In this sermon on the harvest from John chapter 4, the speaker emphasizes the importance of doing the will of God and finishing His work. Jesus states that His nourishment comes from fulfilling the Father's will and completing His mission. The speaker also highlights the need for believers to lift up their eyes and see the ripe fields ready for harvest. They emphasize that sometimes the most unlikely people are ready to receive Christ, and it is important to be patient and watchful in sharing the gospel. The sermon concludes with a reminder to stay on course and be faithful in service to God.

Well, we're glad to be with you today on Eagle's Wings. Let me share a couple verses with you. John chapter 3 and verse 15 that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. You know, that's a wonderful thing to know that when God gives you something you have it. And you know, it doesn't say that just one time. That little word, have, is mentioned several times in the word give. For instance, John 4 14, But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. In John 5 44, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death until life. And there are more verses that talks about that. Well, we're glad that you joined us today on Eagle's Wings and you know, we're going to be going into September here pretty quick. And in September, we're going to, that's going to be our letter month, our anniversary month. We started on this radio program in 1989. September 13th, I think it was, and somewhere around there, 12th or 13th, and what's that, 89, about nine years. And we would like to celebrate this month by offering a special gift to pastors. We came on with a burden for revival, and especially for ministering to pastors. And as much as God allows us, we try to minister to the pastors. They're actually, we might say, I'll put myself in there, we're some of the hardest crop to do much working with in the country. And that's probably a downfall of many pastors, is because we're not open many times to receive ministering by others. And a lot of that comes because of our training, or lack of training, or whatever you want to call it, in that we are teachable, we're to be teachable also. But we'd like to celebrate the month of September, and I'm saying this early because the gift that I'm going to offer these pastors will not be able to be used after September. We're going to offer two free tickets to the Promise, and we're doing this early so that they can call in and claim it, as long as the supplies last. And I don't know how long that will be. If you're a pastor, and you pastor a church, and you'd like to have two free tickets to the Promise, then you contact me, or contact the radio station, so that I can mail you these two free tickets. And we're doing this not to try to twist your arm, or nothing like that. We are doing that because we want to encourage you. We know many times pastors do not receive a lot of encouragement, and some are so discouraged, and many every week resign the ministry. And that, I believe, basically is a failure of understanding how God has wanted the elders, the pastor being one of them, to work together as a team. And so many are just alone, plugging along alone, and God didn't intend us to work alone. I know when I first went into my first pastorate, back in the mid 70s and 75, I felt like God didn't intend for me to be alone. I felt like he intended me to work together with somebody. And I thought, always thought, if I could get somebody on my staff, the first one I'd want to get on would be an evangelist, someone to work to help me win souls. And we would teach them, and disciple them. And since then, God has showed me that there's, to be more than one other, there's to be a team of pastors. But anyway, if a pastor will contact me, either call me, write me, or contact the radio station, so we can get your address, we'll send you these two free tickets to the promise. And they have to be used by the end of September. Now, we're going to go into the message on the harvest. And remember, the scripture says that God gives us everlasting life. As a matter of fact, Jesus said, labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you, John 6, 27, and verse 40. And he said, and this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the last day. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. It's wonderful when God gives you something. Now, here's part one of the message on the harvest. John chapter 4. Let's stand as we read verses 31 through 39. John chapter 4, starting in verse 31. In the meanwhile, his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, hath any man brought him ought to eat? John chapter 4. Let's stand as we read verses 31 through 39. John and his disciples to eat. Jesus said unto them, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Say not ye, there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And here it is that saying true, one soweth and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestow no labor. Other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. Father, we ask the blessing of your word. We ask that you speak to our hearts in Jesus name. Amen. When Dennis brought out that verse in Jeremiah, I don't know if he knew what I was preaching on this morning. Did you? On the harvest? The title of this message is the harvest. Jeremiah 8 20, the harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. Now I have here a basket, and in the basket is some fruit, in case I get hungry, I know really, in case we need a word picture. And we just got, it looks good, doesn't it? Some of Bing cherries, and grapefruit, and orange, peach, and a bunch of bananas. And we all know that any banana that leaves the bunch is going to get peeled. But fruit, that's the harvest. There's something that all of those pieces of fruit have in common. Do you know what it is? Besides being fruit. They're all picked when they were ripe. Yeah, they all had to have a picker, a laborer, and they're all picked when they're, sometimes they pick, the bananas were probably so green when they picked them. And they like to do that with tomatoes, and it's not good. Really, the fruit is better when it's just right. Pick it and eat it. Now this text that I've just read with you, I just, this week, as I was waiting on the Lord, what do we, what do we get this week, Lord, from you? The Lord just began to impress on me the harvest. Just those two words, the harvest, the harvest, the harvest. And so as I begin to meditate upon this passage, and then I read through the verses in the Bible on the harvest, there was the laborers that kept coming in. The laborers, the harvest, the laborers, the harvest, the laborers. We all know when you have a farm, and we had our little truck farm a few years ago, there's a lot involved in farming. You've got your plowing, if your ground is, hasn't been plowed for a long time. Maybe you got a hard pan out of there. Most of the time you've worked it year after year. But there's the plowing, the cultivating, and then you have to, if you're doing wheat, you run the rod weeder and stuff. I did it all out in Wyoming on the wheat. But then there's the fertilizing. If you use the fertilizers, and most people do, and now we're finding out all these fertilizers are giving us a lot of problems, so people are going more organic, more healthy. Then there's the weeding, watering, and the whole bit. Then comes the harvest, the harvest. Have you ever seen something that didn't get harvest, and you say, what a shame, what a shame. And I know when we had our tomatoes, because more were planted. We didn't do the planting. Much of the planting, somebody else was doing the planting, and they over planted more than we could handle. And it was just almost a shame sometimes. We just couldn't do it. And one certain crop there was just planted more than was needed, more than we could even begin to handle. But the harvest. I've been reading still on this book with Jonathan Goforth, and I'd like to read some of his writings. This was written by his wife. And I'd like to read some of his writings now after reading this book. One of the points I read this week was about how, and he had a very successful ministry. Matter of fact, at one time, he was a Presbyterian. The Presbytery, his board, came over and examined his field. They were going around, examining the fields, and they said, you have far exceeded everybody else. You've done it. Their goal, they shared with him that their goal was to have a church within 10 miles of all the Chinese. That's a good goal. But they commended him that he had done so well. But they actually also gave him his most trouble in going out and going on. They were the break. He could see the harvest. God was, the Spirit of God was just giving him direction and things to do. But he was under their authority, and he submitted, and it just was really hard for him many times to hold back. And at one point, he came back to the field, and they made a rule while he was gone, that he could only, each missionary could only have at the most two mission paid evangelists to work with the missionary. You know how many he'd had before he went on furlough, and he came back now that you can have two? He'd had 15. And there's all of this work to be done. We're just not going to give you the money to do it. And that's where he began, like Hudson Taylor, to reach out a little bit on his own, and just to believe God to supply the needs, and he began to hire the evangelist himself out of his own salary. And so God began to meet him. But at one point, his wife shared that early one morning, when we were in the country, Mr. Goforth had been pacing the courtyard with such rapid strides and set face. I knew he was agitated about something, and when he came in, I asked, what is the matter? This is his wife writing. Is anything wrong? Yes, he exclaimed. I feel bound. And here's what he said. Oh, that God would give me an opportunity before I pass on to demonstrate to missionaries and to the home church what results would follow if we but gave God in our power. I am convinced the simple gospel story has never had a chance in China. Even though he did so much, he said he felt bound. Let's look at our text. The scripture says that Jesus took upon him the form of a servant, and the title of this is The Harvest, and the harvest is fruit. The subject of the text that we just read, I believe, is service. As I meditate on it, the fruit has to have the laborer, the servant, to pick it, or it doesn't get picked. So I believe that the subject is service. And when working with people, I wrote this statement out, when working with people and sharing the gospel, sometimes the most unlikely ones are ready to get saved. It's one of the things I've learned about sharing, and I've also learned not to talk a lot about those that I pray with Christ, to receive Christ, to say, go back and say, oh, so-and-so got saved, so-and-so got saved, this one got saved. I don't know. So I've just learned to be quiet and wait and watch, and I get to heaven. I really find which ones got saved and which ones didn't. But some of the most unlikely ones get saved or pray to receive Christ. And of course, the first one I ever led to the Lord, I didn't really, I wasn't sharing much faith, because when I said, would you like to pray and receive Christ? And he said, yes, I would. And I answered, you would? Is that the way we are? We go to pick fruit, you know? Just, now fruit, we can't get much parallel with there, you know, usually you can tell when fruit's ready. But with people, you can't always tell. And the one I shared the Lord with last night, I didn't get to go any farther, he had to stop me and said he had to get ready to go. And, but, here's some observations I'm going to share with you from this passage, I'm going to share with you some observations, some lessons, seven lessons, and then a conclusion. Here's the observations in verse 34, let's just get back into our text. Jesus said unto them, my need is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Two things that fed his spirit. You see, there are things that feed our spirit, and there are things that hinder our spirit. So these are two things that really, he got nourishment, energy, and it kept him going. One was what? To do his Father's will. And the second thing was his goal to finish his course, and to finish his work. Verse 34, 2 Timothy 4, 7, Paul said, I have finished my course. Now I've got a question for us. Are you on course? Hard to finish it if you're not on it. Those of us that ran track knew that in order to get across the goal line, you had to stay on course. And I like to run cross country, they'd drop us off, we'd run several miles. But if we were running the course, and we wanted to run over here and look at something, run back over here and look at something, we may not ever finish or run out of gas. Or we'd finish last. To finish the course, you must stay on the course. Are you on course? Are you on the course? You remember what Jesus said when his mother and Joseph came back to him at the temple? He said, I must be about my father's business. He was on his course, but the timing, he had to wait. He had to wait. Must. Here's something else in this passage, under this lesson. There is the must, he said, I must be about my father's business. And he said in verse 4, he must go through Samaria. I learned something new about this must. There were two necessities in him going to Samaria. One was to get the Samaritans saved, to get them to Christ. And then the other was to get the disciples on course. So it was for them also. The servant must do the will of his master or he'll do his own will or somebody else's will. And so he was getting them on course. No man can serve two masters, Jesus said. So when it comes down to it, daily, will we serve our master or we serve another master? Master of the tyranny of the urgent or the master of others as they try to pressure us. And many times you might be thought unpopular or un-whatever because you just will not do what somebody wants you to do in the time they want you to do it, whatever, because you are on course with your master. And so you have to stay on your course. Whose will are you doing? Now when it comes to the harvest, when it comes to fruit, when it comes to this area, I think God's going to teach us some things this morning about the harvest. Some things that we need to know. We talked about the, everybody can feel, the believers feel what's coming. We sense that something's coming. But I believe amidst all of this and all of the apostasy and our country turning away from God, and our country turning away from God's word, and our leaders turning away from the moral standards that were established by our constitution even. It's a moral constitution because most of it came out of the word of God. God will still bring a harvest. He's interested in a harvest. Many believe that there's going to be a great awakening. We haven't seen one for a long time in our country. And here's a second observation. Look at verse 35. Say not ye, there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest. What were the disciples talking about when they came back? Because Jesus says, say not ye, there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest. Do you think it's possible they were talking about, hey, in four months it's going to be harvest time on this crop out here. We don't know for sure, but it's very likely that's probably what they might have been saying. But Jesus says this to them, say not ye. It's almost like a rebuke to them, and he brings them over into the spiritual realm. He's teaching them. It's, maybe he's saying something like this. What about them? Because the Lord says, say not ye, there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest. If they're saying there's four months to harvest, Jesus is saying to them, there is a harvest coming across the fields. Right at that moment, I believe, very possibly, here comes this mob of people towards him from the town. And Jesus is saying to them, don't say four months, right now, look. Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest. Now, do we judge by appearance? Well, I don't think they would like to have the gospel. And I don't think she would like to have it. I don't think I better share with them, or whatever. Jesus is saying to the disciples, what about them? I just wonder, now I don't know it for sure. If, when they went into town, they got the food, did they tell them about the Messiah? Hey, everybody, listen, we've got an announcement to make. The Messiah is, we would say, right outside our door. He would have said, out at the well. Be interesting, when we get to heaven, we can ask him, did you tell them about Jesus when you went to town? That's one of them. If I could remember all the things I'd like to ask, maybe the Lord would help me. Did you tell them about Jesus? Many times, I do not. That's interesting. They went in and got their food, and here they had the Messiah of the world. Did they tell them about Jesus? It's possible that they did. And then, when the woman from the well came and gave her testimony, that kicked it together. And what it might have been, is that they sowed. Now, we'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Because Jesus said, I sent you to reap that whereon you bestowed no labor. Either men labored, and ye are entered into their labors. Verse 38. Now, it's very possible also that they did share the Messiah. And I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and switch over on their side and say they probably did. Because I don't want to get in trouble with them. But, there was a rebuke from the Lord when he said, say not ye. Do I sow? Now, here's the judgment thing. Since we can't always judge by appearance, here's what I believe God wants us to judge with people. Do we judge, is this a time to sow, or is this a time to reap? And we sow by praying, we sow by speaking, we sow by caring, by sharing. And if we reap, then that's the time to invite them right into the Savior. And this is why God has really given evangelists, they are reapers. They can go in many times, and it's getting harder and harder for them to reap. But, God has gifted them to reap. Now, this week, did you care about them as the disciples? Did you care about them? There's a third observation, then we'll go to the lessons. Verse 38. He said, I sent you to reap. I sent you to reap that whereon you bestowed no labor. Other men labored in year, entered into their labors. I sent you. I believe sometimes our part is easy. Most of the time it's hard. But our part, all of us in the harvest of this world, our part is important. To do our part. Now, if you just pick fruit. If you just go. It's like when we raise the tomatoes and the zucchini and then all the other stuff. We had an acre of zucchini, too much. An acre of tomatoes, it was too much. And then another acre of some other vegetables and stuff. For our family, it was too much. We couldn't afford to hire other labors. But, when you go and you pick your fruit. Somebody would come out there and some people would come out there to our little farm. And that we were just doing for somebody else and getting our part of the pay and everything. They'd come out there and say they'd walk over there. And we don't have any of the fruit that we had here. But say they'd pick up a tomato and go pick it off the vine. And said, not much work to this. You just come out here and pick a piece of fruit. Well, they wouldn't want to say that. Maybe in front of my daughters who've been out there in the hot sun. And rather been home or something. Picking the fruit is easy compared to sowing the seed. But to some, picking the fruit might be hard because of self-consciousness and whatever. But do your part. Do your part. I sent you. God sends us each to do our part. Well, we're going to have to cut in right now on eagle's wings and be closing down. The reason we're sharing these messages is because we believe that there's a great harvest coming. And we need to get ready. We need to not get caught and not be surprised at what God does. We may not know exactly what he does. But we do need to get ready. And now's the time to sharpen your sword. Get out your Bible. Begin to memorize and meditate on scriptures that you can share with the lost. Well, we're continuing to pray. That God will bless you. That he'll keep you. That the Lord will make his face shine upon you. And that he'll be gracious unto you. And that he'll lift up his countenance upon you. And that he'll give you peace. Lord bless you, my friend. With wings as an eagle, you'll not be tired. I'll not let you fall. On Eagle's Wings Evangelistic Association Ministry is available to minister in music, with instruments and voices, and sharing of the gospel in your area. If you have questions or input about today's program, you can write to us on Eagle's Wings, P.O. Box 96, La Russell, Missouri, 64848. Or call us at 417-246-5408. All gifts to own Eagle's Wings are tax deductible. And I will lift you up with wings as an eagle. You'll not be tired. I'll not let you fall. Uncle and aunt, a stranger. Maybe there were two dozen people that sowed in your life. Preachers, pastors. Then all of a sudden, somebody comes along one day and picks you off the vine because you're ripe. It's not right to give that one person all of the credit when all those others were involved in it. And so Paul, he comes back to the Corinthians and he says this in chapter 4, verse 10. We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ. We are weak, but ye are strong. Ye are honorable, but we are despised. Even into this present hour, we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place. And labor, working with our own hands, being reviled, we bless, being persecuted, we suffer it, being defamed. We entreat, we are made as the filth of the world and are the offscoring of all things into this day. I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons, I warn you. And then he goes into about being their instructors in Christ. And I thought about that. Did Paul have a burden in his heart as he went through and he led souls to Christ, he established churches and he keeps on moving on and then he has these guys back behind. They get so caught up on themselves, they don't care about the forward movement anymore. And he has to go out there and work night and day, making tents, so he can get some food to eat to keep preaching the gospel. And back home, they're criticizing him and holding him back. And even someone sort of like Jonathan Cole, go for it. There he is, they see he's doing all of this and winning souls to Christ. And then what do they do? They cut him back so he can do less. And all it did to him is just made him lean harder on God. But when a church begins to get so centered on itself that it doesn't keep moving forward, I believe it's beginning to get into the first stage of the seven churches in Revelation, losing their first love. Because the Lord came to them and He said, I know you're doing all this, all your works, now you hate this and this, nevertheless, thou hast left your first love. We get stuck on ourselves. And I believe that God has put in us a very, very strong mission emphasis. Most of us would be ready to go right now if God would say, Okay, I want you to go to this mission field. We're ready right now. And we don't have too much attachments. And most of us in this church would be ready to go. It may take some of us a little few days to get some things taken care of, maybe a couple weeks or months. But we're ready to go if God would call us. And that's the spirit of the church. We're ready to go.