Video Transcript: The Reaper Mentality

For years, I've belonged to a fitness club and I noticed something. Right after Christmas every year, right after the first of the year, there would be all sorts of guys who would come. Brand new equipment, new sneakers, nice white socks, nice clean shirts. And for a week or 10 days, they'd be there and they'd work out and they'd feel good about it. Then, bit by bit by bit, it would drop down to the old-time regulars who were there all the time. And I wonder if that can happen in what we've been doing here. 

I want to congratulate you on sticking with it. We're already in the eleventh session. We've gone over a lot of material. Has it made a difference? Are you going to stick with it? Or are you excited about what we do here and what can be and ready to go? And then, bit by bit by bit, drift off. 

Do you know what? You'll never be sorry for studying this material, and you'll never be sorry for winning someone through your vocal witness. Remember, we had that session when we talked about the joy of vocal witnessing, the joy for the Father, the joy for Jesus the Savior, the joy for others. Imagine changing their eternity forever and the joy for ourselves, growing in our faith, coming closer to Jesus. 

The Bible says that when one person repents, all of Heaven has a party. It rejoices, and we get to be part of that. I want to encourage you this morning. One of the old-time golfers by the name of Gary Player, he said once in an interview, "It's a funny thing. The more I practice, the better I get." And that's going to be true for us with our vocal witnessing.

Last week, a lady came to see me. Her marriage was in trouble - actually in divorce. And we talked about this and talked about that. She went to church, but I wasn't sure where she was. So, I took a piece of paper and I drew out the diagram about crossing the line. And she had never done that. She crossed the line and she confessed Jesus, and now, we've got to spend some real time helping her grow. 

Today, we want to talk something about the urgency of Jesus, about the mentality that he gives us. Let's pray and then get into it.

Lord Jesus, we're so busy with our daily life. We have to get sleep, we have to eat, we have to get dressed. We have to spend some time doing our other work or sports or watching TV or going to school, keeping the home clean, whatever it might be. And in all of that, we can be vocal witnesses for you. Give us your heart. We love you, Jesus. Amen.

So, we're talking, today, about the reaper mentality. And the first part is just spending time thinking about that. Here's what I mean. A lot of times, a group of people will be together and maybe somebody will say, "There's this lady at work," or, "There's this guy in the office," or, "I've got this neighbor, and they live such a wild life," or, "They've got so much money. They have it so good." 

And so, I just told them, "You've got to quit living that way. You've got to quit swearing like that. You've got to quit running around and sleeping around. You've got to quit getting drunk, because Jesus doesn't want you to do that."

Or we say to somebody else, "The Lord has given you a lot of things. What are you going to do with it for him?" So, I gave him that testimony. 

And somebody else is going to say, "That's good. You sowed the seed." That's what we like to call it. And what we want to talk about today is not the sower mentality. There have to be people who sow the seed. We all do. But we have to have the reaper mentality. How do you look at yourself? 

There's a story in the Book of Numbers 13 when Moses sent some spies into the land to see what was happening there to bring back the report, because the people of God wanted to move on. And they came back. Ten of them were scared stiff. They said, "They're big, they're strong, they're too big for us." Then, they said this, "We felt like we were grasshoppers in their sight and they looked on us as grasshoppers." 

How do you see yourself? Do you see yourself as a sower? God bless you. But can you also see yourself as a reaper? So, it's important to start with that. That we have the reaper mentality, that when I leave church on a Sunday or I leave my home in the morning or I go to a sporting event with somebody or I'm just hanging out, that I always have that reaper mentality. Yeah, I'm going to sow the seed. I'm going to talk about Jesus. But I've got to get deeper than that. I've got to bring them home to him. I've got to bring that person across the line to Jesus.

But before we talk about the reaper mentality, I want to mention something about what I call the thoughtless concept. And here's what I mean by that. I was talking to a lady some time ago. I know her very well. She has four children. Her children are dear. All of our children are dear, but hers are special. I have five children. You have children. Others do. Maybe you are a child now. But you don't always get along. And you don't help each other and you don't share naturally. And there can be some pretty tight lines, and I watched her children for years. I know them very well.  Her children are always kind. They're always sharing. There's something special going on in that house. I've not seen many families like it. They're so gentle with each other.

And I was talking to her some time ago, and I said, "Your kids are so kind and good and gentle to each other."

She said, "Yeah, and they do it so thoughtlessly." 

I love that idea. It comes from deep within. They don't have to think about it. And that's what I want to talk about thoughtless vocal witnessing. We just do it so thoughtlessly. We don't have to get ready. We don't have to be in a certain position. We don't have to talk with a certain voice. We don't have to be dressed a certain way or be in a certain place. It just comes out. Thoughtless vocal witnessing.

And then, I want to look at that verse that comes with this material. In Matthew 9:37, it says this. "Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.'" 

When we look at this, Jesus is going to help us in how we see ourselves. We learn so much from this little happening. Almost every word has meaning. It starts out by saying it was written by Matthew. Do you know who Matthew is and who he was? Matthew was a rotten skunk. He turned his back on his own people. When the enemy came and occupied their country and imposed heavy taxes on the people, do you know what Matthew did? He went over to the enemy's side. He said, "I'll work for you." And especially for the Jews, that was troubling. Because their contact with the gentiles made them unclean. And he went and worked for the Roman gentiles. He collected money. He extorted money from his own people. He was a turncoat, and they hated him. 

One day, Jesus came walking by and looked at Matthew and said, "Matthew, I want you to follow me. I want you to be part of my group." Matthew would never forget about that. And it's that Matthew who's writing this story about Jesus looking out and saying there's a harvest out there.

And Matthew says, " I was part of that harvest and now I'm on the inside." 

He begins with the word "then". And even that word has meaning. Do you know why? Because that means something happened before it. Then, this happened. And what happened before is this. Jesus had spent the day teaching about the Kingdom of God, talking to people who were far from him, inviting them back home again. And he was healing them, it says, "of every kind of disease." I just wish I could have been there. So, he spent all that time, and he looks at all the people. It says there are crowds there. The only time we read about crowds in the Gospel is when we read about Jesus. The crowds were always around Jesus. He looks at them, and his heart breaks. 

He said, "I am the Good Shepherd. And these people are like lost sheep. They don't have a leader. Look at them. They're all around us." His heart was just breaking. And it says he was filled with compassion. 

It's an amazing thing - that word compassion in the Gospels. Do you know what? It's not something you wear on your sleeve. It's not something you say you feel in your heart. But the word for compassion in the language Jesus spoke is something that talks about your inner organs, your deepest organs, a place where the sun never shines, a place where you can't scratch if it itches, way down inside of there. We have this expression - a gut feeling. That's what it is. It comes from deep down inside. Jesus had compassion on them. And here's an amazing thing. The only time we read about compassion in the Gospels is about Jesus. Jesus had compassion on them. Jesus had compassion on them. Over and over.

Then, with this gut feeling, he says, "Look at this harvest." And that's why I want to talk about the reaper mentality. What do we talk about? Listen to what we say. He's going out into the mission field. What's a field? It's just a blank, empty place. There's nothing growing there. He's going out into the mission field, we say. And Jesus would say, "No. You're not going into a field. You're going into a harvest." 

There is a harvest all around you. You work in an office, in the shop. Are you retired? Are you in school? Are you a homemaker, staying at home? Wherever you are, it's not a field; it is a harvest. It's ready to be reaped. That's what Jesus saw. And then, here's an amazing thing. He talks about sending out workers into his harvest field. Notice, he calls it his harvest field. This world is his. Satan thinks it's his. Satan is a defeated snake, that jerk. There's no power in him anymore. Power over us in some ways, but Jesus owns it. This is his harvest field. And Jesus talks about workers there. Let me explain something - why Jesus is talking directly to you here. 

In Acts 19, Paul comes and preaches the Gospel. They had a good souvenir trade going there in the city of Ephesus, because there was a huge temple there - world renowned - one of the original Seven Wonders of the World. And just like when you go to a tourist trap today, they had all these little tables all over town, selling trinkets. You could buy little stuff, little images of the pagan goddess, little images of that beautiful temple. And when Paul came and preached the Gospel, there was such power that it began to influence their sales. And when you mess with people's pocketbook, you're messing with their heart. And so, do you know what they did? They got together and they organized a riot. In Acts 2:2, it says that the people who had been used to making all the money got together - the craftsmen and the workers - and got them to start rioting. What's the difference?

The craftsmen are the guys who sat out in front who designed the jewelry, who polished it up, who built the jewelry, who put it together. That took special care. We get our word, "technology" from it. The workers, they were the guys in the back shoveling the coal into the furnaces. They were the guys cleaning up. They were the guys doing the dirty work. They were the day laborers. They were the people, anybody could do their job. So, there's that difference between a technician and a day worker. 

Now, take those two ideas of the craftsmen and the workers. Bring it back to this passage. And Jesus says, "Pray that the Lord will send out,"-- what does it say? Does it say craftsmen or workers? It says workers. Like you and like me. Every day, ordinary people who give a vocal witness. Jesus isn't looking for seminary graduates here. He isn't looking for professors. He's not looking for philosophers. He's not looking for people who run big corporations. He'll take them and he'll use them, and he does use them. Thank, God. But he's looking for millions and millions and millions of everyday, ordinary people who will be vocal witnesses for him in that harvest field wherever they are. That's you and that's me. 

And Jesus, with his heart full of compassion, says, "Just look around you. Wipe the tears out of your eyes. Look around you and see the harvest field. And I need you to go out and reap you workers, we workers."

Okay, now, he's got us all excited. Matthew wrote it. He was saved by Jesus. Jesus has his heart of compassion. He talks about the harvest around us. He puts his finger on each one of us just like he did on those ordinary, everyday people in his life. The fishermen, the ordinary people, the tax collectors. And we're all excited and we're waiting to hear what he says next. And do you know what he says? "Pray." 

And we say, "Pray? Is that all? I was expected something really great."

And he says, "I was too." 

That's why I said, "Pray," because nothing happens without our prayer. Pray that you will have the heart of compassion that Jesus had. Pray that you'll have the eyes to see the harvest that he saw. Pray that you'll accept yourself as a worker in his harvest. Pray that you will pray. 

There's an amazing thing in James's Gospel where he talks about Elijah praying. He says, "He prayed fervently." And do you know what it says in the language that James wrote it in? He prayed a prayer. What does it mean to pray fervently? It doesn't mean to pray with certain words, with a certain tone of voice on a certain day and impress others or try to impress God. It just means pray a prayer. And Jesus looks at you and me, the workers in his harvest, and he says, "Will you pray?" 

Then, one more thing we want to look at there. He says that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers. He did. That's done. He sends out you and me. "You shall be my witnesses."

I heard a song on the radio the other day, and it really puzzled me. Beautiful voice, lovely music, and this person was singing from the heart. And this person said, "Oh, Lord, send me." 

I turned off the radio and I had to think about that for a while. I thought, "Send me?" Two thousand years ago, he sent us. What does it mean that I pray and say, "Lord, send me"? We are living in a harvest. 

In the second world war, Churchill and Stalin - Churchill was from England and Stalin was from Russia - they met together. They were talking about extending the war into France. And Churchill didn't want to do that because it would kill so many more Frenchmen. And Stalin, the Russian butcher, who was probably the worst dictator the world has ever seen, who has killed more people than any other dictator in history, Stalin said, "When one person dies, it's a tragedy. When 1,000 die, it's a statistic." 

Do you know what? When one person dies without Jesus, it's a tragedy. And when 1,000 persons die without Jesus, it's 1,000 tragedies. All those people you know, each one who dies without Jesus, each member of that harvest field, when that person dies without Jesus, it's a tragedy. Jesus calls us to have a reaper mentality. Let's pray. 

Dear Jesus, you have spoken to us today. You don't have to send us out. You've sent us out already. We pray that you will work through us as we go out into the harvest field. We're going to keep on sowing. We're going to go with the hearts of compassion. We're going to recognize ourselves as the workers. We need your heart to go out and bring them in back to you. We ask you for that heart, and we love you. Amen.