The video mentioned in the sermon transcript is about a farmer who dies after teaching his two sons how to do the harvest. The video emphasizes the importance of prayer and seeking the Lord of the harvest. The farmer's sons are left with the daunting task of completing the harvest, but through prayer, a miraculous event occurs. A large group of farmers from the community come together to help and the harvest is successfully completed. This story serves as a metaphor for the support and assistance that the people outside of Quebec are called to provide for the spiritual harvest in Quebec.

I would like to, uh, this morning that we get our, we put our attention on two words. Reconciliation and compassion. Reconciliation and compassion. 2nd Corinthians 5. I thank your pastor and the board for allowing me to share the word and, uh, give a little bit through, uh, even preaching on ministry of reconciliation to bring about an understanding of how the need of reconciliation between Quebec and Canada and our personal life as well. So I will use the figure of Quebec as an example to, to, to feed the message, the word of God. 5th verse 18. All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That God was reconciling the world through, to himself and Christ, not counting men's sins against them, and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are, therefore, Christ's ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through us. Now, Matthew 9. Matthew 9, verse 38, 35. Matthew 9, verse 35. The workers are few. Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news and the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowd, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Let's pray. Dear God, as we look into your scripture this morning, we pray that your Holy Spirit will give us a word of encouragement. A word that will bring much understanding, first, on the meaning of reconciliation, of the need of reconciliation, and in the meaning of compassion, and to see all the potential of compassion, living with a heart of compassion. Lord, help us to deal as well in our own life as we share the story, part of the story of Quebec and in my own life. Help us to see what lesson is for each one of us this morning. What lesson should apply to the church this morning? What lesson should apply to our couples, to our families? What lesson should apply to our personal lives? And Lord, may this morning be a challenge to live as genuine Christian, spirit-led Christian, child of God. In Jesus' name, Amen. What is God's compassionate reconciliation? God created us with the deep desire to love and to be loved. This will be fulfilled only in the context of a personal relationship with Jesus and with each other. No choice. Vertical and horizontal relationship. This means, whether we like it or not, this means that we ought to live with one another. No choice. Quebec is known as the place in the world where we are a champion in young adults committing suicide. And suicide means, this is the highest cry of someone crying out, I long to be loved. Believe it or not. The meaning of a suicide is the greatest cry someone can say, I long to be loved. Do you live, do you have a compassionate heart? Who are the people you choose to spend your time with? What are your standards to choose your friends? It's interesting, the Bible tells us clearly that when we suffer, when we are in pain, there are two strategies we will use. One is to avoid the people that are pain in our lives, which is Adam and Eve. When they broke their relationship with God, they just avoid, you know, they went away. Because they were suffering, they tried to went away from pain. And the second strategy we will adopt, it will be like Cain and Abel. Cain saw the constant success of his brother Abel, and he was suffering. And it was like everyday life, you know, seeing his brother as a mirror and seeing his failure. And he couldn't handle the suffering and the pain. So what he decided to do to go away from pain, he killed his brother. He has been offensive. And the Bible suggests that these are the two strategies we will adopt when someone is a pain in our life. Whether we avoid them, whether we are offensive in order that they don't do anything else to us. Even though God created us relational being built and perfected to live in the context of quality relationship, the Bible declares, Jesus looked at the crowd and he had compassion. Jesus looked at the crowd and he had compassion. The Bible tells us that the people who are weary and harassed are the human being who don't know Jesus. Until we are connected in a personal relationship with Jesus, we are to live in weary, like sheep without shepherd. Isaiah 53, Isaiah 53, verse 5 and 6. Isaiah 53, verse 5 and 6. But he was fierce for our transgressions and he was cross for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of all of us. And there is no peace in life when we go through a broken relationship. Because each one is going to his own path. Each one choose his own way. Selfish way. And the Bible here tells us that we suffer. We have no peace until we are reconciled with Christ. And secondly, when we are called to carry the ministry, the word of reconciliation. When we are not reconciled with others. Horizontally. Being West Canada, three years in Barakas Bible College, Caringford. And we were two years old Christians when we came here. So you need to understand, Saskatchewan is home for us. It is our, we call it our spiritual foster home. Because people took care of us. They train us, they coach us, they watch over us. And a great part of that was through Canadian Revival Fellowship. They trained us three years, they took us on the road and the prairies. And to enlarge our vision, you know. Those Québécois need that somewhere, somehow. Renewing of the mind. Beautiful. But what I've heard about Québec, things like that. People may look at Québec as someone who is rebellious, arrogant, hurting, pride. Let me suggest, until we are connected with Jesus in a personal relationship, we cannot live in harmony with one another. Because of the deep void and emptiness, we are trying to fill our life with all kind of things. And there is no potential for harmony until we know Jesus, personally. And until we get tuned with the word of reconciliation to one another. Relationship needs to be reconciled vertically and horizontally. In 1997, I was asked by my DS, District Superintendent, to, just before we started the work in Montreal, church planting ministry, I was asked to go in Toronto in a seminar on church planting. God allowed me through the video, The Harvest. Who has seen The Harvest, the video? It's a video about a farmer who died after he taught his two little boys how to do the harvest. It's a beautiful story. It's in North Dakota. It is a real story. But at the end, father died, summer time, and the harvest is about to be ready. So they just break into tears and say, Lord, what are we going to do with this? And someone said, your dad always taught you that in times of trial, you need to kneel and just trust God, pray God that he will do something. And finally, what happened is the day after, they see a lot of dust, a big cloud of dust and noise. And this thing, the cloud is just growing and the noise is growing. And finally, what happened is it combines and combines and combines one after another. They come together and they come and do the harvest. And God, when I saw that, God put these words on my heart. And I just weep and weep and weep. And God said, this is what your brothers and sisters outside of Canada will do for Quebec. And God allowed me to see. You know why I was weeping? Because I saw the 99.5% in Quebec who don't know the Lord as their personal savior. Our mom and dad, our brothers and sisters, the dear people that loved us, we have been raised with, don't know the Lord. Davin and I, we have been Christians for 10 years now. And all the people around us don't know the Lord. Out of 0.5, half of 1% who know the Lord, most, half of this are backsliders because we're a first generation of Christians. We have the highest rate of divorce. I could weep over this. Lowest rate of commitment to marriage. Lowest rate of religious practice. We are told three women out of five are being abused in Quebec in different ways. We have the highest rate of teen abortion. Highest rate of young adults committing suicide in the world. We are a first generation of Christians. We are the baby. We are the grown child. We are the young adults. We are the pastor. We are the leaders. And we ought to be at the same time the counselor, the elders. No room for mistakes. No room for mistakes. The church is vulnerable. One denomination told me three weeks ago that, just before I left Montreal, that they are the second biggest denomination in Quebec. Eighty churches, over. They are losing five pastors a year. Discouragement, burnout. People think the pastor should do it all. This is not the case. Amen? Amen. I look at your pastor. Sin, family falling apart, and depression. And it's not over, you know. The worst is to come, because in recent years, even though Canadian government and Quebec are always at war, they don't talk much to each other, but they made an agreement to change the constitution that will allow Quebec to take God out of the schools. We're going to pay a price for that. We're going to pay a price for that. Recently, President Bush declared a day of prayer. We could see how Canada was committed as a pagan country, not to allow even to pronounce the word of God. And we're saying, Oh Canada, you know, God keep our land. But does the Canadian keep God? No place for God. Broken relationship. I like the Psalms who says, People need the Lord. People need the Lord. At the conclusion of the video, this word got put on my heart, to carry, this is what is going to happen, because combined, the word combined, means the thing that will put it all together. In the dictionary. And I would like to use this word in French badly. Combined means the thing that put it all together. And when you look at the verse of the harvest, that video, 9, which is Matthew 9, 35-38, it says pray. This is the key verse, key verb. Pray the Lord of the harvest. And God allow me to go deeper into that vision. And says, Donald, by the time your brothers and sisters outside of Quebec will do the Moses interceding, you will do the Joshua battling in the field. And you know the meaning of this? That we cannot make it without you. It's impossible. It's impossible. David and I have been from 88 to 91 in Saskatchewan and traveling through Canada. And we know people long, long, they love Quebec. They long to help Quebec. What can we do? What can we do? And this is it. Pray. Prayer. Prayer. Praying with compassion. But, you know, this situation is like, even though the Lord gave us that vision, and we want to carry this burden of prayer, it's like in a church set up, you know, God will convince the leadership to go into prayer. But first of all, we will need to deal with how can we pray when we have broken relationships? How can we pray in the Spirit in unity? Because the unity is a fruit of the Spirit. How can we pray in a church? How can we pray in a family? How can we pray in a couple? You know, when I disagree with my wife, let me tell you, I don't feel like praying. I feel like talking. So what we needed to do is to come out west and bring a ministry of reconciliation and then be reconciled with our brothers and sisters and then come to pray together for a major harvest in Quebec. Now, let's look at Exodus. Exodus 2. 25. We are built at the image of God. We are created to love one another and to love, to be loved. We are created to build, to live with one another in a perfect relationship. But there are broken relationships. Let's see here. Verse 25. Starting 23. During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out. And they cried for help because their slavery went up to God. They cried for help because their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. And God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. Was concerned. Slavery is a broken relationship. When we live, we accept to live in the context of broken relationships. We accept slavery. Let's go to Job 6.14. Job 6.14. How do we deal with one another? A despairing man should have the compassion of his friends even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. How do we treat people that seem to lack of respect of God? Do we get away from them, just abandon them? What do we do with them? Psalm 38.11. Psalm 38.11. How do we relate with one another? Quebec, Canada, husband and wife, staff in a church and the members, fathers and mothers, parents to children. How do we relate to one another? Psalm 38.11. My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds. My neighbors stay far away. We need God's compassion in our hearts. I like the picture of the Samaritan. The priest and the religious leader just pass by. They just despise. They don't want to see that man. But there comes a Samaritan. Mr. Nobody. He takes care. He waits. Set aside his agenda. Take care of him. Take him to an inn. Pay and come back and invest his life. This is about compassion. Compassion and reconciliation. Compassion is being able to listen to others. We call this relational listening. When God gives us an appointment, he puts someone before us. This is a divine appointment. He wants us to listen what we ought to do in this situation. There are times I don't like. I'm just working on a preaching. I was church planter. The phone rang. Someone started to tell the story. I just feel like closing the phone. Because it's bugging me. I'm doing my preaching. Preaching is much more important. This happened once. I just kept listening. Pursuing. Because Gene Peterson said, when you meet there are times. God speaks to you through relational appointment. I just apply myself to stay there. Finally, I was able to get in touch with the man who called me. Who was in need. He was wanting to commit suicide. Because his friend committed suicide. Finally, I was able to lead him to pray and accept the Lord. Listening. Compassion is choosing to get out of our personal agenda for the sake of taking action in favor of someone else. Compassion is to choose to listen to God as he exposes his agenda for you. God is exposing an agenda for you. Compassion allows us to see people differently. When I was five years old, I used to be street fighting with other people. Slingshots and stakes. Later, I learned in life that I should be a proud Quebecois. Because there is no way we can make, build a proper relationship with Anglophone. It will always be a hurting relationship. I became convinced of that. I voted myself for the country of Quebec. But at the age of 36, God allowed me to feel the emptiness and to see the emptiness of my life. He gave me the gift to acknowledge it. God saved my life. Even though I was an undesirable selfish person, a selfish husband, selfish father, even though I was for you an undesirable selfish neighbor, God had compassion. God saw my soul, the need of my soul. And God's agenda was to save my life and change me. And he gave me a new heart and he filled my heart with his love. And he started on the basis of Romans 12, 1 and 2, to renew my mind. And I became a new husband, a new father, and a new citizen. How can I make a decision now? As a born again believer, disciple of Jesus, who wants to carry not the flag of Quebec, the flag of Jesus. How can I be a disciple that is committed to this cause? How can I make a decision that will hurt my neighbor now? It's impossible. This is not about Christianity. And I'm still a separatist. Don't get me wrong. I'm still a separatist and I'm still a sovereignist. And you don't know we're a distinct society in Quebec? I will explain this. I still believe in the separation of sin and in the sovereignty of Jesus over Quebec and Canada. Compassion is powerful. Compassion deals with the root cause of pain. Compassion see beyond the people that are a pain to us. I love that story of Joseph. I'll just read it for you. The little Joseph, you know, who got almost killed by his brother, his family. And he lost it all. I listed 12 things that he lost, you know. His song, his food, his father's love, his friend, his country. I listed 12 things that he lost. He had to die to self. He lost everything. And one day he met his brother, as you remember the story. As he looked about and saw his brother Benjamin, his own mother's son, he asked, Is this your youngest brother? The one you told me about? And he said, God be gracious to you my son. Deeply moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep. He went into his private room and wept there. And let me suggest that Joseph at this time was weeping and dealing with bitterness. All the bitterness and the pain and the suffering that the broken relationship has caused him. And when we deal with a broken relationship in our personal life, marriage life, and the life of the church, or even the life of a country, province to province, it is painful. It is painful. But God gave us the grace to reconcile. Because God gave us a heart of love. And love becomes the priority. And look what happened after. Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants. And he cried out, Have everyone leave my presence. So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brother. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him. And Pharaoh also heard about it. Joseph said to his brother, I am Joseph. Is my father still living? But his brother was not able to answer him because they were terrified at his presence. And then Joseph said to his brother, Come close to me. Come close to me. And when they had done so, he said, I am your brother Joseph. And the one who sold, the one you sold to Egypt. And now do not be distressed. This is over. Do not be angry with yourself for selling me here. Because it was to save life that God sent me about, ahead of you. Do not be distressed. Do not be angry with yourself. And after this, God was able to protect Israel. And this is about forgiveness. And this is about reconciliation. Job, the Bible says, Job 42.10, When Job had prayed for his persecutors, God healed him. And let me suggest that there will be no showers of blessing in Canada. There will be no showers of blessing in our own lives, couples, families, church, until we reconcile those broken relationships. A brother just called me this morning. Because I sent my phone number and everywhere I go, he called me and said, Donald, I need to share something to you. He said, now the church has, all the small group came together and they want to pray. And they asked me to be the leader of that praying and intercession leadership. And he said, you know what happened? We have started to pray and the Lord started to deal with us. And there was a battle going on for one year between the pastor and the three elders that have resigned. And this last week, we were able to, he said, they asked me to be the referee. I'll use the word sports, you know. They asked me to be the referee and the intermediary in French anyway. You understand? And he said, now the pastor and the elders were able to confess one another and now we can go on. And he said, you should feel, even feel. And he's a Baptist. He's not a kind of person, charismatic. He's a very rational person. He said, Donald, you can feel the spirit now in the church. And let me suggest to you that the way I understand, the more I read the Bible, the more God convinced me of the importance to resolve our broken relationship. I am convinced that if we keep feeding those gardens of bitterness because of pain and broken relationship and disappointment, we are slowing down God's work. And there will be no revival in Canada unless we get reconciled together. How can we have the arrogance, us in Quebec, as Québécois, to ask you to pray for us if we're not reconciled? And Christianity is not about putting dust under the carpet. It's not about lip service. It's about being true genuine. It's not about lying. And this morning, in the name of my people, I know we have been hurting people. I know that. We have been three years in Canada. And that's okay. And the Bible says, acknowledge your wrong. So I want, in the name of my people, in the name of my wife as well, to acknowledge our wrong for the threat and all the pain and the suffering and the stress caused by the threat of independence. And we ask you this morning to forgive us for that. And let this be a healing point, a starting point in order to come together and pray more. You know, what changed my life? Politics? Tell me. Has politics something to do with my salvation? No. What changed my life? Economy? Power? Money? What changed my life is the Lord Jesus Christ. Only. Nothing else. What should we pray for Quebec? What should we pray? That the word of God will open their mind to receive the gospel of Jesus and make new believers and disciples serving not the flag of Quebec. It might be, you know, blue and white. That's okay. But I need to see Jesus on it. This is my burden. And I'm going to give you a challenge this morning, yourself. Yourself. And we need to go that path. In the days that we're going through, we cannot live only life. We need to take steps. Maybe you have had in your own life broken relationships. So I'm going to give you an opportunity to come and start a process this morning. Just make a commitment. Say, Lord, yes, by the time this preaching was going on, you talk to me about this and this. And this morning, I will take the challenge and you will start doing a work of reconciliation in my life because I'm slowing down your work and I'm not trying to put guilt on your shoulder, let me tell you. But it is so good to be reconciled. It is so good. It is tough to ask forgiveness. It's not easy. But each time I ask forgiveness to my wife, she will just come and hug me. That's the beauty of it. You see? Love. Forgiveness produces love. Produces love. Are we able to do like Joseph did? And I'm going to give you, just in the praying time, an opportunity to respond to this. Let's pray. Would you stand up, please? You know, there are times, my dear brothers and sisters, that we need to take seriously the Word of God in this area to honor God. We're children of God. Those people, if my people, those who are called by my name, those who are called by my name, will humble themselves, seek my face, turn from their wicked ways, I will heal them. But, you know, it starts with humbling. And this morning, I will ask you to come forward just to acknowledge, say, Lord, yes, there are things you have shown me this morning, and I'm going to come forward and just pray, as a result, that, Lord, yes, I need to take this stand, that I want to respond to your call, that you want me to resolve my broken relationship. I want to honor you with my life. So, just as I keep praying, allow you to come. Come at the altar as the Lord convinces you that you're going to start doing, obeying. Come now. Come now. God is a God of love. He has a great plan for each of us. But he says, yes, my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves. Are there anyone who has not gone through a broken relationship? Let's be honest here. Maybe the church needs to deal with past broken relationships. Mom and Dad, parents, children, God has a great plan for us. Let's be obedient. Lord, I pray that all those who have been convinced this morning, take a step of obedience through the leading of your Holy Spirit and just allow you to lead them to this reconciliation. And Lord, I thank you because some Christians who were reconciled with you share the gospel and allow me to be reconciled to you. And that you allow us now to go across Canada and bring this ministry with joy, the joy of serving Jesus, just like we sang, since Jesus was into my heart. In Jesus' name, Amen.