7-23-23 AM Service: Help Wanted

Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.

The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us,

or contact us at my libertybaptist.org, or just look

us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this

message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

We are in the book of Matthew and Chapter #9 this morning as

we continue our series forward-looking at moving

forward in our service. And that, again, is not

necessarily in how we serve our church, although that is a

component of it. But going deeper in looking at

how we serve the Lord and how God calls us to be servants, not

just to this church, but to this world and how God has just

called us to be servants really in any capacity, in anything

that we do. You know, if you go around just

about anywhere right now, you're going to see signs outside of

businesses that say this help wanted.

Almost everywhere right now is looking for someone to apply and

looking for someone to. Work at that establishment.

There's a lot of different reasons for that.

You didn't come here today to hear me talk and to opine about

those kind of issues. No doubt.

However, we would all agree that you don't have to go very far to

see one of these help wanted signs.

And in fact, I was just at a couple different places just

this last week that had reduced hours or had reduced the

services that they offer because they didn't have enough help to

be able to run the establishment in the way that it.

Typically would run, you know, hours lesson at a restaurant or

maybe even a whole day that the restaurant is no longer opened

or perhaps there was something that was offered.

For free at a clothing store that now is no longer offered

because they just don't have the help to be able to do what they

normally would do in the past. And you know, when you're

talking about restaurants and when you're talking about

businesses of those kinds of natures, I'm not saying those

things aren't important in and of themselves.

But we see that when there's help that's wanted but no one

applies in those areas, it's not a great thing.

But in many ways, life moves on. Except for, of course, the

people that own those businesses.

That's their lifeblood in so many ways.

But consider this today. We could also say the same thing

about churches, couldn't we? That there are churches that

have closed, There are churches that have reduced.

What they're able to do, and I'm not talking about Liberty

Baptist Church. I'm just talking about maybe

under the broad umbrella that we would call Christianity Today,

that there are so many places that used to be able to do so

many things. There's so many churches that

used to be open. In fact, churches are closing

faster than they're opening here in the United States of America

today. There's so many places that need

help, and there's so many places that need services.

But there are churches. Christianity is not able to

offer that which God has called us to.

And the reason why is not because the problem doesn't

exist. I mean, listen, there are people

who need help, maybe even more than ever.

But yet maybe the issue is this help wanted that Jesus Christ

has called us to be the servants that we need to be, and we must

respond to that call. And Jesus talks about that here

in Matthew Chapter 9. If you're able, would you please

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

stand for the reading of the word of God?

Matthew Chapter 9? And we're going to be in reading

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

verse #32, and we're going to read it.

What may be a very familiar passage of Scripture to you this

morning, and as I always want to encourage you, if you've read

this passage of Scripture before, just understand that we

want to always read it with fresh eyes.

Not that we're looking for something new in the word of

God, but just that we want to make sure that we read it.

Not just glazing over in the eyes or maybe even in the mind.

Oh, this is something I've heard before, but a reminder that's

needed and necessary for us here in Matthew Chapter 9, beginning

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

in verse #32. Where it says this.

As they went out, behold they brought to him a dumb man

possessed with a devil, and when the devil was cast out, the dumb

spake. Now if you were concerned in

verse #32 what it's talking about when it talks about a dumb

man, and I'm not trying to be cute or funny about this, the

context is given to us right there in the next verse and

verse #33. And when and when the devil was

cast out, the dumb spake and the multitudes marveled, saying it

was never so seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said he casted

out devils through the Prince of devils, and Jesus went out about

all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and

preaching the gospel of the Kingdom and healing every

sickness and every disease among the people.

But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on

them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep,

having no shepherd. Then sayeth he unto his

disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are

few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of

the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.

And we're going to. Focus anywhere in our text this

morning will be on the last two verses of that chapter.

Then sayeth he to his disciples. The harvest truly is plenteous,

but the laborers are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the

harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.

You may be seated as we get into our message this morning.

Heavenly Father, I pray that you just allow me to be able to say

what needs to be said this morning from your word.

This is your time, not mine. And I pray that I will be a

vessel to be able to be used of you today, and that needs to be

met through the power of your Holy Spirit.

And we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.

Matthew, Chapter #9. If we were to read the entire

chapter, which we're not this morning, but if we were to read

all of Chapter #9, we would find that it's a chapter full of

service and full of ministry by our Savior to the multitudes

who, at this point in His ministry, are still flocking to

Him. We know that as the.

End of his ministry will draw closer that there will be people

who will fall away. But yet here at this time there

is still this great company of people who are following,

particularly because of the miracles, particularly because

of what's happening. In fact, that's what's happening

in chapter #9 in verse number six of Chapter 9.

He heals A paralytic man by verse #9.

Talking of ministry, he calls Matthew the the the writer.

Humanly Speaking of this book, he calls him to join him as a

from a life of being a tax collector.

Which, by the way, I mean probably no one else cared much

about his soul, if you understand what I mean about

that. But Jesus cared about his soul,

this tax collector, you say? What do you mean?

This IRS worker. That clicked all right.

Yeah. This IRS worker.

Jesus cared about him and called him to follow him.

Ministry verse #22. Jesus heals a woman.

With an issue. Of blood, by the way.

He does that without even really paying attention to her.

He knew she was there. He knows everything.

But this woman just grabbed the hem of his garment by face.

She says if I just touch the very hem, the very bottom of his

garment, I'll be whole. And he healed her by the virtue

that came out from him. Verse #25 He heals a little girl

from the dead, she's. Dead.

And Jesus says, oh, she's not dead, she's just sleeping.

And the Bible says that they laughed him to scorn, but they

weren't laughing when that little girl came out of her room

alive. Just a few moments later he was

doing ministry. In verse #28 he restores 2 men

of their sight. We just read in our text of a

restoring a man who could not speak and then was able to

speak. And then we saw on verse #35

that Jesus went about all the cities in the villages, teaching

in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the

Kingdom. And healing every sickness and

every disease among the people. Chapter nine of the Book of

Matthew is a chapter full of ministry and service done by

none other than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

By the way, that's why he came. He came not to be ministered

unto, but to minister. Aren't you glad that Jesus came

to be a minister? It's because of that that you

and I have the ability to be saved today because Jesus

Christ. Died on the cross for you and

me. By the way, if you don't know

Jesus Christ is your savior today, you might hear some of

what I'm saying about service today, and you might be thinking

this. You know what?

If I'm a good servant? If I do enough, if I perform

enough, if I accomplish enough for Jesus, then maybe I'll gain

entrance into heaven. And certainly there is teaching

and doctrine from Christian organizations and denominations

that would say that. But upon the.

Preaching of the authority rather of the word of God.

I want to tell you this morning that there is not enough good

works that you can do in your life to achieve salvation.

You cannot do enough good to erase.

The sin that you and I have committed, that it's only by

accepting the free gift of salvation, by repenting of your

sin and calling upon Jesus Christ to save you, that you can

be saved. And so if you're hearing what

I'm saying today about service and about doing for the Lord,

and maybe in your mind you're thinking, you know what?

That's a good idea. If I do enough of that that I

know that he'll let me into heaven.

I would say that, although certainly humanly speaking, that

might make sense. But can I tell you, according

the word of God, that's exactly opposite of what it says the

Bible tells us. For certain that the salvation

is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should

boast. Ephesians chapter #2.

So all of this is going on in. Matthew Chapter #9 Jesus is on

the move. Jesus is going from town to town

and everywhere he goes, he's not waiting for people to minister

to him. He is reaching out to those who

he sees and he is ministering to them, either through the

miracles that he's doing or maybe even the greatest form of

ministry that he's doing. We saw in verse #35 that he's

preaching and teaching the gospel of the Kingdom, because

remember, he's not just there to meet their physical needs.

Because although their physical needs may be met.

We just talked about this a few moments ago.

Although the physical needs may be met, what would happen if

someone's physical needs were met but their spiritual needs

were ever met? Then they would be healed

physically, but they would still die and go to hell.

No, Jesus wasn't simply concerned.

I wouldn't even put it to you this way, that Jesus.

Did these miracles one because he had compassion on these

people, but also because it authenticated his ministry and

who he was so that people would listen to him as he preached the

gospel of the Kingdom, as he proved himself to be the Messiah

that he said that he was. But it's with all of these

things that's going on and with this backdrop that we see here

of Ministry in Matthew Chapter 9.

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

That Jesus makes the statement that we read over twice in

verses #37 and 38 about the harvest and about praying for

laborers of the harvest. And what I love about it is that

Jesus said this out of a heart of compassion.

Did you catch that look again in verse #36?

But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion.

This means that he was going from city to city and village to

village, and as he did so, he saw people who did not know him.

He saw people who did not know his father.

And it moved him, it burdened him.

To see those who were so close to the Savior but yet still so

far away that they may have been close in proximity, but they

were far away in heart. And He sees all of this.

And he's moved with compassion. Let me ask you this today.

Are you moved with compassion at the state of the world today?

Many of us are moved with anger. Many of us are moved with with

all kinds of other. Emotions that take place.

But what we see in the world today should move us with

compassion, to be able to proclaim the truth of the word

of God. And that's what it's about.

It's not about just saying, well, I'm compassionate, so I'm

just going to leave them the world alone.

No, no, it's. I want to with compassion, with

neatness. As we talked about this morning

in Sunday School. I want to give them the truth of

the word of God because Jesus moved compassion, but it moved

him to do something what it moved him to do, to preach, to

teach, to give the gospel. That phrase, move with

compassion is very interesting. That commentator William Barclay

said the word which is used for mood with compassion, which is

the Greek word, space, nuclear is you say.

Why would you do that, Pastor? Because even this morning I said

I know that I'm not going to get this right.

So I just gave up on it right there.

All right. So that Greek word that I just

said, don't make me say it again, is the strongest word for

pity in the Greek language. It describes the compassion.

Which moves a man to the deepest depths of his being, that Jesus

was literally moved down to the deepest part of who he was.

Sometimes we're moved with compassion.

We say, oh man, that's pretty bad.

We just kind of keep walking on. And sometimes we're so moved

that we say, I can't do anything else until I take care of this,

until I take care of this person, until I take care of

this need. That's what Jesus is doing.

He is so move with compassion. And do you realize what he was?

Move with the compassion for the multitudes that we could also

say this this morning? He's moved with compassion for

you. He was moved with compassion

towards the cross so that you could be saved.

He's moved with compassion today so that you can live the

victorious Christian life once you are saved.

The compassion that Jesus had in those multitudes there in

Matthew Chapter 9 is the same compassion, that same pity, that

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

that same burden that he has, that he has for you here today.

And you say, Pastor, nobody loves me.

Nobody cares about me. Can I tell you that Jesus Christ

loves you? That he cares about you, and

that he wants you to have victory in your Christian life

today? And if you don't know him as

savior, he wants you to get saved today.

In fact, he may have got you up today.

He may have found a way to bring you here to Liberty Baptist

Church just so you can hear this message just so you could know

Jesus Christ, your Savior. What an amazing thing that the

God of Heaven would move heaven and earth to get you here today

to. Hear the gospel message.

It's an amazing thing. So with all of these things

going on, his heart of compassion, the ministry, the

service that's taking place, we have verse #37 and verse #38

where it says, then say if he unto his disciples the harvest

truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.

Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth

laborers into his harvest. But this is our backdrop this

morning. There's some things I want us to

consider. And as we go through this, I

believe some of it is found directly in our text, and some

of it is an offshoot or an extension of what we see in our

text. But all of it, I believe, is

here, either directly or indirectly, here in our text and

here in the word of God. And there's some things I want

to exhort you, and I want to encourage you here this morning,

whether you're part of Liberty Baptist Church, whether you're

just visiting Liberty Baptist Church, whether you know Jesus

Christ is your savior, and if you don't know Jesus Christ,

your Savior. My exertation to you this

morning is this. Get saved.

Get saved. But for the rest of us, consider

some of these things this morning.

First of all, know this. We are to pray for laborers.

If you are a believer, if you know Jesus Christ, your Savior,

you know what Christ commands us to do.

I mean, it's right here in our text.

We are to pray for laborers. Christ starts by presenting the

twofold problem of ministry. Here's the problem.

There's a great harvest that's out there, but yet there's not

enough people to collect the harvest.

That's a problem, is that you don't have to grow up on a farm

to know that if there's a great harvest but not enough laborers

to collect the harvest, it's a problem.

You say, well, it's not a big deal.

I mean, you just kind of take your time and, you know, you

collect the harvest. You, you work at it long enough,

you know, you chip away at it a little bit here, a little bit

there, you know, a few months, a couple years, you know, you'll

eventually get it all. Do you realize the harvest is

only there for a? Finite amount of time.

If you don't get that harvest within time, it's gone.

It has to be collected at the appropriate time because it is

not going to be there in winter. It's not going to be there next

spring. If it's harvest time, you know

that the clock is running and you better get it because

eventually the clock will run out and the harvest will spoil

and all that you put the toil and effort into.

Won't even be there anymore. A J went his school.

His class went to Wardsberry Farm this week.

Have you ever been to Wardsberry Farm?

Let's see. That's good.

So how many of you ever paid $10.00 for three strawberries?

All right, that's oh, you've been to Wardsberry Farm.

All right, good. But it's the best strawberries

you'll ever taste. At least that's what they say

you, you know, you know what they do?

This is an amazing thing. So they they have people that

work for their farm. Already and they plant.

The strawberries, I believe they went to strawberry blueberries.

What he got, he was very excited about blueberries and said,

would you get Buddy blueberries? You know, he was very excited

about going and collecting those little baskets of blueberries.

But they plant way more than they can harvest themselves and

that's the trick, isn't it? So what do they do?

They don't have enough help and they have too much.

So they make us pay to go and do the work for him.

Have you ever thought about that?

I mean, you say, well, I mean, I mean, I get to take it home,

right? That little pint of blueberries,

it's $2.00 at Hanford's is $10 by the time you take it and you

didn't work to get it and you know you.

Do it and we do it too so. $40.00 for a bag of apples

that's selling Shaw's for 2:50. Oh, but it's.

The best apple you ever have? You can't tell.

Well, maybe you can't tell the difference, but.

It ain't a 3750 difference, you know what I'm saying?

No, think about this. What do they do?

They plant too much. But they say this.

We need laborers. They plant too much.

They need laborers and people line up and paying real money to

go out and be their laborers. And I've seen some families out

there and some of them are even happy about it.

I see some of them for a reason. I mean, what an amazing thing.

There's too much. They need help and people come.

Do you realize that what Jesus is saying here is this?

There's a harvest out there that's ready.

There's a harvest, right, Pastor?

I just don't see many people out there that want to get saved

today. No, I'm not asking you what you

see. That's not the eyes of faith.

There's a harvest out there. There are souls that need

someone to give them the gospel. And he says this If you go out

there and you pray for those laborers, no, they won't just be

standing there saying, where's the harvest?

You know what they'll do. They'll say we need more help.

We need more. We need more laborers.

We can't do this ourselves. So pray there for the Lord, the

harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest.

We need to pray for laborers because Christ has told us that

help is wanted, and the one putting out The Wanted

advertisement is none other than Jesus Christ.

He is the one saying no, you say, well, why does he need

help? He's God.

No, no, it's not that he needs help.

He could use whatever method that he could to be able to give

the gospel. He could write it in the sky.

You could have the angels proclaim it.

He could send it through direct mail.

He could do it whatever way he wanted.

But he, through His abundant wisdom and his grace, has chosen

to use you, and it's chosen to use me as the vessels of the

greatest message that there ever was.

He's chosen us to give it to be as ambassadors, but he says this

There's not enough people to do the work because the harvest is

so great. He said pray there for the Lord

of the harvest that he'll send forth more laborers into his

harvest. So the question is this story.

Start this morning. When was the last time you

prayed for laborers? Well, the world's a mess pastor.

Well, when have you prayed for laborers for this world?

Our nation's a mess pastor. When's the last time you prayed

for laborers for this nation? Well, pastor, there's more work

that needs to be done in our church, and there is more work

that needs to be done in our church.

But will we pray for laborers that God will send them?

Pastor, there's a need for world missions.

There's so many places that still need to be reached with

the gospel. Are we praying that God would

send laborers still to the mission?

Field pastor, you said that there are churches that are

closing it. I will tell you, even in the

last 10 years there have been more Independent Baptist

churches that have closed or compromised in Southeastern

Massachusetts that have. Opened.

What do we do? We got to pray for labors.

Every town around us could use a Independent Baptist Church.

We could plan a church in Mansfield.

We could plan a church in Stoughton.

We could plan another church in Brockton has 105,000 people in

Brockton alone, and it wouldn't. Even touch what's happening at

Liberty Baptist Church. Why?

Because there's harvest fields in all these towns.

Are we praying for labors? I was talking to someone just

this last week who lives about 45 minutes from here looking for

a church in the area where he lives.

And you know my answer to that is we need laborers there.

We need laborers. Are you praying for laborers?

Well, Pastor, why would you tell me to pray for laborers?

Because it's not me the one that's telling you to do it.

It's Jesus who is saying it. And I would say that when he

says it in verse #38, he's saying it not as a request.

Hey, would you pray for laborers?

He's saying it as an imperative. In fact, the understood you

there would be this. You pray, pray ye it's right

there, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labors

into his harvest. This is not something that is

asked of us. If you have time, this is not

something that's asked of us. If you feel like it's

appropriate, he says, pray ye. You pray the Lord of the

harvest, that he would send forth labors, which means this.

If you pray, then the burden's on him to be able to send it.

Look, he says he will send forth labors, so you pray.

And then the burdens on him to keep his word.

And do you think he'll keep his word?

I somehow seem to think that he will.

So what do we see first? Here in our text, we see this.

That we are to pray for laborers.

Are you praying for laborers for the harvest?

We need prayers. We need prayers, but it's not

just that We're to pray for laborers. #2 This morning we

must commit ourselves to be laborers.

Could you imagine God asking God to do something that you're not

willing to do yourself? Could you imagine?

Asking God to do something that you're not willing to do

yourself. You know, there are times here

at the church or there are things that need to get done,

and there are times that toilets need to be plunged.

There are times that things have to get cleaned that aren't

great. And could you imagine me as a

pastor telling someone, hey, you go do that, you go take care of

that? But then, no one's ever seen the

pastor hold a plunger in his hand or a mop in his hand.

After a while you might say something like this.

Well, is he willing to do himself what he asked other

people to do? And you know what?

You wouldn't be wrong. And asking you say, Pastor, have

you plunged the toilet before? Yes, in a suit.

I didn't have to go to the dry cleaners on Monday, by the grace

of God, because you do what you have to do sometimes.

But could you imagine us saying, Lord, pray, therefore I'm

praying the Lord of the harvest send forth laborers.

And it might just be when you pray that prayer that the finger

of God comes back down to your soul and says I choose you, oh

Lord, I I meant someone else. Well, why would you pray and ask

me to do something that you aren't willing to do yourself?

So I don't see that anywhere in the text.

We'll know that this is just a biblical truth, that we are all

called to be servants. Why would we pray and ask God to

do something in others that we're not willing to do?

Listen, there are people who say God bring revival to America.

Just don't revive me. God change my spouse.

Just don't change me. God send laborers, just don't

make me one. Our prayers will be hindered

unless we are willing to be laborers As we're his disciples.

How can we pray for something that we are unwilling to do

ourselves? And God has chosen us to be a

servant, but He's also equipped us to be a servant as well.

He's given us the tools. He's placed his Holy Spirit

inside of us. He has been able to to show us

how to minister. We all have different ways that

we can minister. We have different spheres of

influence that we have to be able to minister.

We have different way. You know how different people in

this room are able to minister? It's different.

Everyone's different that's here.

But yet God has given us all the ability to minister and to take

all of those gifts, and to be able to put them together within

His church, but then also to be able to put them all together

within His Kingdom. To be able to accomplish His

purpose here in Easton but also here in His world.

But it requires what? That we don't just say Lord send

someone else, but we say Lord. Here am I send me remember

Isaiah chapter 6 Who shall I send and who shall go for us?

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

And Isaiah Said, God, someone else.

That's not what he said. He said here am I send me.

And after that he talked about being a man of unclean lips and

how he wasn't able to do the task.

And God, in summary says this, you don't worry about that.

If you're willing, I'll give you what you need to be able to go

and do the task. And maybe you would say this

morning, I don't know how to be a servant of God.

I just work a nine to five or I just have this thing that I do

during the day or I just. I don't have a whole lot going

for me, and I don't think anybody would even listen to me.

Well, listen, maybe it's just that you just need to be a

servant and God will give you the opportunities as you go and

you trust him that if he was to call for you to.

Pray for the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers that we

would be able to go ourselves. I don't have much you'd say I

don't have much to offer. Second Corinthians 3/5 and six

say not that we are sufficient of ourselves, not that we are

sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but

our sufficiency is of God, who also had made us able ministers

of the New Testament. Now let me say that again.

When we say we won't serve Him according to that verse, it's

like saying that He's. Some of you, I mean, maybe

chewing on that a little bit. Never mind when we don't serve.

Because our sufficiency is in him.

It's as if we are saying that he's insufficient.

No, I'm not saying I've ever done this.

So we were laughing because you know where this is going.

I'm not saying I've ever done this.

I don't even say I've done this at church.

But there have been times I've written a check and maybe

because we have a couple different bank accounts.

I may have thought that check from here was from there or for

there was from here. And you end up going online and

you say, whoa, something happened.

And that's exactly right. You know, why insufficient

funds. And you know how they they help

you with that. They take away more money from

you to make sure that it's even harder to get sufficient funds.

I love how they do that. It's, you know, just, you know,

anyway. You try to draw upon something

where there was nothing and what happened is it bounced.

It was insufficient. Do you realize if you draw upon

the resources because our sufficiencies of Christ, if you

draw upon the resources of Christ to sminster and to serve,

you'll never find that he's insufficient.

You will never find that he's insufficient.

Well, Pastor, I can't. You're right.

But he can. Well, pastor, I, I, I know that

this is what God's called me to do, but it but it makes me

afraid. Well, why don't you just rest on

him that he will help you? Pastor, there's people I want to

give the gospel to. I know that I need to, but I

just don't know what to do or how to do it.

Why don't you just rest on the sufficiency of Christ?

Listen, you can draw upon him over and over and over and over

again. He will never be insufficient.

Never. I've never come to the well of

the water of Jesus Christ and found it was dry.

Ever. He's the living water.

Why wouldn't we want to draw upon that?

And why would we want to give that to other people?

So what do we do? We pray the Lord of the harvest.

But then we're also ministering ourselves.

We're to commit ourselves to be laborers. #3 I also see this

this morning, and this is an extension of what I see here.

But #3 we should commit and train our children to be

laborers. We should commit and train our

children to be laborers, like a parent who desires for their

child to go into the family business.

We should also. Train our children and

grandchildren that there's nothing greater than to labor in

God's vineyard. There is nothing greater than to

labor in God's vineyard. You know, our girls have grown

up in church, and when you're a pastor's kid, you basically live

at church at times. You know what we've tried to do,

what we've tried to teach him? That it's not a drudgery.

That it's not a chore that you shouldn't be like, oh, those

poor pastors kids or what were. Those pastors, kids it it.

It should be no. They want to serve.

They enjoy to serve, you know, one.

Of the things that gives me the greatest joy as I watch my girls

specifically get older is to see them serve not because mom and

dad make them say, do you do that?

Yeah, I mean when you're start a church and.

You know, if it's not your family gets it done.

Nothing gets done. Then say, you know, hey, by the

way, you know, Kaylee, you're collecting the offering but and

counting it. What do you mean you can't count

that high? All right.

No, not not quite. Not quite that bad.

But they. But they did a lot.

But to watch them want to do and not just be told to do, it's a

wonderful thing. You know what we need to do?

We need to make sure the next generation understands that

serving is not a chore. By the way, if the next

generation doesn't serve, then what happens?

No one gets served. We have to pass it on.

Christianity itself is always one generation from extinction,

as long as it's not one generation giving the next

generation. Now we know that we have the

promise in God's word that the gates of hell will not prevail

against the church. But you understood what I was

saying. What I'm saying, practically

speaking, it's one generation teaching another generation

about the things of the word of God.

And it's one generation seeing Mom and Dad serve that teaches

that next generation to say that's what I need to do.

Or it's one generation seeing Grandma and Grandpa serving that

caused them to say that's what I need to do.

What It's like Hannah and First Samuel, chapter one, verses 10

and 11, where she said in bitterness of soul she prayed

and wept, and she vowed A vow, saying, Oh Lord of hosts, if

thou wilt indeed look on our affliction of thine handmaid,

and Remember Me and not. Get thine handmade, but will

give them thine handmade a manchild.

Then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life,

and there shall be no razor come upon his head.

What did Hannah say? Lord, if you give me a child, he

belongs to you, and that's what she did.

The Bible fact says that she lent him to the Lord, meaning

that she literally gave him over to the Lord's service.

I wonder if Hannah regretted that when she.

And I don't know that she lived this long, but could you imagine

that maybe she did? To see her son become the

righteous judge of Israel, following a line of very

unrighteous judges, a man who was able to bring restoration

and healing to Israel in some ways.

What happened? She trained a child that it was

good to serve. I I will say this that includes

the elder in our church, and I mean elder in in spiritual.

Experience more than elder of age, but the elder in our church

teaching the younger of our church not necessarily by age,

but by spiritual experience. Teaching them that it's good to

serve, it's good to serve, it's good to help.

We all like being served, but to be served, it means somebody has

to serve. And So what do we do?

We, we have to be servants. We have to recognize that we are

to serve other people. And we should, as the elder of

this church and spiritual experience, teach the younger

ones that no, it's OK to serve. It's OK to come to church.

It's OK to be a help. It's OK to be a blessing.

It's OK to give out a track. It's OK to help someone that's

down and out. It's OK to help someone that

needs a little bit of assistance here and there.

Why? Because we're committing to

train the next generation, the children, whether they be our

own children, our own grandchildren, or the spiritual

children. They come along here at Liberty

Baptist Church to teach them the servings.

Okay. In a culture where everyone's

taught, it's all about me. In a culture where it's all

about what can I get. I don't ever see a commercial

that says something like this. Help.

Someone else knows You need this, you need that.

You get this, you get that, you buy this, you buy that.

It's very little about. Hey, why don't you be a help to

someone today? Well, what do we need to do?

We need to model that here. We need to be part of that here.

So what do we see quickly? We are to pray for laborers.

We commit ourselves to be laborers.

We should commit and train our children to be laborers.

And we must also do this, number four.

And finally, we must challenge others to be laborers.

We must challenge others to be laborers.

And I kind of started talking about that in the last point.

But we can do this a couple different ways.

We can do it by modeling. Modeling.

What does that mean? We show other people what the

posture of a servant should look like.

We model the posture of a servant.

That's what churches need. That's what the world needs to

see people who are willing to be servants and and sometimes we're

very unwilling to do so. I think of Jesus and his

disciples at the Last Supper there were feet that need to be

cleaned. Now we don't want to dwell too

long on that, but there were feet.

That needed to be cleaned and all the disciples were looking

at each other. Kind of like anyone, anyone

else, Peters. Kind of like, say, hey John,

what do you think? And John's like, hey Judas, what

do you think? Judas says I'm out of here and

nobody wanted to do it. But what did Jesus do?

He gird himself with a towel, the Bible says, and he was a

servant. He modeled to his disciples what

they would not do for each other.

By the way, service isn't always doing what you want to do.

Sometimes service is doing the jobs that you don't want to do

or you don't think that you could do.

Yeah, I went over about the way I thought it would, but it's

Bible nonetheless. Service is not always doing what

you want to do. Well, I'll serve.

If it's in within my wheelhouse, I'll service.

If it's something that I like to do, if it's something that gives

me some pleasure, I'll do that services.

Lord, what would you have me to do today?

Well, Lord, I don't think I could do that.

Oh, you said you're sufficient that you will equip me, that you

will supply all my needs. Well, Lord, I'm just by faith

going to trust that this is what you have for me.

And I'm going to do that. And you do that and you model it

for other people. So by faith they will see that's

what service is and so they can start serving too.

We we model it, but but we also have to mentor it, such as

modeling. It's mentoring.

It means bringing someone along the side and saying why don't

you, why don't you come make a visit with me?

I'll show you what it's like to make a visit.

Why don't you come help us hang out some door hangers on

Saturday with the gospel. You come with me we'll cover the

same Rd. So I can kind of show you what

it's like when when someone comes outside and we talk to him

and and get to tell him a little bit about the church and take

get to tell him about the gospel.

Why don't you come with me. Hey, you know I'm coming up on

on on greeter duty. But you know, I don't want to do

it by myself. Why don't we, why don't we greet

together or why don't you know, why don't we find some ministry

together to be able to do, say, pastor people?

People don't really do that. That's not a natural thing to

do. Well, it should be because if we

don't mentor people. You know how I learned?

You know how I learned to make visits, pastor boy, you know,

you you make visits. You come over to people's house.

You know, if I don't show up for two weeks, you'll be at my

house. I mean, it's you know what?

How? How do you make visits?

You know what? I went with the man who led me

to Christ, and I started making visits with him.

I learned how to make visits actually go to.

You visit people in hospitals? Well, I do.

If they need a visit, I'll. I'll go see him in a hospital.

Well, how do you do? It must be uncomfortable.

It must be so, so strange to be able to do that.

It's not natural. Well, because I went with my

pastor and he taught me how he mentored me.

He would call me. Hey, Adam, I got a visit to make

19 years old. Going to the hospital, going to

the ER, go in the ICU and watching him have compassion on

people. About a year later after that,

my pastor went to the hospital. You know what I did?

I went to go see him. You know why?

Because he had taught me that's what to do.

We have to help each other with that.

We mentor it and we model it. We must challenge others to be

laborers. It said that 20% of any church

does 80% of the work. And I don't know if that's true.

I don't know if that ratio is correct.

But if it was true, I would say this 80% are missing out on

God's blessings in their life. By missing out on the service

that God has for him. But I might be tired, Pastor.

You know what? You'll be tired and happy when

you serve the Lord their days. You're just kind of bone weary

by the time you get done. But there's that joy that comes

with knowing I got used of God today.

I saw someone get saved. I saw a family that was a mess

start to have some victory. I saw someone that didn't have

some groceries. Now they have something to eat

for the next few days, and God was able to use that in my life.

What a joy that is. So what do we do if we're to

challenge others to be laborers? I mean, give you this very

quickly. We're to pray.

We're to pray, just like I mentioned before.

John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim's Progress, said this

You can do more than pray after you've prayed, but you cannot do

more than pray until you prayed. Think about that.

You can do more than pray after you prayed, but you cannot do

more than pray until you pray. We pray for labors, but then we

pray that God would bless our ministry and labor.

When we labor, you know what else we do?

We give. We pray.

We give. What does that mean?

We give our time and our talents and our treasure to the Lord.

Lord, it all belongs to you, our time, which is probably our

greatest resource because it's so finite.

We all have the same amount, 24 hours.

Our talents that God is a uniquely equipped each of us.

In certain ways we're able to give that to the Lord.

And again, not just in church, but.

But but to be able to minister to people in our community and

then our treasure, knowing that well, even our personal

finances, that all belongs to God because it all came to him

in the 1st place. And even a church like this, the

only way we can move forward is to be able to know that we have

the finances, to be able to keep lights on and to be able to buy

backpacks and to be able to send kids to camp and to do those

kind of things. It takes us praying but then

giving but then it also. Takes us going, pray, give, go.

At some point, we all talk about service.

But it we have to serve. We can analyze it.

We can turn it around and look at it from every different

angle. We can pray over it.

But eventually we just got to go.

It's a story of a man named Judson Van den Venter.

Just Judson Van den Venter. He had a desire to become a

renowned artist. After attending a revival

meeting in Pennsylvania, he was moved to help reach the souls of

men. But for five years he fought the

calling of God to evangelism to pursue his art career.

Finally he yielded to God's call and soon found out he had a

talent previously unknown, which was songwriting as a remembrance

of the day he yielded to God. He eventually wrote a hymn that

was called I Surrender All, All to Jesus.

I Surrender All to Him. I freely Give from a Man.

Who gave up his talent as an artist and found that God had

something even greater for him? Do you realize today that

whatever you're trying to hold on to by not serving, God says

this. I've got something greater for

you. I've got a plan that's even

bigger than you imagine. I have a plan.

Here's a plan of how to minister to this harvest field that's in

front of us, but we can't do it ourselves.

We pray for other laborers to come, whether it's here to

liberty or whether it's here to Easton, or whether it's in our

nation or whether it's on the mission field that we pray for

laborers to come. But then we realize that if we

pray for the laborers that we can't pray a prayer that we're

not willing to answer ourselves. Lord, I'll go.

We teach our children and grandchildren and our nieces and

our nephews and and all of those young people who are in our

life. We teach them.

It pays to serve God. You say, well, it doesn't pay

real money. It pays something a lot better

than money because there's a lot of families have a lot of money.

But they realize, you know what, we would give up that money to

be able to have God's will in our life.

And then what do we do? We challenge others.

We mentor it, We model it, we pray, we give, we go.

We're servants. There's a harvest out there.

It's a harvest when it says the field.

Is white in the harvest. You know what that means?

It is so ready for harvest that if it's not collected within

mere hours, it's gone. When the field was white in the

harvest, it had to be collected tenderly, carefully.

You couldn't abuse it. You had to make sure that you

got it with the right precision so that you wouldn't lose that

what you collected. But most of all, you had to do

it quickly. Because if not, the harvest was

gone. Could you imagine a field of

grain just gone? Why?

Because no one collected it. It just sat out in the field and

the stalks that were so tall rising up to the sun eventually

started to sag and fall and corn starts to rot right there on the

field. You'd say what a waste and you'd

be right. But you realize that's what's

happening outside these walls right now.

There are people who have a death sentence on top of their

head, and they don't realize it. Bible says the lake of fire is a

second death where they will live forever for all eternity,

realizing that they've rejected Christ.

But you and I have the answer. You and I have the antidote.

We have the gospel message. And Jesus said this.

Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he'd sent forth

labors into his harvest, and what will you do?

If one of those laborers might just be you.

Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of

Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing

to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us

know by contacting us at [email protected].

Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,

MA. May the Lord bless you as you

grow in His Word.