The Fields, White with the Harvest.
“In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, ‘Rabbi, eat.’
But He said to them, ‘I have food to eat of which you do not know.’
Therefore the disciples said to one another, ‘Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?’
Jesus said to them, ‘My; food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. Do you not say, ‘there are still four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white with harvest!’ And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true,’ One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labors.’”
John 4:33-38
From a recent senior’s publication: A minister waited in line to have his car filled with gas just before a long holiday weekend. The attendant worked quickly, but there were many cars ahead of him. Finally, the attendant motioned him toward a vacant pump. “Reverend,” said the young man, “I’m so sorry about the delay. It seems as if everyone waits until the last minute to get ready for a long trip.” The minister chuckled, “I know what you mean. It is the same in my business.”
As a prelude to today’s message, I want us to meditate on the words from an old hymn…”I Stretch My Hands to Thee” by Charles Wesley.
Father, I stretch my hands to Thee;
No other help I know;
If Thou withdraw Thyself from me,
Ah! Whither shall I go?
What did Thine only Son endure,
Before I drew my breath!
What pain, what labor, to secure
My soul from endless death!
Surely Thou canst not let me die;
O speak, and I shall live;
And here I will unwearied lie,
Till thou Thy Spirit give.
Author of faith! To Thee I lift
My weary, longing eyes;
O let me now receive that gift!
My soul without it dies. Amen.
The main philosophy of the church today seems to be “We know what we are to do; it has been God’s will since the beginning of time…“build the kingdom, lead people to Christ, lead folks away from sin to a wonderful future in eternity.” It has been the prime message since Jesus first announced it. The trouble seems to lie right there. The message has been around a long time; it does not seem relevant to the times. We have so many situations and circumstances to deal with in life, that a message that is so old has no real prominence. It is not easy to put one’s mind on sharing the “old, old story of Jesus and His love” when other facets of life are so demanding time-wise and effort-wise. Hardly anyone finds building the kingdom to be a necessary effort which must be accomplished now.
Yes, as we look at life around us, we can’t help but relegate such “spiritual folderol” to the “to do later” file. Borrowing a little more from that same senior’s magazine that I quoted from earlier, in a column called…’But Not Everyone is as Lucky as I am”:
“the economy is so bad that I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.
“I ordered a burger at McDonald’s, and the kid behind the counter asked, ‘Can you afford fries with that?’
“CEOs are now playing miniature golf.”
If the bank returns your check marked “Insufficient Funds,” you have to call them and ask if they mean you or them.”
I guess you see my point. There is a lot going on around us and, unfortunately, we are allowing ourselves to get caught up in all of that and ignoring that which is really important. One of my personal pulpit heroes Billy Ingrahm used to remark that we often were inclined ‘to sacrifice the permanent on the altar of the temporary.” Right on, Brother!
I can find no place in the Bible that tells us that we do the work of the Lord after we handle all of those problems with which we are now faced. Nowhere does it say that we would have no other problems that would attempt to impede our efforts on His behalf. It is obvious that we have become a self-centered people. All that really captures our attention is that which affects us somehow in the now. Billy said it right…we ARE driven to sacrifice the permanent on the altar of the temporary.
We are famous world-wide for jumping to aid the poor in other worlds in emergency situations…even when the poor have been and continue to be our enemies. Yet, when it comes to the situations in our homeland, we seem complacent and apathetic. Our actions and/or reactions to negative signs and threats against us is to be “politically correct” and protect the enemies’ rights no matter what. Again, I am reminded of an article in that same senior citizen’s publication: “I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, and our bleak future, that I called the Suicide Lifeline and was connected to a call center in Pakistan. When I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck?”
I would probably be criticized by some of our liberal brothers and sisters for such a “politically incorrect” story and would be declared a racist. We must protect ‘our Muslim brothers” feelings. It is not correct to worry or wonder about the danger that might be inherent in a world where representatives of a religion that has not only spoken out against us, but actually acts out against us time and time again. We go out of our way to defend them. (Poor things… their feeling might get hurt!) Yet, they constantly speak against us in our own country. If anything, they are being babied and mollycoddled as residents of this country.
The Lord did not tell us to bring them into our country to change our way of life. The whole idea of the immigration intentions of this country was to offer to the poor disenfranchised an opportunity for a “better life”, a better way of living. It never was expected that the immigrants would come here with the expectation of changing our way of living.
Instead of allowing them to come here and propagate their religious beliefs, we, as the Christian nation we were to be, should be leading them to accept Christ and enter into a Christian lifestyle. That way we would be showing them the love that they really do need.
We must stop living our lives to appease those around us. We only have one to appease. That One is Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Our Master. We should stop saying we are Christians and start living as Christians. Love everyone we can into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Our only duty right now, when faced with all of the danger from terrorists and such; when faced with a bleak economic outlook…is to turn to Christ and immediately get to work doing His bidding.
In history, every time that a terrible situation existed in the world, a wonderful new revival occurred in the church. Most of us who study the Word, believe that we are on the brink of the one last terrible plight the world will face, but more importantly…the greatest revival in the history of the world. There is no more time to sit back in our complacent, apathetic attitude and do nothing. We must wake up NOW!
One of the most exciting revivals in history was one started by a simple preacher named Jonathan Edwards. Born on October 5, 1703 at Windsor Farms, Connecticut, he became a Presbyterian minister and later pastor of a Congregational church. Later, he became president of Princeton University. He participated in two unique spiritual awakenings, commonly called ‘the Great Awakenings’. But the major outburst of religious fervor took place in 1740-1741. These revivals had many bizarre side effects…persons often fainted, shouted, quivered, and wept uncontrollably. But the results were not only emotional; many social conditions were altered for the good.
Without doubt, Edwards was of the ‘hellfire and brimstone’ class of preacher. Somehow that has become unpopular. Such fiery messages with the threat of hell are now considered ‘politically incorrect.’ I contend that this business of ‘political incorrectness’ is a thing of Satan. The Word of God is the Word of God. There should be no room left for any distortion of the Word. It is true that God’s message is one of love, but one must be led to understand that love. It is only based on full and complete obedience to His Word, His precepts, His laws, His will. His love is so complete that only a fool would want not to heed His Word and lose the opportunity for His eternal love.
We should realize all of this. We should be so excited to receive His love that we hunger to fulfill His commandments. The time is NOW. We have to stop procrastinating. Within a very short time, the opportunity for eternal life with Him will be gone. The decision point is at hand. We must decide now to follow Him. We must choose now to take His hand and serve together with Him.
In his most famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Jonathan Edwards closed with this and I now choose it as my closing:
“Therefore, let everyone that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation; Let everyone fly out of Sodom: ‘Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed.’”
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