The Harvest Is Now

The Harvest Is Plentiful

For seven years I had the opportunity to pastor in a highly agriculture community. And I remember that for a season our church events and times would revolve around the farming community. Farming is a hard job, I witnessed people lose their crops, lose livestock, even one person lose his father to a tractor accident, but there was one time of year that was always the busiest of the year. Harvesting. Harvest time it was all hands on deck. I mean people would fly in to help families harvest their crop to bring it in. It took all kinds of people doing all different kinds of jobs to bring in the crop. It’s a joyous job but a difficult task. The farmers would all know what needs to be present in order for a harvest to come. They knew the characteristics of a good harvest. This morning I want to look at what is present when God brings renewal to a city. What is present when God brings a harvest to His church.

There is a nation right now that is currently seeing a harvest of new believers. In this nation it is said that in 2021 people professing Christ changed from a decline to 54% of adults professing Christ. In 2022 it was the same percentage, so it plateud but it didn’t decline, but in 2023 this nations saw 59% of adults profess Christ, in 2024 62% of adults, and in 2025 64% of adults professed faith in Jesus Christ. In 3 years that is a growth of 30 million new Christians. As I say those stats you might be thinking which nations this might be. China, Iran, somewhere in Africa. But no, it’s the US. Right now God is brining a harvest to places like Dallas and America even in the midst of extreme opposition and even darkness. In Dallas alone, we are have access to over 300,000 unreached people groups who are in our backyard, the population is booming, saying 478 people move to DFW every year.

Church it is our opportunity to take part in this great harvest. Let’s look at the three things that Matthew points out when the harvest is ready:

1.The Gospel is proclaimed and demonstrated in power

2.The Love Of God is On Display

3. Prayer Becomes Central

The Gospel In Power

Look with me at verse 35

“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.”

We need a renewed conviction that the Gospel is powerful:

Both in Truth & power. It is declaring and displaying.

This verse is a summary line of all that Jesus has been doing from 4:23. Notice what Matthew says Jesus’ ministry entailed. It says that he both proclaimed and He healed. If you look at the Gospels the word “teach” is mentioned 75 times. What Jesus is ensuring is that people are drawn to Him not simply because of a powerful experience, but because of the truth of the Gospel.

Jesus went at lengths to explain the good news of the kingdom to all different audiences, he preached, spoke parables, used OT prophecy, etc. The point here is that we will not reap a harvest unless we get the Gospel right.

In 2022 they did a survey of Evangelical Christians:

26% of Evangelical Christians believe that the Bible is a collection of myths and not literally true.

43% believe that Jesus was a great teacher but He was not God

56% believe that God accepts the worship of all religions the same as He does Christianity.

It’s no wonder that right now in our culture we have so many people who are confused about what the Gospel is. Does the Gospel equal christian nationalism? Does the Gospel equal social justice? Is the Gospel the American dream? Is the good news of Jesus moralism or legalism?

We have to get the Gospel right. Our CHRISTOLOGY MUST BECOME BEFORE OUR MISSIOLOGY

I know we live in Dallas where there can be a degree of familiarity with the Gospel. and it’s easy to assume that people already know the Gospel. But let me show what happens when we operate this way. One theologian put it that when we stop proclaiming the good news of the Gospel, then we assume it, once we assume it, that’s when the Gospel gets twisted, then once it’s twisted, the Gospel is lost in a culture. We can see this happening in various places around the world.

Tim Keller says that the minute we begin to “revise the Gospel, we reverse the Gospel.”

1 Corinthians 15:1–5 “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.”

Renewal and harvest does not come apart of the proclamation of the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Let us not assume that our neighbors know the Gospel. Let us not assume that everyone here in our churches know the Gospel.

Story of Greg in the airplane. “never heard something like that before

Not just in truth but in power.

Look at the all encompassing words here “all the cities and towns” and “every disease and affliction”

Cities and villages

Cities-these were enclosed places. This was the center(in most places) of people, influence, etc. This is where people wanted to be. This is where cultural elites would be. This is where business deals would be made. It was also a walled habitation. They had protection, it’s like a gated community.

But villages were different. Villages were backwater towns. They were made up of farmers, sheep herders, outcasts, these are places that were sometimes considered dangerous. They were not protected by an outside wall so they were often left exposed to pillaging and theft. These would be places where many of us would never move to. The place where gangs, hillbillys, or people who want to live off the grid want to live.

Christianity isn’t just for our HOA’s and gated neighborhoods, not just for the highland parks but for bonhams, for the ghettos and downtowns.

There were Gentile places and religious places. Here is what Matthew is showing us. There is not a place or a town, a city, or neighborhood that the Gospel can’t transform and change. There’s not a nation, a backwater town, a rough part of town that when Jesus and the Gospel show up can’t transform or change! The Gospel can change social elites, politicians, blue collar workers, the poor, the young and the old.It can change someone from Muskogee, Oklahoma, right here.

“The Scriptures are shallow enough for a babe to come and drink without fear of drowning and deep enough for a theologians to swim in without ever touching the bottom" St. Jerome”

In Sweden the most secular country in the world-leading edge of trans humanism. A news outlet asked this question at the beginning of the year, who would be the most influential voice in 2025? Would it be an author, an artist? They found that Jesus Christ would be the most influential voice in that nation in 2025

But not just every place. Look at what else:

“every affliction and every disease”

List out what had been healed

From 4:23, Matthew is showing his readers the power of Jesus to heal, the power of the Messiah over:

leprosy

suffering

sickness

demonic oppression multiple times

paralyzation

blindness

deaf

and even death itself

Some of these “had not been seen in Israel” yet

These were both physical diseases but also spiritual afflictions

There is no affliction, no disease, that Jesus can not heal. There is no malady in which the good news of the kingdom of God can’t heal and bring relief.

No place, no person beyond the power of the Gospel.

Healing? W&P stories?

Transition: But the Gospel taking root in our own lives, will produce fruit in our lives towards unbelievers.

Love Of God On Display

Matthew 9:36 “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

We might ask the question? What type of person is ripe for the harvest? What spiritual condition is one in to receive the Gospel? Well Matthew describes the state of humanity outside of Christ in two words:

Harassed and Helpless

The harvest includes those who are Harassed:

This word is a violent word. It means troubled. It’s a word that means someone has been preyed upon, literally that their skin had been flayed. They’ve been hurt, taken advantage of, and left to fend for themselves. Now as Matthew is writing his Gospel account, who in this context has done been the main perpetrator of these things? Look at Matthew 9:34 its the Pharisees.

Matthew is rebuking the religious leaders in this text. They have been the ones who have preyed upon the people of Israel. They were corrupt, instead of using ministry to build people they used people for their own gain.

Hear what God says about unfaithful shepherds in Ezekiel 34:8–10 “As I live, declares the Lord God, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.”

These religious leaders meant to display the character of God had instead fed themselves at the expense of God’s people.

I know I don’t have to say much to prove this, but our culture is growing increasingly troubled. Would you agree that much of what see lately is an increase in the oppression and harassment of society?

Within the last three weeks we’ve witnessed:

church shootings, school shootings, a public figure shot and killed, a girl stabbed on a bus.

This is no surprise, because this is the state of humanity apart from Christ. We have to understand this

We are harassed. We are troubled. And even though psychology may not want to admit it there as even darker and more sinister force that is influencing that trouble and oppression that we’ve seen over the last few months. It is a demonic oppression.

In America even as more people flock to therapy, U.S. mental health is getting worse by multiple metrics. Suicide rates have risen by about 30% since 2000. Almost a third of U.S. adults now report symptoms of either depression or anxiety, roughly three times as many as in 2019, and about one in 25 adults has a serious mental illness like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.

We are a troubled culture. The harvest includes people who are harassed. Jesus is coming for you just wait.

But it’s not that we are just harassed, we are also helpless:

No way of getting yourself out of it. Unbable to save, unable to cure whats gone wrong inside of us. And unable to do that for others.

It’s like being stuck in quicksand and the more you move, the more you try and get yourself out of it, the worse it gets.

And it is here at this state of humanity that we see Christ’s reaction. What is it? What is our normal response when we see this kind of ordeal in our country? I have to admit my first response does not resemble Jesus’ here.

See the worlds brokenness. The state of humanity apart from Christ draws out the compassion of Christ. I want you to see this. Our brokenness draws out the compassion of Christ.

When renewal comes God puts the love of Christ on display.

Dane Ortlund in Gentle and Lowly says that “our sin evokes His deepest heart, his compassion and pity”. Don’t miss this. This word is a deep word it is a description of the God man moving in pity towards the harassement and helplessness of humanity.

John 3:17 “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” There will be a time when Jesus comes again and it WILL be for judgment and it WILL be for the condemnation of the wicked, but now, He has come to save.

I’m not saying that Jesus condones sin, but what I am saying is that towards a broken and lost world His attitude is compassion.

Elie Wiesel who lived through the holocaust and saw the horrors of humanity said this:

The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of beauty is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”

When God is renewing a city He moves His church towards love towards the lost. Not stuck in unnecessary arguments, but speaking the truth in love towards those who don’t know Christ.

Compassion moves us towards the lost, not away.

As difficult as it can be, church, in the midst of a broken, dangerous, troubled society, Jesus looks out and says THE HARVEST IS PLENTIFUL. These are ripe for the Gospel. Church America is ripe for Gospel change. Now we see that our problem may not be lack of conviction, but lack of compassion. Do we care? Not an obedience problem, but a compassion problem.

Would the city of DFW say that one of the hallmark attitudes of the church is compassion? Not condoning, but compassion. To take part in this work, we are going to need the compassion of Jesus.

If you aren’t here yet, that’s okay. But where we start is not simply trying to be more like Jesus, but first reminding ourselves of the Gospel. That we too were in this helpless and harassed state. That you and I did not save ourselves, that we were “far from God and without hope in the world.” But Christ came, and moved in compassion towards me, towards you. Your brokenness brings out His compassion even more.

Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Think about this more

One pastor shares it well, how this muslim neighbor…….no one has ever cared for me like this before.

I just witnessed a son being baptized then getting back into the water and baptizing his catholic parents, through his patience and compassion towards their unbelief and hostility.

********The harvest was the most important time of year. Do we view this the same way? That the broken world is our harvest?

Prayer Becomes Central

Matthew 9:37–38 “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.”

Prayer becomes central.

The priority work of the harvest is not first going into the field but going into the closet.

Look at Jesus’ life, it is said that one of the major themes of Jesus’ life is the hidden place. It is Him going into the secret place to pray. He prayed for many things, at many times, even all night, and one prayer would have been for the Father to send more workers, to give Him more disciples.

Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

The early church was a prayer movement that resulted in effective evangelism, the planting of churches, and the transformation of the roman empire

Pray, and then pray some more.

One of our missionary units on the field recently told me that for 15 years since the’ve been in Japan they have set an alarm to 9:38 am and 10:02pm, and when that alarm goes off they pray for more laborers. More workers to be sent.

Jonathan Edwards, often known for his preaching, but his prayer life was even more significant, often spending hours in prayer, and God used him to bring about a mighty renewal across America.

The Moravians. You’ve heard of this possibly: In Herrnhut, the Moravian community famously kept a 24-hour prayer watch for 100+ years, with members taking turns so that prayer was literally continuous day and night. What was the result of that? one of the largest missions movement we’ve seen to this day. their motto was: “Prayer is the seed of missions.”

Why would we pray to the farm owner to send out more farm hands into the harvest?

Because we are not responsible to make the harvest happen, the Lord is. This is a call to dependence upon the Spirit. Recognizing that this work is not in our hands but in God’s.

Do we believe that the harvest is not just our hard work, our good arguments, but a work of the Holy Spirit. Prayer is not last resort, but first action.”

Where I currently serve at Northway Church, we have a once a month prayer and worship gathering on a Monday night yall(tomorrow night). No one wants to drive across Dallas on a Monday night, especially after having been at church the day before. But every month we have over 500 people, mostly young adults who are coming, seeking God, praying for the lost, for the nations, confessing sin and expressing gratitude to God. We belief that it will be through the prayers of these saints that God will do a mighty work among us.

Prayer becomes central because salvation is sure.

“The Lord of the harvest, into His harvest”

Matthew is showing that Jesus is Lord over the harvest. This is Jesus’ declaration in John 6:37 “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”

This is one of the most encouraging things in all of Scripture that God is sovereign over salvation. We can preach, we can plant churches, why? Because Jesus is saving. He is Lord over the Harvest.

J.I. Packer said: ““the doctrine of divine sovereignty doesn’t inhibit evangelism, but sustains it and gives us, the evangelists, the resilience we need to evangelize boldly and persistently”

If God was not sovereign over salvation than that would be a weight that would be too much for us to bear.

God is already working in the hearts of our neighbors, our teachers, our coworkers, our city. It’s not about the outcome but it’s about our obedience.

Right now God is saving. The harvest is plentiful:

Wall Street Journal did an article, a secular magazine, that reported that Bible sales are up among Gen-z because they are hungering for truth, the most frequent church goers are Gen-Zers, that right now in America 2 out of every 3 people are willing and wanting to have a spiritual conversation.

Just this last week I was at a soccer game and the ref just began to spill out his worries, his fears, crying in the middle of the field, and I was able to share and prayer with him.

At Northway we have a group of young adults who meet monthly of their own volition and go out and share the Gospel.

Time would fail me to tell you about the harvest that is taking place across the nations! That in Iran the most persecuted country in the world, is home to the fastest growing church in the world. That there are more people worshipping in China than in all of Europe, that in some of our partners in the Middle East muslims are having dreams about Jesus and coming to Christ, being discipled, and then being sent out and planting churches. One of our other partners who lead a church planting network in Japan. Just that name alone…church planting network in Japan should cause your ears to perk up. Because historically Japan has been a missionary graveyard, where 99% of the population is unreached. Well God has helped them to see 10 churches planted in 10 of the largest cities, and he just wrote to me and said, “Between 2009 and 2012, our network had 15 baptisms . But In September alone of this year, we had 15 baptisms.” They’ve seen God do in one month that took 3 years previously. Church the harvest is plentiful the Lord of the Harvest is moving!

But the laborers are few.

So it’s not just to pray, we have to go. We want to be sent.

We are going to spend just a few moments in consecration to the Lord. Let’s ask the Spirit to speak to us. Lord how can I participate in your harvest? What part do you want me to play?

Is it to stay and pray?

Is it to go? Is it to send?

So what can you do?

Remember: What God has done in you He wants to do through you.

Get the Gospel right. To the degree we can preach the Gospel to ourselves we will preach it to others.

Allow the Gospel to change your heart towards compassion towards the lost.

Finally have confidence in your prayers. God is hearing your prayers for this nation

Confidence that God is saving as you share.

What God has done in you He wants to do through you.