Dwight L. Moody, by his own admission, made a mistake on the eighth of October 1871 -- a mistake he determined never to repeat. He had been preaching in the city of Chicago. That particular night drew his largest audience yet. His message was "What will you do then with Jesus who is called the Christ?" By the end of the service, he was tired. He concluded his message with a presentation of the gospel and a concluding statement: "Now I give you a week to think that over. And when we come together again, you will have opportunity to respond." A soloist began to sing. But before the final note, the music was drowned out by clanging bells and wailing sirens screaming through the streets. The great Chicago Fire was blazing. In the ashen aftermath, hundreds were dead and over a hundred thousand were homeless. Without a doubt, some who heard Moody's message had died in the fire. He reflected remorsefully that he would have given his right arm before he would ever give an audience another week to think over the message of the gospel.
Matthew 9:37-38, Luke 10:3, John 4:35-38
If He were here in person this evening, He would tell us to look around at our community . The field is ripe to harvest; it is time for the harvest to be gathered, or it will perish. He would tell us to look at the needy people around us, and then tell us to quit saying, "I'll wait until the holidays are over", or "I'll wait till I come back from vacation, and then I'll help." It may then be too late to harvest.
We must learn that today, right now, we are located in the center of a spiritual harvest field where the souls of men are threatened with eternal death, eternal damnation, eternal separation from God unless laborers (that's you and me) get out there and work, sharing the story of God's love and His desire to save.
Our text says that the wise son will work in the time of harvest, but that the unwise son, will sleep during the harvest rather than laboring. And such a sleeping son brings shame and disgrace to his father. This evening, we all have a heavenly Father, who wants us to work to bring in the harvest. The question is, "What kind of child of His are you? Are you a wise, working one, or a sleeping one?
The harvest must be reaped when it is ripe. There are certain laws of nature which must be followed. In the natural, there is a time of soil preparation, followed by planting, cultivation, watering and fertilizing, etc. These things must be done in the proper order, and with proper care given to each step if the farmer expects to reap a harvest. The church must likewise be in a continual cycle of preparing the hearts of people to receive, then sowing the seed, cultivating and watering it with the Word of God and prayer if it expects to reap a spiritual harvest.
We all have a job to do. Listen to this: when a Russian Baptist preacher was brought before the Soviet secret police, he was asked, "How many preachers do you have in your church?" "Five hundred," he replied. "Five hundred!" exclaimed the interrogator. "How many members do you have, then?" "Five hundred," was the quick reply. "You see, every member of my congregation is a preacher of the Gospel."
1. Soil preparation, seed time, and cultivation time must precede the harvest
Sometimes, it takes a long time of preparation, seeding, and cultivation to bring some people to the place they can be considered "ripe prospects" for conversion.
We must be careful not to make an attempt to win them before they are prepared in mind and heart to experience the blessings of salvation, just as the farmer would be foolish to attempt to harvest his corn before it is ripe, to pick his cotton before the bolls opened, or to pick his peaches while they are still hard and green.
2. Harvest time will always come.
There is a time to prepare, plant, and pulverize the soil in cultivation. But there is also a time to reap.
To neglect the harvest when it is ready is criminal; it is a total waste of all the work and effort that has gone before it. It is a law of nature that the harvest must be made at the proper time.
Cotton loses its weight, color, and quality if not picked on time. Corn falls over, and will rot if it is not harvested before winter sets in. Yellow wheat turns white, and will soon rot if not harvested.
Peaches, apples, grapes, and berries fall off the tree, the vine, or rot on the ground if they are not harvested.
There is also a spiritual law which says that if souls are not harvested when they have been moved on by the Holy Spirit, they will someday spend eternity in hell. Someone must give them the message of God's desire to save, of His redeeming love.
3. Harvest time is now for some, while it is still some time off for others.
Some things must be harvested when in just the right state of ripeness, such as strawberries. They will not ripen any more after being picked, but will only rot. The sense of timing must be right. And in spiritual harvest, we must be alert to timing. Now because we have continuous cycle of preparing the soil, sowing the Word, cultivating and watering with the Word, tears, and prayers, there is a continuous reaping also. The time of reaping is now for some. We must not be guilty of saying "Four months till the harvest." (John 4:35)
Just because the one we have been working on is not yet ready does not mean that none are. There are many, who have perhaps had all the preparatory work done in their lives by someone else, who are just waiting for the right person to work with them; the Lord may want you to harvest them. So encourage them, work with them, and get them to come to God in repentance and faith. Jesus, when He was here on earth, urged on both Himself and His disciples the urgency of the present, for He said, "As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work." (John 9:4,NIV) He never did encourage them to wait until tomorrow, or another time farther down the road.
One day a lady criticized D.L. Moody for his methods of evangelism in attempting to win people to the Lord. Moody's reply was, "I agree with you. I don't like the way I do it either. Tell me, how do you do it?" The lady replied, "I don't do it." Moody retorted, "Then I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it." -- Focus Quote
II. Those who sleep in the harvest gather a crop all right, but it is a crop of shame. Our Scripture text contains a stinging rebuke for the farmer's son who would stand around idly, or carelessly sleep away the day of opportunity which is present during the harvest. These words are also a rebuke, not only to church members, but to church leadership in this time of a ripened harvest. We must begin to make a maximum effort to save the harvest.
1. Sleeping during the harvest season results in shame to the Father.
Just as any good farmer would be ashamed of a son who did not work during the harvest, and let the crops worked so hard for go to waste, so we bring shame to the heart of our heavenly Father when we spend our days in idleness. Some of us are like Jonah, who was spending his time sleeping in disobedience in the hold of the ship, running from God's call to work in Nineveh, when he should have been rushing to the harvest (Jonah 1:5). Or perhaps we are like Peter, James, and John, who slept because of weariness or indifference like they did no the night before Jesus was crucified (Matthew 26:39-45).
Whatever the reason, we bring shame to God when we refuse to work, just because we would rather do something else, or sleep.
III. How can you know if you are spiritually (or literally) sleeping during the harvest?
1. PEOPLE WHO ARE ASLEEP DO NOT USE THEIR EYES
Have you looked on the harvest field lately, or are your eyes closed in sleep? Have you forgotten the great love Christ has for all men; blind or asleep to the fact he wants to use you to spread the message of salvation to the lost world? Are you still aware that they need this message more than they need anything else in the world? If so, since you are certainly not using your eyes, you may be asleep.
2. PEOPLE WHO ARE ASLEEP DO NOT USE THEIR EARS
Now it is true that a sharp noise, or an unrecognized sound will wake some people from sleep, but others are not affected by anything, for their ears are not alert; they have adjusted themselves to the sounds around them. Are you deaf, or so asleep that you can no longer hear the cries of distress, the calls for help from the lost, wounded, and hurting around you? Are you so deadened with sleep spiritually that you cannot even hear the voice of the Lord as the Spirit tries to speak to you? If so, then perhaps you are asleep at your post of duty.
If you are in this condition, Paul wrote a message to you, in Ephesians 5:14-16: ". . . "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Be very careful, then, how you live-- not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. (NIV)
. Missionary Susie Hobert believes that one of her main responsibilities as a mother is to instill in her children a burden for their lost friends. And she has done a good job. Ten-year old Ryan was driving imaginary race cars with his friends. Several minutes later he came bounding into the house and yelled, "Mom, you've got to come quick. Isabelle wants to accept Jesus into her heart." Skeptical of the child's sudden interest in spiritual things, Susie asked, "Ryan, I thought you were playing race cars?" "We were, Mom, but our cars wrecked. The accident was real bad so I asked Isabelle if she would go to heaven if she died. She said she didn't know. I told her how she could know and she wants to ask Jesus into her heart." God can use anyone when the field is ripe for harvest, when the moment is right.
There is never a time to quit, never a time to slumber, until we reach the end of our lives. George Whitefield, a British evangelist who lived about 200 years ago, exhibited great devotion to Christ. After preaching several times one day, he went to his room and prepared for bed. Then someone came and asked him to speak one more time because a crowd had gathered outside. Although very tired, he picked up a candle and said he would preach until it burned out. An hour later the flame flickered and died, and Whitefield closed in prayer and went inside. The next morning he was found on his knees beside his bed -- the flame of his earthly existence had glimmered and died.
