00:00:00 --> 00:00:04 As I mentioned, the last number of weeks, in fact, not just the last number of weeks,
00:00:04 --> 00:00:08 but the last number of months, there is an enormous amount of work that has been going on
00:00:08 --> 00:00:17 around the place, and it's been a huge encouragement to see people involved in working bees in all
00:00:17 --> 00:00:24 sorts of different capacities. Last Saturday, particularly, not yesterday, but the Saturday
00:00:24 --> 00:00:30 before, really hot, stinking, humid sort of day, and to see so many people sweating it up,
00:00:31 --> 00:00:38 it was just incredible. It was an awful day, but let me tell you that an awful day in the sense,
00:00:38 --> 00:00:43 the next Sunday, like last Sunday, came in to church, and some of the guys who had been there
00:00:43 --> 00:00:48 the longest in that, well, I use the guys in general term, not referring just to blokes,
00:00:48 --> 00:00:56 talking about how sore they were. Someone couldn't bend over properly. My neck couldn't move terribly
00:00:56 --> 00:01:01 well from all the shoveling and shaking, and it was just, but let me tell you, I find that work a
00:01:01 --> 00:01:09 whole lot easier than ministry. I've got to be honest with you, stick a tool belt on. Yesterday,
00:01:09 --> 00:01:20 I shoveled 30 barrel loads of dirt around the place. I find that almost relaxing, almost as a great
00:01:20 --> 00:01:27 alternative to being in the face with people. In fact, I would rather sit on a bobcat so that you
00:01:27 --> 00:01:34 can't interrupt me, so that you actually feel like your life is a threat if you want to interrupt me,
00:01:34 --> 00:01:43 because it's so much easier, I think, to do physical work than it is, in fact, to do ministry work.
00:01:43 --> 00:01:49 I'm not saying they're completely separated. I'm just saying that once upon a time, as a younger man,
00:01:49 --> 00:01:56 partly because it was 20 years ago, I could work 90 hours a week in physical work, hotter than 31 degree
00:01:56 --> 00:02:03 heat than we had last week, and I could do it relatively, not that it was easy, but I could get up
00:02:03 --> 00:02:11 day after day and do that kind of work, and I would sleep soundly at night. Even though you might have
00:02:11 --> 00:02:17 pain all over, the pain eventually would disappear. I think there are few things more exhausting than
00:02:17 --> 00:02:25 constant exposure to people, especially when there are difficulties to work through with people,
00:02:25 --> 00:02:33 or that you are constantly serving them. I think mothers with little children have to be some of the
00:02:33 --> 00:02:41 most tired people that I've ever come across, and also emotionally spent people that I've ever come
00:02:41 --> 00:02:50 across, constantly serving little children. Ministry is like that in so many different ways.
00:02:50 --> 00:03:00 It is exhausting. It is like herding cats. It's been said that dogs have masters, cats have slaves,
00:03:00 --> 00:03:08 cats, cats. And at the moment in our house, we've got 10 cats. One cat, which is not ours,
00:03:08 --> 00:03:14 had nine little kittens. Who would have thought? There is four or five still looking for a home,
00:03:14 --> 00:03:20 in case you were wanting a belated Christmas present or something for someone, and they'll be
00:03:20 --> 00:03:26 ready in about four or five weeks, so feel free to come and get one. But at the moment, you walk in the
00:03:26 --> 00:03:31 back door of our house, and you've got to be careful that you're not treading on a cat somewhere. And
00:03:31 --> 00:03:38 they are all at different directions, doing different things, doing their own thing. And we,
00:03:38 --> 00:03:45 as a family, a family of five, are consistently serving these 10 cats in our house. It's awful.
00:03:46 --> 00:03:51 But that's what ministry's like. It's like herding cats. And you should try and get 10 cats
00:03:51 --> 00:03:59 to go in the same direction. Because cats have slaves, but dogs have masters. And so herding cats,
00:03:59 --> 00:04:06 it's like St. Paul's Chatswood is 300 cats, me including as one of them. And we're all wanting
00:04:06 --> 00:04:11 to do our own thing, go in different directions. It's like herding cats. And that is exhausting.
00:04:12 --> 00:04:20 And living in Sydney means, in a significant city, we're surrounded by, you know, immediate neighbours,
00:04:20 --> 00:04:24 hundreds of people. You walk down the mall in Chatswood, there's thousands of people.
00:04:25 --> 00:04:32 We are aware of millions more in our city. We are constantly exposed to people. And emotional
00:04:32 --> 00:04:38 burnout from overexposure to people is a real issue. It's why so many people in ministry burn out. It's
00:04:38 --> 00:04:45 emotional burnout from exposure, overexposure to people. And once upon a time, the news of hostility,
00:04:45 --> 00:04:52 faraway land would take months to arrive with us. Nowadays, in the world in which we live,
00:04:52 --> 00:04:58 a couple of shots are fired on the other side of the world. And we know about it by the news that night.
00:05:00 --> 00:05:07 We are already tired from exposure to people. Compassion dries up in the face of human need.
00:05:07 --> 00:05:15 And worse still is that we seem to be consistently called upon to be compassionate for people in our
00:05:15 --> 00:05:21 world. And again and again, we're called upon to be compassionate. And yet when we are compassionate,
00:05:21 --> 00:05:28 it seems like no real change is ever affected in our world. We see TV ads of starving children.
00:05:28 --> 00:05:34 And so we give, but the ads just keep appearing. And it's like, well, I've sort of done my bit,
00:05:34 --> 00:05:42 but it doesn't seem to have done anything. They're always starving children. The tendency in that
00:05:42 --> 00:05:50 overexposure to the needs of people is that we start to harden our hearts little bit by little bit
00:05:50 --> 00:05:58 by little bit. It's much easier, I think, for us as a church to gather and theologize about evil and
00:05:58 --> 00:06:03 suffering than to actually weep over it or to actually do anything about it.
00:06:03 --> 00:06:11 Our desensitization to human physical and psychological need flows over into their spiritual
00:06:11 --> 00:06:17 need. And so we have a core value of things like local and global impact. And we actually wonder,
00:06:17 --> 00:06:23 after years and years and years of being a church in this community, is it in fact ever possible,
00:06:23 --> 00:06:29 become cynical, whether it's actually even possible to have impact for people's lives.
00:06:29 --> 00:06:36 The need in our world is enormous. 55 million people die each year. A majority of those,
00:06:36 --> 00:06:43 the vast majority of those, without Christ. So many people are lost. So few are saved.
00:06:45 --> 00:06:50 And so we ask ourselves year in, year out, how many times has the gospel been preached? How many
00:06:50 --> 00:06:56 leaflets have we dropped into mile boxes? How many doors have been knocked on? How many children have
00:06:56 --> 00:07:03 sat through scripture classes? How many mission teams we had? We are told here in this text that
00:07:03 --> 00:07:14 the harvest is plentiful. And we wonder whether it actually is. I think as we begin here in verse 35,
00:07:14 --> 00:07:20 that Jesus was in danger of overexposure to people too. It says that Jesus went through all the towns
00:07:20 --> 00:07:24 and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing
00:07:24 --> 00:07:33 every disease and sickness. According to one Jewish historian, there was over 204, or there was 204
00:07:33 --> 00:07:40 cities and villages in Galilee at the time that Jesus was preaching and teaching. And if Jesus were to
00:07:40 --> 00:07:47 speak in two locations, remember, he doesn't get a plane and flies. It's like walking from town to town.
00:07:47 --> 00:07:53 If he was to speak at two locations a day, it would take him four months nonstop to get through them all.
00:07:54 --> 00:08:02 So apart from the sheer energy needed to keep up with that pace, there is the enormous emotional
00:08:02 --> 00:08:08 drain of Jesus teaching, healing, preaching, doing all that, serving so many people. And yet,
00:08:09 --> 00:08:17 Jesus' basic response to the vast people that were in front of him and all their needs that he saw
00:08:17 --> 00:08:25 was compassion. Verse 36, when he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed
00:08:25 --> 00:08:33 and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. It says here that people without Christ are like sheep
00:08:33 --> 00:08:42 without a shepherd. They will soon run out of pasture and starve. They will get lost. They will get caught in
00:08:42 --> 00:08:48 bushes. They will die. And in the meantime, sheep without a shepherd, are harassed, bullied, bruised,
00:08:49 --> 00:08:59 beaten, helpless, exploited. They are adrift, moving as a flock together, barely knowing why or even where
00:08:59 --> 00:09:11 they're headed. The unbelievers you know may not seem to fit that description. But do not be misled by the
00:09:11 --> 00:09:19 shell of self-assurance. If you see them with the eyes of Christ, you will recognize sheep who
00:09:19 --> 00:09:25 desperately need a shepherd behind all the self-assured sinful behaviors, life frustration,
00:09:26 --> 00:09:33 exploitation, despair, and hopelessness. And Jesus' response to them is compassion. That is,
00:09:33 --> 00:09:43 the word means to be moved in your stomach to have pity. It's a gut-wrenching pity for the lostness of
00:09:43 --> 00:09:50 people, their hopeless state. It is to have your stomach turn and your emotions moved in the face
00:09:50 --> 00:09:58 of human need. It's the same word used in the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15, where the father saw his
00:09:58 --> 00:10:05 broken son trudging over the heel after he had run away. And the only emotion that the father feels for
00:10:05 --> 00:10:14 his son is compassion. The prodigal son should be better titled the compassionate father, because that
00:10:14 --> 00:10:20 in the end is what that parable is all about, the compassion of God. The father represents God in that
00:10:20 --> 00:10:28 parable and his compassion towards us. It's God's compassionate towards us. He sees our rebellion.
00:10:29 --> 00:10:38 He sees our sin. He sees our failure. He sees the carnage that is our lives. And he's moved in his gut
00:10:38 --> 00:10:47 to do something to have pity on us as sheep without a shepherd. He has a deep-seated feeling of pity that
00:10:47 --> 00:10:53 drives into action, an action that in the end that saw his own son take the way of the prodigal,
00:10:54 --> 00:11:03 to go on the cross, to die for us, to see the Lord Jesus become the prodigal so that we could be
00:11:03 --> 00:11:08 welcomed into his family. And so I've got to be honest with you. I stand here today and I've got to
00:11:08 --> 00:11:15 ask myself, do I feel that pity for those people that I know who don't know Jesus?
00:11:17 --> 00:11:25 Is my immediate response as I walk down the mall in Chatswood, pity, compassion for the sheep that
00:11:25 --> 00:11:34 are lost, all moving between Westfield and Chatswood Chase like a flock lost, looking for something?
00:11:34 --> 00:11:44 Or is my immediate feeling get out of my way? Is my immediate feeling racism as I gaze upon people?
00:11:45 --> 00:11:46 Judgmentalism.
00:11:49 --> 00:11:55 And so when I look at this text and I think about my heart, that's my need.
00:11:55 --> 00:12:07 My need is to feel compassion because of their need. That's my first need. My first need is to feel
00:12:07 --> 00:12:15 compassion because of their need. And if we misdiagnose the condition, we in fact won't be
00:12:15 --> 00:12:24 pleading for the right solution. Our need is to have the compassion of Jesus. And compassion is a work
00:12:24 --> 00:12:33 of his grace in our hearts. It's not the product of my work. It's the product of prayer, of calling God to
00:12:33 --> 00:12:41 change my heart. Remember we looked at it last week from Luke 11, that Jesus, sorry, the Father delights
00:12:41 --> 00:12:50 to give us what we plead for in prayer. And he calls us at the very end of Luke, of that section we looked
00:12:50 --> 00:12:57 at, is to plead for the Holy Spirit to come and to bring reformation in our hearts, renewal in our
00:12:57 --> 00:13:06 hearts. And that is the first prayer. Have I become desensitized to the crowd of shepherdless sheep? Have
00:13:06 --> 00:13:14 you become desensitized? Around five years ago in this country, less than 16% of the population of this
00:13:14 --> 00:13:20 country went to church regularly. 16%. Not calling them all Christian, just talking about people who
00:13:20 --> 00:13:27 went to church regularly. If we assume that they are in fact Christian, 16% are Christian, if we make
00:13:27 --> 00:13:34 that assumption, a full 84% of this country don't declare any pretense to know Jesus at all. No pretense
00:13:34 --> 00:13:44 to know Jesus. And so at 7.48 this morning, the population of our country was 23
00:13:44 --> 00:13:54 people. 80% of that is just short of 20 million people who are on a Christless journey as a flock,
00:13:54 --> 00:14:04 moving nowhere. 20 million people. That's the need. Jesus saw the need as he preached around Galilee.
00:14:04 --> 00:14:09 He saw the crowds. He had compassion on them. He calls us to see the need in front of us.
00:14:09 --> 00:14:13 Now, not 20 million people are not all of our need, but 20 million people.
00:14:14 --> 00:14:24 Those 20 million people can't know ultimate meaning in life. They cannot know what it is to be purified,
00:14:24 --> 00:14:30 to have a clean conscience before the God of this universe. They cannot know the privilege of what it
00:14:30 --> 00:14:38 is to be able to call him Father. They have no hope for eternal life. The need is huge.
00:14:38 --> 00:14:47 And our need is to feel compassion because of their need. And so firstly, our need is to pray,
00:14:47 --> 00:14:54 I believe, as a church, for that compassion, for that Holy Spirit to come and to renew us with the
00:14:54 --> 00:15:02 gospel in such a way that we have that compassion. But notice secondly, when confronted with the enormous
00:15:02 --> 00:15:10 needs in front of Jesus, he doesn't see hopelessness in the way that we might have an external,
00:15:11 --> 00:15:15 yes, let's get out there, but internally feeling a sense of hopelessness or whether or not it's even
00:15:15 --> 00:15:22 possible to have gospel impact. Jesus sees potential, not hopelessness. Verse 37,
00:15:22 --> 00:15:31 then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Jesus saw an
00:15:31 --> 00:15:38 amazing potential. He says the harvest is plentiful. And so the metaphor changes in the second half here.
00:15:39 --> 00:15:46 Unbelievers are not only like sheep who are in trouble, but they are like a paddock of wheat ready
00:15:46 --> 00:15:56 to be harvested. And so we need the eyes of Christ not only to see the need, but also to see the
00:15:56 --> 00:16:03 expectancy and the hopefulness of the harvest which is before us. And so that's the second question. Do I
00:16:03 --> 00:16:08 look at my neighbours and my colleagues and my classmates and my friends with a real sense that
00:16:08 --> 00:16:14 this person is a potential follower of the Lord Jesus? And I want to put it in my hand and say,
00:16:14 --> 00:16:21 not enough. In fact, I want to say yesterday afternoon, spent some time with some people,
00:16:21 --> 00:16:25 never even occurred to me that these people here are potential followers of the Lord Jesus.
00:16:30 --> 00:16:36 It has probably been so long since the Lord has used most of us to lead a person from unbelief to
00:16:36 --> 00:16:41 faith in the Lord Jesus that we actually even really wonder whether there's any potential left there at
00:16:41 --> 00:16:49 all. We still know that there is a terrible lostness in the world. We still feel some compassion when we
00:16:49 --> 00:17:01 let ourselves think about it enough. But potential, potential, we wonder, could there ever be a harvest time
00:17:01 --> 00:17:09 in my life after so many years of fruitfulness? And the answer to that question, I believe, is a resounding
00:17:09 --> 00:17:17 yes. Yes, it is. When Jesus said in Luke 18 that it's hard for the rich people to enter the kingdom,
00:17:18 --> 00:17:26 the disciples responded with a, well, who then can be saved? Who can be saved? And Jesus seemed to take
00:17:26 --> 00:17:32 away all potential for the harvest for them, but actually what he was doing was actually laying a new
00:17:32 --> 00:17:37 basis for the potential for the disciples. He answers, what's impossible with men is actually possible
00:17:37 --> 00:17:47 with God. What we're meant to notice is that it's actually God's harvest. He is the Lord of the harvest
00:17:47 --> 00:17:56 and it is his harvest field. It is his paddock. It is his crop. It's not ours. It's God's harvest in
00:17:56 --> 00:18:00 Chatswood. It's not St. Paul's Chatswood's harvest. It's his harvest.
00:18:00 --> 00:18:11 And so harvest time at St. Paul's in our lives won't come because we've got so many competent
00:18:11 --> 00:18:18 communicators. It won't be because we've organised ourselves well. It won't be because we've got better
00:18:18 --> 00:18:28 facilities. The harvest that we want to see is in fact impossible for us. New birth is a miracle and so
00:18:28 --> 00:18:37 our goal is to see God to do the impossible through a bunch of failures like me, like you.
00:18:41 --> 00:18:48 That's the way it's happened in history and that is how it will happen again. In God's time,
00:18:48 --> 00:18:55 he will perform the miracle of harvest and every time it happens, it will be marvellous in our eyes.
00:18:55 --> 00:19:04 It will be marvellous to see it. What then should be done? There are many things that can be done
00:19:04 --> 00:19:10 by us for the harvest, but considerable effort needs to be poured into the primary step.
00:19:12 --> 00:19:18 Action is demanded. Jesus calls for action on our behalf. He doesn't call for inaction. He doesn't say,
00:19:18 --> 00:19:25 just sit back and let God do it. Verse 38, ask the Lord of the harvest therefore to send out workers
00:19:25 --> 00:19:34 into his harvest field. It's what we've seen consistently throughout this series on prayer,
00:19:35 --> 00:19:40 that God is sovereign, he's good, he's the father who delights to give us and yet at the same time he
00:19:40 --> 00:19:47 calls for us to beg and to plead and to ask him consistently and consistently that his will be done,
00:19:47 --> 00:19:56 that his kingdom come, that our needs are met. And so in sync with his compassion for the lost,
00:19:56 --> 00:20:05 Jesus calls us to beg God to send out workers into the harvest field. The word here is literally to
00:20:05 --> 00:20:12 beg. It is to plead that the Lord of the harvest will cast out workers, begging God to literally throw
00:20:12 --> 00:20:22 workers into the harvest field into God's paddock, if you like. And this begging is linked to the
00:20:22 --> 00:20:32 compassion. In fact, it comes out of compassion. Prayer is the action that follows the feeling of
00:20:32 --> 00:20:42 compassion. It's a strange thing to plead for though, for God to raise up workers. It's strange,
00:20:42 --> 00:20:50 because I'm putting my farmer's hat on here for a little bit. It's strange that the farmhands
00:20:50 --> 00:21:02 should beg the owner of the farm to send out workers into the owner's harvest field. That's strange,
00:21:02 --> 00:21:14 as an agricultural analogy. Because it seems to imply that God doesn't know, one, that there's a
00:21:14 --> 00:21:23 shortage of workers in his harvest field. And secondly, that it's almost like the owner of the harvest
00:21:23 --> 00:21:31 doesn't care whether or not the harvest is coming in, which is the exact opposite of every farmer that I
00:21:31 --> 00:21:42 know. Why then are the farmhands told to beg the farmer to get more help into the farm?
00:21:43 --> 00:21:50 I think something very important is happening here. And there's only one, there is at least one
00:21:50 --> 00:21:59 possible answer that might be the only answer. That is that God has willed that his miraculous work of
00:21:59 --> 00:22:09 harvesting be preceded by the earnest prayer of his people. It's consistent with what we have seen
00:22:09 --> 00:22:20 in the last few weeks about prayer. Before he does a great work. One of the things that God does is he shifts
00:22:20 --> 00:22:30 the heart of his people so that they are compassionate. And that he shifts the heart of his people in such a way
00:22:30 --> 00:22:34 that they compassionately plead for the work.
00:22:38 --> 00:22:46 To my great shame, I have not been faithful to pleading that prayer. Having said that, I am however convinced
00:22:46 --> 00:22:56 that the really great issues before us as a church, namely the harvest, will be settled on our knees.
00:22:56 --> 00:23:06 Not literally, figuratively. Be settled in prayer. That doesn't mean that we don't do anything except pray,
00:23:06 --> 00:23:11 but it does mean that we should do nothing without praying.
00:23:13 --> 00:23:23 It is true that God often uses means. It is also true that we as a church, by default, and as by sinful
00:23:23 --> 00:23:31 people, by default, we often focus on the means and we forget that the really significant work of what God,
00:23:32 --> 00:23:38 the really significant work must be God's work. Otherwise, what we do will come to naught.
00:23:41 --> 00:23:46 Jesus' compassion issues in prayer and a call for us to pray.
00:23:46 --> 00:23:55 It may be that if we fail to pray, it is because our compassion is defective.
00:23:57 --> 00:24:01 Or it may mean that, in fact, we are compassionate people,
00:24:01 --> 00:24:04 but they've actually not diagnosed the problem correctly,
00:24:05 --> 00:24:11 and that is, we don't clearly understand the desperate plight of the lost.
00:24:11 --> 00:24:21 And if that is the case, what we will do as a church is we will throw all of our energies
00:24:21 --> 00:24:29 into the secondary solutions rather than the primary solution.
00:24:29 --> 00:24:33 In fact, we will argue over what are the best secondary solutions,
00:24:34 --> 00:24:39 and we will not give ourselves to consistent prayer for the lost.
00:24:39 --> 00:24:45 And so, my friends, we begin a new ministry year.
00:24:46 --> 00:24:48 The harvest is still plentiful, I believe.
00:24:49 --> 00:24:52 In fact, the needs seem to be endless.
00:24:52 --> 00:24:54 Just here in the harvest field of Chatswood,
00:24:55 --> 00:24:58 let alone the rest of the 20 million people in this country,
00:24:58 --> 00:25:00 and let alone the billions of people in our world,
00:25:01 --> 00:25:06 and our objective as a church is to see people rescued by the Lord Jesus.
00:25:06 --> 00:25:07 That is why we exist.
00:25:08 --> 00:25:10 We are a lifesaver station.
00:25:10 --> 00:25:14 We are a mission outpost in this area, in this time, in this place.
00:25:15 --> 00:25:19 In the last couple of years, we have taken very significant steps,
00:25:19 --> 00:25:26 significant risk, in fact, to upgrade and to fit out our facilities for mission.
00:25:26 --> 00:25:33 That is why we've gone through what we've gone through and continue to go through.
00:25:33 --> 00:25:35 It is for mission.
00:25:35 --> 00:25:39 Let me emphasise that point again and again and again.
00:25:40 --> 00:25:44 The facilities exist for mission, not for our comfort.
00:25:46 --> 00:25:48 I have said that consistently for the last number of years,
00:25:48 --> 00:25:50 before we even proceeded with it.
00:25:51 --> 00:25:54 These facilities exist for mission, not for our comfort.
00:25:54 --> 00:26:01 And so we must be vigilant consistently that that becomes and continues to be
00:26:01 --> 00:26:05 the main thing in front of us as a church.
00:26:05 --> 00:26:10 We must be careful that we do not treat our time to build program
00:26:10 --> 00:26:15 in the same way that we might treat a renovation at home.
00:26:15 --> 00:26:25 And so the renovation at home, namely, is that we put all this effort into upgrading our home
00:26:25 --> 00:26:29 and then at the end of it, we crack a bottle of bubbly, we sit back and go,
00:26:30 --> 00:26:32 ah, that's awesome.
00:26:34 --> 00:26:38 In the same way, when I built the deck at the back of the rectory,
00:26:38 --> 00:26:43 the goal of the deck was to be able to sit on it and enjoy it.
00:26:46 --> 00:26:49 And the temptation will be for us to do the same as a church,
00:26:50 --> 00:26:54 to celebrate sometime in March and to sit back and go, isn't this for,
00:26:54 --> 00:26:57 we don't need to look at it again for another 30 years.
00:26:57 --> 00:27:01 That will be a temptation.
00:27:03 --> 00:27:07 This project has in many ways been part of a new beginning,
00:27:07 --> 00:27:11 but it also signals a new beginning for us as a church.
00:27:11 --> 00:27:15 And so let's pray for harvest time at St. Paul's.
00:27:15 --> 00:27:19 I don't know what God is going to do amongst us and will continue to do amongst us.
00:27:19 --> 00:27:22 I don't know if this is a season for significant harvest.
00:27:22 --> 00:27:23 Maybe not.
00:27:23 --> 00:27:29 I know for a fact as your pastor that I personally believe that I'm not broken enough,
00:27:29 --> 00:27:32 I'm not dependent enough, I'm not compassionate enough,
00:27:33 --> 00:27:37 and therefore I'm not prayerful enough for others.
00:27:38 --> 00:27:45 And so firstly, my prayer is for my heart and my prayer is for our hearts
00:27:45 --> 00:27:49 that we might see the compassion which is in front of us.
00:27:49 --> 00:27:52 I read an article once which is very interesting.
00:27:53 --> 00:27:58 It said that atheists give to need because they're moved by compassion.
00:27:59 --> 00:28:02 Christians give to need because they're motivated by doctrinal
00:28:02 --> 00:28:05 or by reputational concerns.
00:28:06 --> 00:28:08 Oh, may that not be true for us.
00:28:10 --> 00:28:15 That is, we give because more out of a sense of duty rather than compassion.
00:28:16 --> 00:28:19 And I believe that sometimes our praying can be the same.
00:28:19 --> 00:28:22 We pray for global mission, local mission,
00:28:22 --> 00:28:26 because we think we know that we ought to doctrinally
00:28:26 --> 00:28:30 rather than we're actually pleading with God out of hearts of compassion
00:28:30 --> 00:28:31 for those who are lost.
00:28:33 --> 00:28:38 And so pray that our hearts and our collective heart at St Paul's
00:28:38 --> 00:28:40 senses the need, feels the compassion,
00:28:41 --> 00:28:43 sees the potential and stays fervent in prayer.
00:28:43 --> 00:28:47 This is what we've been talking about throughout this series
00:28:47 --> 00:28:52 and what I talked about from Luke 11 last week.
00:28:53 --> 00:28:56 Our Father in heaven delights to hear our prayer,
00:28:56 --> 00:28:57 to answer our prayers,
00:28:57 --> 00:29:01 and particularly he delights to hear and to answer the prayer
00:29:01 --> 00:29:04 that we would call for the Holy Spirit to come
00:29:04 --> 00:29:08 and to bring gospel renewal and renovation in our hearts.
00:29:08 --> 00:29:10 That's our first call here, to pray for that.
00:29:11 --> 00:29:14 And secondly, pray that we will be a church
00:29:14 --> 00:29:17 that has a very real sense of the potential harvest
00:29:17 --> 00:29:20 that we are in right now in the middle of
00:29:20 --> 00:29:23 and that we will be consistently looking to do whatever it takes
00:29:23 --> 00:29:26 to be working in that harvest field.
00:29:27 --> 00:29:30 And so I'd encourage you to be praying for ICS
00:29:30 --> 00:29:32 kicking off this week
00:29:32 --> 00:29:37 and for the 11 young lives that God has given us already
00:29:37 --> 00:29:41 and the families associated with those young lives,
00:29:41 --> 00:29:43 the privilege of being able to minister to them
00:29:43 --> 00:29:45 and the many more that are going to come
00:29:45 --> 00:29:46 in the next couple of years.
00:29:47 --> 00:29:49 Pray too that you as a member of St Paul's
00:29:49 --> 00:29:51 will be one of those workers
00:29:51 --> 00:29:53 thrown out there into the harvest field
00:29:53 --> 00:29:55 so that the lost and the hopeless will find their shepherd.
00:29:56 --> 00:29:57 And thirdly, pray,
00:29:57 --> 00:30:00 I want to encourage you to pray for those of you know
00:30:00 --> 00:30:01 who are outside of Christ.
00:30:02 --> 00:30:03 At the beginning of last year,
00:30:03 --> 00:30:06 I encouraged us as a church to pray one plus one plus one
00:30:06 --> 00:30:09 in the hope that under God's sovereignty
00:30:09 --> 00:30:11 that it will equal one at the end of the year.
00:30:11 --> 00:30:13 I know that's not good mathematics,
00:30:13 --> 00:30:17 but that is pray for one person once a day for one minute
00:30:17 --> 00:30:20 that they would know Jesus by the end of 2014.
00:30:22 --> 00:30:24 I started well with that,
00:30:24 --> 00:30:26 but I didn't finish well with that.
00:30:26 --> 00:30:28 And so, by the grace of God,
00:30:29 --> 00:30:30 re-engage with it again.
00:30:34 --> 00:30:35 I find it really difficult
00:30:35 --> 00:30:38 to stay consistently praying prayers
00:30:38 --> 00:30:41 that revolve around God's priorities and not mine.
00:30:41 --> 00:30:43 That's my sinful heart.
00:30:44 --> 00:30:45 The flesh is weak,
00:30:46 --> 00:30:47 but the spirit is willing.
00:30:48 --> 00:30:50 Our Father is a compassionate God,
00:30:50 --> 00:30:52 and when we ask for a fish,
00:30:53 --> 00:30:54 he does not give us a stake.
00:30:54 --> 00:30:58 And so, start this year confident and hopeful
00:30:58 --> 00:31:02 to pray God's priorities in prayer,
00:31:02 --> 00:31:06 and especially for the harvest that we are placed in as a church.
00:31:07 --> 00:31:09 Now, already, a bit earlier this morning,
00:31:09 --> 00:31:13 I told you about the deep needs which are in front of us right now
00:31:13 --> 00:31:16 to get part of that mission up and running.
00:31:16 --> 00:31:18 And so, as I do every Sunday,
00:31:18 --> 00:31:19 I stand down in the front here.
00:31:19 --> 00:31:22 You're probably wondering why I'm standing down in the front here most Sundays.
00:31:22 --> 00:31:23 I'm inviting people to pray.
00:31:24 --> 00:31:27 This morning, I want you to come and pray for our mission.
00:31:27 --> 00:31:29 Just briefly, feel free to go to morning tea,
00:31:29 --> 00:31:30 but for those who want to gather,
00:31:31 --> 00:31:32 I'm going to be down in the front here,
00:31:32 --> 00:31:33 straight after the service,
00:31:33 --> 00:31:35 and I'm going to pray for ICS,
00:31:35 --> 00:31:36 and we're going to pray for ICS,
00:31:36 --> 00:31:39 we're going to pray for the hoodles that we have right now in our mission,
00:31:39 --> 00:31:41 and that we, as a church,
00:31:42 --> 00:31:44 would have compassion for those that are lost around us.
00:31:44 --> 00:31:46 Please enjoy me in prayer straight after.