Hindered by Procrastination

That work that he's talking about is the business of saving souls, furthering the gospel, advancing the kingdom. It's often hindered by procrastination. You see that in verse 35. Do you not say, there's yet four months and then comes harvest? Procrastination. In farming, oftentimes, it's about that much time, four months, 120-day corn, you know, from planting till harvest, maturity. And so he says, don't say that. Don't think that way. Maybe sometime in the future, there'll be time to see a harvest. In the future, sometime, I'll be able to be used by God. Maybe sometime, I'll take on this and memorize the book of Ephesians. Maybe sometime in the future, I'll do this or that. Procrastination is a very big thing hindering us from doing the work of Christ in the business of souls. The Lord had an urgency about him. I must be about my Father's business. And again in John 9, we must work the works of Him who sent me and accomplish His work. Oh, it's so easy to have so many excuses. I can remember for myself, after I resigned my work with DeKalb Company and went for eight months up in Canada with Brother McLeod, then I came back living at home as driving gravel truck for Vader Zupke. It was just 20 miles from the town in which I grew up, the farm community where I grew up in, just 20 miles away. And I thought different times about going over there. I never did get over there. And now I look back and I wish that I had just started out from where I grew up and gone right up and down every gravel road, combed them, plowed them, gone to every door and knocked on every door and just said what this woman said, come see a man. Come see a man that saved me. Told me things that I did that dealt with my sin. Come see a man. I've been saved. All that I had to have done is say that. Go from door to door. Now most of them are dead. And I'm afraid perished in hell. But I see at the time I was thinking well, sometime in the future. I don't have a ministry yet, so sometime in the future when I have a ministry, then I can do things like that. It was wrong thinking. Yeah, four months, then I'll do it. No. Right now. Now is the time. If I had just started right there, it would have been my ministry right there, you see. And so, may the Lord help us to not be hindered by procrastination. Often the hardest part of any job, whether it's prayer or studying your math, is just getting the book out and getting started. Haven't you seen that so many times? Well, this job wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. The hardest part was just getting started. And getting over that yet-for-months mentality. The Lord says lift up your eyes. Here in verse 35. Lift up your eyes. I say to you, here's what you say. Now I say to you, lift up your eyes. Look on the fields. They're white. They're ready. And look at them coming. People are all around. Souls are everywhere. Needs are everywhere. You've got the truth. Don't say yet-for-months. Come on right now. Lift up your eyes. Get a vision. Go to another country like Susan did if you got to and see the masses of humanity that have never heard the name of Jesus, that are still thinking that baptism saves them or whatever like that. We have the truth. We've got the answers. The world waits. Oh Lord, here am I. Send me. Use me, you see. Don't take this idea yet-for-months. The time is going by so quickly, just the other day we planted a cantaloupe patch. Now here it's all over. The harvest is over. The summer's gone just like that, you see. Jeremiah says the summer's over, the harvest has ended, and we're still not saved. So quickly, our youth goes by. I can remember when I was driving that gravel truck for Vayler. I was 25 years old, standing there on a pile of dirt waiting for the loader to come or something. And here I am, 25. Old Carl was riding with me, Vayler's dad. He was 75. Boy, there's a lot of years ahead of me. I'm 25. He's 75. But just like that, here I am at age 56. Where did it go? What happened? And you see, I remember when I was converted, I kept hearing other people say that time is short. Our life is short. Time is brief. It's fleeting, fleeting, fleeting. And I remember different times, purposing it in my own mind, I'm going to try to redeem the time to the best of my ability and not have regrets when I come to the end, but it doesn't matter how hard you try, it still happens anyway. It still goes by so fast. And you feel like you could have done, should have done so much more.