together with
Happy Thanksgiving, {{first_name | everyone}}!
We hope you enjoy this day with the people you love!
Yesterday we looked at two central words in our verse this week (harvest & laborers), and today we are zooming in on Jesus’ hidden connection.
In today’s email…
✝️ The good news for the harvest
🔨 Getting our hands dirty
🔦 Community spotlight
MEMORIZE 🧠
Then __ ____ __ ___ _______, “The _______ __ _________, but the ________ ___ ___;
therefore ____ ________ to the Lord of the _______ __ _____ ___ _______ into his _______.”
Matthew 9:37-38
TOGETHER WITH PRISON FELLOWSHIP
This Christmas, a child with a parent behind bars will wonder if they're forgotten. You can remind them they are seen, known, and deeply loved by their mom or dad — and by God.
When you give to Prison Fellowship Angel Tree, you provide a boy or girl with a Christmas gift, including a personal message from their incarcerated parent. You also reach a child with the Gospel by sharing the life-changing love of Jesus! You are delivering hope, joy, and restoration.
CONTEXT 📕
Jesus’ instructions about the harvest only make sense when you see them inside the wider story Matthew is telling.
Just a few verses earlier, Matthew summarizes Jesus’ ministry like this:
“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.”
This connection is everything.
Matthew wants us to see that Jesus’ call for more workers (v37–38) flows directly out of His proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom.
We often reduce “the gospel” to the events of Holy Week — Jesus’ death and resurrection. But Matthew shows us something deeper and broader: Jesus was preaching good news long before He went to the cross.
The gospel of the kingdom is the announcement that God’s reign at last is breaking into the world through Jesus Himself — a reign marked by healing, forgiveness, restoration, and life under the true King.
So when Jesus looks at the crowds as “harassed and helpless,” He isn’t merely seeing physical needs. He’s seeing people who feel spiritually needy, directionless, and hungry for wholeness.
And they flock to Him because they sense that He, and He alone, can make them whole.
This is the heart of the gospel: God has not abandoned us. He has come near in Christ to rescue us, renew us, and bring us home.
And this is why the harvest is still plentiful.
People today long for the same hope — peace with God, healing from their wounds, rest from their striving.
Even if they can’t name the desire, it pulses under the surface of their lives.
Jesus’ words still carry both compassion and urgency.
He isn’t just telling us to pray for workers…He’s inviting us to become those workers.
To step into the same mission He modeled.
To proclaim the same kingdom He revealed.
To offer the same hope He embodied.
Because the gospel that drew the crowds then is the same gospel that transforms people now — reconciliation to God today, and resurrection life forever.
APPLY AND RESPOND 🏃♂
Last weekend, our pastor said something so relevant to what we’re learning this week.
He was talking about a common roadblock when it comes to sharing our faith where many of us have a tendency to shrink back and not want to “bother” anyone with the gospel because “they seem happy.”
Here’s what he said:
If we imagine that people are ultimately consumers in a marketplace of meaning we’ll feel pressure to make Jesus one option among many. And then it becomes a competition and ‘I don't want to come off the wrong way.’ We want to make Jesus the most appealing product on the shelf.
But if we see people as dry bones in desperate need of life, the same way that we were, or as souls thirsting in a desert, we will stop curating the gospel to their preferences and start offering it as the only water that truly satisfies.
When we see people as having many options, we will try to “sell” Jesus.
When we see them as dying of thirst, we will simply hand them the cup that can satisfy.
The world Jesus saw hasn’t changed much. People are still “harassed and helpless” chasing things that don’t truly satisfy.
Jesus isn’t one option among many on the shelf. He is the only well that offers living water.
Let’s pray for God to raise up laborers. Then, let’s become the laborers we prayed for.
🙏 Pray
God, open my eyes to see the hurting and hopeless around me. Give me courage to step toward others, not just with words but with kindness, action, and love. Teach me to trust that you can use my hands, my time, and my presence to bring hope to the weary. Make me a laborer in your field, always ready to serve. Amen.
📣 Go
Who is one person God inviting you to share the gospel with?
COMMUNITY FEEDBACK ❤
I like when things are broken down the way you do. You make me feel, think and understand God’s word and I’m so thankful to you for that. God bless your ministry!
- GL
It was so very informative. I learned so much in one verse of scripture. So happy I found this. It makes studying God's word so easy!
- Jessie
As a new believer, this format is much easier to follow and understand. This format not only does what I needed it to do, but it also brings me on a journey that I love. Thank you for helping me pursue Jesus with all my heart.
- DR
SHOUT-OUTS 📣
HUGE thank you to KC, Donna, Rachel and everyone else who chose to pay-it-forward to support our work and help us keep operating!
ANSWER KEY ✅
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 into his harvest.”
Matthew 9:37-38
If you missed any of this week’s emails, you can read them here:
Blessings,
The Malachi Daily team 🙏
Today’s Contributors
Jake holds two degrees in Biblical Studies and has a passion for making Scripture accessible. Along with being a podcast manager for faith-based shows, he helps Christians focus on Jesus through his own podcast Christianity Without Compromise.
Kieran is a husband and father living in NJ. In addition to Malachi Daily, he writes a personal newsletter about the intersection of faith, fatherhood and entrepreneurship.
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