More Workers In The Harvest Field Just this week I saw an advertisement for people to fill up a job vacancy. I wonder whether you are keen to apply. I saw this advertisement as I was preparing for this sermon. It looked fascinating and I went in depth to explore the details of it. This advertisement was put up by Jesus Himself. What is this advertisement? Please turn with me to Matthew 9: 35 MT 9:35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." MT 10:1 He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. MT 10:2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. MT 10:5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: "Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. 7 As you go, preach this message: `The kingdom of heaven is near.' 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. 9 Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; 10 take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the worker is worth his keep. Jesus has asked for workers in the harvest field. He has in fact asked that we pray for more people to apply to be workers in the harvest field. More workers are needed in the vast harvest field that God had prepared. Today, we will examine what this job entails. I pray that at the end of the sermon, each of us will indeed submit our application for this job. The promise of God is that no one who chooses to apply will ever be rejected. Before we can even apply for the job, we need to first of all open our eyes to look at the job itself. Jesus looked and He saw the crowd. When He saw the crowd He had compassion on them. He saw needs. He saw a crowd of harassed, helpless people. Sheep lost without a shepherd. I am sure that He would have asked His disciples to look for in another portion of Scripture He had said to them "look - the fields are white for harvest." When they did so, I am sure that compassion would have welled up in their hearts. Like anyone of us would. This is why missions exposure trips are wonderful. They open our eyes to the needs of the world around us. People in the world are harassed, helpless and lost - lost like sheep without a shepherd. People in the world may look successful in terms of how the world defines success. They may have wealth. They may be in high social standings. Holding on to big jobs. Perhaps even owning big businesses. However, when Jesus looked at them, He sees them as being harassed, helpless and like sheep without a shepherd. Yes, on the physical level they may appear to be successful. But what about other aspects of their lives? Are they healthy physically, emotionally and psychologically? Are they happy? Have they found a purpose and meaning of life? Are they struggling deep down inside them? Can they do anything about these? Or are they helpless in their circumstances? Can their wealth bring them health and happiness? Can their social standings bring them peace? Can they do anything about their harassments? Can they do anything about sicknesses? Can they overcome demonization? Often, people who are rich and powerful see nothing in life except to eat, drink and be merry. Their philosophy is "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die." {MY brothers} Jesus looked at the crowds. He saw them as harassed, helpless, lost like sheep without a shepherd. When we look at the world. When we look at people. At crowds of people. What do we see? Businesses just see people as economic digits - whether they are contributing to the bottom line of the company - whether they are costing too much - whether they are productive. I have met all sorts of CEOs, all sorts of managers, all sorts of executives - some are people oriented - many are however not. There was a case of a manager who was more concerned with her staff medical leave entitlement rather than the health of her staff - what would you do if you have a staff who was sick for a week - would you call and find out how he is or would you be more interested in the fact that the workload of the department is falling behind schedule because this staff had been sick for the week. Companies. Businesses. They just see people as economic digits. What about us? What do we see when we see the crowds? When we walk down Orchard Road and see the crowd what do we see? Just people? Just shoppers? Unless we see what Jesus saw, unlikely that we will apply for the job to be a worker in the harvest field. Unless we see people as harassed and helpless, lost like sheep without a shepherd, unlikely that we will even pray for more workers to be in the harvest field. But people without Jesus are indeed harassed. They are harassed, helpless and lost. They may not even know that they are lost because they are not really looking for a clear direction in life. Many are just like Tommy in YMCA Orchard. Tommy who is just following the crowd. Tommy who does not even consider that the crowd may be going the wrong direction. Unless we see needs we may not be moved to real compassion. We may just flow along as well. Flow along thinking that everything is okay. Unless we have come to Christ. Unless we have the Holy Spirit, we will see the world much as anyone else. However, unless we are filled daily with the Holy Spirit, the vision that God gives us may be blurred as compared to what our natural eyes see. We may see people as just people. However when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we will see the crowd in the same way as Jesus sees them. Harassed. Helpless. As sheep without a shepherd. It is only when we see the harvest field in this way that we would be prepared to fill in the form and apply for the job as workers in the harvest field. It is only then that we will pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send more workers into His harvest field. Today, let us see the world from a different angle from people in the world. Let us seek for the continual infilling of the Holy Spirit and see that indeed more workers are needed in the harvest field. When we enter as workers in the harvest field we find that we need to rely on the Holy Spirit even more. When the disciples of Jesus were entering the harvest field, He told them to go forth with nothing. No money. No extra clothing. Absolutely nothing. They have nothing but the Holy Spirit with them. That's all they need. And that is exactly what we need as well. When we think we are something or that we have a lot that we feel that we don't really need God. Some people think they can do anything with money. Some others think that they can use the power they have to get things done. Yes, Money and secular power can get many things done. We can pay medical doctors to treat sicknesses. We can pay counselors to walk us through our problems. But then there are some sicknesses that no amount of money and power in the world can deal with. There are many things on the physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual realm that cannot be solved by secular means. We need God to deal with these. It is only God that can heal the sick of all forms of sicknesses, raise the dead and cast out demons from people. Jesus told the disciples that they were to go into the harvest field with absolutely nothing. All they needed was the Holy Spirit. He told them to preach the gospel, heal the sick, raise the dead and cast out demons. He not only gave them the job description but also gave them the only tool they needed to get the job done. They obeyed and went forth as workers in the harvest field. Would we likewise put in our application and say "yes, we will be workers in the harvest field. We will pray for more workers to enter into the harvest field. When Jesus calls us to the job, He has empowered us to do the job. He has given us everything for us to get the job done. It is only whether we are willing to. Today, are you willing? Are you willing to be a worker in the harvest field? Will you pray for more workers to be in the harvest field too? We are not called The Harvest Force for nothing. We are the force that God is looking to - He is counting on us to go into the harvest field and also to pray for more workers to be in the harvest field. Today, let us live up to our name.

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