A PERSONAL HARVEST

“This is to my Father’s glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

John 15:8

With great church growth comes the temptation to rest on one’s laurels. Riding on the coattails of
brother’s and sister’s fruitfulness is not too difficult when we worship with a congregation blessed with so many baptisms and involved in the lives of so many who are lost. Yet, if we personally are not effective in sharing our faith, we are not only disproving ourselves as disciples, we are missing out on one of the greatest joys of Christianity – a personal harvest.

Frustrations in sharing the Scriptures with people and discouragement due to some who are disinterested often causes us to not prove ourselves disciples, rather, we prove ourselves quitters, giving up disappointed, feeling like failures.

Sometimes the problem is we try to share with who we WANT to share with, rather than the people God puts directly in our path. The Bible is clear that calloused hearts will not respond to Jesus. It also say we can only sow seeds and cannot make those seeds grow. The biggest hindrance to disciples of Jesus living “life to the full” (John 10:10) is that because we fail to understand what’s really living inside us. Since we don’t realize how powerful God makes us, we don’t use that power. instead we trap ourselves in Spiritual graves by engaging in “…acts that lead to death” Hebrews 6:1, and then we choose to live in spiritual death when we are afforded the ability to live the best lives on earth. In our failure to heed the Lords warning we sin and fail to confess and/or repent not understand the importance of his call when he says, “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire…
Avoid every kind of evil.” 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22. When we fail to fan into flame the Holy Spirit and instead make decisions that quench the spirit with insecurity, cowardice, bitterness, “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like” Galatians 5:19-21. Decisions to engage in these sins literally steal the power from our lives. The longer we stay in a state of “quenching the spirit” with our sin we begin to fall into other sins. People falling in this way become, “lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power.” 2 Timothy 3:2-5. God calls this “terrible times” as we reject “life to the full” and actually begin
to “crave the grave” and accept living in spiritual death – “asleep in the church” (1 Corinthians 11:30).

Perhaps we simply fail to put into practice three practical biblical principals:

1) Pray for open-minded and open-hearted people

James 5: 16-18 tells us that Elijah was a man like us and God heard his prayers. We must pray believing that God will lead us to open hearts. As a fisher of men, do you pray each day to catch the men and women God puts in your path? It must be our lifestyle to pray for open-minded and open-hearted people!

2) Look at the people you meet and imagine them as brothers and sisters in Christ

2 Corinthians 5:16 says we do not look at people from a worldly point of view . See people as they could be and be bold in your friendliness. Often we approach men and women with fear and trepidation rather than courage and expectation.

3) Read the Bible with the friends you make

In Romans 1: 16 Paul says the Gospel “is the power of God for salvation .” Men not challenged to read the Bible will remain unmoved to obey the Lord. At our sendoff and in our first meetings, we prayed on our knees for God to help us find open-hearted people to share our lives and the Gospel with. (1 Thessalonians 2:8) After Dara Teamer brought her father to church, I told her, “We are going to study the Bible with your father and baptize him.” I then instructed Damon James to spend time with him. Three weeks later – on the weekend of our Inaugural, Ruben Teamer was baptized! I spent time with Dondi from Manila, Tommy Smith from Nashville and Chris Collins. I read the scriptures with them. Dondi was baptized after 5 days!
Both Tommy and Chris were restored to the fellowship! When you pray, look, and read, not only will I God lead you to some soul today. He wiII often lead the soul to you.

I hope in today’s service you are inspired to see the Power that is available to us in your life. The Power to overcome, to choose to be angry or not, to choose to not be bitter and resentful, and the power to not be hurt by other people’s actions and words. When you grasp the power afforded to you as a believer the words of one of my favorites song, “Jesus Got the Power” will begin to mean more and more to you, “Can’t no grave hold my body down….Jesus got the power over death, Hell and the grave” So, what about you?

What can you do with your life? What options do you have? You have the POWER to do anything with your life. What will it be? I pray that today you are inspired to use The Power of the Holy Spirit to be a “Fisher of Man” who takes the Word of God to every living creature under heaven. Let’s have a blowout Sunday Service!

Ron Harding