Message summary: What’s your responsibility in the cooperative harvest today?  Let us each be found faithful!

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“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field” (Matthew 9:38). “The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor” (1 Corinthians 3:8).

We have all kinds of harvests going on in our rural neighborhood. Most of the large fields we see are corn and soybeans and massive modern machinery is used for this harvest.

But up the road from us we have two Amish farms. One plants watermelon, carrots, cabbage and lettuce. The other seems to specialize in varieties of squash as seen in our photos today. This harvest does not use modern machinery but is very hand-labor intensive. Presently they are harvesting lots of squash!

Harvest is a busy time for farmers and they are accustomed to working together to get the job done. We have especially observed this in the Amish culture as they often help each other out during the planting and harvest season. After all, there is a specific window for the planting and when the harvest must come in for most crops.

Harvest is a word used in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. In the Old Testament it is generally used in a literal sense. In the New Testament it is used mostly in a figurative sense such as when Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.”

Today the harvest still remains plentiful and the workers are still few. We need to be among those who hear God’s call and participate in the harvesting of souls. It is truly a privilege to play a role in the spiritual harvest! Whether it’s impacting an individual or a group, it’s a source of great joy to see people respond to God’s love. I know of many whom I am working with in the spiritual harvest but there are many, many others whom I will never meet on this side, yet we work together in the fields for the salvation of many.

One of the vital truths I have learned in ministry is the principle of the cooperative harvest. Jesus commissioned His church to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth. His great command (the Great Commission) was not spoken to them as individuals but to the entire group. Although we certainly express this obedience individually we must remember that the fulfillment of the Great Commission requires a cooperative effort.

You may presently be sowing or you may be reaping. Remember the cooperative harvest: one plants, one waters, and another harvests. We are indebted to many who serve in the great Gospel Commission with us. We are likely planting and harvesting at the same time, although at times the planting is more prominent; at other times the harvesting is. Stay faithful in whatever role you play in the harvest!

Consider the statement in the second daily text: “The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose.” Planting, watering, reaping; all are part of the process with the goal being a bountiful harvest, agriculturally and spiritually.  That is our “one purpose”. Any life impacted for Christ and eternity is done so by the cooperative harvest. The plowman and the thresher both have equal hope of sharing in the harvest.

One may have the joyful privilege of leading an individual in a decision to follow Christ with a prayer of repentance and faith in Christ, but many others have had a part both seen and unseen. There are those who planted seeds before the decision to follow Christ and there are those teaching and discipling after the decision. A dedicated Sunday School teacher, a praying aunt, a careful translator, a generous contributor to a gospel ministry, a Christian songwriter, even that one who might have been mocked and rejected several months earlier when he or she tried to witness. Consider those who have a part in the discipling and spiritual formation of believers as we grow together spiritually in preparation for the final harvest.

What’s your responsibility in the cooperative harvest today?  Let us each be found faithful!

Be encouraged today!  Hebrews 3:13