The Harvest is Plenty but the Laborers are Few

Romans 10

11-13 Scripture reassures us, “No one who trusts God like this—heart and soul—will ever regret it.” It’s exactly the same no matter what a person’s religious background may be: the same God for all of us, acting the same incredibly generous way to everyone who calls out for help. “Everyone who calls, ‘Help, God!’ gets help.”

14-17 But how can people call for help if they don’t know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven’t heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it? That’s why Scripture exclaims,

A sight to take your breath away!

Grand processions of people

    telling all the good things of God!

But not everybody is ready for this, ready to see and hear and act. Isaiah asked what we all ask at one time or another: “Does anyone care, God? Is anyone listening and believing a word of it?” The point is: Before you trust, you have to listen. But unless Christ’s Word is preached, there’s nothing to listen to.

Romans 15

17-21 Looking back over what has been accomplished and what I have observed, I must say I am most pleased—in the context of Jesus, I’d even say proud, but only in that context. I have no interest in giving you a chatty account of my adventures, only the wondrously powerful and transformingly present words and deeds of Christ in me that triggered a believing response among the outsiders. In such ways I have trailblazed a preaching of the Message of Jesus all the way from Jerusalem far into northwestern Greece. This has all been pioneer work, bringing the Message only into those places where Jesus was not yet known and worshiped. My text has been,

Those who were never told of him—

    they’ll see him!

Those who’ve never heard of him—

    they’ll get the message!

Matthew 9

35-38 Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. “What a huge harvest!” he said to his disciples. “How few workers! On your knees and pray for harvest hands!”

Acts 2

14-21 That’s when Peter stood up and, backed by the other eleven, spoke out with bold urgency: “Fellow Jews, all of you who are visiting Jerusalem, listen carefully and get this story straight. These people aren’t drunk as some of you suspect. They haven’t had time to get drunk—it’s only nine o’clock in the morning. This is what the prophet Joel announced would happen:

“In the Last Days,” God says,

“I will pour out my Spirit

    on every kind of people:

Your sons will prophesy,

    also your daughters;

Your young men will see visions,

    your old men dream dreams.

When the time comes,

    I’ll pour out my Spirit

On those who serve me, men and women both,

    and they’ll prophesy.

I’ll set wonders in the sky above

    and signs on the earth below,

Blood and fire and billowing smoke,

    the sun turning black and the moon blood-red,

Before the Day of the Lord arrives,

    the Day tremendous and marvelous;

And whoever calls out for help

    to me, God, will be saved.”

Ephesians 3

14-19 My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

2 Corinthians 4

5-6 Remember, our Message is not about ourselves; we’re proclaiming Jesus Christ, the Master. All we are is messengers, errand runners from Jesus for you. It started when God said, “Light up the darkness!” and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful.

John 16

8-11 “When he comes, he’ll expose the error of the godless world’s view of sin, righteousness, and judgment: He’ll show them that their refusal to believe in me is their basic sin; that righteousness comes from above, where I am with the Father, out of their sight and control; that judgment takes place as the ruler of this godless world is brought to trial and convicted.

12-15 “I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t handle them now. But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. He won’t draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said. He will honor me; he will take from me and deliver it to you. Everything the Father has is also mine. That is why I’ve said, ‘He takes from me and delivers to you.’

Ephesians 2

7-10 Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

2 Timothy 2

14-18 Repeat these basic essentials over and over to God’s people. Warn them before God against pious nitpicking, which chips away at the faith. It just wears everyone out. Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won’t be ashamed of, laying out the truth plain and simple. Stay clear of pious talk that is only talk. Words are not mere words, you know. If they’re not backed by a godly life, they accumulate as poison in the soul. Hymenaeus and Philetus are examples, throwing believers off stride and missing the truth by a mile by saying the resurrection is over and done with.

~The Message (MSG)

Father, it is written in Your Word that Jesus came to seek and save the lost. You wish all people to be saved and to know Your divine truth. Therefore, Father, I bring ______________ before You this day.  Thank You for calling me to be Your agent of intercession for ______________. By the grace of God I will build up the wall and stand in the gap before You for ________________, that he/she might be spared from eternal destruction.

Father, thank You for salvation. I acknowledge Jesus as the Lamb of God, Who takes away _________________’s sins, and the Holy Spirit, Who convicts and convinces him/her of sin, righteousness and judgment. Your kindness leads _______________ to repent (to change his/her mind and inner man to accept Your will). You are the One Who delivers _______________ and draws him/her to Yourself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and transfers him/her into the Kingdom of the Son of Your love.

Father, I pray that _______________ will hear the truth from someone standing in Your presence. The Good News was hidden from _____________. Satan, the god of this world, made him/her blind, and he/she was unable to see the glorious light of the gospel. Now, I ask You, Lord of the harvest, to thrust the perfect laborer into _____________’s path to share Your gospel in a special way so that he/she will listen and understand it. As Your laborer ministers to him/her, I believe that he/she will come to his/her senses—come out of the snare of the devil who has held him/her captive—and make Jesus the Lord of his/her life.

Having prayed all that I know to pray, I submit to the Spirit, Who also helps me in my present limitations. I do not always know how to pray worthily, but Your Spirit within me is actually praying for me in those agonizing longings which cannot find words. Having done all to stand, I stand on Your Word, and Father, I shall praise You and thank You for ____________’s salvation. I commit this matter into Your hands, and with my faith I see _______________ saved and filled with Your Spirit, with a full and clear knowledge of Your Word.
Amen—so be it!*

* After you have prayed this prayer, thank the Lord for this person’s salvation. Rejoice and praise God for the victory! Confess the above prayer as done! Thank the Lord for sending the laborer. Thank Him that Satan is defeated. Hallelujah!

~Prayers that Avail Much