Ripe fields,willing hands

Thank you, Shane. Morning, church. This is the first time

Shane's emceed. Doing okay, isn't he? Good job, mate.

I don't want to embarrass people, but if you're here

for the first time, would you just raise your hand

up a little bit? Let's give them a round of

applause and welcome them. Great to have you in church

this morning. And any students, please speak to Keris who

is leading worship. Great job, Keris. Or speak to the,

she's got a team around her. Shane's one of those.

I won't introduce them all now. We'll do that probably

next week. But let's get round harvest. Keris's dad is

a farmer. So right now he's working, him and his brother,

her brother, are working 14, 15 hour days sitting in

a tractor. I heard her brother on the phone chatting

to him, driving a tractor, doing harvesting the other day.

He's working hard. We're in the middle of harvest. And

most of us have no idea. Most of us have

no idea that there's a harvest going on.

We're all sitting there comfortably going, yes, nice weather.

And the farmers are going, yeah, but we've got to

get the harvest in before it starts raining. Guys, do

you know there's a harvest? Do you know there's a harvest?

Have you noticed there's a harvest? I'm not just talking

about wheat and barley. I'm not just talking about those things.

I'm talking about there's a harvest.

There's a harvest.

Scripture says the fields are white unto harvest. Pray for

the harvest? No, don't pray for the harvest. God's already

sorted out the harvest.

Pray for the laborers. Pray for the workers.

So in my example, pray for Kerisi's dad and her

brother as they're sitting in tractors. Our theme for this

month has been it's a bumper crop. And my title

for today is Right Fields, Willing Hands. I want to say,

first of all, God is Lord of the harvest. There

is seed, there's a season, there's growth, and then there's

a harvest that needs to come in. Now this time

of year, many churches are celebrating harvest in different ways.

And in the Jewish calendar, in Israel's whole calendar, there

is a whole season of activity. You might not know

some of these things, but there's a festival of first fruits.

There's a festival of weeks. There's a festival of ingathering.

It's all about harvest. And there are also offerings. There's

a first fruits offering. I was literally talking to somebody

only this week about making.

A first fruits offering. But you know what?

There are some principles around harvest that I want us

to get hold of as we step into this new

term for you new students. Please settle down. Make yourself

at home. We want to plug people in as quickly

as possible. We want to see you leave Royal Holloway

not just equipped with a degree but equipped for the kingdom.

My dream for every student in this room is that

you leave here equipped and ready to be the man

or woman God's called you to be. And if we've

done a little piece of that, we've done what we

should have done. And we'll journey with you on that.

There's plenty of open doors and opportunities. If you have

a desire to get involved in any part of church,

speak to Keris as a student or speak to me.

We'd love to plug people in. who's sitting on the

tech desk today. First time on tech desk.

Great job, Roo.

You know, we want to plug people in. Jonathan's got

his job because he started on the tech desk here

at church. Not because the church gave him a job,

but he got the skills here in church.

Go and ask him.

He's now working in that kind of industry. He's an

expert on pro AV. But it all started in church,

didn't it, John? Yeah, absolutely. So number one, the harvest

belongs to the Lord. Genesis chapter 8, verse 22. As

Genesis 8:22

long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest will

never stop happening.

It's a cycle.

There's a season. I don't know where you like to

start in the year. Some people like to start with spring.

Because spring's when you get new growth. And you go spring, summer, autumn, winter.

But that means you end the year with the coldest bit,

the bit we don't like. Actually, I believe winter's a

great start. Because winter's where all the hard work happens.

There's a lot of things that go on in the

winter that we do not even see. Now, what's that

got to do with you and me? Well, when we

are going through tough times, that's when good foundations are

being laid down. So the harvest begins with a promise.

The harvest begins with a promise because whenever we plant seed,

there's a promise.

There's a promise there in that. Harvest is God's gift

to us. It's not our achievements.

Any farmer you speak to will say, okay, I can

prepare the soil, I can do everything that I can do,

but the harvest is really outside of my control. The

harvest is God's promise, God's gift to us. If we

care for the land and water it, and in Psalm 65,

Psalms 65:9–11

verses 9 to 11, it says, he will bless it

with his bounty. Harvest leads us to joy. The Lord

will bless you in all your harvest and your joy

will be complete. Deuteronomy chapter 16, verse 15. We do

Deuteronomy 16:15

not create the harvest. We steward what God is already growing.

That takes the pressure off us.

Do you know what? Okay, I don't have to squeeze

the things.

I don't have to make it happen.

We have an allotment.

Julia's the expert on the allotment. She doesn't go up

there and say, come on, Zuzini. Come on courgettes, grow, grow.

She doesn't speak to the courgettes and say grow. All

she does is weed it, water it, and prepare it.

God commands the increase. The harvest follows God's principles. Hosea

Hosea 10:12

chapter 10 verse 12 says this. Sow righteousness for yourselves.

Reap the fruit of unfailing love and break up the

unfollowed ground for it is time to seek the Lord.

We've probably all got some part of our garden or

our life that is not fruitful. You know, we could

look at our garden, we could look at our allotment,

you could look at your life, I could look at

my life and there'll be part of our life that go,

that little area needs a bit of work. It's a

bit weedy or it's all dry and hard and crusty.

You know, seed cannot take root in hard ground. So

one of the things we need to do is just

let go and let God. We reap what we sow.

Righteousness sown brings a harvest of unfailing love. Here's a principle,

and you may have never thought about this, but you

don't reap before you sow. I know it's really obvious,

but sometimes we do. We expect fruit immediately afterwards, but Edison,

when he planted some pumpkin seeds with Julia down the allotment,

he was immediately, has it grown yet?

Has it grown yet? He wanted to know.

It takes time. And we're not patient people, are we?

Who's anybody in the room patient? Not many hands gone

up there, and I'm not putting my hand up there either.

We reap after we sow, and we've got to be

patient with it. Those who sow with tears will reap

with songs of joy. We reap only where the ground

has been prepared. Are we willing to allow the hard

areas of our lives to be broken up and for

God to do something that seed can take root?

We will only reap if we act.

Proverbs 20 verse 4 says this, Sluggards do not plow

Proverbs 20:4

in season, so at harvest time they look but find nothing.

Sluggards is a really interesting word. I'm not going to

go into that today, but if you want to look

it up, it's not a word we use too much.

And there's an even.

Better word, slugger bed, which is a slugger who.

Likes their bed.

Conditions are never completely perfect. We have some years when

the weather is better, some years when it's worse. But

if I listen to Jeremy Clarkson, and I don't know

how many pastors have ever shared Jeremy Clarkson in a sermon,

I'm not quoting his theology or anything else, but he's

tried to do farming. And one of the things he

says is it's never quite right. There's always something that

could be better, whether it's the quality of the soil,

when it rains, when it sun shines, etc.

Here's the thing.

Harvest will not wait. Some of us are really busy

people and we kind of think, oh, that can wait.

I don't know whether you've got a little project or

a little something that you want to do right now

and you've been waiting to do it for three months,

four months, and you go, that can wait. The harvest

cannot wait. If farmers sat back and said, I'm going

on holiday, farmers do not go on holiday in harvest time.

It's the hardest part of the year. Harvest has a window.

It has a window.

If we leave the grain for too long, it will spoil.

Wisdom recognizes this moment. A missed harvest is a mess.

It's a tragedy.

The harvest is past. The summer has ended, and we

are saved. That's what it says in Jeremiah 8.20. What

about the harvest of people? What about your friends? What

about all those people on campus who need to hear

the good news of the gospel? As Shane was really

encouraging us this morning, there is a good news for everyone.

Not just you and me, not just the good people,

for everyone. The good news of the gospel is for all.

I want to.

Encourage us to declare and be ready for harvest. We

had a guest speaker just a couple of weeks ago,

Clem Ferris. He's our apostolic covering as a church. For

anybody who was praying for him, just as a point,

because he had really bad sciatica when he was with us.

He flew back to the States.

And he's now in a place called Transnistria, which is

near Moldova.

And he said, my back's okay. Thanks for praying.

Because he was really in a lot of pain. So

God helps him with some practical treatment as well. Things

have got sorted. So the harvest needs willing harvesters. Isaiah

Isaiah 6:8

chapter 6 verse 8 says this. Whom shall I send?

And who will go for us? And I said, here

I am.

Send me.

You know, some of us pray prayers. We see a situation,

and maybe you've got a friend who desperately needs some

change or circumstance, and we pray the best prayer we

can pray. Sometimes I sense the Father goes to people, okay,

you've prayed your prayer.

Here's the plan. You go.

No, no, no, no, God, you don't understand. I'm praying

that you sort this out for my friend. And God's going,

but I'm praying this.

That you go.

I'm saying that you go. You go to your friend.

Go and stand with them in their trouble. Go and

stand with them. Not necessarily saying give them a thousand

pounds or anything like that, but go and stand with

them and be with them and see that I will

do what I will do. The harvest needs willing harvesters.

And that means a number of things. Number one, a

willing heart. You've got to be willing to say, yeah,

I'm willing.

It starts here.

And I want to challenge us this morning and say,

are you willing? Are you ready? Are you willing to

walk across the room? Sometime this week, most of us

will sit in a room and we will find ourselves,

and there'll be people sitting on the other side of

the room looking awkward. Maybe it's the first time they've

been to a lecture. Maybe it's the first time they've

been in a meeting. Maybe it's the first time they're

having to join a queue for a certain thing, and

they really don't know what to do. If you see

someone who's looking a little awkward.

Maybe you're a fresher too.

Why don't you just go and join them and say, hey,

my name's Dave or whatever your name is. Just go

and introduce yourself. We live in a world where isolation

is such a challenge. Social media has not helped things.

Social media is an oxymoron in my opinion. It's not

social at all. And we rely on it too much.

I think sometimes it's pick up the phone, write a letter,

go and talk to people. Just find out what they

think and what they believe. It starts with willing hearts,

but it's then followed very quickly by willing hands.

Willing to do something.

And if you've got willing hands, the first thing we've

got to do is put down what we're holding on to.

Quite a lot of us, including me, have our lives

full of stuff and God wants to go, Dave, I'd

like you to do this. And I go, let me

check my diary, God. How about three weeks on Thursday?

Okay.

I don't know how you view how God speaks to you.

For me, kingdom principles are God's in charge, Captain Jesus. Now,

if anybody wants to join the military in the long

term or in the future, or maybe you're a cadet now,

if your captain or your lieutenant or your sergeant says

something to you and says, okay, go and fetch the water,

it's not a request.

It's a request.

And you can't turn around to someone like that if

you're in the military and go, I'll think about it.

It doesn't work like that. And I don't know how

you listen to God speaking to you, but for me,

if God says do something and I sense it's really him,

I need to do it. I need to put down

what my hands are full of and be ready for action.

So willing hearts, willing hands, a willing generosity. And that

starts with our diaries. You know, I want to encourage

every one of you to think about, look at your diary.

So some of you are working out your timetables for

the first time. What does week one look like? You

don't even know what the shape of your week is yet.

You don't know quite how intense it will be. Let

me encourage you. Make some time in your diary to

be still and come before God.

Make it a priority. Make it a priority.

It doesn't have to be first thing in the day.

If you're not a morning person, find another time. But

make some time in your diary to, to sit and

listen to God, have a chat with God, and see

what he wants to say to you. Because that means

we're ready. We're ready with willing hands and a willing generosity.

And that sometimes requires willing surrender. What did I read

from Isaiah 6, verse 8? Whom shall I send? Who

Isaiah 6:8

will go before us? And I said, here I am,

said me. That's a surrender moment. Could have gone, no,

not me. Pick someone else, God. I'm not interested.

Not my job. Sometimes we do that.

What does Scripture say? Do the work of an evangelist.

It doesn't say be an evangelist. It says do the

work of an evangelist. Go out and share the good

news of the gospel with somebody else. Go and show

them the kingdom. Matthew 9, verses 37 and 38 is

Matthew 9:37

the foundation behind everything that I'm sharing this morning.

The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to.

Send out workers into the harvest field.

Please notice it doesn't say, send them out for training

on how to do harvesting. It doesn't say that. It says,

send them out to get on with doing... Now, some

of us say, well.

I need to go on another course. I need to

have another Bible study.

Guys, you're ready. You only have to be a Christian

a week, and you already know something. You know Jesus

loves you, and you can share that with somebody. If

you've been a Christian a year, you know a lot more.

If you've been a Christian 40 years, you know a

lot of stuff. And how much of that stuff have

you used? We can get more and more qualifications. We

can read more and more Bible verses. We can put

ourselves in more and more Bible studies. But do you

know what? We're ready to harvest now. You don't need

any more training than what you've got. Because here's the reality.

If you don't know the answer, you just put your

hand up and say, I don't know the answer to that.

Let's go and find out together. Or let's go and

ask Shane. Shane's always full of questions. For people who

don't know, Shane is known as Shane 20 Questions.

He's got lots of questions, haven't you, Shane?

Yeah, we met on Friday and he had a lot

of questions. He had some more this morning.

Fine.

Do you know, if you don't know the answer, that's

perfectly okay. And please don't look at Dave and go, oh,

Pastor Dave will know the answer, because sometimes I don't.

I say, let's go and find out together. So here's

the response I want us to think about. The question

is not, is there a harvest?

Is there a harvest?

God's promised there is a harvest. The question is, are

we willing to be part of bringing it in? Now,

I don't know what your gifts and talents are. There'll

be some people who are good at bringing in corn.

There are other people who'll be good at picking sweet corn.

There'll be other people who are good at picking strawberries.

And when I say picking strawberries, I don't mean picking

strawberries and eating them. I mean picking them for harvest.

One of the problems I have if I ever pick

strawberries is quite a lot of them end up in here,

not in the basket.

Because I like strawberries. That's okay. But you know what?

In the world where we are harvesting, there is a

benefit in being a harvester. If you go and pick strawberries,

you get some strawberries. If you go and share your

faith with someone, if you bring the harvest, you lead

someone to Christ, there is a benefit for you too.

It's not all you giving. I tell you what, one

of the most exciting things I've ever done in my

life is lead someone to Christ.

It's an exciting moment. I'm having a party inside. Yes!

It's exciting.

And there will be people who come to faith before

Christmas in this place. And you will be part of

leading them to Christ. And then they'll need baptizing. We've

got a baptism coming.

Up next month, actually.

I'll share that in the notices when I get to that.

But how do I respond? Number one, pray.

Ask of the Lord of the harvest to send workers.

But be ready. Be ready because it might be you.

It might be he says to you, okay. I want

you to go into this classroom and stand up and

be counted.

Prepare. Break up the unplowed fallow grounds. Let your heart

be ready.

One of the things that you will find is if

you expose yourself and come alongside people in need, they

will stretch you a little bit. Just a little bit.

But they'll ask you a question. They'll ask you to pray.

I'll share a little story here.

I'm a scientist by training.

And I'm very comfortable with dealing with things that you

cannot see. I was very comfortable as a young Christian

praying for people who had upset stomachs that God would

take them away. I couldn't see anything. I couldn't see

when God had answered the prayer. And even when people said,

my stomach's fine now, the pain stopped or the problems

in my tummy have gone. That was easy to pray for.

Do you know what?

The first time I was in Uganda and I had

to pray for a lady with a goiter on her neck.

And I looked at this and she said, please pray.

and I'm looking at this goiter, and it's quite large,

and I thought, God, how.

Are you going to do this?

And so I closed my eyes, a little bit out

of fear, almost more than anything else, because I thought, God,

how are you going to do this?

Are you going to do it?

I laid my hands on this lady's neck, and as

I prayed, I felt her neck changing shape. And by

the time we'd finished praying, it hadn't completely gone, but

there were flaps of skin on her neck. And so

I'd learned that I could pray for things that I

could see, and God could take them away where they

needed to. But the story I'm getting to is this,

because some of you will have to make this step. Letty,

who's not here today, she's in Mexico. She leads our

Spanish group that meets on Saturday nights. She organized for

me to go to Mexico. And I ended up praying

this very, very, very traditional Methodist church. Because of some

last-minute changes, I was told, Dave, please don't prophesy. Please

don't pray for anybody. Just preach the best message you have.

It was the kind of church all the men sat

on this side, all the ladies sat on this side.

The ladies had doities on their heads. It was a very,

very traditional church. And I got to speak, and I

finished preaching. Now, my shout is, wherever I go, I

submit myself to the local leadership. So I walked up

to the pastor and I said, sir, I've finished, but

if you would like me to pray for anyone, I'm

submitting to him. If he said no, that's the end

of it. I went to him, sir, if you'd like

me to pray for anybody, I'd be happy to do so.

He goes to the back of the church, he brings

a lady forward who's got a baby under a shore.

And he says to me, could you pray for this lady?

She's been a Christian five weeks and her baby is

three weeks old. I said, no, just be wise.

Be ready.

I said, I'm happy to pray. What am I praying for?

He said, the baby's been born with no eyes. Can

you pray for the baby? Now, to this day, I

do not know that the baby's ever been given eyes,

but I prayed my best prayer. I took hold of

the baby, still wrapped in a shawl, prayed for.

The baby, gave it back to mum. Baby started crying.

I went, whoops. gave the baby back.

But the miracle for me that then happened was he

then turned to the church and said, if anybody else

would like prayer, remember this is a really traditional church

where I was told, don't pray for people, don't prophesy.

He turned to the church and said, if anybody else

would like prayer, please come.

And a queue formed.

And I said to him, sir, it's not just me

that's going to pray, you're going to pray too. And

so we stood at the front of the church and

we prayed for nearly two and a half hours. for

about three quarters of the church. God did some miracles

in that moment.

So be ready.

If you're going to pray, be ready to be part

of the solution, even if it's way beyond your imagination.

Because I want to encourage you, God is able to

do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine. And now,

I don't know how big your imagination is, but mine's

pretty big. I can imagine this room full. That's really

not that big a faith journey for me. Okay, we've

got another room that we can move into when we

fill this room.

That's not a problem.

We're already on track for that, and we're plugging people

in to think about that stuff. So pray, be prepared.

And then a little story I want to, says go,

like Ruth. Ruth took the first step. Ruth took the

first step into the field. She named one person this

week you will pray for or serve or share. Because if,

like Ruth, you're willing to do, if you're like Ruth,

she walked into God's field. She stepped up, and she said,

I'm willing to go. And Boaz said, I'm willing to give.

In that moment, God had all the ingredients he needed

for a miracle. They prayed, they prepared, and they went. So,

I'm going to bring a challenge to us as we

finish out our season of a bounty harvest. I want

to pray a prayer and then I'm going to ask

a couple of questions and see if people want to respond.

But let's close our eyes first of all. The first

thing I want to do is say this. With your

eyes closed, I want you to lift up your eyes.

So that's a crazy thing. Why have I got my

eyes closed? Because that means you will lift your head up.

Quite often when we pray, we bow our heads. And

that's a sovereign homage to God. I want you to

lift your head up with your eyes closed as if

you were looking to God. Allow the light of his

presence to shine upon you. Lift up your eyes. And

I want you to think about taking up your sickle,

whatever your harvesting machinery is, whether it's a combine harvester,

if you want to believe, a massive harvest, or whether

it's just a simple knife that you're just picking tomatoes,

or whether it's just a basket that you just put

strawberries in. But I want to encourage every one of

us to say, here I am, Lord.

Send me.

So I'm just going to ask you to think about

a couple of things and then if you want to,

you can stand. I want to pray, firstly, for the harvest.

Not the harvest, the harvesters. That's what Scripture said.

Harvest is here. Harvest time is here. Term time is

just starting.

You will meet people in desperate need throughout this term

who will ask you questions and you may not know

the answers, but it starts with saying, I'm willing, Lord.

I have a willing heart. And then you'll put yourself

in a place where you'll say, I'm willing, Lord. My

hands are ready. What is it you need me to do?

And then it.

Might take time. It might take your energy. It might

take your emotion. God's saying, I want you to invest

in this relationship. I want you to invest in this conversation.

And then we'll surrender and we'll see God command the increase. So,

what's the question? The fields are ripe unto harvest. Pray

for the workers. And what did they say? Here I am.

Send me.

I don't know what your harvest field is. Some of

you will have a harvest field in biochemistry. Some of

you will have a harvest field in philosophy. Some of

you will have a harvest field in the student union.

Some of you will have a harvest field in the

corridor that you live on. Some of you will have

the harvest.

Field at work. Some with your neighbour's.

I don't know where your harvest field will be, but

what I do know is there's a harvest field for

every one of us. There's harvest that needs to be

brought in. And so what we need to say is,

here I am, Lord, send me. And if that's you,

I'm not going to collect names. This is just a

God thing. If that's you, would you stand? I don't

know where your harvest field will be, but if you

are willing to say today, here I am, Lord, send me.

And some of you, even as I'm asking this question,

already know You already know the appointment. You already see

a picture. You already have a sense of somebody's been

placed in your heart right now. I see somebody sitting

in a treatment room waiting for treatment. And actually your

harvest is sitting with people who are also waiting for treatment.

And rather than be low and heavy hearted, you bring

light and life into that room. And people ask. How

can you be like that in these circumstances? You will

declare who God is, and they will say, please tell

me more. I don't know who that's for, but I

just share that. So if you're willing to say, here

I am, send me, then we're standing, and I'm standing too,

and for those listening at home too, and for those listening.

Later, please stand. Make a choice. Make a choice before God.

I don't need to see it, but God needs to

see it, and you need to know that you made

a step. And so, Father God, as we stand before

you right now, we say we are willing. We are

willing to be your hands and feet, your ears and eyes,

your heart full of service, and your feet shall be

the gospel of peace. And so, Father, we say, send us, Lord. Father,

help us to remember the appointments you're going to give us.

Help us to be ready. Our hearts are what needs

to be ready. We don't need to be on a

training course. We just need to be ready and you

can whisper in our ear. And I even sense God

is whispering in one or two ears right now. You

already know one or two of the messages you need

to share. So we say, Lord, we're ready. And some

of us might need to reach out our hands now

and almost physically put down some stuff. There might be

some stuff that God's saying, put it down. You don't

need it right now. You don't need that extra jumper.

You don't need to take your computer with you. You

don't need to take your notebook with you. You don't

need to take your Bible with you. Just go and

see what I will do.

And so, Father, I.

Want to commission everyone who's standing to a few weeks,

maybe a year, maybe a lifetime of harvesting.

Father, would you do your will? Would you fill us,

equip us, release us for your glory? In Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you. Please take your seats.