Don't Sleep Thru The Harvest!

It's harvest time, here in Northeast Arkansas. Normally this is the time of year that all of the farmers are in high gear getting their crops out of the fields. However, this year we've had an excess of rain with another 4"-6" in the forecast. Many fields have standing water in them and their crops are simply inaccessible to the harvesters. The abundance of rain around here is quickly becoming a tragedy.

Around here, there’s only a narrow window of opportunity during which the crops can be harvested. However, that’s not true everywhere. Many parts of the world enjoy a continuous harvest season. One can visit southern Florida, portions of the Rio Grande Valley, Southern California, or other tropical areas and discover a continuous process of sowing and reaping. Those regions represent the spiritual realities that we, as Christians enjoy. We have a continuous harvest season in the spiritual realm. There is never a time when one can say that due to bad weather or to the season of the year it is impossible to labor in the spiritual harvest fields. There is always, every day of your life, the opportunity to work in the harvest field.

With that in mind I want to share some rambling thoughts about the harvest. First of all, it is a law of nature that before there can be a harvest there must be a time of sowing and cultivation. You can't reap where you don't sow. However, every farmer knows that his responsibility doesn't end when he puts the seed into the ground. There are months of cultivation between the sowing and the reaping. Farmers will plow up the soil. Then they will plant the seed. After that, proper care will be given to the cultivation of the crops in order to reap an abundant harvest in the fall.

The church should, likewise, be in a continuous process of sowing the seed. The harvest is in our hands. It exists in the form of seeds that have not yet been sown. It is our continual responsibility, as sowers of the seed, to be busy, everyday, sowing the seeds of the gospel. Careful and continuous efforts need to be put forth to cultivate the confidence and the friendship that enables you to reach someone for the kingdom of God. If we are faithful in sowing, in due time we will be successful in harvesting.

The passage of time from spring to fall is long and slow, but the process is necessary in order to produce a harvest. Likewise, winning a soul can be a lengthy, time consuming process, but if we grow not weary in well doing eventually our labor will pay off. One important thing to remember is that harvesting is not a thing that can be rushed. You can’t harvest corn while it is still green and you can’t pick cotton before the bolls open up. This is also true with a soul. It takes time for people to become “ready” for harvest. That amount of time is different for every man. Sometimes we have great difficulty discerning the seasons of a life and if we aren’t careful we grow frustrated. The simple truth about the harvest is that, if we will remain faithful, when the time is right, God will open the door.

While it is true that the church should be continually involved in sowing seed, it is also true that the church should be in a continual harvest season. Where there is a time to sow, there is also a time to reap. To neglect the harvest in the time of reaping is to waste all of the previous effort put forth. It is a law of nature that the harvest must be gathered when it is ready. Cotton will lose its weight and color and quality if it is not picked at the proper time. Corn will fall over and rot if it is not harvested before the winter winds and rain come. The golden yellow wheat fields will turn white and will soon rot if not harvested. The same principle holds true in the spiritual realm. When men and women are ready to be reached with the gospel, there exists an ever shrinking window of opportunity in which we can reach them.

Because farmers recognize this principle, harvest season is a critical season. There’s never enough hours in the day. When a farmer gets a break in the weather and a chance to get into the fields he may run his tractors long into the night or even into the wee hours of the morning because the harvest simply must be gathered while it is ready. So it is with the souls of men. When they are ready to be reached, there may be but a short window of opportunity in which to reach them. The church we must realize that the harvest is urgent! There is an inherent urgency to the hour. We must redeem the time, doing everything we can as urgently as we can to reach those who are ready with this gospel truth!

Right now, in homes across our community farmers are fretting and worrying about the crops that are still in the fields. The quality and value of cotton is degraded every time it gets rained upon after the bolls are open and ready for harvest. However, even more tragic is the fact that it is entirely possible that some of these fields won’t be accessible until the cotton has already been ruined! As the church we should be gripped by that same knowledge. An opportunity is passing from us, even right now. Some soul that is ready to be reached is going to slip into eternity before we reach them if we don’t launch ourselves into the harvest with all that we have. I promise you that, if we can catch a dry spell, the farmers will labor 24-7 to get those precious crops out of the field. How much more urgent should our efforts be? Harvest time is right now!

In Proverbs 10:5 we are confronted with the uncomfortable truth that there are those that choose to sleep during harvest time. "He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame” During this urgent moment when the opportunity is there and souls are ready, there some who would rather be idle and careless as an open door slips away from us. The tragic truth is that, while we sleep, the harvest is going to waste in the fields. Won’t it be a tremendous catastrophe if all those beautiful white cotton fields can’t be harvested this year because of the rainfall. What a wasteful shame it will be to watch those fields go to ruin when it is readily evident that they are ready for harvest.

Unfortunately, the farmers can’t help it, but the church has no excuse. There is no spiritual obstacle stopping us from getting into the harvest. The only thing that impedes us is our own casual laziness. It would be a shame if, after years of cultivating the harvest field, we failed to seize the opportunities that are before us and allowed the harvest to go to waste in the field. The pressing truth is that we don’t have the time to be casual and indifferent about the harvest. We can’t afford to sleep through the harvest. This is our hour and if we do anything less than give it our very best then, according to the proverb, we are a son that causeth shame!

I want to admonish you this morning not to sleep through the harvest! It's high time that we stirred ourselves to wakefulness and realized the opportunity that is before us. A harvest stands ready around us, the only thing missing are the reapers. When Jesus saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion toward them and said to his disciples (in Matt. 9:37 – 38), “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.”

It doesn’t take long, as you drive down the roads, to recognize that it is harvest time. As a matter of fact, it is with no small degree of disappointment that we see that the tractors are not yet in the fields. However, as the church, we need to take another look at our world and recognize the same truth. The fields are white already to harvest. How it must disappoint our heavenly father when he looks and sees no laborers working the harvest. Today, I want to encourage you to stir yourself, awaken yourself, and make a fresh commitment to the harvest.

It is harvest time. The harvest is ready. Who will go reap it?