The Harvest Hang-Up

Friday, September 5, 2014

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Our oldest son worked as a missionary among young people in a Native American tribe in the Southwest. His first few days there he ended up helping a Native American man weed his corn field. The tribe lives in a place where it's pretty tough to grow anything. I mean, corn is the most important crop, but it doesn't come easily because they're in a place where you can only get about 10-12 inches of rain a year.

Well, they have perfected a method called dry farming. It means a lot of back-breaking work. One key is getting the weeds out of that garden before they can steal some of the corn's precious moisture. Well, that's what my son was doing for this man. At the end of a hard, hot afternoon he said to the farmer, "How much of your corn are you actually going to be able to harvest?" And the man said, "Oh, about 10%." To which my son replied, "Oh, man, after all this work, that's too bad. What happened?" And he said, "Well, I'll tell you where I lose most of my crop." The answer was surprising.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Harvest Hang-Up."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 9, beginning at verse 36. Oh, by the way, that farmer told my son, "I could harvest it all if I only had a few more workers." Jesus knows that feeling. The Bible: "And when He saw the crowds He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.'"

Jesus said, "the harvest is plentiful." He's talking there about lost people; people without Christ. When I talk to farmers about what the word harvest means to them, you know what the first word is they'll bring up? "Ready." Yeah, it's ready. That's what harvest is. We're surrounded by lost people, then, who are ready for Jesus. The harvest is plentiful. You say, "Well, they don't seem very interested in Jesus to me."

That's only because they don't know what Jesus can do.

Relationships these days have never been more broken, more disappointing, more unfulfilling. Loneliness has never been more rampant, more incurable. It seems like the future's never been this uncertain. Families are tough. The pain is wide spread. There's fertile ground there for the love that only God can give you; the peace that only He can give you, the security, the power, the healing.

They're ready, but there's a problem. The laborers are few. Jesus can't get His people to go get them. That's the harvest hang-up! Not the harvest of lost people; that's not the problem. It's the apathy of God's people. There are not enough workers!

What a tragic reason to lose the harvest; to let people slip into a Christ-less eternity. But right now God is trying to send workers out to His harvest field – maybe you. Could it be that you've gotten so comfortable in the farmhouse that you've forgotten the urgent need of the lost people out there? A lot of us are just sitting around tables, passing around another helping of spiritual blessings while the harvest dies.

Maybe you've become preoccupied with your own pressures and problems. In the days of Haggai, the prophet, he said, "My house (God speaking) remains a ruin while each of you is busy with his own house." Could it be God's agenda, the lost people His Son died for, have gotten lost in your agenda?

Could it be you feel inadequate to tell people about Him? But God decided you were the one to be His personal representative in that circle of people. He's going to give you the words. He's going to open the doors. Harvest time will not wait for you. Your wait is over.

Time is short. This is urgent stuff! Harvest always is. You've got a limited amount of time to bring in what's ready. You have nothing more important to do than this.

My heart broke when I heard what that farmer had said, "I could harvest it all if I had a few more workers." We're not harvesting corn. No, we're harvesting ever living, never dying souls. Would you step up to the task today and say, "Lord, you can bring in a few more, because You've got one more worker."