Getting Ready for the Harvest
August 10, 2002
As we approach our two-year anniversary I couldn’t help but praise God for what he has been doing here at NCC. I looked back through our records and was reminded about how lives have been touched here. Did you know since September 2000 to now we have increased our attendance 98%? Our attendance this past year has increased almost 33%. Our life group attendance has increased significantly too. In our two years of existence we have seen 26 people make commitments to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. 16 of those have come this year alone. Fifteen current members of NCC accepted Christ through our ministry here. Just this year alone we have baptized 11 people. We baptized three just last week. I praise God that both our budget and giving has increased since last year. We went on our very first mission trip experience this summer and had a fantastic time. Right now we have about 11 active ministries going.
But as I think about the thousands of people right here in our community who are still without a relationship with Jesus Christ it’s hard to get too excited about our progress. I am reminded that our work here is just getting started. Did you know that if every Bible believing church in Portland had 1000 people actively attending that there would still be people in our community without a church home? I do not know if you knew this but the number of unchurched people is growing every year. “Only 41% of Americans attend church services on a typical weekend. Each new generation becomes increasingly unchurched. Slightly over one half (51%) of the builder generation (born before 1946) attends church in a typical weekend. But only 41% of the boomers (born 1946-1964) and 34% of the busters (born 1965-1976) attend church on the weekend. The younger generation, the bridgers (born 1977-1994), indicates that only 30% attend church. (Surprising Insights from the Unchurched p. 33).
This should really open our eyes because 80% of people who accept Christ do so before the age of 20. This should sober us immensely but it also tells us how important ministry is to youth and children. So I say thank you to our youth minister and his leaders and all of you who serve our children week end and week out.
I don’t know about you all but I am praying that God would stir in our hearts the desire to see this school/church full of people who are brand new believers. Could God be preparing us to see reap a great harvest of new people reached for the gospel?
I would like to read a few verses from Matthew chapter 9 beginning in verse 35 through 38. READ.
I hope you see firstly in this passage that Jesus was never afraid to go where the people were! He went to their towns and villages and their synagogues. Understand we have been called to be in the world but not of it. So let’s make sure we are not secluding ourselves.
We need to remember that Jesus was in a context much like ours. It was a very spiritually in tune society. There were synagogues on every corner. Tons of religious rulers, priests, Pharasees and Sadduccees. And yet notice what it says: Jesus had compassion on them because he saw them as harassed and helpless. These people didn’t need another religious authority they needed a touch from the living God. I can imagine as Jesus traveled through the towns that he couldn’t get their faces off his mind (as if he wanted to anyway). The faces of the people he saw stirred his heart. The very word compassion means “to be moved in ones stomach with pity.”
ILLUSTRATION: Several years ago my sister in law’s father contacted me. He was dying of cancer and asked if I would visit him. He wanted to talk to me because he wanted to make sure he was right with God before he died. It was a bitter sweet visit because I had the joy of reassuring him that because he gave his heart to Jesus that he would be in heaven when he died. It was also difficult to see this weak, frail, sick man struggling just to breath. I was very sad to see his family just watching the one they love slowly pass away.
When is the last time you were moved with pity over someone…specifically because they do not have a relationship with Christ and the very thought of them dying and living separated from God and heaven for all eternity grieved your heart?
Let’s be honest again. That compassion does not come natural to us. We get so busy and so inward focused that we forget about the lost condition of man without Christ. As a church we must never lose this priority of reaching out to people and looking outward. We need to remember over and over again the people without Jesus are like sheep without a shepherd. The problem is, many who are without Christ don’t know it and do not care. They are comfortable and used to living a God-less life. You and I all know that eventually lost sheep wonder off into another pasture and/or get caught in a thicket. So, our need is to feel compassion because of their need.
People need Jesus all around us. They are harassed and helpless. But notice what Jesus says in verse 37: “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” The Living Bible says the harvest is great. So even though we are surrounded by people without Jesus, He tells us there is great potential for a harvest! Farming and harvesting was very important in the middle east (and is today). He is using the word harvest as a metaphor for people all around us who have the potential to be reached with the gospel. I hope you understand that the harvest is great and all around us. You may ask, where is the harvest?
There is potential harvest in your home. Did you know one of the greatest mission fields today is in our very homes? We need to understand how important of an impact family members are on one another. If you have an unbelieving spouse, parent or child I want you understand how much of an influence you can have on their lives.
There is a potential harvest in your workplace. Stop seeing your co-workers as just co-workers and see them as people in need of a touch from God.
There is potential in this community. As long as I am pastor here I want you to know that I will never stop talking about reaching our community. I will never stop talking about our purpose of reaching out to the unchurched. We have been called to be salt and light here.
There is a potential harvest in our world!
The harvest is great. But unfortunately the workers are few Jesus says. Did you know that only one person is reached for Christ for every 85 church members? That is the national average across this country. I don’t think it is because of shortage of workers but it is because of a shortage of available workers.
What does Jesus offer as a response to that? He challenged his disciples to ask the Lord—to pray for workers to be sent out into the harvest field.
There is something about prayer and reaching people that we cannot deny. The praying is not needed because of God’s unwillingness to send but because of man’s unwillingness to go. God is willing to do his part of drawing people to himself. Are we ready to bring in the harvest? Are we ready to share? Are we ready to disciple?
Let’s read Matthew 10:1. “He called his 12 disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.” This verse comes right after his exhortation to the disciples to pray for workers. In other words when one prays for the harvest he in some way becomes a harvester and may be among those sent. Don’t pray “Lord, touch our world with the gospel” if you aren’t in some way willing to be used to make that happen.
When I think about all the lost here in this community it can be overwhelming. Yet I am filled with hope because we can see a harvest of people right here! Imagine for a moment this school being filled with 100 more people or 200 more people. These people are not members from other churches but these people are a part of the harvest of new believers. Imagine us having to scramble around trying to find enough chairs for everyone to sit in. Imagine your family member who you have been praying for sitting next to you in church. Imagine us having baptism services every week!
Do you see the harvest? It’s ready to be harvested. But are you ready? Is your heart stirred with compassion? Are you ready to make a commitment to pray daily for the harvest? Are you making yourself available to the Lord to be used? Are you ready to be equipped to share the gospel? I have a commitment card in your seat that I want to draw your attention to. I am calling you to make a commitment. A commitment to be a part of the harvest.
There are several things I am asking you tonight. You may be willing to commit to all of them, one of them or none of them. But I ask you to look in your heart. I am asking you to commit to:
· Spend time every day praying for those who do not have a relationship with Jesus.
· Tell at least one person about Jesus Christ in the next two months
· Invite at least 5 unchurched people to our worship service before the end of the month
· Be equipped to effectively share the good news of Jesus Christ
Please sign the card and put it in the basket on your way out.
Let me close with this story about what God did 130 years ago in NYC. It illustrates how God has started every harvest time in history, through the concerted prayer of his people. Toward the middle of the last century the glow of earlier religious awakenings had faded. America was prosperous and felt little need to call on God. But in the 1850s …Secular and religious conditions combined to bring about a crash. The third great panic in American history swept the giddy structure of speculative wealth away. Thousands of merchants were forced to the wall as banks failed, and railroads went into bankruptcy. Factories were shut down and vast numbers thrown out of employment. New York City alone having 30,000 idle men. In October 1857, the hearts of people were thoroughly weaned from speculation and uncertain gain, while hunger and despair stared them in the face. On 1st July, 1857, a quiet and zealous business man named Jeremiah Lanphier took up an appointment as a City Missionary in down-town New York. Lanphier was appointed by the North Church of the Dutch Reformed denomination. This church was suffering from depletion of membership due to the removal of the population from the down-town to the better residential quarters, and the new City Missionary was engaged to make diligent visitation in the immediate neighbourhood with a view to enlisting church attendance among the floating population of the lower city. The Dutch Consistory felt that it had appointed an ideal layman for the task in hand, and so it was. Burdened so by the need, Jeremiah Lanphier decided to invite others to join him in a noonday prayer-meeting, to be held on Wednesdays once a week. He therefore distributed a handbill:
HOW OFTEN SHALL I PRAY?
As often as the language of prayer is in my heart; as often as I see my need of help; as often as I feel the power of temptation; as often as I am made sensible of any spiritual declension or feel the aggression of a worldly spirit. In prayer we leave the business of time for that of eternity, and intercourse with men for intercourse with God. A day Prayer Meeting is held every Wednesday, from 12 to 1 o’clock, in the Consistory building in the rear of the North Dutch Church, corner of Fulton and William Streets (entrance from Fulton and Ann Streets). This meeting is intended to give merchants, mechanics, clerks, strangers, and business men generally an opportunity to stop and call upon God amid the perplexities incident to their respective avocations. It will continue for one hour; but it is also designed for those who may find it inconvenient to remain more than five or ten minutes, as well as for those who can spare the whole hour.
Accordingly at twelve noon, 23rd September, 1857 the door was opened and the faithful Lanphier took his seat to await the response to his invitation …. Five minutes went by. No one appeared. The missionary paced the room in aconflict of fear and faith. Ten minutes elapsed. Still no one came. Fifteen minutes passed. Lanphier was yet alone. Twenty minutes; twenty-five; thirty; and then at 12.30 p.m., a step was heard on the stairs, and the first person appeared, then another, and another, and another, until six people were present and the prayer meeting began. On the following Wednesday, October 7th, there were forty intercessors. Thus in the first week of October 1857, it was decided to hold a meeting daily instead of weekly …. Within six months, ten thousand business men were gathering daily for prayer in New York, and within two years, a million converts were added to the American churches ….
Undoubtedly the greatest revival in New York’s colourful history was sweeping the city, and it was of such an order to make the whole nation curious. There was no fanaticism, no hysteria, simply an incredible movement of the people to pray.
Is there a Jeremiah Lanphier among you? (Taken from the sermon, “Prayer At Harvest Time: Now” by John Piper. 1982 www.desiringgod.org 888-346-4700)
