HARVEST TIME IS HERE!
Matthew 24:32-34, "Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled."
Have you noticed something different lately? We have entered into the fall of the year. It’s a time of the year when many of us are happy to see the heat of the summer come to an end and we welcome the cooler temperatures. It’s a time of the year when we can hear the roar of the crowds in the stands at a football game and it’s a time when we get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving. The Holiday Season is just a few weeks away and it won’t be long until this year passes into the pages of history and a new one rises upon the scene.
We can feel the difference in the air itself. We can see the leaves begin to fall and the colors of summer give way to the colors of fall. Pumpkins, Louisiana Satsuma oranges, and harvesting time is here.
Just yesterday I had a first hand experience in the process of the harvest. I was invited to watch and be a part of the harvesting of sugar cane on a 2600 acre farm across the river in White Castle, Louisiana. It was an educational process that I won’t forget. I’ve seen the trucks filled with harvested cane traveling down the highways but I’ve never been in the fields, nor have I ever seen the entire manufacturing process from planting the cane to the finished product. It was very interesting and educational.
The whole process reminds me of the fact that this world is getting ready for the harvest time as well. It won’t be long until Jesus comes to begin the final process of separating the sheep from the goats.
As I was told of the seeding and planting of the cane, sometimes by hand and sometimes by machine, I was reminded of the fact that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is planted in the hearts and lives of men through many avenues. For some, the gospel comes to them through a one-on-one witness from a friend, or an acquaintance. This is compared to the planting by hand, one seed, one sprout, one at a time. It’s an effective process but God has also chosen other methods to spread his gospel.
In our day and time, the one-by-one method of planting has been enhanced by the arrival of TV, radio, satellite dishes and the Internet, which have become very effective tools in the hands of God’s people to spread the gospel in a faster and more effective manner. Multitudes of people can hear the message at the same time and who can know the number of those seeds of the gospel that have been planted? Only God knows how many have been reached in the large crusades and broadcasted preaching of the gospel.
Just as many of the seeds planted by the machines are wasted and those seeds don’t produce a part of the harvest, I know that a lot of the broadcasting of the gospel over the airwaves falls upon deaf ears. But there is one difference we must note.
God says that His Word would never return void but will accomplish what it was meant to do. In every case, the message of the gospel is preached and that’s God’s purpose in the broadcast. Every time that Word goes forth, men must make a choice – to accept that Word and surrender to Christ, or to harden their hearts against it one more time.
I noticed that, in one section of the fields that we visited, there was a lot of rice planted as food for the crawfish that were being raised for market. I was reminded of the Parable of the Sower, as I watched thousands of birds land in those fields and steal rice seed from the stalks before it could accomplish what it was meant to do.
As the gospel goes forth, either by hand, or by some greater broadcasting method, the seed is planted, but Satan and his cohorts are standing by to steal that seed as quickly as it is planted and the sad fact is that most people are all too willing to allow the devil to take it from them because they don’t want to hear it in the first place. They like living for their own desires and they have no time for the God that they will face in eternity to answer for their refusal to accept Christ as their Savior.
Between the planting of the seed and the time of the harvest there is a long period where the growth happens. Whether the harvest will be great or lacking depends upon what happens during this season of growth. The rain, wind, temperature and the effects of insects and weeds all take their toll. Too much or too little of anything and the harvest is greatly affected.
Life, as we live it day by day, is that time of growth. Even though Jesus describes life as a vapor, that appears only for a short time and then vanishes away, as he looks at our life through the perspective of eternity, to us it is a long journey. To those of us who use sugar, or syrup, we don’t think of the process it takes to get those products to us, we are concerned so much of how much the cane has to go through, or how much work, time and energy it takes to produce those things for us. We just enjoy the finished product.
But God is involved in the whole process of life. He just doesn’t plant the seed then sit back and wait for His Bride, the church, to come to him. He is in our lives, every hour, every day, every step of the way, making sure that we become useful and profitable servants to do his will.
Right now, the season of harvest has come for the cane fields of South Louisiana. If you were to visit those fields you would see the harvesters at work, going non-stop, almost 24 hours a day to keep the sugar mills working. 20 or 25, 30 ton truckloads of harvested cane drive into the mills every day from the one field that I visited and I don’t know how many more fields are doing the same thing. That one mill produces over 3 million pounds of sugar every day so that each of us can bake our pies and cakes for the holidays and put sugar into our coffee or tea.
I am reminded of John 4:35-36 where Jesus says, “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together."
I believe that we are not only in the days of harvest for the crops that we depend upon for food, but we are in the days of harvest for men’s souls. God’s seed has been planted and the growing time is passed – it’s time for the harvest and if the church doesn’t reach out and bring in the souls that are ripe, they will be lost to the elements of sin and of this world forever, for eternity.
As I spoke to the young man who owned and managed the cane farm and all of it’s operations, one of the things that he said to me was that it was a hard thing to find people that he could count on to do the work of the harvest. It wasn’t a high paying job. No highly educated skills were necessary to run the equipment or to manage the work. But it does take someone who loves what his does and is willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done.
I believe that Jesus knows exactly what that young man was experiencing for He said in Matthew 9:37-38, "… The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest."
One experience that I will never forget is riding in the combine as it reaped the harvest of the sugar cane and deposited it into the large hoppers pulled by a tractor that rolled along side the combine.
The front of that combine was built in such a manner that it would lift even that sugar cane that had been battered, beaten down and lay upon the ground so that none would be left behind. It would lift up the cane stalks, push them inside where they would be cut even with the ground, then cut into small pieces about 10 inches long and then fed into a large bowl where the huge fans would separate the cane from the leaves and grass. Out front of the combine was a large boom, or arm, that had some revolving blades on it to cut the top of the leaves off and leave only the stalk to go into the combine.
This machine spoke volumes to me concerning the reaping of souls that is coming soon upon this earth.
As I watch God’s people go about their daily lives, I see a lot of them that are battered by the storms of life. Sometimes they are knocked down, heavily burdened, and to the world, they seem to be dead and useless. But God sees them so differently.
As I talked to the young man that was driving the combine he told me that it was often a good sign that the sugar cane was lying close to the ground and not just standing tall. He told me that the standing cane often did not have the sweetness that the cane did that was lying down. That cane that lay upon the ground had produced more inside and because of its heaviness could not rise again. As long as it was still rooted well, and didn’t get ruined by the elements, it would continue to grow until harvest and would be the better part of the harvest.
I am reminded that God knows what we are facing as we live this life. We are not to be overcome with fear and anxiety but we are to stay rooted and grounded in him by faith and to let the Word of God grow in us and the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth, no matter what our circumstances are.
So what if we get knocked down, stay rooted and grow sweeter in the Spirit of the Lord. So what if we can’t stand tall and look as pleasant to the world and to all the shallow church people who can only see the outside and not the heart. God looks upon the heart and He is our judge. Whenever life deals you a blow that puts you on your face or your knees before God, that’s when you really begin to grow. If we just stay faithful, God will not leave us behind. He knows those that are his and he will be faithful to bring us in.
As the combine cut the cane and ran it through the machine, all of the leaves were blown off by a powerful wind produced by the two separate fans inside. Very little was left on the cane as it went to the hopper. Most of the leaves, dust, weeds and useless materials were left behind to go back into the ground and become a sort of fertilizer for the next crop.
I can see the hand of the Lord in the lives of men and women of God as the powerful wind of the Holy Ghost blows away the chaff of sin from their lives. That mighty rushing wind than came on the Day of Pentecost is still blowing today. It’s blowing away the chaff from your life. It’s blowing away every little weight and sin that can so easily become a part of your life. It’s separating you from the cares of this life to prepare you for the world to come. It’s making you into a useful vessel that is ready for the Kingdom of God.
When the harvested cane was put into the mill there was a long, hard process that began to further separate and extract the sugar. First there was a conveyor that picked it up and through a series of 5 separate milling processes it was ground into a fine pulp. All of the excessive materials, leaves, stalks and everything else but that part which would produce the sugar was blown away again to become a part of the waste materials that was used to fire the boilers to produce steam making the entire millworks self sufficient in producing it’s own energy to run.
One milling process after another continued until out the far end came nothing but crushed, finely ground sugar cane.
Then it went through a chemical vat that mixed a coagulant to cause all of the dirt and mud to settle to the bottom, then through a final washing and filtering process to remove the mud and dirt. If you had seen that process you might not want to eat sugar anymore.
Can you see the Lord dealing with his people in all of this process? Have you felt as though you have been “through the mill” time and time again as God is removing everything from your life that would hinder your walk with him? Have you seen some of the filth of sin being removed by God’s milling process? Are you allowing him to remove your sin, or will you have to go back through that milling process over and over again until your stubborn will is finally broken and the separation is complete?
When I saw the mud that come from the sugar cane and I smelled the sickening sweet odors of that mud I was reminded of the fact that God looks upon the heart of his children and often feels the same way.
He knows what is in us that shouldn’t be there. The stench of sin and its powerful effect upon our lives is beyond description. God hates sin, but he loves us so much that he would not cast us aside. His blood washes away our sin and makes us into something sweet and wonderful for his own purposes. He calls us out, separates us from the world and makes us into a new creation, a new man, without the filth of the world upon us. Praise God for his power and love.
On went the process of separating, heating, cooling and testing the sugar. Watching it crystallize to the right consistency, checking time and again for clarity, keeping the pressure up, running it though a separating vat known as a centrifugal, and conveyor after conveyor until out the far end of the mill came pure sugar that we each took a little of and ate right off of the pile that fell on the ground.
God is taking us through the mill right now. The milling, purifying, washing and continuous moving process will never end until we cross over into eternity. Life itself is just one long purifying and preparation time. God takes us and crystallizes our spirit into being a part of his family. He constantly cleanses us, every time we go to him and ask for forgiveness. His Word is ever washing us and keeping us separated from the filth of this present world as we live in obedience to him.
Each time we come out of our trials and tests victoriously, we are just a littler sweeter, a little closer to being what God wants us to become. At the end of our journey through the mill of life we will conveyed into the presence of the Lord by his Holy Angels or we will be caught up together with Jesus in the clouds to be ever with him. What a day that will be!
That will be a wonderful time for all of us who are ready to meet Jesus when he comes, but what about those who aren’t ready? What will their end be?
Do you remember what I said about the mill being self-sustaining in producing its own steam power to run?
The waste materials, rejected cane, separated chaff all becomes a part of the fuel to burn in the boilers.
All of those who refuse to surrender their lives to Jesus, or who turn their backs on him to go back into the world are fit for nothing except for the fire.
Do you remember the words of John the Baptist in Matthew 3:11-12, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
God knows those that are his. He will separate those who live for him and bring them home to Heaven with him. But in that harvest, every soul shall be reaped. Those who aren’t ready will be cast forever into the pits of the Lake of Fire to spend eternity in that awful place of torment.
The one big difference in what happened to that waste material at the sugar mill and what happens to those who are cast into the Lake of Fire is this.
In the sugar mill all of the waste is immediately turned to ash and deposited in mounds for reuse as a prime fertilizer for gardens, but in the Lake of Fire, the soul will burn forever and never die or be released.
Mark 9:44 speaks of that Lake of Fire and talks about those who will go there in this fashion, "…Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."
By their worm is meant, their conscience. For as a worm that is continually gnawing upon the inside of a man gives him constant and terrible pain; so the consciences of sinners, will be continually flying in their faces, bringing their sins to remembrance, accusing them of those sins again and again, accusing them with them, aggravating them, tormenting them for their sin, filling them with terrible anguish and misery, with stinging remorses, and reflections upon every failure to heed the call of God, and all of which will never have an end. Forever and ever their conscience will be ever distressing, racking, and torturing them. It will never cease for eternity!
As I close this message let me ask you this question. Are you being put through the mill by God to become sweeter and sweeter as the days go by, or, are you still in the field waiting for the time of harvest to be cast into the fire, or cast aside as waste material.
We can look around us and know that the harvest season is in full swing in the agricultural realm, but we had better also note that the harvest is already happening for the souls of men as well.
We are nearing the end of the Church Age. The last days of Satan’s reign of terror on this world is coming quickly. Fall will give way to winter and the harvest will be finished.
In the world of agriculture preparations will be underway for a new season of planting but in the realms of God’s dealing with man, this harvest will be the last harvest. Time will be no more. There will be no more seasons, no more time for harvest. The ultimate destination of every man will have been sealed forever.
Where will you be in that day?
Make yourself ready by surrendering your life to Jesus and allowing him to be the Lord of your life. Confess him as your Savior. Begin your journey through life’s mill with God, he will carry you through and your eternal life will be sweeter than you could ever imagine.
Disclaimer:
Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording, including sermon titles, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these sermons. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copied and/or quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Pastor James May
