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Msg #568                Wednesday, August 05, 2009

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Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” (Mt 9:37-38)

We read it, but do we really believe it?  That is the question I find myself asking of myself as I read these verses. Consider the situation Jesus describes.  

First, there is a plentiful harvest.   One looks out on a harvest that needs to be gathered in.   You probably realize this, but consider it for a moment.  A harvest is a specific, intense and limited time and opportunity that crop growers have to bring in their crops.  Once missed, the crops go bad, freeze or some other such calamity.  Harvest seasons are exciting, but limited. What Jesus is referring to is not a physical harvest of food, but a spiritual harvest.   It is a look on the souls of men, women and children and the limited opportunity we have to see them impacted for Christ.   It is to see a great and real spiritual need.

Second, there are not enough laborers.  To see the need and realize that you don’t have enough workers to bring in the harvest.  It is to see needs and “empty posts” in God’s work.  It is to see God’s people not engaging in the harvest before them.  If you know what it is to see this…it is almost a desperate feeling.

How should we handle such a situation?  Understand this, ministries of all sizes and flavors often face just such a challenge.  How do you get people motivated and involved in the harvest?   To be honest, many times ministries and churches turn to worldly methods to deal with this problem – using money to motivate or guilt or pressure or even appealing to pride.  Yet, these are ineffective means and more are not what Jesus told us to do.  Jesus instructions are clear.

   "Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

In order to follow Jesus instruction, there are several things that you need to believe that are found in His words.

First – It is His Harvest.   Real ministry, work in the souls of men, women and children – does not belong to us, it is His, it is His business.   That is easier to say, read and talk about than to do.  Ministry, real ministry – is His.

Second – He is sovereign over His work.  He is the Lord of the harvest, He is the master and in charge.  He is not wringing His hands in worry or distracted and inattentive.  He is sovereign and over His work.

Third – His workers are His.  There is a simple picture here, that He is the master.  A master is over His servants.  In a similar picture, a boss is over his employees. If I walk into a department store and begin ordering employees around and telling them what to do – it would be weird and wrong.  The employees are not mine, they don’t report to me, but to their boss.  So it is in doing God’s work – the employees, the servants – are His.

Fourth – He is involved in His work.  Jesus calls us to beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out His laborers.   To pray this, we have to believe that God does this, can do this without our manipulation.

Fifth – we have to believe in prayer.   In a sense, this gets to the heart of it.  Putting it simply, Jesus tells us when we see a spiritual harvest and a lack of workers – we ought to pray.  I am deeply challenged by this.  I find myself believing it…and yet….needing to grow in it.   There is power in prayer, God calls us to it and sadly the church often trusts in itself, in the manipulation that men can bring instead of praying.

Simply – God is calling us to be a praying people.  A people who really believe it is God’s work, and it needs to be done God’s way, by God’s people, called and directed by God, and brining in God’s harvest.  It is God’s.

Today…I call you to be one that believes this very thing…and pray.  

Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” (Mt 9:37-38)

Jim

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