Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

Matthew chapter 9, verses 35 through 38.

And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages,

teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom

and healing every disease and every affliction.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they

were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples,

the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into

his harvest. I read this whole passage, Matthew 9, 35 to 38, because more than just about any other

place in the Bible, this informs how we pray for people who've never heard the gospel.

The whole picture here is Jesus seeing crowds of people who are like sheep without a shepherd. So picture,

when we talk about unreached people, talk about people who've never heard the gospel,

they are the epitome of sheep without a shepherd, without the good shepherd.

They have no knowledge of Jesus.

It's not just like people around me in Metro Washington, D.C., who have knowledge about Jesus.

Most people, there's isolated instances where this may not be the case, but most people

have knowledge of Jesus, awareness of Jesus, and yes, like we long for them to come to know

Jesus.

But when we talk about the unreached, we're talking about people who don't even have knowledge

about Jesus as the good shepherd, as the one who died on a cross.

Like, I'm thinking about people I've met in remote regions where they've literally never

even heard his name.

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