Matthew 9:37-38
Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.
These two verses show the pursuit that Christ wanted His church to focus upon. In the following few verses, Jesus started His church. It is interesting that these verses didn’t say that He sent His disciples to sow seed or to hold on until He comes, but He said that they were sent to the harvest. This means that God sent us to reap a harvest, which means that there are souls that can be saved if we will just go to reap this harvest.
One of the great hindrances to soul winning is that we get our purpose misaligned with Christ’s purpose. There are always things that a church or a believer can get involved with, but Christ sent us to a harvest. This means there are people who will get saved if we go to reap. There are several things this verse shows us about this harvest.
First, the believer is sent to a harvest. It is critical to understand that Jesus did not send us to plant seed, but He sent us to harvest the fruit, which is the souls of mankind. When I picked strawberries as a young man, I was sent to harvest the strawberries that were ready to be harvested. While I was in the harvest, I did not sow any seed. While I was in the harvest, my sole focus was to pick the strawberries that were ready to be harvested. You must always keep in mind that Christ sends the believer into a harvest and not to a field to sow seed. The seed has already been sown; it is the believer’s responsibility to reap a harvest of lost souls. When your mindset for going soul winning is that you are finding the souls that are ready to harvest is when you will start leading people to Christ.
Second, the harvest is plenteous. You must understand that Jesus made this statement in a very volatile time toward Christ. These were not easy times, but they were hard times. Yet, Jesus said that the harvest is plenteous. This means that no matter where you live in this world, there are plenty of souls to get saved. You will never be a great soul winner if you say that people are too hard to get saved in your area. Fruit that is ready to harvest is easy to pick. Likewise, the plenteous souls ready to harvest are easy to lead to Christ; you just have to go find those who are ready to get saved. Stop trying to argue with people, and find the soul that is ready to be saved.
Third, the harvest is never reached without hard work. People are always looking for an easy way to go soul winning, but it takes hard work to find those who are ready to be saved. You will never reap a harvest of souls in this harvest that is plenteous without hard work. My friend, it is not that souls can’t be saved today; it is that God’s people won’t work hard in the harvest to find the souls that are ready to get saved. You will not reach the harvest that is plenteous with just an hour or two of soul winning. Soul winning must be your life. Soul winning must be your life.
Let me challenge you today to make your focus the same as Christ’s, and that focus is reaching the harvest that is plenteous. Yes, the laborers are few, but you can increase the laborers if you would just go so that we don't lose the harvest that we have. Every laborer that gets into the harvest helps us to better reach this harvest that is plenteous.
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