Praying for laborers

Over the last three weeks, I have had the privilege of preaching through the lectionary on different occasions. We have covered parts of Matthew 10 and 11 about the call of discipleship and Jesus' calling to receive him and rest in Him. I noticed in looking at the context of these passages that in Matthew 9:37-38, Jesus said to his disciples before sending them out, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest." As we have been working through Matthew 10 and 11 and looking at Jesus' call to give our all for him and then in chapter 11 at the sad rejection of him by many and his call for all who are weary and heavy laden to come and take his yoke, I have been impressed with our great need for laborers.

Pray with us that the Lord will work in the hearts of those who have been hearing Jesus' call to lose their life for his sake and take up their cross and follow him and to take his easy yoke and carry his light burden.  I recognize more and more that our church needs local leaders and elders. May the Lord work through our teaching and His word to draw many unto himself and draw them into his service in his church.

How is his yoke easy and his burden light? When we surrender to Jesus and give our lives to him, as Paul says in Romans 6:14, we are no longer under the law but under grace. We have a new power working in us which enables us to obey because we have been joined with Christ in his death and resurrection. We no longer obey to justify ourselves. He justifies us by His work and now we obey because He has freed us to be able to obey. He restores us to be able to be the image bearers we were created to be. May God raise up leaders in our church who get this and understand the gospel instead of living weighed down by the burden of moralism.

Just yesterday, I was talking with one of the young men in our church and he was telling me how he recognizes his conversion. He said he used to live like an animal where he would get up and eat and live for himself, but now He lives for God and recognizes that he has a purpose in life to glorify God. It reminded me of a study we are doing with the young adults in Proverbs. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the LORD. My young brother explained the difference of living with the fear of the LORD versus living without the fear of the LORD. May God continue to raise this young man up to be one of the future leaders of his church in Peru and also provide many more through him and others.