Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.’ (Matthew 9:36-38)
If you were here this past Sunday; livestream or in person, then you know that I introduced you to something that I call The 7 Challenge. As I mentioned in that message, the number seven is sometimes referred to as, “God’s number” or the “number of completion” or “perfection.” The root of the Hebrew word for the number seven means, “Fulfillment” or “Completion.”
Because the number seven is used so prominently in scripture; including the text from this past Sunday having to do with the announcement of God’s door of grace beginning to close, as God brings this world to His ordained finish, I thought it would be a great time to introduce The 7 Challenge.
Its purpose is simple: To promote in all of us a burden for and awareness of those without Christ all around us and all around the world. As I mentioned in Sunday’s message, it’s not that any of us want people to go to hell. I think most believers rejoice to see people coming to Christ. And, I think that most followers of Jesus understand that all of us are responsible for sharing Christ with those who don’t know Him.
The problem, and the danger, is that the busyness of this world and of our lives can cause us to overlook the spiritual needs of those around us. It’s not that we don’t care, or that we can’t share, or even that we’re too scared. The problem is that we’re so busy living that we fail to notice those who are dying without Christ. We become desensitized to those around us that desperately need the hope of the Gospel.
The 7 Challenge is designed to help change that; to help us to see people, really see them, and their need for Christ. The best way I know how to do that is to reprogram our desensitized spirits in order to see people as Jesus saw the people in Matthew 9. To see that people without Christ are, as the text says: distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.
And, the best way I know how to do that is to challenge each of us to approach people and their needs as God does. God cares about every single person, and about where they will spend eternity. If we can see people as God sees them, then we will find that the busyness of life won’t keep us from caring or sharing.
If we take up this 7 Challenge, and pray it every day, we will find both our awareness and our burden increasing for those in need of the Savior. Our desensitized spirits will again be sensitive to the lost-ness all around us. And, if we do that, I believe we will see an increasing number of people coming to Christ. Then, we will be fulfilling our commission, (Mt 28:18-20) and completing our mission. (Acts 1:8)
So, if you haven’t committed to it yet, take on The 7 Challenge, and then watch and see what God does.
I love being your Pastor,
PC