How Can We Multiply the Harvest?
Notes
Transcript
I want to begin today by asking you a simple question.
Why are We on Planet Earth?
Why are We on Planet Earth?
Jesus gave us two foundational mandates to this question. They are both found in the book of Matthew. The first one is found in chapter 22 and the second one is found in chapter 28. I will read both of them to you and then I will explain what the mandates are.
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Now go to the last chapter of Matthew, chapter 28.
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
The first mandate is known as the Great Commandment. We are to LOVE. This is who we become and who we are.
The second mandate is known as the Great Commission. That is what we DO because we love.
The first is LOVE. Who we become and who we are.
The second is DO. What we do because we love.
You have two reasons to be on this earth and nothing else matters. Sure while you are here to can accumulate other accomplishments but everything boils down to 2 things.
You were created to Love God and Loving others. And You were created to do what God has told you to do - make disciples. Because God loved us and saved us. And God loves people and people matter to God. And if people matter to God then they should matter to us.
Let me give you a stat to think about today.
Each year, about 17 million people die and go into eternity without hearing about a Heavenly Father who loves them.
Each year, about 17 million people die and go into eternity without hearing about a Heavenly Father who loves them.
Break it down this way.
46,575 people per day, 1,940 per hour, 32 per minute, and about one every two seconds!
46,575 people per day, 1,940 per hour, 32 per minute, and about one every two seconds!
It is time that we stop thinking and acting like everybody has heard the gospel message that God loves you and sent His son Jesus to die for you. Because not everyone has heard the message.
This should set off alarms in our heads. This is the worst human crisis on earth. Many of these people have never even met a Christian. And yet, the very last words of Jesus in Acts 1:8 promise the exact opposite!
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
We can not think of missions lightly any more. People are dying without ever hearing the gospel message and that should be something that alarms us.
Jesus told his disciples
Matthew 9:37–38 (NIV)
37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
The word translated “send out” in the Greek actually means “to eject, cast out, drive out, or expel.” That means we are to intercede on behalf of the nations. Believers need to get out of their comfort zones and into service and ministry to others.
Jesus gave us a parable that we need to apply to our life. It is found in Mark 4:8.
3 “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed.
4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.
5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.
6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.
7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain.
8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”
The lesson of this parable is easy to interpret—the yield depends on the quality of the soil. That’s what we’ve always heard, right? Yet, if you notice, the good soil was pretty much all the same. Jesus made not distinction in its quality or its preparation. Yet, even in the good soil, the harvest varied. Jesus said,
8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.
What made the difference? Why did some seeds reproduce thirty times, while other seeds reproduced one hundred times?
This question is what the focus of this series will be for the next several weeks. God makes this world’s spiritual harvest fields ripen at the correct time. He asks us to participate int he process of clearing obstacles, sowing seeds, and bringing in the crops. In that process, we can hasten or slow the rate at which we are accomplishing the task our Lord gave us—the task of taking the gospel of His kingdom to every people group in the world.
In biblical days, people farmed by sheer muscle and willpower. They cleared fields, tilled soil, planted see, harvested crops, and prepared grain—all by hand. In some regions of the world, people still farm this way. But in industrialized nations, modern machinery, fertilizers, hybrid seeds, and irrigation systems have dramatically increased the yield of each acre.
You and I must willingly follow this example. We need to quit patting ourselves on the back for our thirtyfold harvest and start looking to harvest a hundredfold yield. We must rethink some of our basic ideas about taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. Just as farmers have increased their yield by accepting and using new technology, so we too need to be willing to advance to new methodologies. We need to examine and evaluate our methods and open our hearts to new patterns of thinking. We need to make some strategic power shifts.
If we want to experience an exponential release of God’s power, we need to get a handle on His design. God reminds us of something in Isaiah 55:8.
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.
We must tune in to His thoughts and His ways if we are to accomplish anything that really matters for eternity.
If the church is ever going to bring completion to the Great Commission we must enlarge our vision to accept God’s thoughts on missions.
Remember God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. So, how do we produce God’s thoughts and ways into our life and the life of our church.
1. Prophetic Vision: Seeing What God Sees
1. Prophetic Vision: Seeing What God Sees
Many of you are probably familiar with the verse in Proverbs chapter 29.
18 Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint; but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction.
What this verse literally means is: “Without a continuous redemptive revelation of God’s will, the people of God are allowed to go without direction and are wasting away.”
The bottom line is, without a clear, ongoing understanding of God’s redemptive nature—a vision of God, what He is doing in our world and our covenant relationship with Him—we lack direction. Without that continuous vision that helps us connect with what He sees and feels, we will waste away.
If we are to avoid being lost in that kind of wasteland, we must study God’s Word and listen to the Holy Spirit. This is how we maintain a clear vision of His redemptive nature and a clear understanding of His priorities for ministry.
2. Biblical Wisdom from the Word and the Spirit
2. Biblical Wisdom from the Word and the Spirit
Everyone of you needs to know that the Holy Spirit is the one that births every strategic power shift. We produce them only as we engage ourselves with God and move in partnership with Him, accepting His strategic direction.
When you study God’s Word to gain God’s wisdom, we become what Scripture calls an “expert builder” or “master builder.”
10 Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful.
The term “expert builder” in the original Greek is sophos architekton. This is where we get our word for “architect.” An “expert builder” is one who is competent in his profession and applies wisdom and skill to his task.
In the spiritual realm, we replace human wisdom and skill with scripture and with God’s guidance. The “expert builder” is like the Apostle Paul. He was a believer who saw what the Father was doing by the Word and by the Spirit, and he governed his life and made decisions based on the knowledge and wisdom he gained from that relationship. This is a spiritual skill.
3. Comprehensive Understanding and Insight
3. Comprehensive Understanding and Insight
Biblical vision and wisdom enable us to see the big picture of God’s will, thus giving birth to comprehensive understanding and insight.
9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,
The word translated as “understanding” is the Greek word sunesis, which means “putting pieces together like a puzzle.” This is the critical factor that enables an individual to intelligently assess a situation.
We need to seek that kind of sunesis and apply God’s contemporary wisdom with an understanding fo the big picture. We need to see the forest, not just the trees. We need to move beyond our own little corner of the harvest field and gain an understanding of God’s plan for the entire farm or world.
We must watch trends on a worldwide basis and seek God’s wisdom for how we can exploit them for His glory. We must understand that He is orchestrating the world scene to accomplish His goals because He is heading toward the completion of the Great Commission.
4. Increased Productivity from Spiritual Resources
4. Increased Productivity from Spiritual Resources
As we begin to put these strategic power shifts into practice in our church over the next few months, they should produce an exponential multiplication of the numbers of people finding Christ. Power shifts allow us to discover new ways to use our spiritual resources and to move from the thirtyfold harvest to the hundredfold harvest.
Missing a power shift can actually drop us to a lower level of inertia or even to regression. This type of power shift is a regressive slide.
Did you know that the space shuttle will burn more fuel at lift-off than it will in traveling one million miles through space? That’s because, as it accelerates away from the launch pad, it must overcome inertia and gravity.
The same is true in our spiritual lives. We said earlier that the literal translation of Proverbs 29:18 implies that we must have a continuous redemptive vision of God. That vision must be the source of our spiritual momentum, it enables us to avoid regressing and wasting away.
So, let me close this morning with this. Most of you have probably heard the phrase, “For such a time as this...” This comes from the book of Esther, when Mordecai convinced her to act as mediator on behalf of the Jewish people, who were facing annihilation at the hands of Haman. Look at the story.
13 he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape.
14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
So, what about us? Are we not
1 Peter 2:9 (NIV)
9 ...chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession...
for such a time as this?
In other words, just like the Jewish population faced extermination in that day, so in our day millions of individuals all over the world are spiritually perishing. How many of us have the same feelings that Mordecai cautioned Esther against? perhaps we wrongly feel safe because we live in the comparative physical and spiritual wealth of the Western world. In a similar situation, Mordecai reminded Queen Esther that security does not automatically come because of where we live.
Security, however, is found in obedience to the revealed Word of God. If we refuse to obey, God will raise up another who will do as He requires. All tribes and nations will be represented in heaven, for God has promised it in
14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
We do not want to miss an opportunity to do our part to reach not just those in our community that have not heard the gospel message but we also want to do our part to reach those in the United States and around the world. God is raising up individuals to go into all the world and God is raising up individuals with the resources to help those to go into all the world. I want this church to do their part and I want to do my part as well.
For the next several weeks we are going to look at 5 strategic power shifts that I believe will help provide the fuel to launch you and our church into a fresh power shift of harvest.