In Pastor Jerry Zepnick's sermon titled 'God's Spiritual Harvest,' he explores John 4:31-38 to emphasize the purpose of evangelism and the role of believers in spreading the gospel. He recaps Jesus' discussions with Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman, highlighting the universality of the message that all need to be born again to see the kingdom of God. Pastor Zepnick stresses that evangelism should be rooted in love, patience, and grace, reflecting Christ's approach. He explains that Jesus is spiritually nourished by doing His Father's work, and believers are called to follow this example. The sermon uses the metaphor of a harvest to underline the urgency and importance of evangelism, encouraging Christians to be active laborers in God's mission field. Pastor Zepnick calls for believers to organize their time effectively for evangelism and to be bold in sharing their faith, as the harvest is ready and souls are at stake.

Good morning, church family. What a blessed day God has given us. So today we will continue on in the book of John. Chapter 4, verses 31-38. Chapter 4, verses 31 through 38.

And before I read that, I kind of want to recap where we've been. And this book of John, of course, chapter 20 verse 31, it explains the recap of the purpose of John writing this Gospel. The purpose is that we might see Christ. And that seeing and knowing that Christ is the Messiah, that we can have life in His name. And so that we can know Him and have life in His name.

That is the purpose of this. And so everything we study through this and the whole Bible, to be honest with you, is for us to understand that Jesus is the Christ and that knowing Him, we can have life in His name. And so as we recap, we look at more recently chapter 3 where Jesus had this discourse with Nicodemus. And so, He had this Nicodemus and he told him, you must be born again. He cut right to the chase because Nicodemus complimented him.

You are a mighty man of God. You are sent by God. And he said in answer, unless one's born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven. And that's cutting to the chase. That is evangelism right there.

That is not messing around, no bones about it. And so, now we have the Samaritan woman, and the Samaritan woman by the well, and he's discussing with her how he can give her living water and how important this is. And so what we have is Jesus laying out what is eternal life to Nicodemus, a religious elite who's supposed to know all this stuff already. And then we have Jesus giving what is eternal life to the Samaritan woman at the well. And so, it doesn't matter who you are or where you are.

Nobody's above it or below needing Jesus. And this is the discourse that He is having there. And What I wanted to not miss is His love. No matter if He's talking to the woman at the well or He's talking to Nicodemus, when He talked to me, not literally, I don't want to go there. But when He found me, when He saved me, it was love.

It was mercy. It was grace. It was patience. And it took so long, and I was so thick-headed, and yet He patiently, lovingly kept giving me another opportunity and another chance and another chance until finally it broke through. That is the love of Christ.

And so, I don't want us to miss that at all. We see that in 3.13. He said, no one has ascended to heaven, but who came down from heaven, that is the Son of Man who is in heaven. 3.3, I'm sorry, 3.3. Jesus answered and said to him, most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, cannot see the kingdom of God.

And then in 3 19 and 20, he says the woman said to him, sir, I keep getting in the wrong place here. 3 19 and 20, and this is the condemnation that, light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light, does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. What we have, I believe, is an example of what we are to evangelize to. People love their darkness.

They love the world. They love living in sin. And that was me to no end, I confess. But when a person comes to Christ, when a person has an opportunity to hear the gospel, this is what evangelism looks like. You give them that opportunity by giving them the gospel.

They can reject it or they can accept it. And so in this case, it does take love, it does take patience, it does take time. And so that is what it looks like. But it's got to be overlaid by love. If they don't know that you love them, they don't care what you have to say.

And so the importance of evangelizing, And I want to give the core meanings of it, because I can keep saying evangelizing. And what does it mean? What does it look like according to a religious context? It has to preach the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. And so in today's text, we hear a conversation between Jesus and his disciples.

That is the text today, between Jesus and his disciples. And so the secular context of this is to passionately advocate for a particular idea, product, or lifestyle, like a tech evangelist promoting a new software. I learned something there. I had no idea that was even terminology. But we can passionately be talking about the world or we can be passionately talking about Christ.

At this point, I'm gonna read the text and then we'll open up in prayer. Chapter four, verses 31 through 38. In the meantime, his disciples urge him, saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat, which you do not know. Therefore, the disciples said to one another, has anyone brought him anything to eat?

Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work. Do you not say there are still four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest. And he who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true, One sows and another reaps.

I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored. Others have labored and you have entered into their labors. Father, this morning, Lord, we thank you for your word. The bottom line truths of it, Lord God. And I pray, Father, this morning that our hearts and our lives would be affected and changed, Lord God, by the power of your word, that we would grab ahold of it, Lord God, and it wouldn't be for someone else, it wouldn't be for a different time, Lord God, but that it would be for now, and it would be for us, Father God.

I just thank you for your word and your love for us in Jesus' name, amen. And so that's one place that I wanna start with this, is what we're going through today, the text I just read. It's not a lesson. It's not that we're gonna learn this and then we'll know this and we'll know that. We'll know why it was written.

We'll know the timeframe and the context in their culture. That's not the purpose of this. The purpose of going through this and listening to this and digging in is that we could take this text, this example of a holy God that He loved us enough to give us this, that we can lay it over the top of our life and that it can change us. That it can give us a new perspective of the salvation that we have in Him, of the command that we're given to go out and give that good news to other people as well. And so this is the purpose that we have this.

And so the question I have is, after explaining the different meanings of evangelizing, I want us to think about throughout the course of this message is, what is the focus of our evangelism? And I want you to think about that. What is the focus of my personal evangelism? What do I hold important? What do I talk to other people about?

And so, the disciples came and they marveled that He was talking to a woman. This was the Christ, the holiest of holies, and he's talking to a woman. And so they couldn't believe it and she at the same time she left her water pot and she ran off to evangelize. She couldn't wait. Not having any concern at all for her ill reputation.

And again, the first people she goes to is those that she offended, those that she sinned with and against. Those are the first ones that she went to. But Christ's delight was at the well. It was in His work. That work was this message.

His purpose, Luke 19, 10. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. That is why He came. And so This being the fact that we are calling ourselves Christians, right? That we are little Christ, and if that was His purpose, it needs to be our purpose going out, right?

Okay, so where do we fall in line with that? And the first point I have is verses 31 through 33, the confused disciples, the confused 12. They were perplexed. They couldn't understand when they came back. In the meantime, his disciples urged him saying, Rabbi, eat.

But he said to them, I have food to eat that you know not know. And they said, well, has somebody been feeding him? Did somebody give him some food? They couldn't figure it out. So just like Nicodemus and the woman at the well, the disciples also misunderstood.

And so Jesus' words, and they thought that he meant literal food. He's talking spiritually again, and it's taken literally, and that happens. But John 6.27, it tells us, Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him." So Jesus patiently and lovingly, He unfolds the meaning to the woman about the water that quenches the thirst of the heart forever until it's finally grasped. And so, by this time, the disciples came back with food and they begged Jesus to eat. They had left him at the well earlier, exhausted.

They couldn't understand why he didn't want to eat. And he said, I have food to eat that you know not of. And my question is, how many times does he tell us things that we just don't quite get. How many times, I mean, we pray for something and then something different happens and so we're distracted like when you take a dog for a walk and he sees a squirrel over there, And then the dog is like, the squirrel, that's God's will for my life. Boom!

And he's off after it. Is that us sometimes? See, this is us not listening to God. This is us doing what we want to do. And not walking in the truths of scripture, not listening to those around us that God put there to guide and direct us, but instead it is us going after something.

And so Jesus is willing to patiently take us and explain and work through these situations with us like he did with them. And they got it in the end. They finally did understand it and they did get it. But do we always? And so, But now with His work to seek and to save those who are lost, we see Christ totally consumed.

And this is the picture that I want us to get today and understand that Jesus is totally consumed with getting ahold of and sharing the Good News, the Gospel, everlasting life with those around Him. And so completely focused on doing his father's work for him. And so when he first sat down there, he was weak, he was weary, but this opportunity of saving souls, it gave him just a new zeal. It made him forget his hunger, His weariness. Do we have things in life that make us forget our hunger and our weariness or our pain?

It's like a mother giving birth. She gives birth and it is so much pain. I can't imagine. With that baby, when that baby is there, that pain can be forgotten. Because that joy, and for myself, I could be out in the boat and I could be starving and then the fish start biting.

And I get preoccupied. And the next thing I know, we're just pulling them in, one after the next. And I don't even remember that I'm hungry anymore. And the live oil gets filled with fish. See, it's what is important to you will take that place and so are we ever so consumed with with sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ to lost souls that we forget about other things in life.

That this world, it fades. It fades. It doesn't mean as much. That's what Jesus is doing here to the point where His disciples pressed Him to eat. Master, please eat.

It was a show of their love for the Master. It was a show of their care and their love for Jesus. You haven't eaten. We're concerned about you. We don't want you to get sick or to fall down, to grow weary.

We want you to eat. And this is still the character of disciples of Jesus. If you love Jesus, if you're His disciple, if you're His follower, you are concerned about what He wants. You're concerned about Him, not yourself. And this is got to be the heart and the life of a true believer of Christ.

To have a deep love for Jesus and a careful concern not to tarnish His name. Not to live in a lifestyle or in a way that is going to tarnish, that is going to put a mark on the name of Jesus. As other people look at you as a professing believer, They are looking in your window and they're like, what is that guy? That guy's different. I know he's different.

I just know he's not like other people. He does this, he does that. He loves, He doesn't, when my dog goes on his lawn, he cleans it himself. When I throw my garbage over there, when it blows out of my can on his lawn, he cleans it up and puts it back in his. The dude's different.

He never gets mad at me, and I've been a jerk for a neighbor. What is going on over there? You know what? He has Jesus in him. That's the difference.

We have to be careful as Christians that we don't live in a way or do something that is tarnishing, that is going to make them say, yeah, that guy said he's a Christian, well, I don't know about that. Look at the way he's doing this or that. But this is, and what propels that? We love Him because He first loved us, right? That is the bottom line.

And so I want us also to see Jesus, how He redeemed the time. This is something I couldn't go past in watching this group, this talk, this evangelizing. And while the 12 were gone, he was talking with the woman at the well. Didn't waste a second, had a long conversation with this woman at the well. And so, and that was edifying, And it suited her individual case.

He saw her heart. He had that unfair advantage, right? You could see right through her. And so, he made the most of that time by having her face her sin. And then he offered her forgiveness for that sin and redemption by living waters himself.

So when she left, it was obvious that his time with this woman brought salvation to her soul. This is what repentance looks like. She left the water pot, she ran into Sicar, into town. And this woman had to tell everybody how Jesus saved her, how Jesus talked to her. She gave her testimony throughout the town.

But wouldn't it be great if we would gather up these fragments of time like Jesus did and use these pieces of time to give the gospel to people, to share Jesus with other people. What would that look like in our lives? To set things aside that don't matter and take these wasted fragments of time in between and start to organize them, like cleaning out a garage. And then we put all the fragments of time over here, okay? And then we take all the other time that we're doing things and put it over here.

And then we start to reorganize our time and we're taking out time that we don't need and we're putting it in over here. And the next thing you know, we have this organized time of sharing the gospel with people, of witnessing, of evangelizing. What would that look like in our lives if we were capable of doing that? And I say that, and to be honest, my garage is not real clean. But spiritually speaking, we have these fragments of time.

And it's neat to see how Jesus used his time. And so, but too often, we become preoccupied with things that we have going here, with earthly pursuits, and we miss altogether the spiritual war. Ephesians 6, putting on the whole armor. And we can talk about evangelizing, but we can't really talk about evangelizing until we rightly go through Ephesians 6 and talk about putting on the whole armor, because we're soldiers. When we go out to evangelize, Satan is going to attack our efforts.

Bottom line, that's 100% going to happen. We need to be prepared. You're not just going to go trip out into the war field, into the battlefield wearing pajamas and slippers and a squirt gun. It's not going to work. And so Colossians 4 verses 5 and 6, walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.

Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt that you may know how you ought to answer each one. The second point I have today is the sustenance of Christ. Verse 34, Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work. That's the sustenance of Christ. And that ought to be ours too.

And so if God the Father's will is the food, is the purpose of Christ, the work that Jesus was sent to do. And we're also called Christians, like I said, Christ followers, that's our work as well. We don't, we don't, we don't, and I wish you wouldn't, call yourself a Christian if you're not going to be like Christ. If you're not going to follow Christ and be like Him, really don't take that name and put it on yourself because it's tarnishing His name. But we're also called Christians and we ought to work as that.

This ought to be our mantra. This ought to be our image. We're image bearers of our Savior. And so the salvation of sinners is the will of God. And after that, the disciples of those saved unto doing His work.

And so it's an ongoing thing. Jesus thrived on this. In 1 Timothy 2, 3 and 4, For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. This is, this is, so who do we evangelize? Who do we witness to?

Oh, let me see here. Oh, all, okay. All. You know what? At one time, that was me, all.

I was part of all. So once I got saved, I can't look across the white fields and say, well, this one and that one and that one. No. It's all. There is no exception.

And so Jesus Christ made God the Father's work His business. And it's not just His business, it was His delight. It was His delight. And so when He tells us to go into all the world and make disciples of all, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He means all.

And that is His business. When His body needed food, when his mind was so taken up with this that Jesus forgot both hunger and thirst. Nothing could be more important and urgent than to be doing His Father's business. It directed His life and it pleased His God. John 8.29, and He who sent me is with me.

The Father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please Him. How important that is. And that's the delight of Christ. Is that your delight? Is that where we find our purpose in life?

Our joy? What do we want to go down as being remembered for? Right? Do we want to be the obituary for us? Well, you know what, he's a great guy but he slept a lot.

You know? Well, he was a good dude. He was really good at fishing. That guy had a trophy room like you wouldn't believe. He was quite the hunter.

Okay. That guy, he was the best golfer I ever knew. That guy was a real philanthropist. Okay. You know what?

That's not what I want to go down as. I don't... If I could have one thing written on my tombstone, it would be, this dude loved Jesus, and you could see it. That's what I would want written on mine. He was this, He was that.

He loved Jesus. And He didn't care about Himself. See, I'm not there yet. I love Jesus. I could care a lot less about myself than what I do But nothing could be more important.

Nothing could be more urgent Many many people have a zeal to carry out God's Word when they're first saved I can remember when I first got saved, I was literally just laying into people. And I don't do that anymore. I tempered it some, at least. But the fact is that many people have this zeal to carry out God's work when they first get saved at the start, but not a zeal to work through to the end. They don't have a zeal to finish the race.

All of a sudden, life gets long. And it's like, well, I can do this for a year, but you know what? I'm going to live for another 50 years, right? See, there's no retirement in the Christian life. There's just not.

There's never a point. I was on a trip with a group of pastors, and I'd get up in the morning and I'd take out the Word and I'd be studying and studying. There was a couple of them that just didn't. I never saw them in God's Word. And I had to ask them, Why aren't you in the Word of God?

Well, you know what? I spent my whole life as a pastor and I preached my whole life. I know it pretty well by now. It's heart wrenching. It really is.

And so, Ecclesiastes 9, 10, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might. For there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going. Redeem the time. Christ was ready on any occasion to do this work but but he was also very serious about going through with it. He never stopped short.

He always went through with it. He finished his work. And so to quit was not an option. To lay it down was not an option. Until Jesus could say, and there was a time that he did, he said, it is finished.

And then he was done. And so, it's gotta be something that we understand in our mind. Can we be awakened to a point in our Christian lives that says, okay, this is what God's will for my life. Oh, that's why He saved me, right? So you are born again Christian?

Of course I am. Yeah, of course. Okay, why were you saved? Okay, right here. And so we are saved to bring glory to God, to bring others to Christ.

And so Jesus Christ made God the Father's work His business. It was His life, it was His love, it was His delight. And nothing could be more urgent than that. And He would never lay it down, never set it aside. It directed His life and it pleased God.

And so is our Christian life and our mission a delight to us because it glorifies God? John 8.29 And he who sent me is with me the father has not left me alone for I always do those things that please him Can we say that Yeah, that'd be hard right but but many people have a zeal to carry out God's God's will when they're saved in the beginning, but they don't follow through with it. Christ here has left us an example so that we will learn. Christ is giving us, he's laying this example down for Christian that we can know it and that we can live it as he did. And how was that?

With diligence, with diligence and close application. Make a business of it. You know how we make a business of business? Make a business of doing Jesus' work for Him. Make a business of doing a Christian example of evangelizing to others.

Make it your life. And He did it with delight, with pleasure, with joy. No one takes my life, I lay it down. He did it with joy. This is supposed to be us in our element.

This is how we were created. This is what we were saved for. This should just be our natural state of mind as we function as a believer. We say we're in our element. Okay, I get in a boat and I'm looking at a dozen fishing poles and I'm like, okay, I'm in my element.

I know exactly what I need to do now. And I start pulling out baits and I start hooking them up. Okay, where are we in our element? And when it comes to our Christian life and our Christian walk, Are we in our element here? And so that is what we're called to do.

This is supposed to be our element. And also, he did it with perseverance, not just obediently doing it, but doing it with urgency. When opportunity arose, he didn't miss that opportunity. He was completely and totally prepared at every opportunity to do his work and He aimed to finish his work. He never pulled short of it.

And so it was his work. It's not burdensome work. Matthew 11, 28 through 30. "'Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy burdened, "'and I will give you rest. "'Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your soul.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." It doesn't seem like that, does it? But His work is our joy. It's supposed to be. That's supposed to be our element. His work is supposed to be our joy.

Now the work that He's speaking of is to preach the Gospel. Making disciples of men. Teaching them all things that Christ taught. This was to be their meat. He's talking to his disciples.

This was to be their meat. This is their food. And this he compared to the harvest work, to the gathering in of the grain of the field, or of the fruit of the earth to gather that grain in. And if you think by some crazy, twisted version or dimension of Scripture, that we can have any kind of peace in life, any kind of joy, any kind of fulfillment or happiness or contentment in our life or function in our lives apart from doing the work of God that He created us for and that He saved us for, that we're expressly created for. You're just grossly misunderstood and you'll be terribly disappointed.

Because all the things that this world has to offer us will never satisfy. They'll never pile up enough joy or happiness or temporary satisfaction to be able to take the place of what God has created us for. And so the third point that I have today is the urgency of the harvest. And so verses 35 through 38, and this amazing analogy of the harvest is the clearest of pictures that Jesus could have given. The harvest was appointed ahead of time and was expected and so was the gospel.

St Corinthians 5, 11 and 20. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf be reconciled to God. This is the message that we go out and we give to people.

We implore you, we're begging with you, We're pleading with you on Christ's behalf. And that's what he's doing to all of us this morning. If you're not reconciled to him, this is his pleading to you. We implore you on Christ's behalf. Be reconciled to God.

This is the message that we go out and we give to the lost. Harvest time is a busy time. All hands are to be hard at work. Everyone has got to be working for himself. You don't look at somebody else and say, oh they're doing enough work.

I don't need to do that work. No, we all have a piece of it to reap the graces, the comforts of the gospel. Ministers need to be working for God to help gather in souls to God. This is our work. Harvest time presents opportunity, but it's short.

It doesn't last forever, limited time. So it's not always going to be available. And you know what this is like. You have an opportunity to share with someone and you think, well, I'm not sure. I'm not going to this time right now.

I'm going to some other time. And then that opportunity is gone and you never see that person again. So the harvest must be done when it's ready or it's gonna be missed. It's gonna be missed altogether. The time of the enjoyment of the gospel is a season that needs to be capitalized on.

It can't be passed on. Once it's passed, it's passed, and it's too late. Once it's done, it's done. Then it's behind. You've blown that opportunity.

You can do two things with it. You can blow the next one, or you can use that as a platform to say, God, please don't let me blow another one, and then move ahead with it. John 9.4, I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The Night is coming when no one can work. Again, this is not day and night.

This is talking about giving the gospel to people. And so verse 34, Jesus said of the gospel, this is my food. And the question is, can we say that? Do we thrive on telling others of the Christ of our salvation? You've been born again.

You've been saved by the mercy and grace of God. If you get a clear picture of what He did when you were saved and born again, that He in His great power and mercy, the God of all eternity, He came down to earth and He scooped you up, a piece of garbage in the gutter, and he picked it up, and he rinsed it off, and he said, I think I can use this, and he set it right there. He said, I'm gonna use that. Do you have that picture of your salvation in your head? Because that's what happened.

That's exactly what happened. And so, we need to get that perspective and understand that this is our job. And so Jesus said of giving the Gospel, This is my food. Is that our food? Is that our passion?

So more important than physical food. And as he looked past the well, when the Twelve came back to him, he was there with the Twelve. His gaze fell across the field, knowing that the crowds of people were either already coming out. This is one study that I read that the fields are white with harvest, that the people of the town had white robes on and they were coming across the field? Or was it a literal field?

Well, it doesn't matter. The fields are white for harvest, okay? And Was He looking and the people were on the way? Or He knew that they were coming? But the field is white for harvest.

So they would be reaping because Christ just did the sowing. You see that? How that happened? He explained to the disciples of the importance of the harvest itself. And Jesus referred to the harvest of souls.

It's not we're going to go get grain, okay? You guys go and hike up your garments and we're going to go out there and we're going to start harvesting grain. No. No. I think they got it.

And now is the time when the gathering of the people should be brought to Christ for forgiveness and for salvation. And He is the fulfillment of the prophesied Christ. Genesis 49, 10. The scepter shall not depart from Judah. This is Christ.

Nor a lawgiver from between His feet until Shiloh comes. And to him shall be the obedience of the people." See how that works? I just love how Old Testament prophecy ties directly to Jesus Christ. So in the ordinary harvest, men sowed seeds and waited for the harvest four months basically, and smear you that day, things had happened with such divine suddenness that the word was sown, repentance and belief in Christ followed, and on the spot, harvest awaited. It was immediate.

And so to a Jew, this sowing was typically a weary and laborious time. It was the harvest was the time of joy. You were bringing in. And so Psalm 136, 5 and 6, Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

What a blessing to see this. This verse is the picture verse for bearing precious seed in Oshkosh. We had a good size group go down there yesterday. And What an exciting thing for our body, our congregation to be involved in printing scripture to go out, to bear that precious seed. Just so encouraging.

Verse 36 is a payoff. So verse 36 says, and he who reaps receives wages. Here we go, right? This is what I'm talking about. The big ching ching, here we go, Let's get some chips.

The one who reaps receives wages. Christ has undertaken to reward, to pay those who work. Those whom he employs in his work, he will pay, right? Now did I go full like Kenneth Copeland on you here? No, no I'm not.

And so Matthew Henry put it this way in here, Christ's reapers, though they cry to him day and night, shall never have cause to cry against him, nor to say they served a hard master. He that reaps not only shall, but does receive wages. There is a present reward in the service of Christ." See, there's a present reward in the service of Christ. It's not that you're gonna go to heaven and you're gonna get an extra jewel up here someday. There's a present reward in the service of Christ.

It's not that you're gonna go to heaven and you're gonna get an extra jewel up here someday. There's a present reward in the service of Christ and His work is its own wages. Right? Isn't it? His work is its own wages.

Are you disappointed? You don't sound real happy. Its work is its own wages. The work that we do for Christ is its own wages. That's the joy that Christ had in the work.

Is it the joy that we have in the work? Do we have a joy in the work? And so sometimes evangelizing looks like contending for the faith. And we cannot be passive. We can't be silent or afraid of persecution or afraid to be unpopular.

It's no time to be timid. You weren't saved to be a mouse or a rabbit. You were saved to be a soldier for Christ. And that's what He created when He saved you. And so we need to be bold and content.

You know why? Because human souls are at stake. People are dying and going to hell because of our timidity, right? We can't afford that. Human souls are at peril.

This is a short time to sow, to reap that harvest. We can't afford to be cowards. Jude 1.3. I said Jude 1.3. Jude 1.3, beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered to all the saints.

And so and and the beauty of this is that this is this is the gathering fruit unto eternal life. We need to have the right perspective when we go out there. People are dying and going to hell. This fruit is unto eternal life. It's not that they're going to have their best life now, that they're gonna get saved and God is gonna bless them with this and that and they're gonna get a lot of money, they're gonna get a new car, they're gonna get a better job, they're gonna have their marriage worked out.

That might be the case. But the point is that this fruit gathering is unto eternal life. This is forever. This doesn't stop at any point. That's all God's doing too.

And at no point in this message am I trying to say that you are saving souls. You are being a tool in God's hand. And so that's all God's doing. And so it is fitting to remind ourselves that for every person who is saved, God alone is the source of that redemption. We are never the source of that redemption.

Whether we save someone, disciple someone, no matter what we do, this is all God's work. It's not our work. And so, God alone is the source of that and eternal life. Matthew Henry, again, I'm gonna quote him, God is to have all glory of the success of the gospel. And so that is what Paul also said when he wrote to the first Corinthians 3, 6, and 7.

I planted Apollo's water, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. And so the next time you think that you're something, I want you to read this verse, and I will read the verse as well, because we're talking about the increase, and we can say, hey, look at this increase. I witnessed that guy, look at it. I got that guy saved.

Okay, let me read in here. What am I now? So neither he who plants is anything. What am I? Nothing.

Nothing. I'm not anything. What are you? Nothing. This is God's work.

It's God who gives the increase. Verses 37 and 38 are wrapping this up. For in this, the saying is true, one sows, another reaps. I send you to reap that you have not labored. Others have labored and you have endured into their labors.

And so some labor and sowing, one waters and other reaps, and everyone rejoices together because this is God's work. Nobody's better than anyone else. Nobody's worse than anyone else. Everyone who enters into the labor of the field is rejoicing together. So this is the Lord's will, and it's His plan for the body.

And so, 1 Corinthians 12, 20 and 21. But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And I cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet. I have no need of you. We all have a need for each other.

But what I'm asking you today is, are you a functional part of this body that does the work? Do you go out into the fields and labor? Are you that functional part? Are you a pinky toe even? See, this is what this text is talking about.

All are important, everyone has a role to play in this field work that God has laid out. And the question is, what part are you going to fill? Where do we come in there? Are you laboring in this harvest field of souls? In verse 38, Jesus said, I sent you.

Isn't this reason enough to go and share the gospel of Christ? To know that He sent you. I sent you. Maybe we need to realign priorities in life. Maybe we need to get out in the garage and we need to start organizing things.

Maybe we need to start getting rid of stuff. If I haven't used it in six months, get rid of it. Maybe that's what it likes. Maybe that realignment of priority. Let's shift our focus from from physical to spiritual.

What would it take to do that? When we look down the road and we see our neighbors as lost and going to hell, what does that do to us? And as a Christian, we have no excuse. We need to look around, open our eyes to the spiritual opportunities that are in the world. That are right in our laps in most cases.

The harvest is closer than we think it is. In fact, it's all around us. Every one of us. That can be at work, that can be sitting at the table with our families, that can be so many different things. In fact, today I can only tell you what God calls you to do.

He calls you to go. I can only tell you that. I can't follow you home. I can't make you do it. I can't sit down and reason with you on why you need to do it, this is God's work.

If you're a Christian, you're supposed to already be doing it. And so this is what we're made for. Jesus needs laborers. We need to get going in the mission field. What is our motivation?

We need to get sowing, watering, reaping. We need to get active. Motivate, share our faith. The question is, do we care? That's the question this morning.

Do we care? Do we care about other people's souls? Do we care about God's command for our lives? I want to close this morning with this quote. I don't know how many people will read it.

It's in the back of the bulletin. Hudson Taylor wrote, Some are jealous to be successors of the apostles. I would rather be a successor of the Samaritan woman who, while they went for food, forgot her water pot and her zeal for souls. Is that our zeal? Is that our heart?

Father, we thank You this morning for Your Word. I pray for power, Lord God, for an awakening in our own hearts and lives, Father God, to the truths of Your Word, that You would give us boldness, Father God, that You would give us heart to live for what you called us for, Lord God. To be fishers of men, Lord God. I pray for our hearts and our lives, Lord God, to be affected this morning even by this. I pray in Jesus name, Amen.