The Rotting Harvest

Jesus has compassion for your friends and family. You can’t say that you love Jesus, and not care about the things that He cares about.

A good place to start is to pray that God will give you compassion for others. Remove our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh, Dear Lord!

2. Pray for workers to be added to the field.

Jesus, seeing the crowds, turns to His disciples, His friends. In my own paraphrase, this is what He says: “There are too many. I can’t do it alone. And even though I appreciate your commitment to follow me and to be my disciple, the 12 of us can’t do it alone either. It’s just too much. So boys, I need you to be passionate about this with me. I need you to pray, and to pray hard, that our Father in heaven will raise up an army of laborers to work in this harvest.”

Notice that Jesus affirms that the harvest is ready, it is ripe. We do not need to pray for the harvest to ripen. I think for too long I have been praying for people to be open to the Gospel. But God is already doing that work in the hearts of individuals.

One of the lies the enemy has sold to us in this church is to believe that people aren’t interested anymore. We believe the harvest is past. The harvest is not ripe. We believe that people do not care anymore about God. We believe that no one is interested in becoming a Christian anymore.

When we believe that lie, we are in fact saying that God is failing to do His job. You see, it is God’s heart to seek and to save that which is lost. The Holy Spirit is constantly calling out to people. He is tugging at their hearts. He is using circumstances and events in their lives to create a hunger and a thirst for something they can’t provide for themselves. God has and is preparing the harvest.

The problem is not with the harvest. The problem is the lack of laborers. Harvesting is hard work. It is intense. It requires a total commitment.

Harvesting is done outside, not inside a building. You have to go where the crop is, out into the field. Harvesting requires a team effort. There are those who use the sickle to cut down the crop. There are those who gather the crop in bundles and baskets to bring to the storehouse. But everyone works together to make sure that the crop doesn’t rot on the fields. You don’t want to lose anything.

The Apostle John wrote this in John 4:35-38

Do you think the work of harvesting will not begin until the summer ends four months from now? Look around you! Vast fields are ripening all around us and are ready now for the harvest. The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! You know the saying, ’One person plants and someone else harvests.’ And it’s true. I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and you will gather the harvest."

There is so much joy in working together to bring in a harvest. Much of our American Fall culture center around those kinds of celebrations; square dances, and harvest festivals and thanksgiving dinners all celebrate the harvest work being accomplished. It is a time of tremendous hard work followed by a fullness of joy.