Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Let's look at Matthew, chapter nine.
[00:00:02] And last week we talked about a case. We did basically a case study, and we examined the interaction the Lord Jesus had with a young man who is commonly called, traditionally called the rich young ruler, and dealing with a man who is self righteous.
[00:00:27] There are other interactions that the Lord had with different, with different people, not only the Lord, but some of the apostles in Acts and such. And so at a later time, I hope to cover some of those and see what we can, what principles we can draw from that in our school of evangelism.
[00:00:46] And so, but until we do that, I want to look at one particular aspect in Scripture that deals with evangelism in particular.
[00:00:58] And it is an analogy. It is a biblical analogy for evangelism. So that's why I want to look in Matthew chapter nine, the very end of the chapter verse. We'll start reading in verse number 35 to pick up the context here. Matthew 9, verse number 35. The Bible says this. And Jesus went about all the sins, cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. So basically, what do we see the Lord doing? He is essentially evangelizing, for lack of a better term, right? He's evangelizing, he's preaching the truth. He's explaining people the truths of the kingdom of God, you know, who he is, you know, and those kinds of things. Of course, the Gospel of Christ, as it would become known later, has not yet happened. So the Lord is a lot of what the Lord is teaching at this point is preparatory. It's giving truth and instruction in preparation for the gospel. And all of that as we receive it is kind of combined into one thing. And that's kind of where we're at when we talk about the kingdom of God. It includes the gospel and all the other things that Jesus taught before he ever went to the cross.
[00:02:26] And so this is what the Lord did. The Lord occupied himself with reaching out to people who did not know the truth, to introduce them to the truth. That's what his primary job was, at least before the cross, right? He came into this world to seek and to save that which was lost. You might say the seek part is one thing that he's doing here. The saved part is what he's doing when he goes to the cross. You might look at it like that.
[00:02:59] So that's how we get to verse number 36. Notice the verse begins with a conjunction.
[00:03:04] But when he saw the multitude. So while he was doing his Mission work, that is mission God that the Father gave him to do.
[00:03:12] While he was doing that, he saw the multitudes.
[00:03:17] He was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep. Having no shepherd then that is in response to what he saw in verse 38, verse 36. Rather, then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.
[00:03:43] Pray ye therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. So this is why I call it the harvest analogy. So this is an analogy of the truths of evangelism and of getting the Gospel, sharing the truth with people, those kinds of things. The. The truths of that are seen in this analogy that the Lord brings up of cultivation or of a farm or a harvest. So let's pray and then we'll look at some of these verses as well as some others. Our Father, thank you for the chance to be here today. Thank you for your people that have come. Lord, we thank you for all that was done yesterday as we got to labor in the harvest. But we know that today, even though we're not actively involved in evangelism at this moment, yet we're still laborers in your harvest. And Lord, you've given us different jobs to do. And as we look at this analogy that you've given to us, this divine analogy, please give us understanding and insight that we might.
[00:04:49] That we might see the way that you do things, that we might see the way that you work in people.
[00:04:55] And Lord, we pray that you would help us each to find our place and your harvest and to be willing to work in that place.
[00:05:08] And Lord, we pray that you would. I pray that you would bless your people in our Sunday school, not only our class, but also downstairs in the various kids classes, that your blessing would be upon those classes as well. And the kids would learn and retain and would grow in their knowledge of the Scriptures through those classes. Fill the teachers with wisdom and understanding and love and compassion for the kids. That your will might be done, that your name might be glorified. Lord, we want to be patient in the work that you're doing and trust you to do it. And so we commit these things to you. We ask your blessing on our class today in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:05:51] So aren't you glad that the Lord did not, when he's teaching us truth, that he does not just say here's the truth, and he just states it plainly and moves on?
[00:06:00] I'm glad that he doesn't do that, because by wrapping the truth in an analogy, and it being a divine analogy, not just a human comparison, that we might use an illustration of sorts. We do that, but we understand there are limitations to it, and we have to be. It doesn't always work like we think it. Like we think it does. But when the Lord uses an analogy like a harvest, buried deep within that analogy are multiple layers of truth. And it's up to us to kind of dig those things out and find out what all, what are the implications of these things. And that's what I'd like to do with the harvest here. But I wanted to read these verses too, to establish the analogy. Notice, in verse 38, the Bible says this.
[00:06:49] One of the titles of the Lord Jesus is the Lord of the harvest. That establishes that the harvest.
[00:06:59] There is a harvest that's happening. There is a harvest that is happening. And the Lord is directly and personally involved in the harvest. He is the one that controls it. Now notice, what I want you to see here is when we talk about this analogy of evangelism, and that's the context of these, of these verses. In fact, take a peek, if you would, at Luke chapter 10, because I want to show you another, a parallel passage, Luke chapter 10. At the beginning of the chapter, Luke 10, verse number one, the Bible says this. After these things, the Lord appointed other seventy also and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place whither He Himself would come. So we have this idea that Jesus traveled from village to village, from town to town, and preached and taught. And he did. But his operation, if you would, it was not limited to that.
[00:08:13] He had multiple things happening to prepare the way for his own coming in these various cities. And one of the things he did is he sent out his disciples, in this case 70 that went out. 2 and 2 now. So they went out and they taught. I guess maybe the Lord taught them in private. You're reading between the lines because the Bible doesn't say exactly the way it worked. But we assume that he taught them in private and then he sent them out to do teaching in various places. He told them different places he was going to go. Again, he is directing the harvest.
[00:08:48] So that is the context. This kind of, we might say, proto evangelism, if we can put it like that, this kind of initial, kind of first of its kind thing that's happening here. It is in that context that the Lord says, Verse 2. Therefore said he unto them, the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Pray, therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest. So the harvest is. The harvest is the big picture.
[00:09:24] The harvest is the ultimate goal. In this analogy of evangelism, what are we talking about when we Talking about. When we're talking about a harvest, what is a harvest?
[00:09:33] This is the funny thing is, in our modern world, this analogy, as we have advanced, you know, technologically at least. We have advanced technologically. Not in pretty much any other way. We haven't advanced. We've probably digressed more than progressed. But in technology, we've advanced. And as a result, we are somewhat separated from the ideas of cultivation and farming like we see here. So some of us, primarily myself, a child of the 80s and 90s, like, I've never lived on a farm. I mean, I don't.
[00:10:13] The closest I ever came to it was as a missionary. Because as a missionary in a primarily agricultural society, you interact with it, you know, far more than you ever would hear.
[00:10:25] How many of you have ever lived and worked on a farm?
[00:10:30] A single soul.
[00:10:36] Okay, so that's close. That's similar. All right, Brother Mark, when you say a farm, was it animals or was it plants? Both. So Brother Mark is going to be probably the most familiar person with a lot of these things. But so I have to do a lot of research. I mean, we can't help it when we're born, right? I have to do research to find out what's going on with harvest. But one thing I do know is why. What is a harvest? A harvest is the time of year in which the fruit is gathered, right? That's the whole purpose. In other words, everything you do from the beginning of the year. You know, in our world, you might think this a little odd, but, like in Israel, the harvest season is not like it is here in our country, you basically, sometime in the spring is when the cultivation season starts. And it ends in the late fall for various crops. It's different for various crops. But the whole purpose is this. All of those, say, six months or so.
[00:11:42] Why do we do all that work?
[00:11:46] Do we do it for fun? Because we don't have anything else to do. You do it for one reason and one reason only. It is for the harvest what you get at the end. Because what you get at the end is fruit, and it is profitable. And you think of the Lord's in Matthew 9. Here, the Lord is called the Lord of the harvest, which means that the fruit his.
[00:12:13] Listen, this idea of this analogy of cultivation is. It is not about just occupying ourselves. It is not about just finding something to do. It Is not because the corn stalks are pretty or because the grain is golden or because we. No, no, no, nobody. If you want. If you want something pretty, plant flowers, right? Or trees.
[00:12:35] If you want fruit, you plant crops for fruit. You don't plant them to look at the whole purpose of the harvest. The whole goal and big picture is the fruit. And the fruit belongs to the owner of the field, which is the Lord, the Lord of the harvest. That is the whole reason for cultivation. So when the Lord speaks of the harvest, he's talking about fruit for Him.
[00:12:59] In this case, the fruit being referred to are people who have come to faith in Him. That's the fruit we're referring to now. Notice again, remember, the Lord of the harvest, there's a certain comfort in. And I mentioned this in previous weeks, but there's a certain comfort knowing that the Lord is the Lord of the harvest. That title tells us that He Himself is ultimately responsible for how this harvest is conducted. It is his harvest. It is not our harvest.
[00:13:37] Every step in the process.
[00:13:40] Every step in the process of cultivation is determined by the Lord, not by us.
[00:13:48] Every step.
[00:13:51] So you think about when the work is done, where the work is done.
[00:13:57] You think of, you know, in this case, we're primarily talking about wheat, okay? And you'll see that in other passages of scripture we look at in a little bit, we're talking about wheat. But what field is worked at what time, in what order.
[00:14:15] All of that is determined by the owner of the field, the Lord of the harvest. But also what laborers work, where they are sent, and what jobs they perform. All of that is determined by the Lord of the harvest.
[00:14:30] When things are. When things the ground is prepared, when the sowing occurs, what type of seed is used, when it is watered, when it is fertilized, or when the harvest is ready or not quite ready, and what to do with the fruit. All of that is determined by the Lord of the harvest. So I don't know. I take some comfort in knowing that this work.
[00:14:55] This work is not my responsibility. Ultimately, it is the Lord's responsibility.
[00:15:03] It is the Lord's responsibility. So that means two things, okay?
[00:15:08] As a result of God calling Himself, God calling himself the Lord of the harvest.
[00:15:16] As a result of that, here's two things we can learn. The fruit, when there is fruit, is entirely His.
[00:15:25] That means all people that come to the Lord Jesus and trust in him as a result of this cultivation, they belong to Him.
[00:15:36] And the second thing follows right after that, which is because he is the Lord of the harvest, he gets all the credit.
[00:15:46] All the credit for everything that's done. See, you know, in different places, in some places that, you know, when we talk about our evangelism, which is what we're talking about here, that's the context of this passage. Luke, chapter 10. This is the context. Evangelism, getting the truth to other people. You know, sometimes in churches, people take the glory for that work upon themselves, and they brag and they boast. And that's where you get into this silly numbers game.
[00:16:20] And that's where you have. And numbers are important because numbers represent people. Like when Brother Jim talks about 10 people called upon the Lord for salvation, he's not saying, look, I saved or I. A great evangelist. How many. How many, Brother Jim? How many weeks have you gone there? And I mean, week after week after week after week after week after week with nobody seeming to respond. At least, you know, that's not the point. It is God's harvest.
[00:16:47] He gets the glory for it all.
[00:16:51] And I don't have to concern myself with that. I don't have to listen. I don't have to scheme. I don't have to create new methods. I don't have to be, you know, I don't have to develop some.
[00:17:03] The proper, you know, the most conniving sort of methodology to manipulate people and emotionally manipulate people to respond to the gospel. I don't have to do that. Listen, I just. All I have to do is I have to take my directions from the Lord and do what he says, and it's all on him to bring it to pass.
[00:17:26] Now, we're going to look at every. At each part of this. We're going to look at the seed, we're going to look at the ground. We're going to look at.
[00:17:32] At every part of it.
[00:17:34] But the Lord gets all the credit. So in this matter, what does that tell us? That when you're talking about. When we're talking about the idea of evangelism, and that does not solely refer to our church's corporate evangelism like we did yesterday, although it includes that. It includes our missionary outreach through our missionaries.
[00:17:55] It includes also our personal witnesses with people we know and we love.
[00:18:01] Anytime we're trying to get the gospel to someone like we see here, we're trying to spread the truth that's part of the harvest.
[00:18:08] And in every case, the Lord himself gets the credit. And in every case, we can trust him with that. This is why prayer is so important. We'll get to that later. Psalm 126, in reference to the Harvest. We'll get to that later. But here's the thing, is that when we engage in evangelism, we do so trusting in the Lord for the fruit.
[00:18:36] Trusting in the Lord for the fruit.
[00:18:39] It's not entirely upon us, and we're going to see in just a minute that sometimes it doesn't turn out like we want.
[00:18:50] Sometimes when you sow, right, you sow, you water, like in the parable of the sower. That we'll see in a minute.
[00:19:00] Even with that, the fruit doesn't come.
[00:19:05] And is that why we do it? Do we sow for no fruit? Do we water for no fruit? Do we plow for no fruit? No, all of it is for the what?
[00:19:15] For the harvest? It's for the fruit at the end. But sometimes that doesn't happen.
[00:19:21] That's the. That is. Listen, that is the sad reality of this work is sometimes it doesn't bear fruit. Now, there's a lot of reasons for that, but that's the Lord's business.
[00:19:37] That's the Lord's business.
[00:19:40] We pray and we work and we trust, but it's the Lord's business.
[00:19:47] Okay, but there is one other thing in this passage I want you to see, okay? Look at it, if you would, again, in Matthew 9:37, in the harvest, in this idea of cultivation, what in verse number 37, what is the chief problem?
[00:20:10] There's one problem and one problem only.
[00:20:13] And the problem is laborers.
[00:20:18] Now, I just. I just finished telling you that. Because the Lord is the Lord of the harvest, and he is the director of what happens in the harvest. But he's also the one who creates life, right? Even the very plants themselves. We'll see later. The seed, all those things have life in itself.
[00:20:37] And the Lord is the one who directs that and causes, as the Creator, he's the one that causes all that to come to pass in addition to the work that's being done on those things.
[00:20:49] But we do have a responsibility. Our responsibility is not for the harvest. Our responsibility is for the work.
[00:20:56] What is a laborer, exactly? It's work.
[00:21:03] It's work.
[00:21:05] In other words, you can't be a laborer unless you're willing to work.
[00:21:12] Now, in this context. In this context, this is where we. I mean, Brother Mark, where did you. When you worked on the farm, where was that? What state?
[00:21:26] Ohio. So there were times when it was warm, right? And probably a few times it was cold, but mostly warm, I imagine, in those months where you would normally work. Although you worked in the winter, too, probably as well.
[00:21:40] Yeah, exactly. Well, here's the thing. When you work in the field, it's hot, it's uncomfortable, it's sweaty, it's difficult. You get dirty. You get cuts all over your hands and blisters. Anybody who has worked in that capacity knows that's what it means to labor.
[00:22:04] That's what it means to labor. And spiritually speaking, you take all those things over into the spiritual world. If you're involved in the harvest. Listen, it's not easy. It's work.
[00:22:14] It's work.
[00:22:17] To be involved in getting the gospel to other people is work. And it might not be work with sweat of the brow like yesterday. It wasn't hot. I'm thankful for that. When we went out, it wasn't hot. But that doesn't mean it wasn't work.
[00:22:29] In fact, it is work. It's spiritual work.
[00:22:32] But the laboring, the laboring, the work, the actual using the pharma implements and actually engaging in the work is the responsibility of God's people. And that is the primary roadblock, the primary hindrance to this analogy here, this harvest.
[00:22:57] In other words, where are the problem?
[00:23:00] Think about it. Where are the problem? Yes, sir.
[00:23:21] I'll get to that in just a minute, I promise.
[00:23:27] Now, here's the thing I want us to see about laborers. Because that's an important. That's an important question. It deals directly with the Lord. As the Lord of the harvest, Jesus says in verse 37, the laborers are few.
[00:23:44] Few people are willing to labor in this work.
[00:23:51] Now, listen, there are many ways that we can evangelize that we can give the truth to other people. I know sometimes we pigeonhole it into one thing. Like some people. They pigeonhole it into, you know, living a righteous life before others, which is good, and looking for an opportunity to share the gospel with them. And that's good. And some people, you know, they pass out gospel tracts when they're at the grocery store or when they're. Whatever. That's good. And some people engage in corporate evangelism like we did yesterday on the street. Some people do not knock on doors and do it house to house. Some people take it to a mission field and do it there. Here's the thing.
[00:24:34] All of those things are. All of those things are good. And there's different ways to do it. Just as I said, there are different.
[00:24:39] In a farm, in cultivation, there is not just one job. There's many jobs that must be done.
[00:24:47] But the biggest problem is that many of us are unwilling to do it at all, unwilling to witness at all.
[00:25:01] And let Me, just not just bring it up a notch, okay? Many of us are unwilling to witness at all. Or sometimes if we're willing to witness, we're unwilling to do it intentionally or corporately with the church together. In other words, going out with the express and intentional purpose of making the gospel known.
[00:25:28] In other words, sometimes we view evangelism as incidental to our life.
[00:25:34] In other words, we'll try to witness. We'll try to at least share a Bible verse or the gospel or something with someone if they come and ask us.
[00:25:44] Well, that's not exactly what the Lord is talking about here.
[00:25:48] In fact, in this context, he's talking about the intentional on purpose going out together to share the gospel with people on purpose for that express intent. That's what he was doing with his disciples in Luke 10, right? He was sending them out. He's going to do that in Matthew, chapter 10. He's sending them out.
[00:26:06] So this is a biblical truth and it's something we should be involved in. In addition, you know, you read about the. In Acts, when there was persecution after Stephen, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the Word. And the idea behind that is not so much. It was organized so much, but wherever they went, they were taking the gospel with them. There's an intentional part of that. Here's the thing.
[00:26:31] One of the biggest problems in the harvest in this cultivation of getting the gospel out is that the laborer. There are so few people that are willing to actually do it.
[00:26:42] Nobody or very few are willing to stand up and talk about Jesus to other people.
[00:26:54] It's. They're shy, they're ashamed, sometimes embarrassed.
[00:27:00] Sometimes they don't feel equipped to be able to do it.
[00:27:04] But look, here's the reality. I'm just. I'm just being. I'm just shooting straight with you. This is what the Lord said is a major problem.
[00:27:12] Laborers.
[00:27:16] If you have a beautiful field with rich black soil, right? Fertile soil, it doesn't matter if that field has been plowed and it's in perfect condition.
[00:27:31] It's slightly damp, the weather conditions are perfect. You have perfect seed.
[00:27:38] It doesn't matter if you have all of that. If you don't have laborers, you don't have nobody to do the work.
[00:27:43] What will be the harvest?
[00:27:46] There will be none because there's nobody doing the work.
[00:27:52] This is the problem.
[00:27:55] And I'll readily acknowledge to you, I'm the pastor.
[00:28:01] All spiritual work is easy for the pastor, right? No, no.
[00:28:08] I'm just like you.
[00:28:11] It is a lot easier to come to church, right? And fellowship with all of God's people. The fruit that had already been harvested, right? That's what we all are. We all are. That somebody labored, and we're the result of that labor at some point. That's the way it works.
[00:28:28] But it is so easy to come to church, you know, it's easy for me to prepare a message, preach to people who already believe like I believe. You know, I'm going to preach this morning. And I know everybody believes it already, right? Pretty much everybody believes it. It is very rare that you have somebody in church that just doesn't believe it, right?
[00:28:47] You just try to say, now we got to do it, you know, or whatever the case might be.
[00:28:52] This is easy, right? The hard work is going out into the field.
[00:28:58] It's uncomfortable.
[00:28:59] How many times did people reject us last night?
[00:29:04] How many times did they turn us away or roll their eyes or say foul words under their breath or, you know, whatever? And there were many people that received the tracts, and we're thankful. I mean, that happened, too. But I mean, the negative part is not pleasant. It's work, right? Just like when you get blisters on your hand, it's not pleasant. You get cut. It's not pleasant. You step in an anthill and they eat your legs, right, Josh? It's not pleasant. What happened the other day with Josh, he wasn't working, but he was actually at church. So there's a lesson there somewhere.
[00:29:38] I thought you said you are here. Okay, sorry.
[00:29:47] So it is. Going out and getting the gospel to people is one of the more difficult Christian disciplines. It is just to get over the hump of, you know, that it's hard. It's hard. And listen, I know that not everyone has the capability to do that, but it doesn't matter if you're at the gas station and you're pumping gas and there's a guy, you know, just getting over the hump of giving a gospel tract and engaging with that person.
[00:30:17] I mean, that's not easy. That is an uncomfortable place to be in. But this is our work.
[00:30:31] To be a laborer in this harvest means that the particular job that we have in this field, in this work, is not chosen by ourselves, but by our Lord, because he is the Lord of the harvest. That's what, you know, you think about, Brother Jim, what you said a minute ago, and I'll get to that. But, you know, you think about the Lord sending laborers, obviously, that's. We could think of that in terms of missions, right? Sending missionaries to the mission field. The Lord is the one who determines that, Right? He is the one who determines where they go and who goes and what they do and all of those things.
[00:31:10] Whatever job they've got, the Lord is the One who determines all that. And, you know, that's why we need to be really hesitant to poke and criticize things. I mean, if it's not biblical, it's not biblical. But, you know, the Lord is the one who's working this out. And we don't see the big picture.
[00:31:28] We don't see the big picture. He does. And so we entrust him with that or we trust him for that.
[00:31:35] And it was compassion that motivated the Lord talking about this subject. It was compassion for those who do not know the Lord Jesus.
[00:31:46] And that should be what motivates us. Remembering.
[00:31:50] Everything seems okay now with those people who do not know God, their life. Like last night, what did we see? We saw a bunch of people that looked happy, right?
[00:32:00] Pretty much happy. Get a little bit of alcohol in them. You know, they're having a good time. They looked happy. But the truth is that one of these days, all of that is going to come to a screeching halt. And they're going to stand before the God of Heaven without an advocate, with no righteousness, and they're going to be judged according, as Amy said, as David said, according to their deeds.
[00:32:28] That's the truth. And that should motivate. It should motivate us to get over that hump and to labor.
[00:32:38] That's what motivated the Lord. Now to Brother Jim's question.
[00:32:43] He says, pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest.
[00:32:50] To pray to the Lord, who is the Lord of the harvest, is to acknowledge that he is the Lord of the harvest and that who goes where is up to him.
[00:33:03] Right? And in my missions class, I talk about this because there's a line of thinking among people that heavily emphasize missions. And they say, how many of you have probably heard it? They'll say, why wait for a call when you have a command? I know you guys have heard that before, right? Why wait for a call when you have a command? And that's true. We have a command. But the command, the Great Commission, was given to the church.
[00:33:33] It was given to the people of God in general.
[00:33:38] But when it's time for an individual laborer to go to an individual place to do an individual work, that's where we have to wait. We have to go to God and say, it's like this. It's like every morning the laborers go to the Lord of the Harvest, who Knows the status of all the fields, the preparation of all the ground, what seed has come in, what they're waiting on. He knows all of it. You know, you think of thousands of acres some farmers have, you know, and he knows the status of everything. But that's. I don't need to know that. I'm just a guy with a hoe somewhere, right? I'm just a guy doing one little job in one little place. So, you know what my job is, is to go to the Lord of the harvest and say, lord, what do you want me to do today?
[00:34:20] That's what it's about.
[00:34:22] Isn't that comforting to know that's all we have to do?
[00:34:25] And we have enough trouble with that, right?
[00:34:29] That's all we have to do.
[00:34:31] So to your question, I think what that's referring to is that dynamic where the Lord is the one determining what we do. You know, there are people that go to go to the mission field or go to different places and labor, and they don't see any visible results.
[00:34:50] Does that mean they're not. This is the error. The error is thinking that they're not doing what the Lord wants them to do. That is wholly false and contradictory to the truths of Scripture.
[00:35:04] Let me tell you something.
[00:35:07] There's a denomination, this is several years ago now. There's a denomination, and the missions arm. And the denomination got a new president or head of that denomination's mission arm, right? And they had money constraints, and so they couldn't continue with what they were doing. And so this person made a decision that they were going to force into retirement the missionaries that were on the fields where the Lord wasn't working.
[00:35:44] And so they were given. Those missionaries were given a. Basically a retirement package. You can take it. You have to retire now, and here's your package. So that they could redirect their money because they were under financial constraints and so they couldn't continue. I understand the financial constraints part, but to view it as visible results means the Lord is working, and results that aren't so visible means the Lord. That is wholly false. And it is contradictory to this analogy. Entirely contradictory analogy to this analogy. Here's the thing. That's not our business. We say, Lord, you know, some of these places. Who is it? I was talking to.
[00:36:24] I was talking to.
[00:36:25] I was talking to somebody recently. They were talking about their burden for places like Latvia and Estonia, the Czech Republic, you know, some of the places, the Norwegian countries, some places in Eastern Europe. Those places are hard.
[00:36:41] What do we say? Oh, well, Lord's not working there.
[00:36:46] No. We say, lord, you know, who needs to beware. You know the status of the field, you know what needs to be done and what stage of cultivation that's in. Lord, send laborers there. Because even. Listen, even in places that have fallow ground, this uncultivated need laborers, do they not?
[00:37:06] And that's hard work.
[00:37:09] So praying the Lord of the harvest is about. Is about yielding to the truth that this is God's business, you know, and to be honest with you, that's exactly what I've been praying for our church. Lord, send more people to work in this harvest.
[00:37:28] Send more people, give people a burden to get the gospel to others.
[00:37:33] Send them out to do it. You know, when we do that, the Lord is the one that prompts people and the Lord is the one that directs people.
[00:37:42] And it might not be the way I expect, but that's not my business. That's the Lord's business because he's the Lord of the harvest. Brother Jim, does that roughly answer what you're saying?
[00:37:59] Well, we'll have to break off there. What I want to talk about next time. I wanted to this morning I wanted to establish the biblical analogy of the harvest and look at it kind of from 30,000ft from the Lord's perspective. And next week, we'll kind of delve into each part in a little more detail. All right, let's pray together.
