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  THE LORD OF THE HARVEST
  by Todd Atkinson
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Summary: This sermon focuses on the passion for mission, emphasizing the
importance of seeing people through the eyes of Jesus, who had genuine
compassion for them. It delves into the concept of the Lord of the
harvest, highlighting the need for prayer and recognizing God's
sovereignty in preparing hearts for faith. The message encourages
believers to engage in kingdom work, discern signs of readiness in
others, and allow God to do the heavy lifting in the mission field.

Topics: "Compassion for the Lost", "Engaging in Kingdom Work"
Scripture References: Matthew 9:35, Matthew 9:37, Matthew 10:1, John 4:35, Luke 10:2, Psalm 126:5, 1 Corinthians 3:6, Galatians 6:9, Colossians 4:5

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon focuses on the passion for mission, emphasizing the
importance of seeing people through the eyes of Jesus, who had genuine
compassion for them. It delves into the concept of the Lord of the
harvest, highlighting the need for prayer and recognizing God's
sovereignty in preparing hearts for faith. The message encourages
believers to engage in kingdom work, discern signs of readiness in
others, and allow God to do the heavy lifting in the mission field.

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CONTENT
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Let's just posture our hearts to uh Just hang on his every word this
morning The reading is from the gospel of matthew chapter 9 starting at
verse 35 and ending in chapter 10 verse 1 And jesus went throughout all
the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the
gospel of the kingdom and healing every Disease and every affliction
when he saw the crowds He had compassion for them Because they were
harassed and helpless Like sheep without a shepherd And he said to his
disciples The harvest is plentiful But the laborers are few Therefore
pray earnestly to the lord of the harvest To send out laborers into his
harvest And he called to him his 12 disciples And he gave them authority
over unclean spirits to cast them out And to heal every disease and
every affliction the gospel of our lord Good morning, everyone Almost
too many special things happening on a single morning to count If you
are new to us today We are in the middle of a preaching series On
something that we call the five passions of jesus Many years ago we
Looked back again at the gospel narrative with fresh eyes And just
simply asked ourselves the question. What were the things? That jesus
was most passionate about And it seemed like the uh Like something that
we couldn't fail in is that if we took the things that he was most
passionate about And made them our greatest and highest passions That
that could never be an approach to doing church. That could be wrong
Today we are turning our attention to the fifth passion To the passion
for mission And I want to take a look at this passage That has just been
read aloud That has become just so important to me and I think to many
of us This morning If we had the time I would take you through the whole
of chapter 9 It's a magnificent chapter Just such one striking story
after another If we were to put a chapter heading over the whole of
matthew chapter 9 It could be something like the people find themselves
trusting in jesus Or the crowds welcome jesus and his ministry amongst
them Because in this chapter there is one story after another of people
expressing a remarkably Strong faith in jesus if we had the time I would
love to take you through that series of stories and show you some of the
parallels But we don't have the time just choose one Verse 18 and
following a synagogue ruler Comes and kneels before jesus Knowing full
well the way this could discredit him in front of all of his peers And
he says to jesus my daughter has just died but if you come and lay hands
on her she'll live So Hear that again, my daughter has just died But you
come and lay hands on her and she'll live so matter of fact Such great
faith, how did this man that has never met jesus? May never have even
set eyes upon him before But at least would have heard of him by
reputation How does that man come to jesus and take the thing that is
probably most precious in the whole world to him And trust him with that
with that kind of faith It's one of the questions of matthew chapter 9
and the answers Are in some of the verses that follow in matthew Chapter
9 verses 36 to 38 are reading it takes us beyond these stories To kind
of some of the things that lie behind them what's driving all of these
gospel activity Matthew starts by saying when jesus saw the crowds The
crowds is a common expression in matthew's gospel Chapter 4 verse 1 and
great crowds followed him Chapter 7 the crowds were astonished at his
teaching Chapter 9 verse 8 when the crowd saw this they were filled with
awe And they glorified god.

So matthew is saying something to us About jesus and the crowds, but it
may not be what we think Because for jesus the crowds were not a
strategic focus In the sense that jesus thought that more is better than
few He didn't think wouldn't be great if we just had crowds today The
crowds were not a form of validation Jesus didn't feel Better about
himself because of the crowds. He didn't say I must be a really great
messiah because look at all the people here I must just be doing a
marvelous job He didn't think of the crowds as a sign of personal
success No, he wasn't pursuing the crowds because he needed them for
some internal reason He was pursuing the crowds Because they needed him
He's not looking to the crowds to fill some need inside of himself Like
he would feel a lot better about himself if there were more people How
often have I done that? He's looking to them because he genuinely
Genuinely loves them. This is why the look at the next phrase When he
saw the crowds he had Compassion on them the word compassion means to be
stirred up with feeling to be affected deeply To have one's feelings Go
out to someone even to yearn for them There are so many reasons why we
might want to do mission in our city a sense of duty A sense of
obligation Perhaps we think we have something to prove Maybe we would
feel happier and more satisfied if we were really out in the world
winning people.

We feel like really great christians But jesus was ministering to people
because he was genuinely Moved moved inside We use the word love in such
an easy way. It's become a salutation. Love ya It's nothing wrong with
that, but he's talking something inside of him.

It's not the same it is moving It is reaching out You know that people
believed his message god so loved the world. Why did they believe it?
Because they saw it in him Because he was the message Because he
actually loved the world because he was the revelation of god So they
saw his message in his manner the love he was proclaiming they saw it in
him They didn't throw around the word love they saw the way he looked at
them the way he treated them that he was genuinely moved Something in
him was different Than anyone they had ever met before and so the
question is how will our city believe? God so loved the world if our
love for them doesn't seem believable convincing real persuasive The
truth is Outside of jesus. I feel like i'm really crummy at loving
people I became a christian as a teenager before that.

I don't remember ever feeling deeply moved for somebody I never feel
Deep heart connection. Maybe it was the result of our story at that time
But I never felt it from someone or to someone Not this kind of love Not
a kind of love where something in your very core is affected not this
kind of love That lacks all self-interest. Of course.

I love someone giving well if I like you you'll like me But not
something that's devoid of all self-interest that never looks to get
anything out of it That love is completely foreign to me actually But I
learned a secret I think in my life it happened through The birth of our
first child cecilia Where I remember saying to the lord, I think my
human love even at its best Is hugely insufficient. I can feel it It's
not enough And so all I did is I gave my heart to jesus And I asked that
his love for my daughter would be resident in my heart And something
started at that stage of my life Where instead of aspiring to love
people with the highest human love that I could reach retain to? I
experienced the love That was far from natural for me. It was
supernatural a love as strong as the sun at midday A strong like a love
like the tides of the ocean That I knew was god's love for people that
he would graciously allow to be resident in my heart I wish I had more
time to talk about the importance between the gospel message gospel
content and gospel compassion Because if you preach gospel content put
the message out there, but it's devoid of gospel compassion it will
always undermine your content Because the content is god loves the world
And so the words of our mouth And the compassion of our heart have to
flow Together the scripture goes on to explain that jesus had compassion
on them because he saw their true state He saw them as they really were
and that is something I like about jesus I'm fascinated about that side
that he doesn't fall for illusion For appearances for pretense He sees
right through me and it took me some time with him before I could
actually appreciate that To be known there's there's nothing I could say
or do to fool him And at a certain point I loved that about him He saw
their true state When we were starting the church plant in regina rob
and I were out to mission one day's meeting the community I remember we
walked into this kind of iconic breakfast place called the mercury You
know such a trendy place.

It's not a kind of place I would fit in Naturally, but I we went in
there and there was a dear lady uh, who was going to see us to our table
and as soon as I I I looked at her. It was like I saw through her eyes
and her soul And I just leaned for and said Are you okay? She did not
appreciate me saying that She grew quite brusque with me Saw me saw rob
and I to our tables was not happy because she did not want to be saw or
known And so I thought that because if I thought about it a little bit I
never want people to feel unsafe with that So we quickly just gave her
her space and thought oh no that just came out of me impulsively I saw
her So we uh ate our dinner made sure that we didn't have any further
contact with her that day And I took rob out and said let's just do
something marvelous Let's buy a card and we're each going to ask the
lord for messages And we're going to write this lady a message And so we
went and have beautiful well chosen card. We asked god Who alone could
know what was happening that day? And we asked him to give us messages
And then we asked the lord for her favorite treat And i'll tell you it
was so much fun And so we did we took it back to the mercury gave it to
somebody else because again that lady needs Uh loved that day loving her
looked like giving her some space and all the introverts said And you're
surprised that the rest of us would know that But the next day we went
back for breakfast again And as soon as we came in the door that girl
Ran across the restaurant to us How did you know? How did you know so
excited that card? I shared the gift out with the friends brought the
staff out And from that day on the relationship we had with the staff in
the mercury That every time we would go in there The staff would empty
out even the chefs from the back and sit with us and I could see in the
eyes of all the customers These two guys i'll snake for myself Looks
like the complete antithesis of cool Because this is a very sharp place
Why is all the staff Run to them in fact that christmas Our church plant
and regina put on a christmas meal for these people whose job was
cooking And we put we made a christmas meal for them And it was awesome
And all circus jesus was looking at people and he and that day he just
happened to look at them through my eyes You want to be in the harvest
ask him to give you his eyes for people He sees them As they really are
he then uses two metaphors to describe that state Number one.

He describes them as a flock. They're like sheep without a shepherd. I
am not going to be able to touch that metaphor It's a wonderful and
deserves attention of its own Number two, he describes them as a field.

It's a metaphor to describe how He sees them Then he said to the
disciples the harvest is plentiful The so what is he saying here looking
at the crowds The harvest is plentiful what is a harvest and in what way
are these people like a harvest? well harvest is of course a
agricultural term A harvest comes about when seeds are planted into the
earth They grow To a mature or ripened state And then they are gathered
or harvested Collected but that doesn't answer the question. Why are the
crowds like that? What makes the crowds like a harvest in jesus eyes And
the answer is because they are displaying a ripeness or a a readiness
There's something ready prepared full grown inside of something that's
coming of age There's a ripeness a readiness to them to be persuaded
About the kingdom of god a ripeness to to choose faith to come to faith
And even that doesn't answer the question. Well, how did they get there?
Why did they become ripe? What ripened them what brought them to that
place of of a positive warm-hearted response to jesus And the answer is
found in the next couple phrases therefore Pray earnestly to the lord of
the harvest First of all, he uses the word pray Raises some really good
questions the word therefore is a call to action And it's rightly placed
here in the light of if you really love people if you really saw them as
sheep without a shepherd If you if you if the gospel of the kingdom was
really present then you should really do something about this therefore
call to action But what we don't understand is why is the call to action
a call to prayer? therefore pray Because some people would think that
prayer is kind of the antithesis of action Well, there's a reason why
jesus puts prayer in that place because there's things that a good
farmer can do and things that he can't a good farmer can put Seeds in
the ground at one time of the year and he can harvest them in another
But there are other things that a good farmer is absolutely 100%
powerless to do and that is he can't make those things grow Not a thing
he can't make it rain He can't make the sunshine The complex processes
that go from one seed to many There's not a thing he can do to make that
happen except to pray to the one that can That's why the first call to
action is therefore you better get praying Pray to pray to who? Now this
is a mind-blowing phrase pray to the lord of the harvest And that should
make you ask what in the world does that phrase mean so when I lived in
scotland, I had a series of Encounters with the lord.

I don't know what you want to call them God things happening in my life
And all of them had some similarities to them which is I was in public
places Not in my prayer room Not in church. I was always in public And
in a public place I would hear god speak to me And he would give me Just
a bible reference and I did not know What that reference was
Interestingly this happened over several months All of the bible
references were on the same theme But one of them is I was walking in
scotland one day in a public place And the lord told me turn to this
verse and this is what he said to me Read it as though for the very
first time so as soon as he said that I I I could realize that i've
obviously read something and missed it a lot Read it as though for the
very first time and when I read that text matthew chapter nine This
phrase was the one that stood out of the page. What? Lord of the harvest
i'm lord of the harvest pray to the lord of the harvest and I had to say
what does that mean? Because lord means supreme ruler One with absolute
power and authority.

It means the sovereign one But what does it mean to be lord over? the
harvest Because the harvest is not the church these are not people who
have believed for these are the people who are on their way to belief
Whose belief is ripening What does that mean that he has lordship Over
the harvest Jesus saw his father as lord of the harvest that his father
had the ability to harvest at will At will the power to do it that he
had the that there was no person Or place that he could not do this with
it changed The way I see things completely when people say well, this is
this is a really hard place. I'm like It's hard for you It's hard for
me. It's not hard for lord of the harvest.

That's what makes him lord of the harvest He can do it whenever he wants
He actually has lordship in this area complete supreme rulership and
authority And so when when he said read it for the very first time
inside of me come up objections Well, it couldn't mean this and it
couldn't mean that And I had to put them all aside for a while and just
because otherwise you lose the kernel of truth I thought I can have all
the rest of my life to figure out how It works with everything else. I
just can't lose this. I am meant to see my lord in a different and new
way And so I think before our communities Come to see him in a new way
Before they come to see him as lord.

I think we have to see him as lord in this area Why is this so
important? How long have you been a christian for? And in the years that
you've been a christian how many times have you heard a strong call to
evangelism or mission And how many times have you heard that call?
Something very good has risen inside of you and said i'm going to
respond to that. I like this I'm going to give my life to this And how
many times did you go? To engage with that call and throw this isn't as
easy as I thought it was the world didn't fall at my feet This didn't
look like a billy graham crusade My whole city didn't come in one accord
singing just as I am So now here I know children are coming in stay with
me for a minute because the truth is What happened in your heart at that
moment where it didn't turn out as easy as you thought? What happened
the next time after you heard it gave yourself tried? The whole world
didn't kneel before your feet and say I want to believe in jesus What
happened in your heart at that time? And if we're not careful some part
of us ends up in significant disbelief We wouldn't call it that we
compartmentalize it maybe that's true for evangelists not the rest of us
Maybe that's true for africa place where there's real harvest happening
around the world, but that's not true here Maybe i'm not spiritual
enough yet. Maybe i'll have to take another year of corpus I'm not
trained enough yet Because we have to find some way of resolving.

Why did that not happen for me? So much i'd like to say it's a little
time to say what happens if you had to experience your poverty first You
were never asked to be lord of the harvest But what happens if you had
to experience your complete inability first? Your complete powerlessness
to do that before the lord would display his power What happens if it's
all working out to a plan who knew there may be a plan? There is person
coming to jesus after person after person And the disciples are asking
the same question that many of us ask because for 400 years What was it
called before jesus? It's called the foreign silent years. It did not
look like harvest time Now they can't understand what's happening People
didn't used to do this Nobody did this before jesus came on the scene
And so that's why they're wondering why is all this the centurion comes
to them You just do anything just say the word my daughter will be
healed like We're not coming from and jesus explanation is Because my
father is starting to harvest He's creating readiness in people. He's
bringing people to a place of ripeness He is doing it get out of his
way.

All you've got to do is help collect the grain into the barn So much
more can be said My one way I would implore you is this in prayer go to
prayer this week as he says and say lord I don't see you like lord of
the harvest. I think you're limited in harvest I want to see your vast
lordship if you're if we're reaching a time in the fullness of time
where god is beginning To prepare people and bring them to a place of
readiness of harvest I don't want to be lagging in my faith in that Very
quickly four simple points What do you do when god is starting to
harvest? very quickly number two Get out into the field I promise you no
farmer ever harvested from the barn Get out in the field I make sure I
have time every week in my schedule where i'm just out of the church
away from christians And i'm just out amongst people that don't know
jesus on my busy weeks I gotta get out in the field That's what farmers
are made for the field number two Go do kingdom kind of stuff in the
field That's what matthew 9 is about jesus wasn't sitting idle. He was
preaching the gospel Casting out devils healing the sick Get out there
and go do it Learn how to do it.

Whatever kingdom of god stuff is to you Go into the field and say god.
What does that look like for me to do my part? I want to do this stuff
out here in the field Number three look for signs of readiness You don't
have to make the crops ready And not all the grain is going to ripen at
the same speed Just go and look for signs ask him to give you a sense of
discernment An awareness that you would say I think grain is ripening
here There's a readiness here And and at first the readiness Is not
probably going to be get down on their knees and say i'm ready to pray a
sinner's prayer The readiness is you can't figure out why that person
kind of likes you Why they want to pause why there's a warmth why they
want to talk a little bit So my wife is just so gracious to me because
she knows I am home So late from the gym most days because some guy's
gonna want to talk to me Completely ruins my workout Which explains a
lot? I'm, so I I hardly say honey. I'm sorry i'm late again Because
someone just wanted to pause Just wanted to talk I can see they just
want to make a connection so I have to make space for that And they
don't even really know how to do that So they're going to talk about
something completely Obscure But I I see it they want a connection there
look for signs Of readiness And then lastly and most importantly he's
the lord of the harvest That means this Let god do the heavy lifting If
it feels heavy for you out there, it means you're carrying more than you
are intended to What it means to do harvest with the lord of the harvest
is he gets to do all the heavy lifting And what that does is it restores
a sense of joy into mission and ease Ease Because it's not like I got to
work harder I got to produce results Everybody's watching If i'm a
really good christian, I got to make some stuff happen out here.

It's none of that stuff None of it at all actually my father's
harvesting I'm, just going to get out of the field and watch what he's
doing And be part of it with my father. He's going to do all the heavy
lifting And i'm going to do a little bit of gathering. Amen.

Would you bow your heads in prayer?

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/6_F1vTGyo4w.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/todd-atkinson/the-lord-of-the-harvest/
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