The Lord of the harvest

The Lord of the harvest

Preached by Jonty Allcock on Sunday, January 5, 2020

From the series Guest Speaker - Preaching

     I have got a question for you. What you are you asking God to do in 2020? What would you love God to do in 2020.

     Asking is what Christians do. To be a Christian means that you are a child of the creator of the universe. You get to call Him Father and therefore you get to ask him for things. So what are you asking him for.? One of the big mistakes we make as Christians, we fail  asking God for anything. I learnt this the hard way when we were young, I have 3 brothers. Once we had a visitor in, this wasn't very normal. but he was a fairly wealthy man from Jordan and he was travelling back to Jordan and coming back to England, he said what would you like me to  bring you. I was polite and I said: 'Can I just have a few sweets. My little brother who was less well-mannered said I want a remote-controlled car. We forgot all about it then he turned up. He gave me my sweets and then he gave my brother the biggest most extraordinary remote-controlled car I've ever seen.

I learnt an important lesson that day, You ask and what you ask for shows what you think of the person you ask.

Often the things we ask God for are about the things that affect us

In Matthew chapter 9:35-38 Jesus is going to teach us something something all of us should be asking for. 

Can you see Jesus is telling us what we should be asking God in 2020. It's in verse 37, 38

35 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. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

We should be asking in 2020 that there would be more workers to go in the labourers sent by God. What would it

What would it be for you 

To help bring it down, 3 ways

The idea of harvest.

The harvest is plentiful, the Lord of the harvest. What is he talking about? Why does he use this language

The Lord of the harvest

A rich biblical thing, it goes right through the bible. 

The bible is one story from beginning to end, the Bible is not random verses where you pick verses that's nice for you. 

it's the story of God and his work.

The idea of harvest

I'm not much of a farmer, and I get  I do remember occasionally doing a bit of There are two bits of harvesting, 1st bit is scattering, you scattering the seeds all over the place then you wait

and then the comes the exciting bit : the gathering bit

To be honest, the scattering is a bit boring

Scattering and harvesting this is what 

In the Bible, Jesus is talking about something bigger.When you hear the word scattered, that is a bad thing, 

To be scattered, it's to be under God's judgement, when people do something wrong, he scatters them.

To be gathered, is a good thing

When they rebelled against him, what did he do, he scattered them out of the Garden,  away from the Garden

in Genesis 11, humanity again rebells against God in a big way and it build a tower so that they can be gathered together.. in rebellion agasint God

It's very funny. 

We are going to make a name for ourselves

They are building a tower to reach the heavens

Are they doing something down there?'I can't see what they are doing it's very small

When God comes down and sees the rebellion, do you know what he does? he scatters them, that's His judgement, he sends them away. 

The story of the bible is how God from scattered people gathers them in the harvest. 

That's what the Bible is all about

We discover time and again that when people do things wrong, they are scattered.

There is an evil king of Israel called Ahab, and his days, one of the prophet said to Ahab I saw Israel  like sheep scattered without shepherd.

When there is something wrong, the people are scattered.

Turn to Ezechiel chapter 11, verse 17. Here is God speaking through Israel, 

“Therefore say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.’

Here is God's great promise, that's God's judgement. Now in his coming, there is the time of gathering, not the time of scattering

that is what Jesus is referring to when he says the harvest is plentiful

Jesus as he is looking at Israel 

Matthew 9 verse 36

Do you see a people content or do you see like Jesus see them 

people who are like sheep without a shepherd. Do you know how they are, they are dead. For a little while, they could be happy, the reality is that if they haven't got a shepherd, they are in danger

As we walk through London

if we first see the need

He didn't walk through the world

There was a b

Jesus sees it

We pretend that everything is fine but it's not We live in a world 

because this world is a scattered world

There are millions of people scattered

The danger is

 that 

we've got to fix it

Can we fix it?

Bob the builder, can we fix it? No not really!

We just need better education, heathcare, 

a declaration 

we don't want 

The message in the bible is no you can't. 

v 38 Therefore do, fix, therefore pray why, 

Do you know what his Son come to do?

Right at the start of Matthew gospel, John the Baptist said..

his winnowing hand ..

Why does Jesus have to die in order to gather the harvest? I deserve to be scattered in hell but Jesus came to take the punishment in my place, he was forsaken by his people

This morning, do you know this Lord of the harvest

Those who refuse to be gathered, i will not be gathered by Jesus

broken, Jesus says Come to me, why don't you come 

There is no 

Only him 

There would be more 

Jesus is interested in labourers, he doesnt want fan, he doest not want 

He wants people 

He doesnt want customers, 

Jesus doesn

want volunteers, that is very different to a labourer

Labourers work

The normal experience 

How are you? I am tired. Exactly, that's what it's supposed to be like.

We are supposed to rest, you learn to rest.

Some of us need to be told: work

There are million people

how are they going to hear?

On this final day

It's our finest joy, 

He is looking for labourers

Other time I go to the supermarket, 

Saying to people about Jesus is the best thing ever

and sometimes we think that 

The Welsh Revival

Evan Roberts (6/8/1878 – 9/29/1951) was a young coal miner and blacksmith apprentice. Some have called him the “silent evangelist” and God used Him in His dealings with the Welsh people. God gave him a vision of 100,000 souls to be won in his native land. His brief ministry only lasted a few months. His basic message consisted of four major principles.

1. Confess all known sin, receiving forgiveness through Jesus Christ.
2. Remove anything in your life that you are in doubt or feel unsure about.
3. Be ready to obey the Holy Spirit instantly.
4. Publicly confess the Lord Jesus Christ

Roberts entered Preparatory School in Newcastle Emlyn to study for the ministry. Shortly after his enrollment, in February, 1904, a little flock of believers in the village of New Quay met regularly to pray for a spiritual awakening. In one of these prayer times, Florrie Evans in a testimony time stood and stated, “I love the Lord Jesus Christ with all my heart.” The effect in the gathering was electric and many date the beginning of the revival in Wales to that meeting. Following this meeting several meetings were held in different places. In a meeting at Blaenanerch, Rev. Seth Joshua prayed, “O Lord, bend us.” That became the watchword of the revival. Others prayed, “Bend the church and save the world!”

The meetings spread into many different towns and cities. Shops would close early for the meetings and chapels were crowded. The road outside of the meeting places were lined with disappointed people who could not get into the meetings because of the crowds

The messages of Evan Roberts were simple and yet powerful, so much so that it was reported that even the bars (pubs) closed for lack of patrons. He told those who came that he had not come to frighten them with a discourse on the terrors of everlasting punishment. He believed that the love of Christ was powerful enough to draw the people and emphasized the joy of the Lord which was far beyond human expression.

There were more than a thousand people who were faithful church members, but recognized in the meetings that they had never truly become Christians. Even the crime rate dropped in the whole country. Denominationalism was set aside with an emphasis on God’s children in Christ becoming one to fight against Satan and to pray for the salvation of sinners.

This revival only lasted about nine months. It was stated: Why, there would be a perpetual revival if men would only keep their hearts open instead of closing them to every influence! It was not unusual for preachers to preach for more than an hour and at times the meetings lasted into the wee hours of the morning. It was not unusual for men and women to break forth into prayer and song. Many people could not explain what was taking place, but they all recognized that in some unexplainable way, the Holy Spirit was at work. So many people were being converted while others were getting right with God.

It is difficult for many Christians to even begin to imagine what genuine revival is like because for the most part, so few have ever experienced it. Have you ever felt the need to start praying for revival on a consistent basis? Have you ever shared that with another brother or sister in the Lord and gathered together to pray for such to take place in your life, your church and in your nation? Consider praying: “Oh Lord, bend me!” How about praying: “Lord, do it again! Start with me!” Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me (Psalm 51:10).

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