The Harvest Heart - Part 2 - Pastor Philip Steele - May 27th, 2026

Hi, my name is Michelle Steele.

Pastor Phillip and I want to thank you for listening to this message from Life of Faith Church.

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Let's go to Matthew 5 tonight.

And we're in the middle of a uh a series.

This is our month of influence.

Uh we are uh ministering along these lines uh for a purpose.

Number one, it's the direction the Holy Spirit would have us to go.

And secondly, uh June 14th is our Salvation Sunday.

And uh we're believing God for 20 first-time visitors on that day, and uh believing God to see salvations and people being born again.

And uh we begin to look at this subject of a heart for the harvest.

And so when your light is shining, when when you're when they're seeing your good works, who gets the glory?

Your Father, which is in heaven.

Amen.

Jesus constantly used the image of harvest to describe his work on the earth in Matthew 9.

Matthew chapter 9 and verse 37.

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

It says, Then saith he to his disciples, 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 translation of the 20th century New Testament says, the harvest is abundant.

And he said, Well, here's what you do.

Pray that the Lord will send laborers into his harvest.

So the harvest around us is abundant.

The harvest in the world is abundant.

Depending on who you believe and who you listen to, what I hear from the people that I have faith in, that I have trust in, they're saying that the generation that we're living in is more open to the gospel than any generation has ever been before.

One man I was listening to, he said that what you begin to see from like the days of the Jesus movement, in especially in charismatic Pentecostal, spirit-filled uh uh circles uh in the younger people.

And when I say the younger people, I mean students, uh junior high, high school students.

He said, what you begin to see uh like in the 60s and 70s, you begin to see uh when they would ask them about the importance of the Holy Spirit, their ideas begin to tail off.

All right, they begin to talk about how they didn't know if it was that important.

And and people would always talk about that downward trend.

But I saw a statistic, and they said people of that same age group now in this generation are saying that praying in the Holy Spirit and being full of the Holy Spirit is one of the most important things that you can do in your life.

These are not adults, these are junior high kids, these are high school kids, these are what we would call the generation that's coming.

But it's not just limited to them.

People are finding out more and more and more and more the futility of trying to make their life without Christ.

The harder they tried to push Christ out of the picture, the more people had to find him because you just cannot live your life aside from the solid rock of Jesus Christ.

You just can't do it.

And Jesus said, notice, he said the harvest around us is abundant.

And he explained that the problem was a lack of laborers to bring the harvest in.

One translation says there's not enough men to get it in.

So Jesus said the answer to that was to ask the Father for more laborers.

One translation says to bring more laborers to his harvest.

Now, I want to be very careful to explain to you before you start thinking, you know, pastor's gonna make this big pitch and tell us we're not doing enough.

No, that's not what I'm doing.

We're talking about the heart he has for the harvest.

You know, when you get born again, part and parcel of getting born again is telling people about Jesus.

That's what he said in Mark chapter 16.

Mark 16 · chapter mention

We call it the Great Commission.

It's actually the great commission.

We're on a co-mission with God, right?

He said, These signs shall follow them that believe.

First of all, he said, go into all the world and preach the gospel.

Go into every man's world and preach the gospel.

The good news.

Proclaim the good news.

And what did he say?

These signs will follow them that believe.

In my name.

They'll lay hands on the sick, and they'll cast out devils, right?

He said, some are gonna believe and some are not gonna believe.

But what's our job?

Spread the gospel seed.

That's just part and parcel of our life, right?

Some people are gonna talk to five or six people today, some people are gonna talk to five or six people a month.

But the thing is, is when you understand that this is the heart of the Father.

All right?

Harvest speaks of readiness.

When a farmer hears the word harvest, he thinks and hears ready.

It's ready.

The harvest is ready.

Hallelujah.

So the first thing about the harvest is the harvest speaks of readiness.

So all around us are people who he has made ready for him.

He has made ready for him.

Number two, harvest speaks of results.

The purpose of a farmer is not just to sow seeds.

A farmer does all the hard work with the result in mind, bringing in the harvest.

Bringing in the harvest.

Hallelujah.

If we're gonna be involved in the work of the Father, we have to become developed in bringing people to a place of commitment.

Bringing people to a place of commitment.

I'll talk to people from time to time and they'll say, what do you think the difference is between like maybe your generation in church and some of the people now?

Commitment.

Bottom line, commitment.

Commitment.

That was it.

When you say you're a member of a church, what does that mean?

That means commitment.

It's commitment.

Whatever church I go to, whatever church I'm a member of, it's commitment.

And Jesus said that to be involved in the work of a father is to become developed in bringing people to a commitment.

If we're to minister the heart of Jesus, we have to ask him for a harvest heart.

Try that out right now.

Say, Lord, give me a harvest heart.

Say it one more time.

Say, Lord, give me a harvest heart.

Oh, hallelujah.

A harvest heart is active, not passive.

In trying to take people from death to life.

It's active, not passive.

In Mark chapter 4 and verse 26.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

Mark 4 and verse 26.

Jesus said, He said, so is the kingdom of God as if a man should cast seed into the ground.

So in the beginning, the farmer scatters the seed.

He gives the gospel.

In the beginning, he's sowing the seed.

In verse 27, it says, And should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up.

He does not know how.

So then God does his part.

He does the supernatural part, the supernatural work of the seed, the ground, and the Holy Spirit produces the growth of the seed.

Notice he says, according to these verses, sleeps and rises night and day, the seed should spring forth and grow up, and yet he does not know how.

Now, what is the believer's responsibility?

Number one, provide a climate where the person can easily accept Jesus.

Provide a climate where the person can easily accept Jesus.

How do I do that?

Ask questions.

Ask questions.

Ask about them.

Ask about their life.

You know it's not hard to ask somebody, do you go to church?

Well, everybody goes to church.

No, they don't.

Everybody doesn't go to church.

Right?

But what you're you're asking for a particular reason.

Amen.

But you want to ask questions.

What do you believe?

Are you a Christian?

Hallelujah.

You know, we've got to act like that what we believe is the most important thing in the world.

Because what we believe according to Jesus Christ, he said, no man can come unto the Father except by me.

He said, I'm the way, I'm the truth, and I'm the life.

I'm not talking about being overbearing.

I'm talking about you're bold in that this is what you believe, and what you believe according to Jesus is the way.

There is no other way.

There is no other door.

There is no other path to the Father according to Jesus.

And so my boldness comes from and stems from me believing that this is absolute truth and there's no other way to the Father.

Hallelujah.

I worked one time with a guy that went to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Mormon.

And he would talk about what he believed.

And he'd look at me and go, I know you don't believe that.

And I'd say, sure don't.

Do not believe that.

You know, because then he would talk and he said, Well, you know, Jesus was a prophet.

Jesus was, no, Jesus is the way.

He was a prophet, but he's the Son of God.

He is God in the flesh.

He's the way.

That produces a boldness in you.

See, there had to be some people, when you read through the Word of God, when you take into consideration that of the original, of the of the original 12 disciples, of course, Judas betrayed Jesus and hung himself, but the rest of them, except for John, every one of them gave their lives for the gospel.

Every one of them.

You don't just give your life for something that you are not passionate about and believe is absolute truth.

Hallelujah.

Do you see that?

So when you're asking questions, yes, I have an ulterior motive.

I have a reason that I'm asking these questions.

Extend invitations.

Extend invitations.

We've been talking about the buildup to June 14th and extending the invitation and asking people to church.

And then on that day, tell them, ask those people.

You know, hey, if you come to church, I'll buy you lunch or we'll get a coffee or whatever.

Well, you mean I'm paying them to come to church?

Yeah.

It'll get them here.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

I had a lady one time, she said, uh, I'm believing for my son to be saved.

And I said, okay.

And she said, uh, she said, uh, you know, he's uh an audio engineer.

He does, he does sound work.

He's an audio engineer.

I said, All right, you tell him if he'll come to the church next Sunday morning that I'll pay him to check out our sound.

She said, You'd do that?

I said, Yeah, I'd do that.

She said, That might be the only way I'd get him to church.

I said, Well, then bring him on.

We'll pay him.

And he came and we paid him, and he heard the gospel.

He was touched by the power of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Are you following me?

Now, I mean, he didn't walk the altar, but he heard the gospel.

He was touched, his heart was touched.

Amen.

Extend that invitation.

Now, here's one: confront.

You know, Jesus never failed to confront would-be disciples.

Now, that word confront, it has a bad, a bad taste to it to a lot of people.

Because we think confrontation, you know, we think trouble.

Listen, when you go to someone, the gospel by nature is confrontational.

Jesus said, he that believeth, you got to believe something, will be saved.

He that does not believe will be condemned.

Now, to me, that's a striking paradox.

That's a striking separation.

Right?

People need to know that.

If you don't believe, this is the result.

Amen.

Because I don't know about you, but I've known people.

You you can just get so comfortable living a certain way.

You can get comfortable living away from God.

You can get comfortable living your life that way.

Somebody at some point's got to come along and confront me and say, look, when are you going to change that?

I mean, we talk about how your marriage is is not good.

Listen, the only one that can fix that is the one that instituted and created marriage in the beginning.

You can't fix it on your own.

You can read all the books you want, but you can't fix it.

See, that's confrontation.

I don't know what to do.

I'm just not happy in my life.

Because you don't have the Prince of Peace in your life.

You've got to get some joy.

You've got to get the joy of the Lord.

To have your life full of peace, you've got to have the creator of peace.

You've got to have the one that stilled the storm.

You've got to have the speaker of peace in your life.

He'll come in and he'll speak peace in your life.

That's confrontation.

That's saying this is the problem.

This is why.

Amen.

Then you have to see who's ready.

You know, God opens the hearts of people.

My job is to sow the seed.

The Bible says when Paul and his companion were ministering in Grisha, it says that those that the Lord had opened their heart gladly received the gospel.

Well, doesn't God open everybody's heart?

God does open up everybody's heart, but everybody will not submit to it.

Everybody will not receive it.

That's the reality of it.

In any given place, you can talk to five people in a day about the things of God.

And maybe one will open their heart to the things of God.

And people say, well, doesn't God care about them?

Why didn't He convict them?

He was trying to convict them, He sent you to them.

They closed their heart.

Salvation is such a personal matter because it involves your free will.

God will not overly coerce you to get saved.

God will not threaten you into being saved.

God will not make you be saved.

Now you know that.

But when you're ministering to people, you're seeing who's ready, whose heart is open.

And then do what?

Give people a chance to respond.

Give them a chance to respond.

Share the gospel and leave them with it.

What are you going to do with it?

That's what Peter did.

He preached on the day of Pentecost.

And he said, This is what happened.

They took him with wicked hands and they crucified him.

Right?

But but death couldn't hold on to him.

And he rose up on the third day.

And it says, they were cut to the heart.

And they said, What do we have to do to be saved?

And he said, You got to repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins.

Never underestimate the Holy Spirit on the inside of you.

When you're ministering to somebody, your neighbor, somebody on your job, a family member, for the Holy Spirit to cut to the quick of their heart and them want to know how they can be born again.

Hallelujah.

Because it's the harvest heart of the Father.

But I've got to give them a chance to respond.

In Acts 16, when Paul and Silas were in the prison, and you'll remember that there's a whole lot of shaking going on.

And the keeper of the prison, verse 30, says, He brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved, you and your house.

One translation says, Men, what is necessary for me to do that I may be saved?

What is necessary for me to do that I might be saved?

I've not given people the full gospel until I tell them how to respond.

I have to tell them how to respond.

I have to tell them how to respond.

This is what you've got to do.

Notice what Paul said: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.

Paul went through that over and over again in the epistles.

He went over it in Romans 10, 9, and 10.

This is what you've got to do to be saved.

Believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you will be saved.

The preeminent job of the church is souls.

The preeminent job of the church is souls, getting people saved.

As they come to the church, then they're equipped, they're matured, they're brought to a state of maturity, they're brought to a state of full manhood in Christ.

They begin to use their talents, their abilities, their giftings for the things of God.

But they have to be saved.

They have to be born again.

Hallelujah.

So we have we have we have to give them the full gospel by telling them how to respond.

This is what you need to do.

Let's just pray.

Let's just ask Jesus into our heart.

Let's just believe God.

Let's just let's make Jesus the Lord of your life.

That's what you need to do.

That's why it began to be where we would lead people and they would repeat after us.

You never see that in the Acts, the epistles.

You never see that.

You never see any of the apostles or the Pastors or the leaders in in the in the church having people repeat after them.

Okay, now I'm gonna say this and everybody repeat after me.

That's a good thing.

Don't misunderstand what I'm saying.

It's a good thing because that's what we're doing.

We're telling them how to respond.

They they taught them how to respond in their message.

In their message.

There was no such thing in the early church as a deeper life church or a word church or a faith church.

It was the church.

And they taught all of those things.

But they taught people regularly how to respond to the things of God, how to respond to the gospel.

So, first of all, provide a climate where people can easily accept Jesus.

Number two, explain the process of accepting Jesus, not just the need to accept him.

Explain the process, not just the need.

In Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Am I helping you tonight?

Acts chapter 2 and verse 37.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

This, we talked about this earlier.

When Peter had ministered, when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart.

They were cut to the heart.

And they said to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what do we do?

What shall we do?

When somebody hears, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved, or he that believes and is baptized will be born again.

He that does not believe will be condemned.

That word condemned just hangs there.

You mean if I don't believe, I'll enter into condemnation, I'll be judged guilty?

What do I do?

Now what do I do?

And remember what Peter said?

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

So the question was, what do we do?

Then Peter explained the process to receive Christ.

A person has to make a conscious decision to commit to Christ.

Has to make a conscious decision to commit to Christ.

They do not belong to him until the day of choosing and commitment.

They don't belong to him until the day of choosing and commitment.

I've heard people say, well, we're all God's children, not if you haven't chosen him and committed to him.

God loves everybody, but we're not all God's children if I haven't chosen and committed to him.

How do I know that?

Because listen, it's just like marriage.

You know, you can know all about, you can memorize the vows, you can know all about what's going to go on.

But here's the thing: you never get the benefit of marriage until you go through the choosing and commitment ceremony.

Until you stand in front of everybody and say, I do, till death do I part.

Is that right?

Yeah, that's a commitment.

Right?

And what comes with that commitment?

A relationship.

So when you make the commitment, when you choose, and when a person chooses to commit to Christ, now they belong to him.

That's why the Apostle Paul, remember, he made the statement.

He said, because you belong to Christ, he said, you are not your own.

You are bought with a price.

Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which belongs to God.

Over and over again, it says, you are connected to Christ.

You belong to Christ.

People that do not know Jesus are disconnected from God.

They're disconnected from Christ.

They're disconnected from the ability.

God can do anything for anybody that will commit and commit to him.

But there are people he cannot do anything for because they won't choose him and commit to him.

Hallelujah.

People do not walk around with red, yellow, and green lights on their forehead.

What does that mean?

There's no light to tell me if they're ready or not.

I've got to ask questions.

I've got to present the gospel.

Amen.

Thank you, Jesus.

We have to faithfully scatter good seed.

With the complete gospel in it.

And provide an atmosphere in which people can be harvested.

Hallelujah.

The third thing is that the believer can do is have a harvest mindset.

God gets the harvest ready.

And God makes the harvest possible.

But we have to go out and work with him with the intention of bringing back results.

That's why he said, remember in the Great Commission, it says, and then after that they went everywhere.

What's the rest of it say?

The Lord working with them.

The Lord working with them.

So what does that tell you?

That if they weren't going and doing the work, there was nobody for him to work with.

You know, it's wonderful when we hear stories, you know, about in Muslim countries and Islamic countries that Jesus is appearing to these Islamic men and women in dreams and they're getting born again.

And that's wonderful, but that's the exception, not the rule.

That's the exception, not the rule.

Why?

Because that's why this entity, this mighty moving force, this indefeatable, this unstoppable entity called the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, has been put in the church.

It's not in the world.

It's not been put in the earth just to produce healthy, vibrant believers.

It's been put in the church according to Jesus in Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

It was put in the church so that the gates of hell would not be able to prevail against the gospel of the kingdom of God.

Amen.

That's so important.

And so I've got to faithfully scatter good seed to find out who's ready.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

So the harvest mindset.

God makes the harvest possible.

Will everyone be ready?

No.

They won't.

Everyone won't be ready.

You may walk through a part of the field and say, this field isn't ready.

Not yet.

But our intention is results.

Our intention is results.

I always, everywhere I've ever been, and of course I've been in the full-time ministry now for almost 30 years.

But when I worked in the corporate world, I always wanted to keep the door open to people.

I never got into opinions.

I never got into discussions with people about things that didn't matter.

Because I wanted to keep the door open.

There was always that person, if they found out you were a believer, they would come and say, Well, what do you believe about this and what do you believe about that?

Well, they were trying to goad me into something.

Well, I don't have an opinion about that.

I used to work with a guy, I was a uh uh quality control uh person at one time on on the job that I was working on.

And um the the guy that sat right beside behind me, his name was Tony Ryan.

I'll never forget him.

Great guy.

And just as he he was uh this was before this was before same-sex marriage was a th a thing, all right?

But he he was homosexual and he was living in a in a relationship with uh uh of course a man.

And um, you know, obviously, we know from the word of God, God doesn't like that.

That's not God's preference, it's sin.

We understand that, right?

And when I found out about that, of course, I, you know, there was a there was a part of me that's like, man, that's just wow, that's that's not a good thing.

But the door was so wide open.

The door was so wide open.

We had such a good relationship.

I was his supervisor, I was his his uh manager on that floor.

And uh uh I remember when I got promoted out of that department, and um he brought me a card, and he made he made the state, and I and I've talked to him about the Lord.

He he never, to my knowledge, gave he never gave his life to the Lord when I talked to him, right?

I I'm hoping that he did afterwards.

But here's the thing: he gave me a card, and congratulations on your promotion.

He said, You are living proof that you don't have to be mean and walk on people to get ahead in life.

But I heard him talk about other Christians.

You know, Christians can be mean.

They can be mean.

The truth is the truth, but you don't have to be mean with the truth.

You know, the people that Jesus was hard on was not the sinners, it was the religious people of his day, the hypocrites, the ones that were making it hard on people to come to God.

We read it Sunday morning.

It says he walked by Matthew, who was a tax collector, who would have been hated by everybody in Jesus' party, because the Jews hated tax collectors because they were working for the government, the oppressive Roman government.

And Jesus walked by Matthew, and remember what he said?

Follow me.

And it says Matthew left all and followed him.

And then it says this, and Matthew made a great feast for Jesus at his house.

And it says, and many publicans came because Matthew invited them.

And it says they all sat down at the table with Jesus.

Wow.

And the Pharisees got upset about it, the religious leaders.

Why does your master eat with publicans?

And Jesus overheard it and he said, I'll answer.

Because the sick don't need the sick need a physician, not the well.

And then he said, I did not come to call the righteous to repentance, but the sinner to repentance.

In other words, it's the sinner that needs help.

They don't know anything about God.

You know something about God.

They don't know anything about God.

He never called a sinner a hypocrite.

He called the religious person the hypocrite.

He said, Here's the problem.

He said, You'll go halfway around the world to get one disciple, and then you'll make him four times the child of hell that you are.

That's a problem.

He looked at the religious people and he said, You're like, you're like whitewashed tombs, nice and clean on the outside and full of dead men's bones on the inside.

What we believe is the good news.

What we believe can change people's lives, what we believe can turn people's lives around.

And I said Sunday morning, the greatest way to introduce people to Jesus is just tell them where Jesus brought you from.

What did God do to you?

What did he bring you out of?

Three times in the Pauline epistles, Paul gave his testimony.

He said, I was a blasphemer, I was injurious, I hated the church, but God showed me grace.

What's he saying to that group of people?

If God showed a man like me grace, God will show you grace.

But somebody's got to just go tell them.

Hallelujah.

Amen.

Say it out loud.

I'm just going to tell them what God did for me.

So they may not be ready, but you just keep sowing the seed.

You keep sowing the seed.

I was talking to my one of my neighbors last night.

Great man, good man.

And we've talked about the things of God before.

And you know, I always want to get to the place I've already asked the one neighbor if they're born again, and they are.

And I want to know if they're born again.

I can't think of any worse thing than a preacher being right in the middle of a neighborhood and not knowing if people are saved around him.

It doesn't make sense to me.

Anyway, that's probably another subject, but right?

I keep checking.

I keep throwing the seed out there.

I keep throwing the seed out there.

But he told me last night, he said, Boy, y'all are the best neighbors we've ever had.

I said, Praise God.

You're a great neighbor too.

Right?

Amen.

But we just talk about the things of God.

He'll talk about how something good happened to him.

I'll say, Praise God.

Thank the Lord.

And he'll go, Yeah, yeah.

I don't know if he knows what we're saying or not, but yeah, that's right.

One day, one day, I, you know how some people are, you go, they can be beep, beep, and you go, praise the Lord.

And they go, Yeah, yeah, amen.

Hallelujah.

Glory to God.

I I used to work with a lady, she was like that, and man, she just she'd get mad and cuss, and she'd see me come, she'd go, Oh, praise the Lord, Phil.

Praise the Lord.

That wasn't what you were saying a minute ago.

How am I helping you tonight?

John chapter 4.

John 4 · chapter mention

I want to hurry, but I I want you to see this.

You know, when the Bible talks about our salvation, it talks about it in terms that says, so great salvation.

This is a great salvation that we have.

Hallelujah.

Never, never.

Now, now understand when I say this.

We're free from condemnation, we're free from the guilt and the shame of our past.

We're new creatures in Christ Jesus.

We've been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, but don't ever forget where God brought you from.

Never forget that if it wasn't for Jesus, I could still be there.

He brought me out.

That's why we used to sing those old songs.

He brought me out of the miry clay, he set my feet on a rock to stay.

He put a song in my heart today, a song of praise.

Hallelujah.

Right?

Now that's that's an old song, but who wrote that?

Somebody that used to be stuck in the miry clay.

Hallelujah.

I love to watch my wife sing that song.

He thought I was worth saving.

So he came and changed my life.

He thought I was worth keeping.

So he cleaned me up inside.

He thought I was to die for.

So he sacrificed his life.

Man.

Because she knows where God brought her from.

She got a book from the publisher yesterday that published her life story, Escaping Hell, and you've read it.

And they said, We just wanted to send this to you.

We've had this translated.

We want to see if you have any interest in this.

We want to translate this into Polish and get it into Poland.

And I said, Well, baby, the Lord told you that your testimony would go around the world.

She said, I know.

And I always, I always encourage her, don't forget where God brought you from.

Don't stop telling people where God brought you from.

When you were laying on that floor in Grandview, Missouri, at Deeper Life Christian Ministries, and you saw the first vision God ever showed you, what he showed you was Jesus on the cross, the blood running down the cross, you standing there in your garments that used to be what you wore, and you were holding those stattered garments up and pointing to Jesus and pointing people, don't ever forget that.

Because that's the best thing that you can tell people.

This is where I was, and this is where I am.

And it's all because of Jesus.

It's a great salvation.

It's a great salvation.

It's a great salvation.

And when you think about the greatness of your salvation, I've had people say, you know, but I'm hesitant.

I'm afraid to talk to people about Jesus.

When you think about the greatness of your salvation, it takes all the fear away.

I was on my way to hell, man.

It doesn't matter how big or little of a sinner I was until you met Jesus Christ.

You were on your way to eternal punishment.

You were on your way to eternal separation from God.

Had you died without Christ, you would have went to a devil's hell.

There's nothing that nobody could have done to save you from that.

But there came a man over 2,000 years ago that came and became sin for us, became a man for us, became separated from God for us, and gave his life for us.

And because he did what he did, I'm not afraid to tell anybody about what he did.

Because I'm saved.

I'm saved.

Think about that.

What was I saved from?

Yes, I was saved from hell, but I was saved from sin.

I was saved from death from sin.

I was saved from destruction.

I was saved from the power of the enemy over my life.

Glory to God, that takes all the fear away.

And what can they do?

They can't eat you.

What if they get mad at me?

What you care if people get mad?

I don't care.

Remember, I told you what I tell you Sunday?

The greatest day in my life was when I quit caring what people thought.

I'm not, I'm not, I'm not rude.

I'm not, that's not what I mean.

Jesus saved me.

He didn't have to, but he did.

Amen.

And I told you the story.

I'm walking through that little apartment, had come back to the Lord, and I told the Lord in in Lanexa, Kansas, uh, all those years ago, over 30 years ago, and and I I was reading Romans 8:1, and it says, There is therefore now no condemnation of those that are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk after the flesh, but after the spirit.

Romans 8:1

The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

And I stopped right there and I closed that Bible and I lifted my hands up to the Lord and I said, I don't know if you want me, I don't know if you can use me anymore, but if you can, every day for the rest of my life, I will serve you and try to do my best for you.

There were no fireworks, there were no shouts, I didn't hear none of that.

Oh, nothing.

No angelic choir.

Didn't see a dark-haired angel with a glow.

But something had changed.

He brought me out.

Am I helping you?

In John 4, 34.

Jesus said, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me.

Say not, there are four months, and then comes a harvest.

Behold, I say, Lift up your eyes and look to the fields, for they are white already to the harvest.

I want you to see the disciples had not developed the mindset Jesus had.

Jesus saw that the people were ready.

It was time to harvest hearts for God.

He said, Don't say there's four months.

Scatter the gospel seed.

Amen.

Pray.

Pray the Lord of the harvest.

That's that's that's what we we we talk about.

And and you can get one of these if if you didn't get one on Sunday.

But uh that's why we have the Salvation Sunday goal and the steps.

And one of the prayer focuses is to pray for the softening of hearts and open opportunities to share the gospel.

And we've made it easy.

We we've printed out these little tracks that you can pick up, the purpose for your life, right?

You you can just walk up to them and say, Look, I would like to share this with you.

Let me let me share this with you when you have time.

Read this when you have time.

Amen.

Well, what if they reject it?

Then that's on them.

My job is to sow the seed.

Oh glory.

In Luke 5, in Luke chapter 5.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

And this is a familiar passage of scripture because we talk about the the catch of fishes that they had.

But I want you to see something.

Verse 8.

When Simon Peter saw it, that draw of fishes, he fell at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, I am a sinful man, O Lord.

And then it says why he said that.

Because he was astonished, and all that were with him at the draw of the fishes which they had taken.

And so also was James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon.

And Jesus said to Simon, Do not fear, from henceforth you will catch men.

So he used this catch as an illustration.

Jesus said, I'll make you fishers of men.

In other words, you'll get results.

You sow the seed, you'll get results.

Hallelujah.

Said out loud, if I sow the seed, I'll get results.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

Because, like we said, the harvest is all around us.

Now.

Number four, for the believer's mindset, the believer's part is to recognize the harvest moment.

Jesus was always helping people choose.

When the rich young ruler came to him and said, Good master, what do I have to do to be to have eternal life?

And Jesus said, Why you call me good?

There's none good but God.

Right?

He said, You know the commandments.

Don't steal, don't kill, don't commit adultery, honor your father and mother, done all these from my youth.

Now watch.

Jesus said, Here's that confrontation.

Okay, that's great.

One thing you lack.

Go sell what you're holding, give it to the poor, and come follow me.

Is that right?

And it said, he went away sad and grieved because he had great possessions.

He was holding great possessions.

What's he trying to do?

Help him make a choice.

What did he say?

Go do that and come what?

Take up the cross and follow me.

You got to make a choice.

You know, I'll hear people say, well, you know, that guy, I don't know if he's a believer, but he's a good person.

No, he's not.

No, he's not.

You cannot be good without God.

Because there's none good but God.

It doesn't matter how nice I am.

It doesn't matter how moral I am.

You can know a guy that that, listen, you can know a guy or a woman that doesn't drink, cuss, smoke, chew, hang out with them that do.

I mean, whatever, right?

But it doesn't matter.

If he don't know Jesus, if she don't know Jesus, there's no goodness in them.

They might have been taught right, but there's no goodness there.

And this young man was basing everything on what he did to make himself be good.

And Jesus said, Look, there's something deeper here that you're not seeing.

Amen.

Do you see that?

I mean, what are you going to do with Christ?

When you talk to people and they say, Well, I'm a good person.

I love people, I'm good to people.

If you were to ask some people, you know, when you stand before God, why should he let you into heaven?

And they'll say, Well, because I'm a good person.

But that's not the criteria.

The criteria is believe in your heart and confess with your mouth.

What I'm trying to help you with is to understand is I'm not being unchrist-like by pointing things out to people.

I was sitting with a relative one time, and they they are a uh big uh, they're big into any liberal cause, let me put it that way.

All right?

And they were talking about homosexual marriage, and they made the statement to me.

They said, well, Jesus, Jesus never talked about marriage.

I said, really?

What about that scripture that says where he said uh uh uh you know a man will leave his father and mother and cleave only to his wife?

And I said, you know, Jesus said in the beginning he made them male and female, and I said he called the male the husband and called the female the wife.

I said, that's Jesus' view of marriage right there.

Well, did they get offended?

I wasn't trying to offend them, but I had to help them choose.

This is truth.

You're you you don't help people choose the right way by going along with what they think that is wrong.

Well, I don't want to offend them.

That makes no sense to me.

You're not gonna offend somebody by throwing them a life preserver.

They may not catch it, they may not take it, but you threw it.

This is important.

Amen.

The the woman at the well, the woman of Samaria.

She came and she was getting water.

Now don't get sidetracked by a bunch of stuff.

You know, people will preach, you know, she came in the afternoon because none of the women in the city liked her.

Well, you know, okay, whatever.

The Bible doesn't say that.

Here's the point.

I don't know, I believe why she came that day that she came is because that's when the Holy Spirit was influencing her to be there.

Jesus was going to be there.

And remember, he said, Go call your husband.

She said, I don't have a husband.

He said, You're right.

You've had five.

And the guy you're with now isn't your husband.

What's the next thing you say?

She went into the whole city and told everybody, come see a man that told me everything I've ever done.

I found the Messiah.

And revival started.

Now, this is important.

Revival started.

Why?

Because Jesus was not afraid to help her make a choice.

Hallelujah.

He asked his disciples, uh, who do men say I am?

Well, some say you're Elijah, and some say you're uh Jeremiah or one of the prophets, John the Baptist.

Remember what Jesus said?

Who do you say I am?

Helping them make a choice.

You're the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Flesh and blood is not revealed that to you, but my Father which is in heaven.

So when you help people make a choice, God can help them see things that they would have never seen before.

Jesus was constantly calling for a verdict.

God, throughout the Word of God, constantly calling for a verdict.

Choose today who you're gonna serve.

I've set a choice before you death and life, blessing and cursing.

You got to make a choice.

You got to choose life.

Right?

When Elijah was confronting the prophets of Baal and the people that were away from God in the nation of Israel, he said, Look, if Baal's God, serve him.

If God's God, serve him.

Got to make a choice.

That great theologian Bob Dylan said, You gotta serve somebody.

Amen.

So I didn't think he was a theologian.

Well, it was a good song, though.

You got to serve somebody, and you have to.

Think about that.

You know, I'm glad that my family's saved.

I'm glad that our home is full of the peace of God.

I'm blessed.

But that's not enough.

That's not enough.

I I can't, it's it's wrong for me to enjoy something that I'm not helping other people choose to make a part of their life.

A conscious choice was built into Jesus' message.

I remember I'll I'll close with this a number of years ago, long time ago, because all of my kids were home then.

We've only got one home now.

And uh, but we had gone out to a uh amusement park in the Kansas City area, the north, the northland of Kansas City, and uh worlds of fun.

And uh we were going there, we had uh all of our kids and some of their friends, and we had a flat tire while we were on the way.

And uh when I got the the tire, I let the tire down.

We had a minivan then, and I rolled the tire down, and uh I bought the van used.

Well, they the spare tire they put on there wasn't the spare for that van.

And so I didn't know what I was gonna do.

I got all these kids, got my wife, and and so I looked down the road and there was a gas station down at the end of the off-ramp.

And I told my wife, I said, I'll carry the tire down there and and see can do they fix tires.

And so I went down there and they didn't fix tires.

I said, Well, where is there a tire place around here?

They said, Yeah, if you you go about a mile up the road, they said on on the right, there's a tire shop down that road.

I said, Okay.

So I took off and and I I turned on this side street where this tire shop is, and this blue station wagon pulled up beside me.

I now picture this.

Here's, you know, here's Pastor walking with a tire, right?

And I'm getting there.

It's it's hot.

Kansas City is three blocks from the gate of hell in the summer, it's hot.

And so anyway, uh I got there.

I'm I'm going that way, and this this this the only way I know to explain it, it's like a cheats and chong mobile pulled up, you know.

And and this the and and you know, I was expecting to hear ta-un-un.

Yeah, I didn't know what was gonna go on.

And but the the the window's down, and and this guy's leaning back, guys, glasses on, and and he's and he stops and he goes, Hey.

And I said, Yeah.

And he goes, uh you a pastor?

I said, Yeah.

He goes, wife and kids up there on the on off ramp.

I said, Yeah.

I'm thinking, this is a prophet, this is an angel, what's going on here?

And he goes, Yeah, I just stopped up there and talked to him.

They said you were down here, and so I went there and they told me you're over here.

So get in, I'll take you to the tire shop.

I I got in, and when I got in, I was sorry that I got in because he said, How are you?

And I, oh, oh, you know, it was, I don't know what it was, but it was it was strong.

It was 80-proof for sure.

And uh we got to the tire shop, and he almost got me in a fight.

He almost got in a fight because he's wanting to tell them how to do their job, and the guy's trying to be nice, and finally I'm like, I don't know him, you know.

And so anyway, we got the the tire, a new tire, and got it in the station wagon, and we we got back up there and he said, I'll I'll say and help you fix it.

And I, you know, I wanted to say I don't need any help, but something right here, I just thought, now, God, this is not just a coincidence that some drunk guy stops and finds me, right?

And so I was uh fixing, we were fixing the tire, and we got it on there and got it tightened down, and I shook his hand, and I I'm in a hurry because the kids want to get to the uh amusement park, and and I'm getting in the door, and the Holy Spirit said to me, He's a Vietnam veteran.

He came back from Vietnam hurt.

His father had nothing to do with him.

He's never had any influence in his life that's godly, and he's drinking himself to death.

So I told my wife, I said, wait a minute.

And I shut the door and I went back to him, and I grabbed his hand, I called his name, and I said, You came back from Vietnam and you were hurt and you were messed up, nobody cared about you.

Your dad never had anything to do with tears start coming down.

This guy that was all messed up just ten minutes before, I looked at him and I called his name and I said, wouldn't it make sense that you would ask Jesus into your life right now?

Because he's the one that can fix this.

I can't fix it.

Nobody else can fix it.

Jesus can fix it.

Right?

And he prayed with me, received Jesus in his heart.

And and I know it sounds clichic, but this guy that was all messed up and drunk and and and smelled like a brewery just 10 minutes before was perfectly sober.

The smell of alcohol was gone.

It wasn't there anymore.

And he wouldn't let me go.

He was just hugging me.

And I and I thought about the scripture where it where it says, you know, they they they grabbed on to him and didn't want to let him go because of the the good news of Jesus Christ.

See, he's just looking for somebody to reap the harvest.

He's just that's all that's all it is.

I never try to be, I never try to be immune to those moments when I see somebody.

I was walking, I was I'll equipped with this.

I was get, we were, we were at uh a pizza place, and I was going to get in the car, and I saw a guy standing over the corner, he was smoking a cigarette.

And uh I just was compelled of the Holy Spirit.

I told my wife, wait a minute, and I walked over and began to talk to him.

I said, How are you?

I saw you standing over here.

I said, you know, for what it's worth, I said, I'm a minister.

I said, you know, is there anything I can pray with you about?

And you know, he was kind of brusque in the beginning, but I just I kept asking those questions.

Well, are you going through anything?

Anything you need prayer for?

And eventually he just started talking to me and telling me things and things that that he needed prayer for.

And he got mad and threw the cigarette down, stomped it out, and said, I just my life is just a mess and I don't know what I'm gonna do.

And uh I said, Well, here's where we can start.

Because the one that can fix it is Jesus.

And so this is this is what we can do.

And I said, What I mean, what do you got to lose?

If everything's that bad, what do you got to lose by asking Jesus into your life?

And he said, Well, I guess nothing.

I said, No, nothing.

And we we prayed, and he was the same way, just grabbed a hold of me and didn't want to let me go.

You know, those moments, that's not just preaching fodder.

That's not just examples I use because this is what I'm preaching on.

I try to live my life that way.

That if I see somebody that I wonder, do they know Jesus?

To me, that is the prompting of the Holy Spirit to go say, Hey, do you know Christ?

Hallelujah.

Father, tonight we've done our best to share the Word of God the way that we believe that you would have us to say and to direct.

No, Father, I I believe everybody in here is born again.

I don't know about everybody watching online, but I know this.

I know that you've asked us to take this time, these messages, these services.

And Father, not put pressure on people to do something, but to get us to see this is the great salvation we have.

And that people are yearning for it, desiring it, and wanting it.

Now, Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you.

I thank you that every person understands how good you've been to them.

And I thank you, Father, that as we leave this place tonight, I thank you that they're kept by the power of God.

And I thank you, Father, that they shall return to their home safely and be kept by the power of God.

And Father, I thank you for bringing opportunities into our lives.

Opportunities to share the good news of Jesus, opportunities to share what you've done for us, because that's all we've got to do.

And Father, I thank you for it.

I thank you for manifesting yourself in the lives of your people.

In the name of Jesus.

Father, I thank you for that.

I I thank you, Father, for healing those internal issues in the name of Jesus.

I thank you for that pain that has been in the midsection.

I thank you, Father, that it is gone in the name of Jesus.

That it shall not continue to be there.

It shall be gone in the name of Jesus.

Father, I thank you for that.

Father, we glorify you, we magnify you, and we thank you for it in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

And amen.

Hallelujah.

Well, let's stand up tonight.

We'll say our name.