Humbly United for the Harvest
Preparing for the Harvest • Sermon • Submitted
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Today is one of the most important devotionals in this series. We are fully aware of the harvest God is preparing, we know what our part is in it, but if we do not gather in unity there won’t be a harvest.
If you have spent time watching groups of people harvest a field you will notice that they work together. They understand that if they work together they will gather the crop more thoroughly and efficiently.
Right now Satan can sense that a harvest is coming. Whenever the church has experienced a crisis, there has usually been a harvest on the other side. So He is doing everything in His power to keep us divided and therefore ineffective. We are told in Acts 8 that after Stephen was killed for his faith a great persecution broke out against the church and all the believers except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. But as they scattered they preached the word wherever they went. They may not have been able to worship together on a weekly basis, but that did not stop the purpose for which they were called. Spreading the Gospel and the Kingdom of God wherever they went. They were unified even when they were apart.
But at some point there was disunity because Paul addresses this issue in a lot of his letters to the churches he planted. Disunity happens quickly and quietly. It happens when we choose to make disputable matters our main focus and we cling more strongly to our personal opinions than to Christ.
Jesus knew this was going to happen and He addressed it multiple times during His three year ministry on earth. In John 15 we read His masterful teaching on the vine and the branches. He says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
Being united with Christ is the only way to live a fruitful life. Then Jesus goes on to say, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends... 17 This is my command: Love each other.”
Remaining in Christ results in loving others above ourselves. It results in laying down our lives, our rights, and our opinions so others feel loved. This is called humility, which the way we are called to live. And if we are all doing this there will be unity amongst us, because we are willing to put aside our personal agendas, rights and opinions in order to reap a greater harvest.
Right before Jesus laid down His own life out of His love for us He prayed to His Father. He prayed for Himself, for His disciples and for all future believers. That means He prayed for us. And do you want to know what the first sentence of that prayer was about? UNITY!
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
The way the world will believe in Jesus is if we as believers live in unity. We work together for the good of others. We crucify our flesh (our selfish desires, or rights and our opinions) so we can come together and keep Jesus as the main thing.
Jesus laid down all of His rights, He did the hardest thing of all, because He loves us.
When I lived in Athens, Greece I had the privilege of working at the Refugee center with people from the middle east. At the time, they had been portrayed as our enemy. And I found myself amidst hundreds of them, serving tea and some food, playing with their kids, and talking with their wives. I wore long skirts that covered my behind, I wore high neck t-shirts that covered my shoulders and my chest. I didn’t make eye contact with the men. And I treated each one with kindness and dignity. Why? Because they are created in the image of God. God had to teach me to lay down my American rights so others could experience His love through simple acts of kindness and love. I wasn’t an American serving Middle Easterners. I was a daughter in the Kingdom of God serving broken and lost people in the hopes that they would see Jesus and fall in love with Him the way I had.
Church, we are in a pivotal moment in all of this. We can fight for our rights as Americans and turn this into a political battle. If we do this we will not reap a harvest for the Kingdom of God.
We can turn this into a battle of religions and compare churches and church leadership. Judging what each church is doing and dividing the church even further. If we do this we will not reap a harvest for the Kingdom of God.
Or we can seek Heavens agenda and choose to live like we are citizens of the Kingdom of God. If we are all willing to lay aside our personal opinions and seek God’s wisdom I believe we will come to a place of unity. And in that unity we will reap a great harvest of souls. So what is more important to you during this time?
Today would you place your opinions and rights before God and ask Him to show you what He wants you to do? Ask Him to reveal to you His agenda and then lay down whatever opinion or right that is standing in opposition to His agenda.
The New International Version. (2011). (Jn 17:20–21). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. The New International Version. (2011). (Jn 15:9–17). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan The New International Version. (2011). (Jn 15:5–8). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.