Ask Jesus to send Labourers into the Harvest.
Luke 10:2 Therefore said he (Jesus) unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.
John 4:34-38 “Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. 35Say 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. 36And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. 37And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. 38I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.”
God is interested in harvesting.
Of course, we know that every farmer is interested in harvesting. To grow something, he plants seeds and something miraculous happens. Those seeds grow into a little plant. To have that plant grow up and be strong he has to nurture it. He has to water it and weed it until finally fruit comes out on the vine. Then it is wonderful when that fruit ripens. Nothing is as good as fruit ripened on the vine. When it becomes ripe, he goes and picks it–the harvest! All of the work he does is because he wants the harvest. Like the farmer, God is interested in the harvest.
There is a harvest of souls to be reaped.
It is a harvest of unreached souls. It takes effort to go out into the field and do the work of the harvest. Although it is an effort, it is a joyful effort. It’s an effort that takes money! It takes missionaries! It takes preachers! Most of all, it takes people to get the job done. The question to you is, “how will you get involved in this work?”
Jesus was passionate about the harvest.
In Luke 10:2 he said, “…the harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few:”. His passion is evident when He asks us to “…pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.” If people are passionate, then God is passionate as well, because we are created in His image. As some people are passionate about requesting prayer, God is passionate about the harvest. We know that His passion is for lost souls because Jesus came into the world to save the lost. Unfortunately, the passion of Christ goes unheard and unnoticed and disregarded.
Why does God use the word “truly”?
He said, “…the harvest TRULY is great…” What does it mean when God emphasizes a word in the Bible, like he emphasizes the word “TRULY”? Is He indicating that the bible contains some things that may not be true? Does He use the word “truly” to show us what is true and what is not?
If we understand Him, if we believe Him, if we accept Him, then we understand that Jesus said of Himself that He is “…truth…” (John 14:6). All truth is the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the embodiment of truth. Nothing that He says is a lie. Everything He says is true. Since He is truth, then why does He have to put in the bible, as He speaks to the people there, “…the harvest TRULY is great”? Is it because here He is telling the truth, but in other places in the bible He is not? NO! Why then? The reason that He emphasis the word “TRULY” is because too often, Christians read His word and don’t obey His word because they ACT as if His word were not true!
Christians have doubts over the word of God!
It is the nature of man to NOT believe or trust God. Christians don’t really believe what they say they believe! God says the harvest “TRULY” is great! Since He speaks the truth, then you and I should agree with Him that the harvest is “TRULY” great! If Christians agreed with Him all of the time, then He wouldn’t need to use the word “TRULY”. He should just be able to say, “the harvest is great”, and Christians would think, “Yeah! That’s true!”
The word “great” is an interesting word.
Christians should be able to feel the same passion that He does when He says, “the harvest is great.” There are great things in this world, and there are things that aren’t so great. The passion that He has for truth and the harvest is also associated with the word “great”. He says the harvest truly is “great.” The word “great” can mean two different things:
- It could mean that something is big in size. If you looked at the Grand Canyon, you would say to yourself, “Man, that’s great!” You would be referring to its size. It is great in size.
- It could mean that it’s wonderful, Like Tony the Tiger would say when he was talking about Sugar Coated Frosted Flakes: “Its Grrrrrrreeeaaattt!” He wasn’t saying the frosted flakes were the biggest that you’ve ever seen in your life. He was saying they were wonderful, those things are marvelous, those things are super-cala-frage-a-lis-tic-x-be-ala-docious. There Great!
Is the harvest is too big for Him to handle alone?
There is nothing bigger than the Lord Jesus Christ. There is nothing that God cannot do. God is greatest of all. He does not look at the harvest and say, “Oh man, that’s too big for me to handle by myself. It’s too big of a job for me. How am I going to get that job done? I’m going to need to get some helpers in here.” LISTEN! God could harvest the entire world of souls by Himself if He wanted to. He is able! He is big enough, strong enough, grand enough and smart enough. Does He mean for one second that He cannot get the harvest in Himself?
It is not that He is unable.
He is big enough that He can say, “Let there be light”, and there is light. God is that big. He doesn’t look at the harvest and start chewing His fingernails to the bone saying, “This is too big for me. How am I ever going to get this done?” Instead, when He looks at the harvest He says, “That is wonderful! That’s fantastic! That’s beautiful! Man there’s nothing more great than the harvest!”
The harvest TRULY is great!
Going into Walmart and seeing the boxes of fruits and vegetables in the produce section a person thinks, “Oh! This looks good!” Likewise, going to the weekend farmers market and looking at the fresh produce you think to yourself, “Man, that looks good.” Finally, when you go home and look at those big old juicy tomatoes you’ve been growing you think, “Man! that’s really great!” Which one would be the more appealing: The Walmart fruit, Farmers market fruit or the fruit still on the vine? Why? Because the one still on the vine is the one that you put all of the work into growing. That’s the one that you pick off of the vine. Sometimes you don’t even eat it yourself; you give it to somebody special to you. Why? Because, its special! The harvest TRULY is great! The Lord views working in the Harvest as an awesome or wonderful job. It is something that we should take equally as awesome.
Whether you did the sowing or the reaping, whenever you get out into the harvest field God says, “Now that’s good news.” There’s nothing more fun than getting out into a big field of tomatoes and picking them off the vine and putting them into a box. You keep saying to yourself, “Man, I just believe I’ll pick another one.” It becomes infectious. It becomes so enjoyable you just want to keep going on and on picking another.
There are people who will not get involved
There are some people who disagree with Jesus. They do not see the true greatness of the harvest. They make excuses for their lack of Christ-like passion. In fact, they put more effort into making excuses then they would have if they had gotten involved. They shy away from all of the work. Some think of the work and dirt. They neglect the camaraderie and all of the love and effort that God put into making that miraculous plan work the way He designed it. It’s amazing.
God says, “There is a harvest of souls out here in the world and they need to get told about the Lord Jesus Christ. They need to be told the gospel They need to get saved. And you need to get out there and do something about it because that’s where the rubber meets the road. It’s where the joy of life is experienced.”
A woman can say much about the wonder of babies being born into this world, but until she has her own baby, she doesn’t personally experience the true wonder of it. A woman can see a little baby and dote on it and know all about babies, except for bearing one herself. If she hasn’t had that intimate harvest of a soul into this world, she hasn’t experienced the joy that men can never understand.
God has a prayer for the harvest.
God likes praying. He likes it when we pray as well. Prayer is not just us asking God for things. It’s not just asking God to help us with things. Prayer is where we communicate with God. He also has a prayer as well. God’s prayer request is this: “Hey church! Would you please pray to me and ask me to send forth laborers into MY field?” Why would He ask such a thing? Why would He not just do it without even asking us to ask Him? He wants us to ask Him to do something that He already wants to do. Why?
God desires us to pray for the harvest.
Is God bound by our asking Him to do something or not? Does He NEED ME to ask Him to do something? I think not. He doesn’t need us to pray in order to get the harvest in. He can do it all by Himself. BUT, He desires us to pray. He doesn’t need us to pray, He wants us to pray about the harvest. It’s like this: Here’s God. There is the harvest field. Would you please pray and ask me to go into my field and get my harvest in? It seems rather absurd doesn’t it? Is it that the Lord wants us to ask Him to do something because He wants us to get involved? Perhaps He wants us to think about the situation. Perhaps He wants us to care. If we pray about something, then it is on our mind and heart and we will consider it.
Many Christians never win one soul to the Lord.
Many don’t even try. Sadly, there are many who won’t even pray to the Lord to send labourers into His field, even though He asks them to pray. They are totally callous about the Lord’s prayer request. If Christians prayed God’s prayer request (to send labourers into His field), do you think God would be inclined to answer His own prayer request? I think He would be most inclined to answer His own prayer request. If that be the case (and I think it is), why then are there so many unsaved people in the world today? Is it because Christians are not praying what the Lord asked them to pray for? Why are there not many Christians going around telling people about Jesus? When is the last time you told somebody about Jesus?
People don’t ask God to send labourers
Why are there twenty five percent of the world’s population in China who have never heard about Jesus? Why is there another twenty five percent of the worlds population in India who have never heard about Jesus? These two countries represent one half of the world’s population. Is it because the Lord doesn’t answer His own prayer request? Or, is it because somebody is not doing what the Lord asked them to do and pray to Him, asking Him to send forth labourers? I think it is because people don’t ask God to send labourers over there to those countries to tell them about Jesus.
God’s prayer request
This is such a simple thing to do. Why is there not more prayer being shot up to God about sending someone in the field that is white unto harvest? I have a thought on the matter and it is based on experience. I never wanted to be a missionary. But when I saw that only a very few missionaries were going to the largest portion of the world, I was burdened to ask God to send more missionaries to those people. As I prayed, the Lord said to me: “That’s a good idea Ron. I wish I thought of that. Why don’t you go?” So, I think that people don’t honor God’s prayer request because they are afraid that God will ask them to do something. They are afraid that He will make them the answer to His prayer.
The Harvest is upon us.
Jesus said to “… Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” I had always wondered why it is “White” to harvest? I mean, tomatoes don’t turn white when they are ready to harvest. They turn red. If you wait until they turn white, I think you have missed the harvest. They turn all moldy when they turn white. Why then did Jesus say “white”?
We use colors to symbolize meanings.
When I lived in China, the color “white” took on a new meaning to me. In America, when two people get married, usually the bride wears a “white” gown. Why the color white? Because it signifies purity. It shows that she has been untouched, she is pure. However, in China they get married in a red gown. “White” in China (and all other Asian countries), signifies death. Where Americans wear “black” at funerals, the Asians wear “white”. When they buried Jesus, they wrapped his body in white cloth. When Jesus (being an Asian) living in an Asian culture says, “the fields are white already unto harvest”, it means something. It does not mean they are nice and pure and are ready for marriage. It means that they are dying. So, He means that the harvest is dying. We are losing it. We’ve waited too long to bring it in.
The harvest is “white already.”
There are too many Christians sitting on the fence. They consider they are witnessing for Jesus by doing things like leaving their bible open when a guest comes to visit. They say, “Well, they came to my house and I had my bible out. I’m sorry they died off the vine. I’m sorry it’s lost. I left a tract out for them.” Listen, we have got to be wise about how we do things, but we also have to get the harvest in. So, we need to do our best to pick that tomato, or reap that wheat. We need to do our very best because the harvest is “white already.” All that sowing, and all that pulling out the rocks, and all of that watering, and all of that weeding, and all of that nurturing comes down to one day of harvesting. The harvest is lost because we dug out the stumps, pulled out the rocks, plowed up the field, put in the seed, carried the water, weeded, and it grew up and said, “Isn’t that a nice field”, and did nothing about the harvest. We just watched it turn white and fall off the vine.
No farmer goes through all of that work just to watch the harvest die. No Christian goes through all of the work reading his bible, praying to God, learning about God so they can just internalize it and not share it with anybody else. Christians don’t do all of that so they can watch people die and go to hell. Unfortunately, this is what happens most of the time. The field is white, and it’s already to harvest. God wants us to pray and ask Him to send somebody. That somebody may or may not be us. God says, “There is a harvest. It’s upon us. It’s dying in the field. We’re going to lose it.” He’s passionate about that. He does not see the logic in doing all of that work for nothing. But we keep doing it over, and over, and over again.
God sent us to REAP!
If you look at John chapter 4, verse 38 Jesus says something to us. He says, “I sent you to REAP.” He did not send us to sow, weed, water, clear fields. He sent us to REAP! Yes, in order to reap sometimes you have to pull up stumps first. Sometimes you have to sow the seeds. Then you have to weed. Sometimes you have to water. But, all of these things are not the goal. God did not send us to do these things. He sent us to REAP! If you have to plant a seed first, then that’s good, but don’t forget the reaping part. That’s what He sent us to do. In fact, He didn’t even send us to do the reaping of the things that we sowed. He sent us to reap “and that whereon” we “bestowed no labour.”
God is a reaper. He is not a grim reaper. He is a glorious reaper of souls. If by chance He is grim in anything about reaping at all, it’s because all of His labourers are sitting on the sideline, not even trying to get in the harvest. We need to think very carefully about that. He is passionate about souls getting saved. Do you know of anybody who is unsaved? They need to be harvested. Stay in the harvest. Don’t neglect the fruit that is “white already unto harvest.”