23rd October 2022 - Teaching Service - DAve Food- HArvest time is work time

My title for my sermon this morning is harvest time is worktime. Harvest time

is work time. Some of you know, we've got some good friends from

Gidead Lois and Ben Lewis will probably be coming and speaking in twenty twenty three

at RCF. But Ben's the farmer and his son Kleb, who's exactly like

his dad. He's nineteen years old, is that right, nineteen years old,

and you know he's full time working on the farm. And I know

that when they're in harvest time, they're getting up in the dark. They're

harvesting all the way through the day, driving tractors, driving traders, collecting

stuff cut in the grass for silage, and they're working until it's gone dark

because if it's dry and it's ready to harvest, they've got to harvest.

They can't leave it till tomorrow because it might rain tomorrow and that will spoil

the harvest. And one of the things that I remember talking to Kayleb,

but he stayed with us a few weeks ago about was just a smell of

harvest. There is a smell of harvest whenever you gather things in, whether

it's apples, pears, whatever, you gather in, there will be a

There will either be a freshness or a fragrance. And I said, what's

the smell of harvest when you're in a tracturer and you're cutting the the or

cutting the silage, or cutting the grain. And he said, it's just

a deep, rich smell. It's a deep, rich smell. I said,

is tract to driving easy? He said, no, it's not.

He said, it's one of the places that I listened to a lot of

books. And so I thought, okay, there's a great way of learning

and growing. So my scripture to start with, and I'm going to go

through this in various different versions, is Matthew chapter nine. So let's read

from Matthew Chapter nine. Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching

in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every

disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them

because he was harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he

said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers a few

asked the Lord of the harvest, therefore to send out workers into the harvest

field, and there is a there is a there is a fragrance to harvest,

and I believe that there could be a fragrance to harvesting souls as well.

And so I'm going to talk about three different topic areas of harvest.

Number one would be in harvest time. We need to have a passion for

the harvest, for working in the harvest. Caleb and his dad Ben,

you know, when it's harvest time, they're out there because that's the fruit

of what they've done all year. You know, they've been tending to the

fields, they've been looking after the fields, and the first thing they've got

to do is to see that the harvest is ready. They've got to keep

an eye on the say okay, it's ready. Today's the day we're going

to start harvesting. And I believe the same can be true for harvesting.

In terms of the kingdom. The harvest of souls is that we can see,

now's a day to go and talk. Now's a moment to share something.

We need something of a passion to be able to do that. And

part of that passion is related to the state of our hearts. If we

see the bigger picture of what God does in terms of harvesting. Then seed

is planted, seed grows, and then when that seed grows it bears fruit

thirty sixty one hundredfold. And then maybe seed that you have sown that you

haven't yet seen budding or blossoming, where there will be other places where fruit

has come unexpectedly. I don't know how raspberry canes work. All I know

is there are raspberry canes all over our garden. Now. I think we

planted some. There were some already in the garden. I think that when

we were there, but they seemed to get everywhere. Suddenly you see this

and you think that looks like a raspberry cane. And even in my own

limited view, I think, Okay, I think that's a raspberry cane.

And then how do I know it's a raspberry Canehill? I recognize the leaves,

and then I start to see the flowers, and then the flowers and

then the fruit. But did we plant that particular raspberry cane? No?

Do we have the rights to pick the raspberries? Well, they were in

our gardens, so yes, But did we do it? No, we

didn't. And so sometimes we just have to have a passion when we see

a harvest coming to get out there and pick them. Now, I used

to live in a place called cook Them. It's the other side, you

know, through Surrey, the other side of windsor beyond Maiden Ned. I

used to live there and one of the places in Cookham was a pick your

own place, you know, the kind of place you've ever been there.

Well, when you go to a pick your own place, you're not picking

because you planted anything. You're picking and you're going to pay for something,

and you'll go and you'll walk around and you'll have to go with the basket,

and some will go in the basket, and some of the ones will

won't make it to the basket. I'm sure we all do that. You

know. They just smell so good as you're picking the strawberries or the raspberries

or whatever it is that you're picking. I remember one time we were picking

strawberries up at Copases and my mum said to me, because a long time

ago, my mom said to me, are you going to put anything in

the basket. I don't know how many strawberries I'd eaten at the time,

but we hadn't planted them. But we took them and we paid for them,

and there'll be other parts of the world. I remember at our Senior

Citizens many years ago talking about the Maids of Kent, and there were a

number of senior citizens who came to our Senior Citizens meeting who lived in Kent

and they were part of the harvesting of the hop season and they said,

we were made in Kent. So what that meant was when the hop season

came in, everybody went into the field. Everybody went into the fields to

go and harvest the hops. Now it wasn't because they were pick your owner,

they were going to pay for it. It wasn't because they planted anything.

It was because they were serving others and they were going to gather in

the harvest. The harvest was ready, and so they wanted to be part

of the community. They wanted to gather stuff in and so they had a

heart to do it together. And here's the thing. As we harvest,

we've also got to be aware of the season that we're harvesting in. It's

been raining today, Today would not be a good day to harvest, even

if the harvest was ready, because you'd be putting stuff away that was damped,

that would go moldy. And so you have to have a mind to

understand what's the right time to harvest, what's the right time to do these

things. And sometimes in our conversations with other folk, will sense that a

conversation has reached a certain point and we'll think, Okay, I'm going to

deep dive now. One of the things that I think is a great way

of sharing mone faith. For me personally anyway, it's just to live my

life as best I can. And then when somebody says, what makes you

say that, Dave, I'm now on solid territory because if I'm going to

share something, well, I'm saying. I'll give you an example. My

boss I was on a call with him, probably a couple of months ago

now, and he's been watching our service, he may be watching today,

and he just asked a couple of questions and it was on a business call

again, and I just thought, okay, do I keep this at the

business call? And I just sensed, no, deep dive. Off we

go answer the questions. The questions have been asked, so answer them.

Forty five minutes later said we probably ought to get back to the business meeting,

but you never know. But if you've got a mind to share,

if you've got already, And Scripture encourages us to be ready in season and

out of season to share a good word and a willingness to work. You

know, if we there's no point in me turning up at Ben's farm down

in in Devon saying I've come to watch you work. You know, in

harvest time, he doesn't want to be watched working. He wants people who

are willing to work. And so the passion for the harvest field needs an

eye that will see, a heart to feel, a mind to understand,

and the willingness to work, whether that's harvesting grain or apples, or whether

that's working in the harvest field of the kingdom seeing souls brought in. In

Two Corinthians, it says this. In Two Corinthians, chapter nine, verse

ten, it says, now, may he who supplies seed to the sower

and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase

the fruits of your righteousness. So the seed that we have, we plant

it. And because seed has in its dna the ability to grow and to

multiply, even God's word, even as we plant his seed the words that

He's given us to say, it will grow multiply and bear fruit. Here's

a different version of Matthew chapter nine, verses thirty five to thirty eight.

Jesus walked throughout the region with the joyful messages of God's Kingdom realm. He

taught in their meeting houses, and wherever he went he demonstrated God's power by

heeding every kind of disease and illness. When he saw the vast crowds of

people, Jesus was deeply moved with compassion because they seemed weary and helpless,

like wandering sheep without a shepherd. He turned to his disciples and said,

the harvest is huge and ripe, but there are not enough harveststs to bring

it all in. As you go, plead with the owner of the harvest

to thrust out many more reapers to harvest his grain. I think that brings

us a rich picture of of the New King. James version that I read

the first time, but starts to talk about ask God, Ask God when

there aren't enough workers. You know, are there enough workers in any church

around the world. I was talking. We have a food bank that meets

here is based here on a Monday, and I don't know, you've probably

heard people talking about doing warm hubs as people are struggling to eat. And

one of the questions that came from the food bank guys was could we be

a warm hub on the Monday after Monday when we've got food bank going on.

I said, well, let's think about it. Let's explore the possibilities.

You never know what fruit gathers around a harvest and in harvest time,

I has already suggested we need people to do the harvest work. Now what

kind of people can do the harvest work? In terms of the kingdom,

Well, we need to be believers. We need to be at a share

of our own fate than our own journey of what God has done. Do

we need to have a PhD in Bible? No, what we do need

to do is to have a living relationship with Christ that we can share with

others. How many people in the room have been asked a question that they

could not answer. The reason I'm asking that is because that's okay. I

want all of us to understand that we will always get asked questions about the

Bible, about our faith, about our Sometimes we struggle to answer. Do

you know, my most common answers to those kind of questions is that's an

interesting question. I haven't thought about that before. Let me go away and

explore it for myself. And sometimes I've done it with them. I've got

the Bible. If there's been time, I've got the Bible, I said,

let's go and look at it together. And you know, followed concordances

and researched on Google and all those kind of things, and then prayed and

ask for wisdom. But you know, if the harvest is souls, then

the harvesters need to be believers. And here's the thing. When we get

into the harvest field, there is bounty. So I'll go back to that

picture, your own picture now as you're whether it was the Kentish maid throughout

picking hops and I guess you don't eat hops, but they got the fragrance

of picking hops. They when they came home from picking in the hot fields,

they smelt it was a rich aroma. When you go into the harvest

field, there is a bounty in working in that harvest field. Now what

might the bounty be if we start sharing our faith with others, well,

we'll have stories to tell. We'll have journeyed together, we'll have had fun.

And then there's a real sense of have we got a burden for the

harvest work itself? If you're a farmer like Ben and Kada, they've got

a burden for it. It's their thing. But you know, I think

sometimes, and especially through COVID, we find this quite difficult where we're saying,

you know, well, somebody else can do that. The scripture says,

do the work of an evangelist. Now I'm not a good evangelist.

I can think of much better evangelist than me, but I'm not going to

give up sharing my faith in the little ways that I can. And then

I'm going to leave the rest with God. I'm just going to sow the

seed and sew it as best I can, and then hand it over to

him. In Galatians chapter six, it says this Galatians six, verse nine,

and let us not grow weary whilst doing good, for in due season

we shall reap if we do not lose heart. How many folk have lost

heart over the last couple of years, yea. And what happens it's almost

like we kind of curl up on our bed or on our couch with the

comfort blanket. We just want to cut, you know, shut the world

out and say I just just leave me alone. Yeah, there's so many

people doing that. But actually, I think one of the greatest things that

we can do is reach out, say how are you doing today? Can

I encourage you? Because I want to encourage you. Do not grow weary,

do not lose heart. And sometimes in the moment when we're ready to

lose heart, God will send us someone to encourage us. God will send

us something to share with us. Let's go back now to Matthew chapter nine

again and read it in yet a different version. Yes, you are went

about all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good

news of the kingdom, and heeding every kind of disease and weakness. When

he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harried and

helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his tell Midim,

the harvest is rich, but the workers are few. Pray that the

Lord of the harvest will send out workers to gather in his harvest. And

that's the key point that I want to take from this particular version, was

gathering his harvest. Ultimately, it's his harvest. Ultimately, it's his and

so we are just workers in his harvest field. And so pray, pray

that none of the harvest gets spoilt. Pray that the harvest comes in in

all its fullness. And then the final thing that I can say about harvest

time is harvest time needs prayer. The first thing that we do when we

pray about the harvest is to recognize the owner of the field. It's not

your field, it's not my field, it's his field. He owns the

field. He's sovereign over all. He sets the boundaries in place, he

waters the word that is shared, he brings forth the sunshine that will ripen

the grain. And so he is sovereign over all. And here's the thing

we can share with him in being workers in the harvest, because we share

in the harvest. And then, finally, as that prayer that I've read

a couple of times now says, pray that God sends workers into the harvest

field. Now, I don't think God says you have to go out there,

you know. I think about Ben and Caleb and other farmers around the

world in harvest season. They are working flat up for weeks on end,

you know, and other things have to be put to one side. I

wonder if we have the same kind of feeling about when we sense God saying,

okay, out into the harvest field today. Do I really have to

God, I've got other things to do today? Or were you going to

say no? If that's what you want me to do today, Lord,

I'm going to do it with passion. I'm going to do it the conviction.

I'm going to put aside the other things. I'm not going to be

distracted because if now's the right time to harvest, now's the right time to

harvest. Think about the picture I gave you of when it rains and that

spoils the harvest. Well, if today's the sunny day and God says go,

and it might just be go and have a coffee, It might be

go on mission for a week, it might be to go for a year.

I don't know what God's calling into the harvest field might be for you,

But when he calls, let's go, because it will be fun,

it will be fruitful, it will be a place of fellowship and blessing.

In sums, it says this. David wrote this about harvest time he said

this, and sow fields and plant vineyards, and they may yield a fruitful

harvest. He also blesses them, and they multiply greatly, and he does

not let their cattle decrease. And here's my final reading of Matthew chapter nine,

verses thirty five to thirty eight. You've heard it a number of times

and number of different versions now, but let's amplify what's been said here.

And Jesus went about all the cities and villages. He went everywhere, teaching

in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news, the gospel of Jesus of the

Kingdom, and of curing all kinds of diseases and every weakness and infirmity.

When he saw the throngs, he was moved with pity and sympathy for them,

because they were bewildered, harassed, distressed, dejected, and helpless,

like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest

is indeed plentiful, but the laborers are few. So pray to the Lord

of the harvest to force out and thrust labors into his harvest field. Let

me pray, Father, we all love the smell of something freshly harvested.

We love that freshness, that fragrance that says harvest time is here. Father,

I pray that we'd catch a glimpse, we'd catch something of going into

your harvest field. Lord, if you want to nudge us, if you

want to prompt us, if you want to provoke us, Lord God,

to go, as Jesus said to his disciples, go ye into all the

world, and make disciples baptized, teaching him, baptizing them in the name

of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit, teaching all things

that I have taught you. As Jesus said this to his disciples, Let's

take what we have, what little that we have, what we know,

and let's go into the harvest field, as he nudges us, as he

provokes us, as he prompts us. And there will be fun, there

will be fruit, there will be fellowship, and there'll be a few more

people in the kingdom because we've gone into the harvest field today, yesterday,

tomorrow. And so Father, help us to get our eyes on you.

Help us to have our hearts ready on our feat sheld with the readiness of

the Gospel of Peace, that we go ye into all the world yesterday,

today, and forever a man