have little faith.

Furthermore, with that kind of mindset, I would say that you’re not focused on Christ and what He can do, rather you’re focused on self and what you cannot do without His help.

Apart from His help, you’re right, it is impossible.

But, He told us that He would be with us until the end.

There is a way to go about achieving what we just covered and there are ways of not achieving them.

A Plan for Reaching People

For example, we have a years worth of events and special days at the church that are designed to create opportunities to invite people to come to church who would otherwise probably never step foot in a church.

Ex: The first week of April, we’re having Evangelist Kent Prain come, as well as students from Bob Jones Academy

Ex: April 19th is the Resurrection Singspiration

Ex: May 12th we’re having a Mother’s Day Service

These are three opportunities in the near future that give us opportunities to be inviting people to the church.

However, inviting people to church is not synonymous with sharing the gospel with them.

We invite people to come to church so they can hear the gospel, but no where in the Bible do we find a command to invite people to church.

It’s a strategy to attempt to get people to come so they can hear the gospel.

It’s also important to point out that we have events and special days to try to reach the lost people.

Now hear me out, if you get mad, that’s not my intent but we need to think properly about why we’re here.

The purpose of events and special days is not to invite people from other churches.

The purpose is to create opportunities to invite and engage with the lost people.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with fellowshipping with people from other churches but when it comes to SS activities, and special days or events at the church, we need to focus on inviting the lost.

Truth be told, the other churches need to be doing the same in the community that God placed them.

After all, this is why He strategically placed them in this locations…to reach the people in those communities.

Close

No church will grow unless evangelism lay at the heart of its life.

As we close, I want to reissue the challenge for you to lead 1 person to Christ this year.

First and foremost, commit to pray for your 1 person frequently, if not daily

Use special day, events, and activities that the church or your SS will have to invite them