Well, we're glad to be with you today
on Eagle's Wings.
Let me share a couple verses with you.
John chapter 3 and verse 15 that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have
eternal life.
For God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life.
You know, that's a wonderful thing to know
that when God gives you something you have
it.
And you know, it doesn't say that just
one time.
That little word, have, is mentioned several times
in the word give.
For instance, John 4 14, But whosoever drinketh
of the water that I shall give him
shall never thirst, but the water that I
shall give him shall be in him a
well of water springing up into everlasting life.
In John 5 44, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, he that heareth my word and
believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting
life, and shall not come into condemnation, but
is passed from death until life.
And there are more verses that talks about
that.
Well, we're glad that you joined us today
on Eagle's Wings and you know, we're going
to be going into September here pretty quick.
And in September, we're going to, that's going
to be our letter month, our anniversary month.
We started on this radio program in 1989.
September 13th, I think it was, and somewhere
around there, 12th or 13th, and what's that,
89, about nine years.
And we would like to celebrate this month
by offering a special gift to pastors.
We came on with a burden for revival,
and especially for ministering to pastors.
And as much as God allows us, we
try to minister to the pastors.
They're actually, we might say, I'll put myself
in there, we're some of the hardest crop
to do much working with in the country.
And that's probably a downfall of many pastors,
is because we're not open many times to
receive ministering by others.
And a lot of that comes because of
our training, or lack of training, or whatever
you want to call it, in that we
are teachable, we're to be teachable also.
But we'd like to celebrate the month of
September, and I'm saying this early because the
gift that I'm going to offer these pastors
will not be able to be used after
September.
We're going to offer two free tickets to
the Promise, and we're doing this early so
that they can call in and claim it,
as long as the supplies last.
And I don't know how long that will
be.
If you're a pastor, and you pastor a
church, and you'd like to have two free
tickets to the Promise, then you contact me,
or contact the radio station, so that I
can mail you these two free tickets.
And we're doing this not to try to
twist your arm, or nothing like that.
We are doing that because we want to
encourage you.
We know many times pastors do not receive
a lot of encouragement, and some are so
discouraged, and many every week resign the ministry.
And that, I believe, basically is a failure
of understanding how God has wanted the elders,
the pastor being one of them, to work
together as a team.
And so many are just alone, plugging along
alone, and God didn't intend us to work
alone.
I know when I first went into my
first pastorate, back in the mid 70s and
75, I felt like God didn't intend for
me to be alone.
I felt like he intended me to work
together with somebody.
And I thought, always thought, if I could
get somebody on my staff, the first one
I'd want to get on would be an
evangelist, someone to work to help me win
souls.
And we would teach them, and disciple them.
And since then, God has showed me that
there's, to be more than one other, there's
to be a team of pastors.
But anyway, if a pastor will contact me,
either call me, write me, or contact the
radio station, so we can get your address,
we'll send you these two free tickets to
the promise.
And they have to be used by the
end of September.
Now, we're going to go into the message
on the harvest.
And remember, the scripture says that God gives
us everlasting life.
As a matter of fact, Jesus said, labor
not for the meat which perisheth, but for
that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which
the Son of Man shall give unto you,
John 6, 27, and verse 40.
And he said, and this is the will
of him that sent me, that everyone which
seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may
have everlasting life.
And I will raise him up at the
last day.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that
believeth on me hath everlasting life.
It's wonderful when God gives you something.
Now, here's part one of the message on
the harvest.
John chapter 4.
Let's stand as we read verses 31 through
39.
John chapter 4, starting in verse 31.
In the meanwhile, his disciples prayed him, saying,
Master, eat.
But he said unto them, I have meat
to eat that ye know not of.
Therefore said the disciples one to another, hath
any man brought him ought to eat?
John chapter 4.
Let's stand as we read verses 31 through
39.
John and his disciples to eat.
Jesus said unto them, my meat is to
do the will of him that sent me,
and to finish his work.
Say not ye, there are yet four months,
and then cometh harvest.
Behold, I say unto you, lift up your
eyes, and look on the fields, for they
are white already to harvest.
And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth
fruit unto life eternal, that both he that
soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
And here it is that saying true, one
soweth and another reapeth.
I sent you to reap that whereon ye
bestow no labor.
Other men labored, and ye are entered into
their labors.
And many of the Samaritans of that city
believed on him for the saying of the
woman, which testified, He told me all that
ever I did.
Father, we ask the blessing of your word.
We ask that you speak to our hearts
in Jesus name.
Amen.
When Dennis brought out that verse in Jeremiah,
I don't know if he knew what I
was preaching on this morning.
Did you?
On the harvest?
The title of this message is the harvest.
Jeremiah 8 20, the harvest is past, the
summer is ended, and we are not saved.
Now I have here a basket, and in
the basket is some fruit, in case I
get hungry, I know really, in case we
need a word picture.
And we just got, it looks good, doesn't
it?
Some of Bing cherries, and grapefruit, and orange,
peach, and a bunch of bananas.
And we all know that any banana that
leaves the bunch is going to get peeled.
But fruit, that's the harvest.
There's something that all of those pieces of
fruit have in common.
Do you know what it is?
Besides being fruit.
They're all picked when they were ripe.
Yeah, they all had to have a picker,
a laborer, and they're all picked when they're,
sometimes they pick, the bananas were probably so
green when they picked them.
And they like to do that with tomatoes,
and it's not good.
Really, the fruit is better when it's just
right.
Pick it and eat it.
Now this text that I've just read with
you, I just, this week, as I was
waiting on the Lord, what do we, what
do we get this week, Lord, from you?
The Lord just began to impress on me
the harvest.
Just those two words, the harvest, the harvest,
the harvest.
And so as I begin to meditate upon
this passage, and then I read through the
verses in the Bible on the harvest, there
was the laborers that kept coming in.
The laborers, the harvest, the laborers, the harvest,
the laborers.
We all know when you have a farm,
and we had our little truck farm a
few years ago, there's a lot involved in
farming.
You've got your plowing, if your ground is,
hasn't been plowed for a long time.
Maybe you got a hard pan out of
there.
Most of the time you've worked it year
after year.
But there's the plowing, the cultivating, and then
you have to, if you're doing wheat, you
run the rod weeder and stuff.
I did it all out in Wyoming on
the wheat.
But then there's the fertilizing.
If you use the fertilizers, and most people
do, and now we're finding out all these
fertilizers are giving us a lot of problems,
so people are going more organic, more healthy.
Then there's the weeding, watering, and the whole
bit.
Then comes the harvest, the harvest.
Have you ever seen something that didn't get
harvest, and you say, what a shame, what
a shame.
And I know when we had our tomatoes,
because more were planted.
We didn't do the planting.
Much of the planting, somebody else was doing
the planting, and they over planted more than
we could handle.
And it was just almost a shame sometimes.
We just couldn't do it.
And one certain crop there was just planted
more than was needed, more than we could
even begin to handle.
But the harvest.
I've been reading still on this book with
Jonathan Goforth, and I'd like to read some
of his writings.
This was written by his wife.
And I'd like to read some of his
writings now after reading this book.
One of the points I read this week
was about how, and he had a very
successful ministry.
Matter of fact, at one time, he was
a Presbyterian.
The Presbytery, his board, came over and examined
his field.
They were going around, examining the fields, and
they said, you have far exceeded everybody else.
You've done it.
Their goal, they shared with him that their
goal was to have a church within 10
miles of all the Chinese.
That's a good goal.
But they commended him that he had done
so well.
But they actually also gave him his most
trouble in going out and going on.
They were the break.
He could see the harvest.
God was, the Spirit of God was just
giving him direction and things to do.
But he was under their authority, and he
submitted, and it just was really hard for
him many times to hold back.
And at one point, he came back to
the field, and they made a rule while
he was gone, that he could only, each
missionary could only have at the most two
mission paid evangelists to work with the missionary.
You know how many he'd had before he
went on furlough, and he came back now
that you can have two?
He'd had 15.
And there's all of this work to be
done.
We're just not going to give you the
money to do it.
And that's where he began, like Hudson Taylor,
to reach out a little bit on his
own, and just to believe God to supply
the needs, and he began to hire the
evangelist himself out of his own salary.
And so God began to meet him.
But at one point, his wife shared that
early one morning, when we were in the
country, Mr. Goforth had been pacing the courtyard
with such rapid strides and set face.
I knew he was agitated about something, and
when he came in, I asked, what is
the matter?
This is his wife writing.
Is anything wrong?
Yes, he exclaimed.
I feel bound.
And here's what he said.
Oh, that God would give me an opportunity
before I pass on to demonstrate to missionaries
and to the home church what results would
follow if we but gave God in our
power.
I am convinced the simple gospel story has
never had a chance in China.
Even though he did so much, he said
he felt bound.
Let's look at our text.
The scripture says that Jesus took upon him
the form of a servant, and the title
of this is The Harvest, and the harvest
is fruit.
The subject of the text that we just
read, I believe, is service.
As I meditate on it, the fruit has
to have the laborer, the servant, to pick
it, or it doesn't get picked.
So I believe that the subject is service.
And when working with people, I wrote this
statement out, when working with people and sharing
the gospel, sometimes the most unlikely ones are
ready to get saved.
It's one of the things I've learned about
sharing, and I've also learned not to talk
a lot about those that I pray with
Christ, to receive Christ, to say, go back
and say, oh, so-and-so got saved,
so-and-so got saved, this one got
saved.
I don't know.
So I've just learned to be quiet and
wait and watch, and I get to heaven.
I really find which ones got saved and
which ones didn't.
But some of the most unlikely ones get
saved or pray to receive Christ.
And of course, the first one I ever
led to the Lord, I didn't really, I
wasn't sharing much faith, because when I said,
would you like to pray and receive Christ?
And he said, yes, I would.
And I answered, you would?
Is that the way we are?
We go to pick fruit, you know?
Just, now fruit, we can't get much parallel
with there, you know, usually you can tell
when fruit's ready.
But with people, you can't always tell.
And the one I shared the Lord with
last night, I didn't get to go any
farther, he had to stop me and said
he had to get ready to go.
And, but, here's some observations I'm going to
share with you from this passage, I'm going
to share with you some observations, some lessons,
seven lessons, and then a conclusion.
Here's the observations in verse 34, let's just
get back into our text.
Jesus said unto them, my need is to
do the will of him that sent me,
and to finish his work.
Two things that fed his spirit.
You see, there are things that feed our
spirit, and there are things that hinder our
spirit.
So these are two things that really, he
got nourishment, energy, and it kept him going.
One was what?
To do his Father's will.
And the second thing was his goal to
finish his course, and to finish his work.
Verse 34, 2 Timothy 4, 7, Paul said,
I have finished my course.
Now I've got a question for us.
Are you on course?
Hard to finish it if you're not on
it.
Those of us that ran track knew that
in order to get across the goal line,
you had to stay on course.
And I like to run cross country, they'd
drop us off, we'd run several miles.
But if we were running the course, and
we wanted to run over here and look
at something, run back over here and look
at something, we may not ever finish or
run out of gas.
Or we'd finish last.
To finish the course, you must stay on
the course.
Are you on course?
Are you on the course?
You remember what Jesus said when his mother
and Joseph came back to him at the
temple?
He said, I must be about my father's
business.
He was on his course, but the timing,
he had to wait.
He had to wait.
Must.
Here's something else in this passage, under this
lesson.
There is the must, he said, I must
be about my father's business.
And he said in verse 4, he must
go through Samaria.
I learned something new about this must.
There were two necessities in him going to
Samaria.
One was to get the Samaritans saved, to
get them to Christ.
And then the other was to get the
disciples on course.
So it was for them also.
The servant must do the will of his
master or he'll do his own will or
somebody else's will.
And so he was getting them on course.
No man can serve two masters, Jesus said.
So when it comes down to it, daily,
will we serve our master or we serve
another master?
Master of the tyranny of the urgent or
the master of others as they try to
pressure us.
And many times you might be thought unpopular
or un-whatever because you just will not
do what somebody wants you to do in
the time they want you to do it,
whatever, because you are on course with your
master.
And so you have to stay on your
course.
Whose will are you doing?
Now when it comes to the harvest, when
it comes to fruit, when it comes to
this area, I think God's going to teach
us some things this morning about the harvest.
Some things that we need to know.
We talked about the, everybody can feel, the
believers feel what's coming.
We sense that something's coming.
But I believe amidst all of this and
all of the apostasy and our country turning
away from God, and our country turning away
from God's word, and our leaders turning away
from the moral standards that were established by
our constitution even.
It's a moral constitution because most of it
came out of the word of God.
God will still bring a harvest.
He's interested in a harvest.
Many believe that there's going to be a
great awakening.
We haven't seen one for a long time
in our country.
And here's a second observation.
Look at verse 35.
Say not ye, there are yet four months,
and then cometh harvest.
Behold, I say unto you, lift up your
eyes and look on the fields, for they
are white already to harvest.
What were the disciples talking about when they
came back?
Because Jesus says, say not ye, there are
yet four months, and then cometh harvest.
Do you think it's possible they were talking
about, hey, in four months it's going to
be harvest time on this crop out here.
We don't know for sure, but it's very
likely that's probably what they might have been
saying.
But Jesus says this to them, say not
ye.
It's almost like a rebuke to them, and
he brings them over into the spiritual realm.
He's teaching them.
It's, maybe he's saying something like this.
What about them?
Because the Lord says, say not ye, there
are yet four months, and then cometh harvest.
Behold, I say unto you, lift up your
eyes and look on the fields, for they
are white already to harvest.
If they're saying there's four months to harvest,
Jesus is saying to them, there is a
harvest coming across the fields.
Right at that moment, I believe, very possibly,
here comes this mob of people towards him
from the town.
And Jesus is saying to them, don't say
four months, right now, look.
Lift up your eyes and look on the
fields, for they are white already to harvest.
Now, do we judge by appearance?
Well, I don't think they would like to
have the gospel.
And I don't think she would like to
have it.
I don't think I better share with them,
or whatever.
Jesus is saying to the disciples, what about
them?
I just wonder, now I don't know it
for sure.
If, when they went into town, they got
the food, did they tell them about the
Messiah?
Hey, everybody, listen, we've got an announcement to
make.
The Messiah is, we would say, right outside
our door.
He would have said, out at the well.
Be interesting, when we get to heaven, we
can ask him, did you tell them about
Jesus when you went to town?
That's one of them.
If I could remember all the things I'd
like to ask, maybe the Lord would help
me.
Did you tell them about Jesus?
Many times, I do not.
That's interesting.
They went in and got their food, and
here they had the Messiah of the world.
Did they tell them about Jesus?
It's possible that they did.
And then, when the woman from the well
came and gave her testimony, that kicked it
together.
And what it might have been, is that
they sowed.
Now, we'll give them the benefit of the
doubt.
Because Jesus said, I sent you to reap
that whereon you bestowed no labor.
Either men labored, and ye are entered into
their labors.
Verse 38.
Now, it's very possible also that they did
share the Messiah.
And I'll give them the benefit of the
doubt and switch over on their side and
say they probably did.
Because I don't want to get in trouble
with them.
But, there was a rebuke from the Lord
when he said, say not ye.
Do I sow?
Now, here's the judgment thing.
Since we can't always judge by appearance, here's
what I believe God wants us to judge
with people.
Do we judge, is this a time to
sow, or is this a time to reap?
And we sow by praying, we sow by
speaking, we sow by caring, by sharing.
And if we reap, then that's the time
to invite them right into the Savior.
And this is why God has really given
evangelists, they are reapers.
They can go in many times, and it's
getting harder and harder for them to reap.
But, God has gifted them to reap.
Now, this week, did you care about them
as the disciples?
Did you care about them?
There's a third observation, then we'll go to
the lessons.
Verse 38.
He said, I sent you to reap.
I sent you to reap that whereon you
bestowed no labor.
Other men labored in year, entered into their
labors.
I sent you.
I believe sometimes our part is easy.
Most of the time it's hard.
But our part, all of us in the
harvest of this world, our part is important.
To do our part.
Now, if you just pick fruit.
If you just go.
It's like when we raise the tomatoes and
the zucchini and then all the other stuff.
We had an acre of zucchini, too much.
An acre of tomatoes, it was too much.
And then another acre of some other vegetables
and stuff.
For our family, it was too much.
We couldn't afford to hire other labors.
But, when you go and you pick your
fruit.
Somebody would come out there and some people
would come out there to our little farm.
And that we were just doing for somebody
else and getting our part of the pay
and everything.
They'd come out there and say they'd walk
over there.
And we don't have any of the fruit
that we had here.
But say they'd pick up a tomato and
go pick it off the vine.
And said, not much work to this.
You just come out here and pick a
piece of fruit.
Well, they wouldn't want to say that.
Maybe in front of my daughters who've been
out there in the hot sun.
And rather been home or something.
Picking the fruit is easy compared to sowing
the seed.
But to some, picking the fruit might be
hard because of self-consciousness and whatever.
But do your part.
Do your part.
I sent you.
God sends us each to do our part.
Well, we're going to have to cut in
right now on eagle's wings and be closing
down.
The reason we're sharing these messages is because
we believe that there's a great harvest coming.
And we need to get ready.
We need to not get caught and not
be surprised at what God does.
We may not know exactly what he does.
But we do need to get ready.
And now's the time to sharpen your sword.
Get out your Bible.
Begin to memorize and meditate on scriptures that
you can share with the lost.
Well, we're continuing to pray.
That God will bless you.
That he'll keep you.
That the Lord will make his face shine
upon you.
And that he'll be gracious unto you.
And that he'll lift up his countenance upon
you.
And that he'll give you peace.
Lord bless you, my friend.
With wings as an eagle, you'll not be
tired.
I'll not let you fall.
On Eagle's Wings Evangelistic Association Ministry is available
to minister in music, with instruments and voices,
and sharing of the gospel in your area.
If you have questions or input about today's
program, you can write to us on Eagle's
Wings, P.O. Box 96, La Russell, Missouri,
64848.
Or call us at 417-246-5408.
All gifts to own Eagle's Wings are tax
deductible.
And I will lift you up with wings
as an eagle.
You'll not be tired.
I'll not let you fall.
Uncle and aunt, a stranger.
Maybe there were two dozen people that sowed
in your life.
Preachers, pastors.
Then all of a sudden, somebody comes along
one day and picks you off the vine
because you're ripe.
It's not right to give that one person
all of the credit when all those others
were involved in it.
And so Paul, he comes back to the
Corinthians and he says this in chapter 4,
verse 10.
We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye
are wise in Christ.
We are weak, but ye are strong.
Ye are honorable, but we are despised.
Even into this present hour, we both hunger
and thirst and are naked and are buffeted
and have no certain dwelling place.
And labor, working with our own hands, being
reviled, we bless, being persecuted, we suffer it,
being defamed.
We entreat, we are made as the filth
of the world and are the offscoring of
all things into this day.
I write not these things to shame you,
but as my beloved sons, I warn you.
And then he goes into about being their
instructors in Christ.
And I thought about that.
Did Paul have a burden in his heart
as he went through and he led souls
to Christ, he established churches and he keeps
on moving on and then he has these
guys back behind.
They get so caught up on themselves, they
don't care about the forward movement anymore.
And he has to go out there and
work night and day, making tents, so he
can get some food to eat to keep
preaching the gospel.
And back home, they're criticizing him and holding
him back.
And even someone sort of like Jonathan Cole,
go for it.
There he is, they see he's doing all
of this and winning souls to Christ.
And then what do they do?
They cut him back so he can do
less.
And all it did to him is just
made him lean harder on God.
But when a church begins to get so
centered on itself that it doesn't keep moving
forward, I believe it's beginning to get into
the first stage of the seven churches in
Revelation, losing their first love.
Because the Lord came to them and He
said, I know you're doing all this, all
your works, now you hate this and this,
nevertheless, thou hast left your first love.
We get stuck on ourselves.
And I believe that God has put in
us a very, very strong mission emphasis.
Most of us would be ready to go
right now if God would say, Okay, I
want you to go to this mission field.
We're ready right now.
And we don't have too much attachments.
And most of us in this church would
be ready to go.
It may take some of us a little
few days to get some things taken care
of, maybe a couple weeks or months.
But we're ready to go if God would
call us.
And that's the spirit of the church.
We're ready to go.