The Harvest Fields

In the late 1800’s many labor unions formed and began to push back in the form of strikes because of unsafe working conditions, low pay, lack of breaks, long hours, and inappropriate child labor.

The most famous of these that turned violent is the Haymarket riot of 1886. 7 Chicago policemen and 4 workers were killed.

The idea of a workingman’s holiday became popular and many states began to pass legislation to acknowledge and celebrate it.

Finally, the Pullman Strike of 1894 got the full attention of Congress and the President.

Congress finally legalized it federally 12 years later in 1894 and it became known as Labor Day.

Labor Day pays tribute to the contributions and achievements of American workers. It is a day to appreciate the economic and societal impact of hard working Americans and to reflect on the progress our country has made as a result of the American workforce.

Labor Day weekend also symbolizes the end of summer for many Americans and is celebrated with parties, street parades and athletic events.

Just like Labor Day is a day to remember and celebrate the work that Americans have done for the betterment of the country, so too we will look at 4 different workers today.

The harvest work God did for Israel.

The harvest work Israel had to do after the exile.

The harvest work Jesus was called to do.

The harvest work we are called to do.

Read Psalm

Psalm 126

A song of ascents.

A collection of 15 psalms most likely sung during the 3 major annual festivals of Israel as the pilgrims “ascended” to Jerusalem.

They sung these with thanksgiving as they reflected on God’s beneficent acts in the past while praying for his continued goodness in the present.

PART 1 – When the Lord brought back the captives

The Harvest Work Of God

Metaphorically, God planted His people in Babylon for a season of time as punishment for their disobedience.

God then harvested a group of His people out of exile and brought them back to the land of Israel.

There were four main groups that returned to Israel over a 92 year period of time.

This Psalm is associated with the return of the first, small exilic community to the land probably around 538-537 BC.

And this first group to come back would be like the harvest of first-fruits, the first crop to come in.

This Psalm was written to remind us of God’s faithfulness to His promise.

Jeremiah 29:10–12 NASB95

“For thus says the Lord, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. ‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

Jeremiah 29:13–14 NASB95

‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. ‘I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’

We Were Like Those Who Dream

We’ve heard the stories. We’ve heard the promises.

It sounds too good to be true. We’ve been anxiously waiting.

Then it happens. “Pinch me. I want to see if I’m dreaming or if this is really happening!”

Then our mouth was filled with laughter, our tongue with joyful shouting

Great had been their sorrow in exile, but restoration from exile soon quieted and comforted the hearts of the returnees.

When it actually happened, their response was one of incredulous joy and thanksgiving for God’s faithfulness to His promises.

Then They Said Among The Nations

The Lord has done great things for them!

The glory, fame, and reputation of the Lord was spread.

The Lord HAS done great things for us… And we are glad.

Everything God does is for our good and His glory.

Even the difficult things, the things we don’t understand, the things that don’t make sense.

In the end, what God does will cause us joy and gladness.

I’ve been preaching on the Wilderness and how this life is often like the wilderness that Israel went through on the way to the Promised Land.

Well, this life is also similar to the exile. We are living in Babylon in exile waiting for God to bring us to the Promised Land.

This same exclamation of praise over what God did for them should be the same exclamation of praise in faith of what God will do for us!

God is going to bring us to the Promised Land! He will not forget us! He will be faithful to His word!

Sing: Hymn of Heaven

PART 2: Restore Our Captivity, O Lord.

The Harvest Work Of Israel

The captives returned to a harsh reality. When they returned their homes had been destroyed and the land left untended for 70 years.

It would be a similar feel as those on Maui who had been evacuated and then are finally able to return to where their home was.

As Streams In The Negev

This is an interesting allusion

The Negev was bone dry. However, on rare occasions when during the winter months it rained even as little as one inch, the water ran down its “streams” with great rapidity.

Symbolizing here the sudden unleashing of God’s blessing.

Into our barrenness, God bring life.

Into our darkness, God bring light.

Into our dryness, God bring rain.

Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting

Interesting transition of God’s streams in the desert to sowing of tears.

Psalm 84:5–7 NASB95

How blessed is the man whose strength is in You, In whose heart are the highways to Zion! Passing through the valley of Baca they make it a spring; The early rain also covers it with blessings. They go from strength to strength, Every one of them appears before God in Zion.

Sowing in tears is a metaphor for hard work and agonizing over that work.

Those who came first are doing all the hard work preparing for those who will come later.

The Psalmist was convinced that all the hard agonizing, frustrating work would result in more people returning to the Promised Land.

But what was that work that Israel was to do?

He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed

It is possible that part of his sowing in tears is the knowledge that this is his only bag of seed.

If there is no crop to replenish the seed, they are done.

It’s probably a bittersweet weeping.

God was faithful and brought us home

But, look at the devastation, how are we going to recover?

But I can’t sit here and do nothing. God brought us here to begin the restoration project that He has ordained.

We see here that the assurance of God’s blessing is also an encouragement to be responsible.

He goes to and fro.

The people were not to sit idly by, waiting for God to come through.

They were to go and sow. God wasn’t going to sow the seed for them.

PART 3: Shall Come Home with Shouts of Joy, bringing his sheaves with him.

The Harvest Work Of Jesus

Because of the plentiful harvest. Showing God’s faithfulness.

We sow the seeds but God brings the harvest.

1 Corinthians 3:5–6 NASB95

What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.

Bringing in the sheaves…the harvest of souls

But God is only able to bring in the harvest because of the harvest work that Jesus did.

John 4:34 NASB95

Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.

John 6:27–29 NASB95

“Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”

John 20:30–31 NASB95

Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

1 John 5:12–13 NASB95

He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

The work of Jesus was so that I could believe that He came to give me eternal life.

The work of Jesus? Dying on the cross to save a sinner such as I.

The work of Jesus? What He did for me, He can do for you.

Sing: God So Loved The World

We will come back to that here in few minutes.

PART 4:

Our Harvest Work

What work are to be about?

We do everything we can to help people believe in Jesus.

Just like Israel prayed and sowed in faith that God would once again be faithful to them and bring in a harvest, so we also pray in faith that God will use us to bring in His harvest.

Here’s one prayer of faith that God will answer every time.

Matthew 9:36–38 NASB95

Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”

We can pray, Lord save more people, but Jesus wants us to pray that God would send out more workers.

The answer to the prayer just might be God sending and using us.

The prayer of faith is: God give me a heart of compassion for the lost just like Jesus.

Distressed (passive participle) - to skin, flay, lacerate. They are cut up. metaphorically, harassed, troubled, and weary.

We feel the same way sometimes, but we have Jesus and they do not

Dispirited (passive participle) - to fall, to be thrown or cast down, scattered.

Sheep without a shepherd - Psalm 23

The prayer of faith is: God, if you are calling me, then I know you’ll use me.

Use me in mighty ways for your kingdom and for your glory!

The prayer of faith is: God your heart is for people to know you.

I pray for that empty seat that you will fill, so someone else can get to know you.

Please fill that seat!

And then let Him use you to invite people to church.

And watch Him bring people in.

Jesus also said,

John 4:35–38 NASB95

“Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. “Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. “For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ “I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”

OUR HARVEST WORK, Part 2

First of all, don’t put it off. Don’t procrastinate.

Your field is ready, now!

Look around you someone is ready to hear about Jesus.

Secondly, remember: Your work is for eternal results and you are reaping a portion of your eternal reward, now.

To see someone come to Christ, to see someone grow in their faith in Christ, that in itself is a reward.

Next, rejoice together with those who have done the work before you!

You are on the same team.

There is also a subtle implication that those who have gone before are finished with their task and it is time for you to take over. A passing of the baton.

Maybe you are way on the other side of this and your job is to rejoice with those who are reaping what you have sown! And you can always pray for and assist in some way.

Finally, don’t forget, the work has already been going on. You are just joining what is already in progress.

You don’t know what prep work God has already done in that person’s life.

Other’s may have already sown into their lives and you may be the blessed recipient of the harvest.

Dion Rickett’s story - Billy Graham stat. 7.7 times to hear the Gospel, etc.

God desires a harvest and has prepared the fields and even prepared the people.

We are to ask Him to send workers into the harvest field.

But we are also to be ready and willing to be that worker if and when He calls.

On a secondary note. Just like Paul planted and Apollos watered, everyone has a responsibility to do something in the working of His fields.

That might mean teaching Sunday School, singing on a worship team, helping with AWANA, leading a Bible study, starting up a small group Bible study, leading a fellowship group.

Even though the main focus is on the sowing and reaping of souls, there is much that goes into the care and keep of those souls as well.

You may not be the one out front, but you sure can be one in the middle or at the back. But no matter where or how big, you have a part to play in working the fields of the Lord.

Ask the Lord of the Harvest what that might be and then when He leads, go and do it.

Now we return to Christ’s work.

Communion time:

Song: Rest For Your Soul

In sowing and reaping, the Lord’s work will continue through us until His Second Coming.

But, our true Labor Day celebration, so to speak, though is to celebrate the work of the one who did the work on our behalf, because there is no work good enough to save us from our sins.

We are saved because of Christ’s work and it is in His finished work that we can find rest.

Our holiday (or holy-day) is in Christ.

What we are reminded of today and what we know we have found, there are others looking for it.

We can be the worker that God wants to use in His fields.

Celebration at the Lord’s Table

We Believe

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