"The Harvest is Ripe! Swing the Sickle!" - Pastor Erin Arruda

Good News! We LIVE as workers in the field and the harvest is huge and ripe! 

 

Key purposes in this message

 

1. To activate and release the evangelistic grace given to you. Anticipate and ready our hearts for the season of harvest.

Mark 4:26-29

26 Jesus also said, “The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, while he’s asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens. 28 The earth produces the crops on its own. First a leaf blade pushes through, then the heads of wheat are formed, and finally the grain ripens. 29 And as soon as the grain is ready, the farmer comes and harvests it with a sickle, for the harvest time has come.”

 Are you ready? 

 

2. To equip and enable you as a worker in the field. Put the tools in your hand and learn how to harvest. 

Joel 3:13 Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. 

Are you able?

 

In an attempt to convert a potential client from a prospect to a sale, we would categorize them as ready, able and willing. It's the same for us as workers in the field in the kingdom of God. Holy Spirit can move even when we don't think we're ready, or able. However, he can't move much through us if we're not willing to let him. 

 

Matthew 9:37

He turned to his disciples and said, “The harvest is huge and ripe! But there are not enough harvesters to bring it all in. 38 As you go, plead with the Owner of the Harvest to thrust out[v] many more reapers to harvest his grain!”

 

Much of today is about your agreement in faith to partner with what the Spirit is saying right now: The Harvest is Ripe; Swing the Sickle.

 

(Edited "Life of Wheat" video) 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vgblaqurtddahsj/Erin_Wheat_Harvest.mp4?dl=0

(Full "Life of Wheat" video)

https://youtu.be/b44xja5KeAo

John 4 and the Story of Samaritan woman is used to show how Jesus harvested the wheat, and how the Samaritan woman did what she had just seen Jesus do. 

 

5 ways we come into agreement with the evangelistic grace and anointing in us. 

1. Go into the field. (Be where the people are)

2. Hold the wheat. (Know their story/ENGAGE!)

3. Hold your own sickle. (Know your story/IDENTITY)

Gospel fluency does not hinge on personality. 

4. Swing the sickle. (Share the story of Jesus)

If there is any rhythm to evangelism, it is found in our ability to recognize the Gospel story in everyone. 

 

Jesus is the author. Jesus is the offer. 

Feel, Felt, Found: 

I understand you feel______, I have felt________ too, when _________. Jesus found me and he__________. Now I have __________. Would you like to know the ________________ I have found? 

 

John 4:42

They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

 

5. Bundle/Gather the harvest.  (Join the church! MCs and Discipleship) At Overflow they are bundled in Missional Community where the harvest is used for future fields and harvests.   

 

 

John 4:34-38

34 Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. 35 You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe[e] for harvest. 36 The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! 37 You know the saying, ‘One plants and another harvests.’ And it’s true. 38 I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.”

 

The woman drops her jar. Why? She no longer needs the things of this world. Her time is better spent not getting those physical needs met, but meeting the spiritual needs of others. 

In other words, by our standards, she is not able, she is not ready, BUT she is willing. Are you?