THE HARVEST IS PLENTIFUL

Matthew 9:35-38
What is the harvest all about? Let us see in John 4:34-38. Jesus says something, here, that was true then and is still true today. He says that the fields are ripe, i.e. the people are ready for the word of God.

When fruit is not yet ripe it tends to be hard and acidic. When people are not ready for the word of God they are hard and acidic. But Jesus says that the people are ready. Like ripe fruit, their hearts are soft and open.

The harvest is people being ready not only to accept God's word but to obey it as well.


1. THE FIELDS ARE RIPE
The harvest is plentiful and the workers to do the harvesting are few. Q. Are you as an individual able to bring in the harvest? Q. Are you able to communicate the Scriptures and help bring people to repentance?

Few people are able to do this and even then, not all who are able are willing.

Harvesting does not merely involve teaching correct doctrine. It also involves teaching people to make godly decisions about issues in their lives.

Illustration: when a mango is ripe and ready, it drops on its own. You then apply minimal work in eating the mango. Helping people become Christians is like that. The hard work has already been done, now you do a little work and those who are ready turn and follow God.


2. ARE YOU RIPE?
James 1:22-25
As you come to church you hear that you can be better and stronger but then you make no or little effort to grow or change. For us to lay hold of the changes that are possible for us and available to us, we must look into the Bible intently and not casually.

You must look at what you can learn and at what you need to change. Don't just read, look. And having looked intently, you must continue to do so. Every day you must dig into the Scriptures as you seek life-changing insight and understanding.

We have a measure of control over whether we are blessed or not. We cannot determine what the blessings are, but we can (and do) determine whether or not we are blessed, according to whether or not we look intently into the word and then continue to do so.

Matthew 7:21-23
This is a warning to those who would look only casually into God's word. The people here were doing what they thought they should, but for lack of intent study they were ultimately deceived about the state of their spirituality. On this issue Jesus says he will speak "plainly," not in parables or proverbs.

The people are telling Jesus what they did and not mentioning what they did not do. WE must think about both - what good have we done, but also what good have we overlooked which we should be doing?

Q. Are you ripe for the harvest? Q. Are you ready to live your life according to what Jesus wants you to do?

Missing out on a true relationship with God and ultimately missing out on heaven come as a result of not looking intently into the word of God. It comes as a result of basing your faith on what you see and hear from people, radio and TV rather than digging deeply into God's word.

Let us look intently into God's word and God promises to bless us in what we do.