“THE HARVEST IS PLENTIFUL” Matthew 9:35-38
FBCF – 11/9/25
Jon Daniels
INTRO – Article: 5 yrs ago, Penny was a 1 yr-old chihuahua that belonged to the Taylor family here in MS something happened & Penny went missing. As a dog-lover, I know that was a sad tragedy for that family. But after 5 long years, Penny was found in Deland, FL, hundreds of miles from her true home. Someone picked her up, took her to the county animal shelter, & a quick scan of the microchip that had been implanted 5 yrs earlier changed everything for Penny & for the Taylors. A road trip to FL reunited the slightly fatter dog w/ her overjoyed family. She was lost, but now she’s found! What wonderful words!
Over 250 yrs ago, there was an Englishman named Isaac Newton. Had lived a hard life – mother died when he was 6 yrs old – didn’t have any type of religious convictions growing up – pressed into service in the Royal Navy, from which he tried to desert – abandoned by his crew in West Africa & forced to be a servant to a slave trader, but was rescued. On his voyage back to England, a violent storm hit & the ship nearly sank. It was during this storm that Newton cried out to the Lord to save him. Became a slave trader himself, but soon realized that this brutal profession was not something he should be involved in. So he walked away from it & wholeheartedly committed himself to serving the Lord & became an Anglican priest & tirelessly worked to abolish the African slave trade. Became a very popular preacher & hymn writer – wrote over 280. And one of them says this:
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind but now I see.”
What wonderful words! Lost, but found!
It’s our desire that those words will describe lots & lots of people in this church today & in the days to come. For that to happen, there must be an atmosphere of evangelism in this place.
- Must have a heart for evangelism, a passion to see lost people saved
- Must have a true desire to see our vision statement lived out all the time.
“First Baptist Flora is making much of Jesus by being a people & a place of GRACE where anyone can meet Jesus & grow in their relationship with Him.”
- Must TRULY make much of JESUS!
- Must TRULY be a people & a place of GRACE!
- Must TRULY desire for ANYONE to come here & meet Jesus & grow in their relationship w/ Him!
We can’t just talk about it. We can’t just recite it at the end of our worship services. We can’t just agree w/ it mentally, but not do anything about it experientially. Our lives individually & corporately must be MARKED by a deep-seated, Biblically-based, Spirit-driven passion to see the lost saved, baptized, & discipled – children, youth, college students, adults of all ages, people from all walks of life – the ANYONES of our community & world coming to Jesus in this place!
- Blaze Christian Fellowship last Sunday AM: All types of people – some wearing baseball caps, at least 2 men wearing cowboy hats, a lady weaing a cowboy hat on front row, some people drinking coffee (church has a coffee bar in foyer), a girl w/ her midriff showing, 3 teenage girls sitting right in front of me: one w/ green hair, one w/ brown & black, & one w/ pink & orange (cut up all during service), older folks, younger folks, blacks, whites, Hispanics, native Americans, some wearing ripped blue jeans, some wearing “church clothes,” a Chicago Bears sweatshirt.
Why are we building a 700-seat sanctuary? Not so we will be more comfortable – not so we can brag about having a brand-new paid-off building – not so folks will “ooh” & “aah” about how beautiful the building will be – We are building that sanctuary b/c we believe that there are hundreds & thousands more people who need to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ & be saved – people who are lost & need to be found! Imagine 2 yrs from now, 3 yrs from now, 5 yrs from now seeing 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 1800, 2000 people gathering on this campus each weekend in multiple services, worshiping Jesus, hearing the Gospel proclaimed, trusting Jesus as their Savior, & being eternally transformed from being lost to being found! Don’t you want to be a part of a church like that? A church that is passionately making much of JESUS, prioritizing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, & purposefully making disciples of those who were lost but now are found.
APPLICATION – First Baptist Flora is going to go after those who are lost. Are you with us?
Who are these people who are lost but WILL be found?
EXPLANATION – Matthew 9:35-38
HARASSED – When someone is being harassed, there’s someone or something else involved that is doing the harassing. When you hear some of the synonyms for the word “harass”, it becomes even more clear: hassle, heckle, hound, intimidate, persecute, pester, tease, torment. All of those are things that a person does to another person to harass them. Sometimes it can be pretty benign & harmless – friends just goofing around w/ each other, playing tricks on a coworker or spouse. Other times, harassment has life-altering consequences – article this wk of radical Islamic military forces attacking churches & killing Christians in Sudan. In spite of the persecution, Baptist pastor: “We are not leaving, regardless of the fighting. We cannot wait for peace. We must bring peace.”
Jesus’ compassion for the crowds meant He was moved deep inside w/ a gut-level pity & sympathy for them. It’s more than just feeling sorry for someone, like you might feel when you pass a homeless person in downtown Jackson & keep on driving. This compassion moved Him to action b/c of the harassment the crowds were under – harassment from religious leaders who were trying to lead them away from Jesus – harassment from oppressive Roman gov’t. And while this harassment may have come from human hands, it was torment that was coming from Satan himself as he worked to keep them in their spiritual blindness so they would not realize that Jesus was the Messiah who had come to seek & save them & snatch them out of Satan’s grip. The Gk word literally means “skinned alive” & that’s what Satan was doing to them. And that’s what he is STILL doing to lost people.
HELPLESS – The feeling of helplessness is a terrible feeling. See it a lot as a firefighter – elderly person who has fallen & can’t get themselves off the floor, or a critically ill person who can’t breathe well or take care of themselves. Their state of helplessness brings great sadness to them. It’s a constant reminder to them of how broken & needy & desperate they are.
Gk: “to throw to the ground, to be cast aside.” Satan whispers his lies into the ears of the helpless lost person & says, “You don’t matter to anyone. Your life doesn’t count for anything. You are worthless, broken, & beyond help & repair.” He was speaking those lies to the crowds who were coming to Jesus then, & he’s still speaking those lies to lost people today.
HOPELESS – A sheep that does not have a shepherd is a hopeless animal. It’s an animal that will wander off into dangerous territory – maybe even over the side of a cliff to its death. It’s an animal that will starve to death or die of thirst. It’s an animal that that will be attacked & devoured by a predator. Simply put: A sheep w/out a shepherd has no hope of survival at all. It is doomed.
These crowds may not have known that they were coming to the one who actually is the good Shepherd who would lay down His life for them – the good Shepherd who would stand between them & the ultimate predator, Satan – the good Shepherd who would give them the gift of eternal life & hold them forever in His hand. But that’s exactly who Jesus was to them. And that’s exactly who He is to lost people today.
CONCLUSION – (pics of cotton fields) Harvest time in the MS Delta is a special time. John 4:35 – “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.”
“When the fields are “white” for harvest, it means they are “ripe” or “ready” to be harvested.” GNT – “ripe & ready for harvest.” It’s true that Jesus wasn’t looking at a cotton field in the MS Delta but was looking at some sort of grain field. “When grain is fully sprouted & in peak condition for gathering, it approaches the color of white. A ripe grainfield looks like a sea of white.” (https://www.gotquestions.org/fields-are-white-for-harvest.html)
But whether it was grain or cotton, the principle is the same. And the principle that Jesus was teaching is that the time to bring people into the K of G is RIGHT NOW! There’s an urgency to our mission! We can’t wait around twiddling our thumbs & consuming our time & energy on inconsequential issues. Jesus told His disciples in v. 37-38 – “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.”
Look at this pic (show cotton field). THIS is what the lost world looks like right now. And NOW is the time for you & me to go into that field & begin to harvest.
Next Sunday - our Harvest Day w/ Bob Pitman - CAN’T be business as usual.
- You’re not harassed so go find someone who is & get them here
- You’re not helpless…
- You’re not hopeless…
