1.     One of the most important teachings of our Lord is found here in Matthew 9:36-38 and Luke 10:2.

2.     Similar remarks are found in John 4:35-38.  Our Lord said, “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest” (John 4:35).  John 4:35 is on my living room wall as a constant reminder of the great need for laborers.

3.     I also put this need in my prayer journal as a constant reminder to pray for labourers.   This great NYC area needs more labourers.

4.     Consider our Lord’s words. If the fields were white unto harvest then, they surely are white unto harvest now.

5.     The great evangelist, John R. Rice said, “the trouble is not with the circumstances, the sinners, the world, but with the church, the people of God.”

6.     Another great preacher, W. Graham Scroggie, said: “Are not most Christians guilty of a criminal ignorance of the world’s need of Christ?”

7.     These statements are true.  In Matthew 28:19, our Lord said, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” 

8.     Our Lord said “Go” but most Christians aren’t going anywhere.  Most Christians won’t even walk across the street to give a sinner a tract.

9.     In Mark 16:15, 16, our Lord said, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.  He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”

10. Our Lord said, “Go” but not too many are going.  The field is ripe for the harvest, but Christians are avoiding the field.

11. I am not referring specifically to the foreign mission field.  Our Lord said in Matthew 13:38, “The field is the world.”  The NYC area is a mission field. 

12. We have millions of lost sinners right here in our backyard.

I. THE NEED FOR COMPASSION (MATT. 9:36)

II. THE NEED FOR LABOURERS (MATT. 9:37)

III. THE NEED FOR PRAYER (MATT. 9:38)

I. THE NEED FOR COMPASSION (9:36).

1.     The Psalmist wrote, “Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law” (Psalm 119:136).  That is compassion.

2.     And, “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him” (Psalm 126:5, 6).

3.     I heard a preacher say, “We complain that sinners are too hard, but the problem is that we are too hard.”  He was right.

4.     Consider the compassion of Jesus.  Luke 19:41 says, “And when He was come near, He beheld the city (Jerusalem), and wept over it.”

5.     Do we weep over this wicked city of New York?  With all of its sin and shame.  I was listening to the radio the other day and they were playing excerpts from Rosie O’Donnell on her TV show.  They referred to her as a “train wreck” and they said, “People like to watch train wrecks.”

6.     I do not like to watch train wrecks. We ought to cry over train wrecks.  Or angry lesbians on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

7.     Rosie O’Donnell’s brother is also a homosexual.  He is a New York State assemblyman from Manhattan and he is now trying to pass a homosexual “Marriage Equality Bill.”

8.     I received an email from Duane Motley saying this bill will provide a clergy exemption, but there would be no exemptions for town clerks or justices of the peace who hold moral objections to homosexuality.

9.     In other words, if a justice of the peace refuses to marry two sodomites he would be forced to resign.  Bro. Motley believes the next step will be to remove all exemptions, and then the next step will be for churches to lose their tax-exempt status.

10. Then, school curricula will increasingly promote homosexuality since homosexual marriage would be “legal.”   (Maybe legal in the eyes of men but never legal in the eyes of God.)

11. Of course, the ultimate goal will be to eventually close down all Bible-teaching churches and schools. 

12. Friend, if you have no compassion for sinners, at least have compassion on our children and grandchildren.  Because if the Lord tarries, some day soon there may be no more religious freedom here in America. 

13. Sheep (9:36) are rather stupid animals, and they tend to wander aimlessly around.   Our Lord sees people as lost sheep wandering through life with no purpose.  He wants you and me to go after them (cf. Luke 15:3-7).

14. But we will not go unless we have compassion on them.  Sinners are heading towards eternity in hell.  Who will warn them?  Who will protect them from the wolves? (cf. Luke 10:2, 3).

II. THE NEED FOR LABOURERS (9:37)

1.     It is sad that pastors have to beg Christians to help out around the church, to come back on Sunday night, to tithe, to contribute to missions, to go out soulwinning, etc.

2.     Our Lord said, “The labourers are few” (9:37).  Do you recall that our Lord gave specific instructions in Acts 1:8?   The disciples were not to stay in Jerusalem.  They were to spread out into “all Judea,” and then move up into Samaria, and finally “unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

3.     But the disciples did not leave Jerusalem.  They were comfortable.  They did not want to leave their so-called “comfort zone.”

4.     So what happened?  They were persecuted and the Lord moved them (cf. Acts 8:1-4).  

5.     Many of us remember how churches were packed the Sunday after September 11, 2001.  But soon things went back to normal.

6.     The spiritual condition in America today is far worse than it was on September 11, 2001.  We have to look at the world the way Jesus looks at the world.  It is a world full of people slipping into hell.

7.     One preacher said our Lord “saw not only humanity, but the devil and his angels; He saw not only the saved, but the souls that were torn and frightened by ten thousand evil spirits, darkening the day with black, bat-like wings that shut out the very sun” (WA Criswell, Expository Notes on the Gospel of Matthew).

8.     That is a rather picturesque way to describe the spiritual battle we face.  Things have not been going well for our troops in Iraq so our president has called for more troops.  Well, the Lord needs more troops too.  Are you willing to go? (Isaiah 6:8).

III. THE NEED FOR PRAYER (9:38)

1.     Our Lord has instructed us to pray for the Lord of the harvest (9:38).  After the Lord saved me, He gave me a tremendous burden for the millions of lost souls here in the NY area.  So I started praying for labourers, and God called me to preach.

2.     Who is “the Lord of the harvest” (9:38)?   Andrew Murray in his classic book on prayer, With Christ in the School of Prayer, says God the Father is the Lord of the harvest.