and then we'll move forward, right? No, that's not right. Jesus said, I want you to go into all the world. I want you to make disciples of every nation. I want you to teach them to obey everything I have commanded. And just remember, even though you may have doubts, lo, I am with you. always. So tonight we're going to follow that up with another reference to something that's been referenced several times. Elias mentioned it even tonight again, and that's in Matthew chapter 9. So if you would turn there, you'll see the text that we're going to use as our springboard. We're not going to be only in this text. But we're going to look at a word, it's actually two words in English, but we're going to try to understand this word and what it implies. And it really is surprising, I think, for us to understand the implications of this word. What word am I talking about? Well, let's look at it. Matthew chapter 9, beginning in verse 35. And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them. Why is that? Did they need compassion? Was there some lack some problem that they were facing? Yes, they were harassed. They were helpless. They were like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. So tonight we're going to be looking at what I'm calling the surprising implications of that phrase, send out. Send out laborers. When you look at that phrase, you don't really think that it has implications or nuances. But it really does. And we're going to work through some of those. We're not going to look at all the text, but really all of them almost suggest something that we might not expect just reading this one text. So. What is surprising about this text? Well, let me before we look at that word, give a little background about why that would be surprising. Why would The whole text be surprising. Laborers are few. In a way that should be surprising to us. Just think about it. We actually have a command to go, right? It's a command. It's not a suggestion. It's a command to go. Well, if that command is given to who? All of us, right? If that is a command, then we really shouldn't, shouldn't have a shortage of laborers, right? If we're going to be obedient, do we want to be obedient? Yes. So in a sense, it's already surprising that the laborers are few because we've been commanded to go. We have the command to go. We also have the example of Christ. What was his example? Well, when he looked at people, he saw them as sheep and he had compassion on them. So if he is our savior. We should just almost automatically have the same feelings that he has, right? It should be that his example is all we need. We have his command, but we also have his example. When he looked at the multitudes, he was moved with compassion. How is it with us? How is it with his disciples? Well, he has to go a little further. It's not automatic that they are showing compassion. Think about just basic doctrine. Do we believe, and this kind of goes back to the morning message and they kind of tie together, but do we believe in man's depravity? Do we believe that? Do we believe? That all men are that way? Do we believe that people are like sheep without a shepherd? Do we believe that people are spiritually abused? You see what he says? They're helpless like sheep without a shepherd. They're harassed. They're helpless. They're abused by their spiritual leaders, right? Do we believe that? And do we believe, does it sink in with us, the sheer numbers of these sheep without a shepherd? Do you know what the population of the world is now? I checked this afternoon, the latest figure is 8.1 billion. Now how many of those are true believers, do you think? It's not many, I don't know. If it was 10%, which I don't think there's any, I don't think there's any chance that's the case, but let's just say it was 10%, that would leave seven, almost seven billion that are lost. So in a way, it's surprising that we have to have this text. We ought to be doing this regardless, right? So we have the example. of Christ. And then we have this solution. We have the remedy. You know, there are lots of diseases in the world. And we still don't have the remedies for all of them, right? I mean, we're still dying, you know, in our 70s or 80s or sooner or sometimes later. But we have the remedy for these 7 billion. We have the gospel. And then Really, when you think about it, what is the greatest privilege in the world? It's to be a gospeler, right? To take the gospel to people. So in a sense, it's very surprising that we need this exhortation to pray for the Lord of the harvest. We ought to be lining up to be laborers for Christ, right? Is there any reason why we should not be laborers for him? And yet we are not. We would expect that we Christians would be eager to serve the King of Kings. That should be the case. We also know the outcome of the spiritual war we are in, right? Do we know the outcome? Or we're wondering what's going to happen. We wonder what's going to happen in Ukraine or in Israel. We don't really know exactly how that's going to end. But we know how it's going to end spiritually, right? There's a victory. Ultimate, absolute victory. And yet, the laborers are few. Well, why is that? Well, let's see if we can figure that out. And let's look especially at this word, send forth. Like I said, it occurs many times in scripture, but we're just going to look at about five, maybe seven references. And the first five are all in Matthew. So we'll just kind of work our way through a few texts here. And I want you to see the context of each one of these. So turn first of all, to Matthew eight, you just need to turn back a couple of pages and let's find out who it is. That is being sent out or how the word is translated. It's not always translated send out or send forth. In fact, in these verses, and in fact, in almost all other verses, it's not translated that way. So let's see how it's translated and notice in particular, I'm going to ask you about this later. Who is it that sent out Acts or Matthew eight and verse 11. I'm sorry, verse 12. I'll start in verse 11. I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now, in this case, it's not translated sin forth. How do you think it's which one of those words in verse 12 is our word? What do you think? Throne, right. And the question is, who is it that's being thrown? Well, it says the sons of the kingdom. You read that and you say, well, that might be the sons of God's kingdom, but it's not. Obviously, there's a contrast. This is the sons of the devil's kingdom. How do we know that? Well, they're cast where? Outer darkness. And notice what the result is. There's this weeping and gnashing of teeth. So in this first context, these people are thrown and these people are thrown into a place they did not want to go. It's outer darkness. There's weeping and gnashing of teeth, okay? So now, go over to chapter nine. Matthew chapter nine, verse 33. And we're just looking at this word. We're allowing God's word to inform us what he means when he says, pray that the Lord of the harvest would send forth labors. What does that mean? What does that imply? Look at Matthew 9, 33, and I'm not, picking out particular verses just because they fit my narrative. I'm picking them out because I just have to pick a few. They all pretty much support the narrative. Look at Matthew 9, 33. And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke, and the crowds marveled, saying, never was anything like this seen in Israel. So here you have a demon oppressed man, verse 32, and it says he was. Sent forth. He was cast out. He was thrown out. And the result was of course, in this case, great blessing, but it was a demon who was cast out. Okay. So Matthew 21, 12. Matthew 21, 12. Jesus goes into the temple. And what does he find in the temple? Verse 12. And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple. And he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers. So in verse 12, what word are we looking at? It's translated a different way here again, but what is the word here? That's the same Greek word that is send forth. What do you think it is? All right. Jesus drove out these people who were abusing the temple, making it a house. Making the house of prayer, a house of money gathering and money, basically, uh, taking advantage of people, money changers, selling pigeons, really just perverting God's house. So here he drove out these. money changers. One more chapter over, Matthew 22. Matthew 22. Here we have a parable of the wedding feast. I'm not going to read all of that, but you have a person who comes to the wedding feast. And verse 11 says, when the king came in to look at the guest, He saw there a man who had no wedding garment. So he's not properly attired. He's not ready for this garment. He doesn't, he shouldn't be allowed in. And he said to him, friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. We've seen that phrase before and notice what else it says. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So what's the word here in this case? Verse 13, cast him, cast into outer darkness. All right. And then one more here in Matthew, Matthew 25. Matthew 25 uses the same word. And here we have a parable, the parable of the talents that begins in verse 14, Matthew 25, 14. People are given five, one servant's given five talents, one servant's given two, and one is given one talent. Now, one talent is fine. If you do what? If you use it, if you use that one talent, God's given you great. That's all God expects. Well, what did this person do? Well, let's find out. Look at verse, um, for instance, verse 25, it says this person was afraid. Well, let me start in verse 24. He also who had received the one talent came forward saying, Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seeds. So I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours. But his master answered him, you wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have invested my money. You should have done something with it. And at my coming, I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the 10 talents. Now notice this, for to everyone who has will more be given. And he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And here's our word. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So in this case, the person with the one talent did not use it for the Lord. And he is sent forth. He is cast into outer darkness. All right. That's all in Matthew. Two more texts. And I think we can make some, some, uh, we can gather some conclusions. Acts chapter seven, Acts chapter seven and verse 58 uses this word as well. In this case, it's a very literal situation. This is not something hypothetical. This actually happened. It's talking about the stoning of Stephen. Acts chapter seven and verse 58. After they stoned Stephen, what did they do with his body? Look at it. Verse 58. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. So they cast Stephen's body out of the city and they stoned him to death. And then one more in the book of Acts, Acts 13 and verse 50. Acts 13 and verse 50. Paul and Barnabas are ministering on their first missionary journey. And it says in verse 50, the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district. So the word there would be which one? They drove him out. All right, let's take that information now. and see what it suggests to us. What is the implication? All right, who were those who were driven out? Who were those who were cast out? Who were those who were sent out? First of all, we had the children of the kingdom, the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of hell, the kingdom of Satan. Secondly, we had the demon that was in the mute man. Thirdly, we had those who bought and sold in the temple. Fourthly, we had a man who came to the wedding feast without a wedding garment. Fifthly, we had the unprofitable servant, and then we had Stephen, and then we had Paul and Barnabas. So what do we learn from that? What kind of people were cast out? In all of these cases in Matthew, they were actually wicked people, but what Can we say about all of the people, including Paul and Barnabas and Stephen? Did they want to be cast out? Did any of them want to be cast out? Did the demons want to be cast out? Did the man with the wedding garment want to be cast out? In none of those cases, did the people want to be cast out? So what does that suggest? That suggests they were reluctant. They were reluctant or hesitant or really would have refused if they could to be sent out. This was very revealing to me. Why are laborers few? Because God's people. are what? Reluctant. God's people are hesitant about being sent out by the Lord. So here's the next, the last part of the message, which is about half of the message. What makes believers reluctant? I want to try to answer that question as we've been in missions for a long time and I work with perspective missionaries all the time, people that think maybe God's calling them into missions. What can we learn from scripture and what can we learn practically that makes people reluctant? Makes God's people reluctant so that he has to, in a sense, cast them out sometimes almost against their will. What is it that makes us so reluctant? Well. The first thing we've already looked at, I think, in other messages, and that is it's our little faith. We have little faith. Remember that? The apostles had this problem. What do I mean by that? What do we tend to not believe very strongly? Well, we tend to believe weakly, I think, the serious condition that people are in. I mean, we don't really grasp. What was this about outer darkness? What is this about weeping and gnashing of teeth? We have little faith about the reality of hell. And I don't know how to make myself understand that better. It's just such a thought that's beyond our comprehension. I mean, I could understand hell for a day, or a week, or maybe, you know, a life, 50 years, but for eternity? No relief? But we do have this little faith, I think. Do we believe these things? Like, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him. Frankly, we're reluctant in part because we just have little faith about those truths. And also, we have little faith sometimes about the power of the gospel. And then secondly, and I've got a number of things here that make us reluctant, and part of it is just being transparent about things that I struggle with, but we, this is not Maybe not true for everyone, but we've kind of grown up in an era of being risk averse. Let me explain that. I'm amazed that for my grandkids, from the time they were born, there was a monitor watching every move they made. Seriously. My son and his wife were watching them all the time. If they had a move or they made noise, then they heard it. Well, they get a little bit bigger and they put them in a certain size car seat. Did you have a car seat when you were growing up? We didn't even have seat belts, right? But now they got a certain car seat and then they get bigger and they have to have a different car seat. It was a pain for us when we had our grandchildren because we might get a certain seat and then they don't need that one anymore. So, but really our society has grown risk averse. We're just afraid to do things that require courage. And then we have these days, of course, society has gone so far in this woke ideology. You know, you can't, you cannot criticize sexual orientation, these kind of things. I mean, we have these negative views of religion. Maybe we don't, but the world certainly does, and they've gotten more and more that way, just casting off every possible restraint and saying evil's good and good's evil. I know that's been around ever since Adam and Eve. We definitely have had a time when things have gotten much worse. There are all kinds of hate crimes. You speak out against certain things, especially this is true in Europe. You know, it's a hate crime just to say something is wrong. Also, we have, a lot of folks have the fear of learning a language. That makes people reluctant. Oh, I can never learn. that language. And I've heard that many times. And it's just generally not true. I mean, some people cannot. That is true. It's hard. But that is one of the fears. People have fear about learning a language. And then there is the attachment to comfort and affluence. You say, well, I'm not affluent. Well, have you been to the rest of the world? Then you actually are. I mean, we're sitting in comfort, right? I mean, we are very comfortable, and we're attached to it. That's the problem. You know, that's not a new issue. It was true for Lot. Lot lingered. Remember that? We tend to think about Lot's wife. She looked back, but the Bible says in the same chapter of Luke, Genesis 19, but he lingered. Why? Why did he even choose that valley to begin with? Because it looked good and it was on a comfort level. You know, you think about Sodom and what do you think was their sin? Well. It's not just what you think, right? You read the book of Ezekiel in chapter 16 verse 9, it says these three things about Sodom and it doesn't mention the sodomy part. Doesn't even mention it. Obviously that was evil, but it doesn't mention it. It says they had pride. Catch this one. Excess of food. Did you know that? And, and this is the ESV translation, prosperous ease. Isn't that something? That sound familiar? They had pride, excess of food and prosperous ease. That pretty much describes us, doesn't it? That comfort and that affluence is one of the reasons why people God's people are reluctant to step forward and be sent by God. And then there is the aversion to the spiritual hard work of missions. You say, well, I don't mind hard work, but this is the kind of work where you can't just get a hammer out and beat on it and be satisfied. Spiritual work is not like that. You wish it was. I used to, if I got frustrated, I would go get a paintbrush and I'd paint a room. I could see the results of my work. That was nice. But you don't have that in spiritual work. You don't force things. You have to just let God work. And that can be, that can be one of the reasons why people are reluctant to serve. They know that this is going to be hard work. hard spiritual work, it's going to take prayers, it's going to take Bible reading to prepare me, and it's going to take dealing with frustration when people don't grow like you wish they would. So there's this aversion to hard work. What does 1 Corinthians say it's going to be? What's he looking for? He's looking for laborers, labor, labor. Hard work. There may be aversion to the hard work involved of spiritual work. And then there's this aversion even to deputation. A lot of folks have a wrong idea about deputation. You say, well, I don't want to do deputation. I just want to go to the mission field. Well, why not? Why don't you want to do deputation? Well, I don't want to travel. Okay. Well, I don't want to meet new people. I don't want to be exposed to strangers and be known by strangers. I don't want, it's a waste of time. I could go to the field now and not have to wait two years as I do deputation. And, you know, we understand, I understand the thinking about that, but really let me tell you what actually happens. When missionaries go on deputation, and if you don't know what that means, that means they go out, they go to churches like Paige came to your church today, go to churches that are not your home church, you tell them what you're wanting to do, and some of them will pray for you, some of them may support you financially, and some of them may never pray for you or support you. We went to about 125 churches on our deputation and probably about 30 of those were ended up being supporting churches and then some individuals support. But here's what happens. Number one it really develops your skills for preaching and teaching God's word. Number two it shows you how churches actually function. You may have a home church that's really Really good? Or you may have one that's not so good. But as you get into 125 churches, you realize, oh, God uses all kinds. You know, and churches vary drastically. Some are small, they might be 20 people, it might be 500 people, but they're churches. and you learn from their pastors, you learn from being in fellowship with them. And you, and this is what's so special, you make friends who pray for you. We still have people who are praying for us 40 some years later. We went to the mission field in 1984. 40 years, is that 40 years? That's 40 years, yeah, 40 years ago. And we still have people who are praying for us and supporting us and still are dear friends. that we would never have known. So it provides lifelong friends, it provides sometimes, in some cases, lifelong financial support, and it develops your ministerial skills of both the husband and the wife. So there's really some value in deputation. Well, here's another reason why people are reluctant. The pull of the family. The parents don't want the child to go. Oh, no, don't go around the world. You'll be so far away. My grandkids will be so far away. There are a lot of parents that feel that way. And we understand that we have children, we have grandchildren, but we're praying that Three out of our six grandchildren, at least, will become missionaries. We'd be delighted if they all did. Really? Really. Now we know that we miss seeing them, but many times parents are unwilling. Let me give an example. I talked, I think I mentioned on Saturday night, last night, about Isabel Kuhn, I'm not sure I got to her but anyway, she was a missionary to China and she was in a conference in Washington State in a place called the Firs and missionary J.O. Fraser was speaking, challenging young people about missions and he was appealing for men to step forward and come and help him in the mountains there of Burma and China, in that part of the world, among the Lisu people. Well, Isabel Kuhn was not a man, but she said, Lord, I'm not a man, but I would go. I would go. And she came away from that conference burdened to go as a missionary. Well, her mother was the president, I guess you would say, of the ladies' missionary prayer group at her church. Isabel began to tell her parents about her desire to go to China. Her mother is the president of that missionary prayer group. And what do you think her mother's response was? Her mother's response was, you will go to China over my dead body. Now, Isabel did not lose her burden to go, so she kept talking about it. And her dad, they had actually had J.O. Fraser in their home. They had shown hospitality to him. So they were missions minded people, very much so. So she kept talking about it and her mother did not relent at all. And it got so bad that her dad finally said, Isabel, this is causing so much friction, you just need to drop it. You just need to stop talking about this for now. So she went away to college and had to just kind of put that aside as far as talking about it to her mom. Well, while she was at Moody, I think it was while she was there, her mother got breast cancer and her mother died. And then she was free to go and she did. She and her husband, John Kuhn, she eventually married John Kuhn and they were missionaries there. And she's written a number of missionary books. You may have gotten some over the last few days. I don't know if you got any of her books or not, but they were easy to read. And yet her mom, who was a Christian. said, you'll go over my dead body. There's a lot of that thinking. We run into that frequently. Parents who say, well, you know, it's good for somebody else to go, but I don't want you to go that far away. At least, you can go to Canada. But, you know, the other connected reluctant reason is this. Sometimes people say, well, there's so much need at home. You heard that one? Is there a need here? Absolutely. Of course. But in most cases, the need is not as great at home, especially in Canada or America. Just think of it this way. I don't have my phone with me, but I have an app called YouVersion. Anybody know about that one? A lot of you. How many English versions are in YouVersion? I have no idea. I haven't counted. I think there are about 70. How many good books, good commentaries can you get in English? There's no way to know. You have, we have, the riches, the spiritual riches that the world has never seen before. We have great books about missionaries. We have great commentaries. We have all the Bible versions you could possibly want. Yes, there's need. But don't say the need is greater here. How many good books and good versions are there in Arabic or in Hindi, which is spoken by millions and millions of people. There's too much stress sometimes on the need here at home. Can you listen to a Christian podcast in English? More than you have time for, right? Can you listen to a sermon in English? A lot more than you have time for. Are there other churches around? Yes. Another reason for the reluctance of God's people is trying to serve two masters. It's kind of related to the affluence thing. You cannot serve God and money, but a lot of folks are trying to. So, Jesus says, pray the Lord of the harvest that he would, and the Greek word simply is the word out and the word cast in that order in Greek. It just means to cast out. Pray that God would cast out people into the harvest. The problem is the laborers are few. So I want to ask you. Are you a laborer in God's harvest? Let me just start with this church. Are you serving God in this church? You're not going to go serve somewhere else if you're not serving here. Are you a Christian? Do you know the Lord? You say, well, what you're saying doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I really am kind of indifferent to that. Well, that's not a good sign. That's not a good sign. Maybe you're not a Christian if that's your attitude. Are you a believer, and if you are, are you serving in your local church? And then secondly, are you willing to serve in any place God will send you? Are you? I really like what Isaiah said in Isaiah 6 verse 8. After he saw the Lord, once he got a vision of who God is, and remember, that's one of our problems. Our faith is small. We don't really see God who he is, and we don't see the judgment for what it is. But Isaiah said, literally, behold me. We translate it usually, here I am, here am I. Behold me, send me. Okay, Isaiah, what's it going to be like? What kind of ministry are you going to have? He didn't know when he said that. You say, well, I have to know. Why? You can just make yourself available. That's what Isaiah did. He said, here am I, send me. And then the Lord told him what kind of ministry he was going to have. And it was going to be a difficult one. So I wanna ask you, can you say, here am I, Lord Jesus, send me. And you know, let me just close with this. This is the greatest privilege in the world. There is nothing better than serving God. That's as good as it gets, folks, in this world. It doesn't get any better. If you think it does, then you're missing out. It's a great privilege to serve God. So I trust the Lord will stir you to serve him here, maybe somewhere else, maybe far, far away. And if you have children, I pray that you would train those children to serve the Lord and hold out to them the privilege of becoming God's servant. Wouldn't that be great? Let's pray. Our father, we thank you for your word. Thank you for the privilege of being your servants. We. We. Sorrow that we don't serve more fervently and more effectively. But we do thank you that you have been willing actually to use us. We are really broken vessels. but we thank you that you use weak vessels, those with little faith, but we do have faith. Even though it's little, we do have faith. So use us for your glory. Speak to the hearts of your people, we pray. Lord, speak to the hearts of these young people. We thank you for these that are here and that have been here in the other parts of the week. Stir their hearts. Raise up laborers. Send forth laborers from among this group. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.