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Amen. In 1946, 67% of Canadians attended a weekly worship service. By 2001, that number had dropped to 20%, 24 years ago. The monthly attendance rate had dropped from 46% in 84, to 31% in 2001. Survey in 2019, the percentage of Canadians attending a weekly worship service was down to 14%. More recent surveys put the number nearer 10%. This includes services for all religions, not just Christian and certainly not only Bible-believing evangelical Christians. This means close to 90% do not attend a weekly service, and about 70% do not attend at least once a month. In terms of people being without religious influence, it would be safe to say that the number is growing. And giving rise to more and more secular views on all kinds of subjects. I'll name a few. One is sexual morality. For instance, nearly 30% of all Canadian children are born to a never married woman. And the percentages are higher in Atlantic Canada. There is constant pressure from the government and from schools, even at the earliest ages, to accept and even celebrate the LGBTQ agenda. Some of the families in our church have had to take their kids out of public schools. Others struggle with this situation and praying about what to do about it. In Canada, there are no laws to limit abortion. So technically, a woman could have an abortion minutes before the baby is born. I'm not saying that they do, but they could, according to the law. The only other country in the world that has such laws is North Korea. We're taught from the earliest grades, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that we are here by an accident of evolution. Now if that's true, there's no real objective meaning to anything or anybody. As one evolutionist put it, a human and an insect are of equal value. I remember being in seventh grade, which is low these many years ago. And I brought up the idea in science class that the answer for something was because God created it. And I was severely admonished by the teacher at the time. So this war against reason has been ongoing for decades and probably centuries. Just one example of what I'm talking about is what it takes or what the human eye can do. This week I read according to Zeiss, Z-E-I-S-S. You didn't know Zeiss is a world leader in optics and has been since the middle of 1800s. From eye care to camera lenses to planetarium lenses. And according to them, our eyes are able to instantly absorb and process more than 10 million data per second. This complex organ not only detects light, but also transforms light into energy signals that the brain interprets as images. In addition, the human eye can distinguish about 10 million different colors and adjust to different levels of light in the fraction of a second. Every blink is an update to the incredible visual database we're constantly building. Our eyes are truly wonders of biology. And if we are to believe evolution, they're completely accidental. But as one creationist put it, he said, if they are an accident, then they are completely untrustworthy. One person commented that there's nothing that can accidentally produce an eye or an ear or anything for that matter. It takes an intricate knowledge of optics to design a system that can manipulate light. The best one to do that is the one who created light in the first place. There are many other examples to call into question the lie of evolution as an explanation for our being. But when a lie is repeated often enough by enough people, it is believed to be true. Regarding the misinformation foisted upon us by government, Alexander Solzhenitsyn said of the Soviet Union, we know they are lying. They know they are lying. They even know that we know they are lying. We also know that they know we know they are lying. They, of course, know that we certainly know they know we are lying too as well. But they are still lying. In our country, the lie has become not just a moral category, but the pillar of this country. Now you're thinking, well, that's just the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, the lie works just as well in Canada. Maybe not to the same extent possibly, but it works nonetheless. And all this leads to people being like sheep without a shepherd, very much the way Jesus described them in our passage, which is why the call of Jesus to pray for the harvest, to send laborers into the harvest, is just as important today as it was when Jesus first said these words. When he went through all the cities and villages teaching in the synagogues and proclaiming the gospel and healing every disease and every affliction. And when he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. They were harassed by the cruelty of the Roman government and helpless to do anything about it. They were harassed by the burden of taxation so much so that the money that any of them earned was always at the disposal of the government so that they could fund their wars other places. They were also helpless like a sheep without a shepherd. Jesus had a lot to say about those who were supposed to be shepherds. In his day, they were the Pharisees. And the Pharisees were supposed to care for people spiritually. They were supposed to be the ones who taught the word of God. They were supposed to be the examples of what it meant to trust the Lord and have faith in him and minister to the people and care for them. But in Matthew 23, Jesus had seven woes that he spoke against the shepherds, the Pharisees. I'm not going to read all of them, but I'll read a couple. He said, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they're full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind a Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and the plate that the outside also may be clean. What does he mean? He means that the Pharisees, the shepherds of the day, they tried to look holy and good on the outside. Jesus talked about the many prayers they offered that were just for show. He talked about a lot of the things they did that were to put them in a positive light with others, to make them appear righteous. And he's saying that that was like washing the outside of a dirty cup, but not the inside. Another one, he says, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You're like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you outwardly appear righteous to them, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Again, the same thing. He's saying that the Pharisees, the shepherds, that were supposed to care for the people of Israel, that were supposed to care for God's people, that were supposed to look after them, teach them the word, check on them regularly to make sure that they were okay, that they were bound up, that they had regular meetings with the shepherds so that they would know that the sheep were okay. But that wasn't happening. Instead, they were spending all of their time appearing to be righteous to people so that they could give them orders. Most of us have heard of the saying, there are wolves in sheep's clothing. Well, in this case, they were wolves in shepherd's clothing. And that's even worse. Not here, but I have experienced that in some churches where I've ministered. For those who were supposed to be shepherds, for those who were supposed to be elders, were instead wolves. And Jesus, at the end of this section, he says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not. See your houses left to you desolate, for I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Have you ever seen that a bird that gathers her chicks under her wings and protects them? I've heard of birds, hens doing that, even in the midst of a fire. They will sacrifice themselves to protect their chicks. That's what shepherds are called to do, to sacrifice themselves, to give of themselves, to minister to the lost and the hurting. And that's what Jesus meant when he said that they are like sheep without a shepherd. So what's the answer? What is the answer to sheep without a shepherd? What is the answer to those who are helpless and scattered? Jesus had been going about through all of the cities and the villages, teaching the synagogues, proclaiming the gospel and the kingdom, and healing every disease and every affliction. So why wasn't the answer for him to simply continue to do the same, excuse me? What does he say is the answer instead. Yet another plan, pray for laborers. Pray for laborers, pray for more people to do what I'm doing, for more people to go and tell others about the gospel, for more people to explain once the resurrection took place that Jesus Christ had lived the perfect sinless life. In our place he died, the death we deserve to die, in our place, and that he had been raised from the dead on the third day, and is at the right hand of the Father. And Jesus' plan was for laborers to be raised up in such numbers that this message would spread through all the earth, and it has. It has, and at one time it was pervasive in Canada, 67% of the people had gone to church weekly. But now it's closer to 10%. And the question is this, the question is, is the field still white for harvest in Canada, or has it been passed by? Have we rejected the gospel to such an extent that the Holy Spirit is working elsewhere? I pray that's not the case. But I do know this, and it can be told by our own church, is that people from all over the world are coming here. So to that extent, at least the field is white for harvest. People are coming to faith in Christ, who have come from other countries, in larger numbers than the Canadians. Because to a large extent, the Canadians have abandoned Christianity. Again, I wish it was not this way, and maybe they can be awakened. But he's telling his disciples to pray. He's telling us in this room to pray for laborers to go into the harvest. Jesus was an example of this. In these days, he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. This is from Luke six, and when they came, he called his disciples and chose from among them 12, whom he named apostles. Simon, who he named Peter, Andrew, his brother, James and John, and Philip and Bartholomew, and Matthew and Thomas, and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the zealot, and Judas, the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. How would you like to be Judas, the son of James, and have the same name as the traitor? He prayed all night to choose these 12 apostles upon whom he would build the church throughout the world. And I think we're challenged to pray for laborers as well. But I have to warn you, something might happen to you. Something probably will happen to you, if you earnestly pray for laborers to be sent into the harvest. You will have to be a laborer yourself. That's what happens when we pray for laborers. God turns us into laborers. I'm gonna tell you a little of my own story, some of it you've heard before, but a lot of it you haven't. The man who led me to Christ is brilliant, brilliant man. He has PhD in disease pathology, he's also got an MD and he practices as a psychiatrist in suburban Detroit. When he was in university, he read in the scripture that we were to seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to us. So he decided that since he was studying diligently four hours a day in his sciences, that if he was going to seek first the kingdom of God, he had to pray and read the scripture at least four hours a day. And he did. He had a prayer list of hundreds of people. And anybody that he'd witnessed to, anybody that had come in contact with him, he had talked to them about the gospel of Jesus Christ, anybody like that was added to the list and he prayed for them every day until he knew they'd become a Christian. Then he put them on the weekly list. Well one Thursday evening in February of 1981, Bill came by our room, our suite. I had three suite mates, roommates. It was Larry, Andy, Jim and me. And he came by and he talked to Larry, Andy and Jim about the gospel. I wasn't there. I got home late at night, well after 1 a.m. And they began to tell me, Larry and Andy did, they began to tell me what Bill had told them. And I remember wanting to talk to Bill, so I went and looked in his peephole in his room and I could see it was dark, so I didn't bother him. Came back, they talked a little more, but they didn't have many answers, they had just heard themselves. And I remember saying out loud, God I wish I could talk to Bill. I wasn't praying, but God answered anyway. Within just a few seconds later, the fire alarm went off in the building and everybody had to leave. We came back in, I found Bill in the study lounge in the hall there. I walked in and I said, tell me what you told these guys. He witnessed to me all night long. It wasn't for another six months that I actually put my faith in Christ. But from Bill just coming by our room, that one night, I became a Christian. Andy became a Christian. Larry became a Christian. I went into the ministry. First with Campus Crusade for Christ for 10 years and then into the pastorate. Larry and Andy became elders and witnessed regularly. Because of being a church planter and being able to talk about the gospel every week, dozens, maybe more than 100 came to Christ through my evangelism alone and many, many more through Larry and Andy. There are more than 30 that I've witnessed too that have gone into ministry themselves. Tracy's brother became a Christian. My brother became a Christian. All because Bill came by one dorm room late one Thursday evening and talked to four people about Jesus. That's a laborer. And if you claim to be a laborer, if you claim to be a shepherd, if you claim to be an elder and you don't ever tell anybody about Jesus, you might be a fraud. See, adversity will come to you if you are a laborer. Adversity will come. Certainly you know that Tracy and I have had our own adversity. The man who led me to Christ, Bill, his wife left him for a coworker. C.S. Lewis has a quote. "'I didn't go to religion to make me happy. "'I always knew a bottle of port would do that. "'If you want a religion to make you feel "'really comfortable, I certainly don't recommend "'Christianity.'" Tim Keller said, "'A person who's not experienced any adversity, "'people who don't experience adversity "'are probably boring people.'" In Romans chapter 10, it says, "'Everyone who calls in the name of the Lord will be saved. "'How then will we call on those on him "'whom they have not believed? "'And how are they to believe in him "'whom they have never heard? "'And how are they to hear without someone preaching? "'And how are they to preach unless they are sent? "'As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those "'who preach the good news, but they have not all obeyed "'the gospel, for Isaiah says, "'Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us.' "'So faith comes from hearing and hearing "'through the word of Christ." The one roommate, Andy, who had come to faith in Christ through Bill's witness. You got a job at a local auto parts store to help pay for school. And this is the verse that applied to Andy. Whatever you do, work hard, Colossians chapter three, verse 23, whatever you do, work hardily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord, you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. So Andy got a job working at the auto parts store. Sometimes he would deliver auto parts to mechanics. Sometimes he would stock. Ron was the owner of the auto parts store. And after Andy had worked there a few months, he talked to Andy and he said, "'I just, you work different "'than anybody I've ever hired.'" He said, "'Most people, once they've finished the assignment "'that I've given them whatever it is to stock "'or to deliver, when they're done, they kind of hide, "'waiting for their next assignment.'" But not Andy. Andy would clean a bathroom, grab a broom, sweep up. And Ron noticed and he said, well, what's going on with you? And he just explained to him that I am called upon to serve you by serving the Lord. As a result of that and being witnessed too, I was one of them that witnessed, but not the only one, that witnessed to Ron. Ron became a Christian as well and joined the local church. One person, in our case, one person talking to three people one evening has led to hundreds, at least, of coming to Christ. Pray for laborers. If you pray for laborers, you will become one. Do you wanna be a laborer? Do you wanna tell people about Jesus? Do you wanna share the gospel with those who are lost? Not guaranteeing that you will bear fruit. I'm not guaranteeing that, well, I'm almost guaranteeing that you will experience adversity. But that's what you're called to do, if you believe the gospel. Because Jesus became one of us. Experienced the most adversity, the most injustice of anybody for our sake, so that we could spend all of eternity with him. And as a result, we should be witnesses. We should be laborers. On this Labor Day weekend, please consider how you should be a laborer for the Lord. Let's pray. Lord, thank you.