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Living Hope SDA Church

Christian Martin

The Lord’s Greatest Problem and His Radical Solution

Christian singer and songwriter Brandon Heath sings, Give me your eyes for just 1 second.

Give me your eyes so I can see everything that I keep missing.

Let me ask you a question, it's a personal question, you're not going to answer, answer in your mind, in your heart, how often do you pray to Jesus, Lord give me your eyes, give me your eyes.

I'm afraid that most of us don't, which is the very reason why the Lord has a great problem.

But thankfully, he has a radical solution.

And today we're going to pray that he will reveal that to us.

Let's bow our heads together as we continue.

Father in Heaven, we just want to pause as we dive into your word and come to also sense that burden in our hearts that you have in your heart to to be able to discern that great problem, Lord, that you point out in your word.

But thanks be to you, Lord, that a solution follows soon after.

And we pray that your Holy Spirit would be present here among us to speak to God, to convict.

You know, it's 1 thing to fly in a perfectly good airplane, but it's another to jump off a perfectly good airplane.

Well, maybe because it's a different perspective, I would say.

You know, it's 1 thing to walk across the highest bridge in the continent of Africa, and it's another to bungee jump and free fall 700 feet.

Well, it would be an unconventional point of view for sure.

It's 1 thing to see a majestic shark in an aquarium, So amazing.

It's another to swim with sharks in the Indian Ocean.

And yes, I took that picture in the top left.

It almost looks like he's smiling at me, doesn't it?

You know, and what makes the greatest difference between 1 experience and the other?

I'll tell you what that is, and I'll tell you from first-hand experience.

That difference is this, to say the least, that it's a, yes, a different perspective.

It's a radical, yeah I'm gonna use that word, yeah it's crazy, it's a radical outlook.

Experiences that are within the same context, but radically different.

Giving us a perspective that's beyond our wildest dreams.

Christ himself wants us to view our world and experience the world around us from a radically different perspective.

He doesn't want us to just see the world through the eyes of our humanity.

God would have us look at the world through a radically different perspective.

And for that, he needs us to open our eyes and to see through his eyes.

You know to see the both the comfortable and the hurting.

To see the well-known and and the forgotten.

To see the wealthy and the downtrodden of society.

You know, and God wants us to see the masses of humanity in our very own community.

Men and women who surround us so often, people that God has brought into our lives, people within our circle of influence, God would have us see with His eyes.

And it was Jesus himself who said in John chapter 4 verse 34 behold I say to you lift up your eyes and look at the fields For they are already white for harvest." Give me your eyes.

Would you open your Bibles with me to Matthew 9?

We're going to take a look at a few verses there in Matthew 9.

As we come to a place in our lives where we recognize today, whether you have already or you have not yet discovered, what God wants you to experience.

We have the name of Christ within the name that we take.

Unless we take the name, His name in vain, God would have us look through His eyes at a totally new perspective.

We cannot continue living our lives just looking through the eyes of humanity.

Everyone can see what we see, and we can see what they see.

But Could it be that God is wanting us to see with new eyes a totally different perspective?

There in Matthew chapter 9 verses 35 to 38, Jesus says these words.

Matthew wrote, verse 35, then Jesus went out, went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

And if we're not engaged with people in ministry, woe to us!

Jesus was engaged, fully engaged in ministry.

And notice verse 36, and when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.

I'm not sure what version you have but let me let me share with you just a few translations and various other versions.

There in the New King James it says that the people were weary and scattered.

The New International Version says they were harassed and helpless.

The American Standard says distressed and dispirited.

King James says Fainted and scattered abroad.

The Holman Christian Standard Bible says, weary and worn out.

Did I just describe life as we know it in the 21st century for too many people all around us?

It is harassed, helpless, distressed, fainted, weary, worn out, scattered, dispirited, helpless.

And Jesus is moved with compassion for them.

And then he continues in verse 37, then he said to his disciples, Oh, I could hear him with with with almost like with the groan in his voice, the harvest, the harvest truly is plentiful.

Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labors into his harvest." What, so what is this harvest of?

What is this harvest that Jesus speaks of?

What do we need to understand when Jesus metaphorically speaks that the harvest is truly great?

I'll tell you what he's talking about, you know.

He simply means that there's the greatest generation, the silent generation, the baby boomers, Generation X, there's Millennials, there's generation Z, there's generation alpha, each generation, every generation with their own distinct attitudes, behaviors, and expectations, and habits, and motivational buttons, They're all, all 7 generations that are labeled, all people, they're waiting.

They're just waiting to be gathered into God's eternal kingdom.

They only need to hear the great news and receive the invitation they're waiting to be gathered in.

In her book, The Acts of the Apostles, outlining, chronicling the events of that Spirit-led early church, she writes, all over the world men and women are looking wistfully to heaven.

Prayers and tears and inquiries go up from souls longing for life, for grace, for the Holy Spirit.

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The Lord’s Greatest Problem and His Radical Solution

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