Matthew 9:35–38: “Then Jesus went throughout all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and sickness. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them because they were bewildered and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest‑ready fields.’”

When Jesus saw the crowd, He saw harvest. The disciples probably were not thinking of harvest when they saw the crowd. And look at the kind of work Jesus had been putting in: “throughout all the towns and villages,” teaching and preaching. He has visited many locations. But He says, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”

What does that tell you? There is a different kind of people called “worker.” You see the crowd; you see the disciples—you can call the disciples the learners. But what about the workers? The people who have been readied, who have been skilled. You cannot just have somebody go into the harvest who says, “I am just going to look at the fruit.” You want somebody who is a worker—that means the person has been trained, prepared.

You see the picture of the worker here. That Worker is Christ. He is the Worker. But it seems the more He did the work, the more there seemed to be more work to do. So He is saying, “This is the situation now: the needs are much, but the workers are few.” The people who have been built up, made ready, equipped, who have the frame of mind to work—few.

He says, “Pray.” That is the only thing Jesus told them to do at this point: “Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest‑ready fields.” There is so much work to do. There is so much need. The solution is not to give up and say nothing is going to happen. The solution is to focus on harvest‑ready workers.

So what about you? Are you that worker that we are waiting for to go into the harvest? That is one. Or are you the kind of worker who can help other workers prepare to go into the harvest?

Look at Jesus here. Jesus had the disciples, and soon afterward He will send some of them into the harvest to do some of the work He Himself had been doing (Matthew 10:1–7). He is the Lord of the harvest. He is the One who prepares people for the harvest, and also a Worker in the harvest. That is Jesus—Jesus is all these things.

But there can be people who help prepare others for the work and help equip them for it. There will be people who need to go on into the work, because they are the answer to the prayer to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His harvest. There can be people already doing the work, and others around them being mentored to do it as well. There may not be a formal “school”; you may not have one. Jesus had the Twelve, but you may simply have people around you who are catching your spirit as a worker and who, not in a formal way, are being deployed to do the work—because being around you has helped prepare them for it.

And you can be the worker who will be sent. This is not for everyone; we are talking about a level of dedication. The number‑one identity of this person is as a worker, just as Jesus bore that identity: “I have been sent from heaven to do this work… As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John 4:34; John 20:21).

God bless you. See you later.