The Harvest is PLENTIFUL!
Since man is “created in the image of God”, that “image” includes truth, justice, and love – three of the many attributes of God. There has never been a time in our generation that people have felt the lack of truth, justice, and love as right now. God is love. We can’t live without love. God is Truth. We crave Truth. God is Just. That is why it hurts when we see the guilty go free or the innocent incarcerated. Many are outraged at the perceived injustice of this election. Jesus said in Matthew 24:12 Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.” Sound familiar? Unfortunately, the American Dream has been so successful that it has created a nation of “Rich Young Rulers” (Matthew 19:16-26) who haven’t seen the need for God because of how good we’ve had it. Well, guess what! God is getting everyone’s attention. Now is the time for us to go to work! Friends who didn’t want to hear about Jesus before may be willing to listen now.
In Matthew 9:36,37 it states: “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” Do you know anyone “distressed and dispirited”? Are you one of His “workers”?
There is no time like the present to begin serving our King. He commissioned every one of us to “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19,20) We are all priests, we are all ambassadors for Christ. His plan is for every believer to represent Him to the world.
You don’t need special training or a certification. If you are a born again (John 3:3) believer of Jesus Christ – you have the Gospel. Gospel means “Good News”! You understand that our sin separates us from the relationship God wants to have with us and that Jesus’ death and resurrection paid the price (justice) for our sins. All we need to do is put our faith in the Truth of Jesus. You have already been equipped with the Good News that everyone needs to hear right now! Satan condemns. He is the one telling you it is too late, you are too old, too young, not outgoing enough, don’t know enough Bible, your friends will hate you, you’re too busy, but like all his lies, none of that is true. Moses and Paul both felt they were the wrong ones to serve God but God gave us His Holy Spirit to equip us! (John 16:13)
Pray!
Pray that God reveals the Spiritual Gifts he has given you. Pray for forgiveness for not seeking to serve Him in the past if you haven’t been. Thank Him for opening your eyes to these truths today. Colossians 4:2-6 is a fantastic ministry prayer to pray. Paul asks that God opens a door to speak. Pray that every day. (Kicking doors open is for Seal Teams. It doesn’t go over well in ministry!) Pray that God opens your eyes to see the open doors around you. The more you Abide in Him the more your eyes will be open to see those opportunities. Pray that God gives you ears to listen to your friend’s pain or concerns and that He gives you the words to speak. Create a list of those in your circle of influence and pray that God prepares their heart to receive His truth and gives them ears to hear.
We also need to be praying for our believing friends. Paul gives a great example of that in Colossians 1:1-12. It is interesting how hard we pray for someone to become Born Again, then once they do, we don’t feel the need to pray unless they have a problem or specific need. Spend some time on verses 9 and 10: “For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” Is it possible that the entire New Testament can be summed up in those two verses? It begins with the knowledge of God, moves to faith in God, then Paul prays for an even deeper knowledge of God – which produces good works – which results in an even deeper knowledge of God!
Act!
Use conversation about the crisis to segue into God’s role in all of it which gives you peace. Everyone wants peace. The best witness to Jesus is your own testimony. Share with a friend what Jesus has meant to you through this crisis. Read through Philippians 4:4-9 with them. Offer to read through the Gospel of John with them. In person is best but it is amazing how well FaceTime and other services can work one on one. Read some of the Sovereignty verses listed in this paper. There is also a paper at www.spiritualgym.life called Bible Basics. It is a very simple primer to help get someone familiar with and started in the Bible. By the way, Jesus was a great model. He did it with them. Yes, we can steer them to all the right places – but God is relational and wants us to walk with our brothers and sisters as He did with the Apostles.
When you are rejected by a good friend know that Jesus was rejected by ALL His friends. We will be rejected too. But it isn’t us that is being rejected – it’s Jesus. As Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 3:6 “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.” Again, God’s Sovereignty gives us great peace. He must call them to Himself for them to hear His call. If you reach out to a loved one or friend and the timing isn’t right – its not “on you”! Not only do you not get the credit for their salvation – you don’t carry the responsibility if they reject the Truth either! This is the only job I know of where we are paid a commission (rewards in heaven) just for making the call – not for making the sale! That part is God’s job. Our job is to “plant” and “water”.
Friendships are important to us – otherwise we wouldn’t have them. But if we withhold this Truth from a friend – and they find out from someone else – how would they feel about us? If you don’t offer this free gift are you really loving them? This is the most amazing gift you can ever give! If the response is “not now”, respect that. You will be surprised how often people follow up (perhaps after God has worked in their heart). There is great wisdom in the saying “perform to an audience of One.” Ultimately, we need to ask ourselves who do we really want to please? Ourselves, our friends, or God?
As a believer, should we follow the news (more like propaganda) of the politics and scandals that are taking place? That is our individual decision. For now, we have a Democratic Republic which requires our involvement (being knowledgeable enough to vote) for it to work. We are grateful for this nation and the life it has provided us. We should also realize we are beneficiaries as well as “victims” of the American Dream. We live an amazing life style (when compared to any time or place in history) and much of what we have in this life distracts us from bearing fruit. While it can help to be informed, it is very easy to be drawn in to the Third Soil. However you choose to handle it, pray that God keeps your focus on the Fourth Soil.
Should we pray that Truth and Justice prevail through all this chaos? Absolutely! We should also pray that God’s will be done “on earth as it is in heaven”. We all care deeply what happens with this nation, but we should be very cautious that a friend might not recognize us as a Believer because we are “just as caught up in the outrage as the next guy”. We want them to see our peace and faith in God, so it’s a delicate balance. That may be one of the reasons we need to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling”. For me, this “refining fire” has revealed to me how much hope I also put in this nation. God warns us that He is a jealous God. We should only place our hope in Him.
This crisis has exposed how sinful the world really is. And yes, even much of the leadership of this great nation. We have been blessed to have lived in “a bubble of light” for a long time – but this corruption has been going on for a long time – and has recently been exposed. This is certainly not our home – let’s not put our hope here. Jesus said “the Kingdom of God is at hand.” (Mark 1:15). He is offering us to be part of His Kingdom. Jesus didn’t die in our place so we could “believe” and hold a ticket for the next bus that comes by labeled “Heaven”. He died in our place to restore a right relationship with the King of the universe. And yes, Heaven is part of the deal, but He expects us to serve Him now and promises to reward us handsomely for doing so. Let’s serve our King!
“…and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” (2 Corinthians 5:15)
God Bless!
Stay in the Spiritual Gym!
Kim Fettig
ksf@spiritualgym.life