Sleeping During the Harvest

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a farmer. Likely they would laugh if you told them I ever worked on a farm. I have no farming experience other than a garden my wife and I had at a previous house. Even though I have no such experience though I do know something about agriculture; you have to make sure everything is done right and on time. If you miss a step early on it will effect the harvest; if you miss the harvest all is lost. Timing is essential and the harvest is what makes it all worth while.

You may be asking now, what does this have to do with anything? Let me explain. Spiritually speaking we live on a field; God's field. We are all one of his plants, something or someone that he has invested seed into. We live our life and grow spiritually and may come to the point that we blossom and are ready to enter a whole new purpose in life. If that harvest doesn't come then we will never grasp that new purpose and will instead fall and rot. The same is true to the physical farmer's field; timing and harvest must be done properly.

God has given his followers the task of manning the fields and making sure all goes well in them; we have the responsibility of tending to the plants and assuring they are harvested. Sadly the vast majority of his followers have lost the commitment to their responsibility and are now curled up inside the farmhouse where it is warm and comfy instead of one the field where they should be. The greatest need in the world today is for Christ's followers to get out of the house and back on the field. The greatest disgrace in the world today is that Christ's followers have let Satan trick them into thinking the church if for those who already know Jesus instead of those who don't.

The video session below is part 1 of a series we began this past week and is designed to motivate you to get out of the farmhouse of comfort and get back onto the field. You may not want to watch this session but you need to! If you enjoy it and are moved please email me at pastor@millettbbc.org and let me know and then pass it along to another person who will be blessed by it.

Jesus' Freedom March.

Every church takes a different approach to Palm Sunday. I like to think of it as the Freedom March that lead way to a liberation movment of grace and forgiveness. As Jesus rode into town on the back of a colt it was far different than what the Israelites thought the Messiah would do, look like, think like, and act like, but it was exactly how God knew it would go all along.

Luke 19 records this freedom march. Grab your Bible and follow along.

Believe in Yourself; Jesus does.

When did you stop believing in yourself?

As followers of Christ we can sometimes be cinical of the way people always promote self confidence over faith in a "higher power". Humanism is the belief that power comes from within ones self and must be released for one to reach their full potential while faith in God teaches us to reach within ourselves to believe in Him rather than ourselves. If all of this has your head spinning in confusion don't worry, so is mine. However, last week a revelation was given to me in preparation for two youth services. Believing in Jesus is great but if you don't believe in yourself your faith in Jesus if useless.

In Matthew 14.22-33 the record is shared that Jesus is walking on the water with his followers were in a boat. One of the men, Peter, calls out and asks if he can join Jesus. Jesus says "yes" so Peter steps out of the boat and begins to talk on the water! He is actually walking on top of the water! Well... for a moment, then he starts to sink. Why does he sink? Because he starts to doubt. Jesus asks him, "Why did you doubt?" Stop here. If doubt caused Peter to sink, we have to ask our self, who or what did he doubt. Some would be quick to say, "He must have doubted Jesus" but that isn't true because he calls out for Jesus to save him. He doubted himself. He doubted that he could walk on water. He doubted what he could do when he was acting under the command of Jesus. We do the same thing.

Peter knew that Jesus had all power of heaven and earth and that Jesus was the Son of God; what he forgot was that that power had been given to him as well. Peter told himself, "I am man, man cannot walk on the water. I cannot walk on the water!" True. Man cannot walk on the water but man under power of God can. "I can do all thing through Christ who gives me strength." Philippians 4.13.

The next time you tell yourself that you can't do something remember that Jesus said you can. At the same time that we say we believe in Jesus, He is believing in us. As we are trusting Jesus, he is trusting us. Jesus trusts in you enough, and has enough confidence in you that he has trusted you with his love, his salvation, and his word that you can carry it to the world. He believes you can; it is time you start believing that you can too.

You Decide Who Goes to Heaven.

God has left you in charge of who will be in heaven! That is right, you get to decide who will go to heaven and who will not. This of course is based upon the truth that only people who have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior will be accepted into heaven (Romans 10.8-9, Ephesians 2.8-9, John 14.6). Recent studies show that 85% of the people who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior first heard of Jesus' saving grace through someone personally telling them about Jesus, inviting them to church, or witnessing with some kind of evangelistic medium. In lieu of this statistic, over 8 out 10 people in heaven are there because someone personally shared Jesus with them. The people who were bold enough to share Jesus with them were able to decide who went to heaven.

I personally organize and arrange over 20 outreach activities or events each year and encourage everyone to invite their friends and family members, even their enemies to these events. What I find is that people have no problem inviting someone to Cedar Point, but when it come to telling someone about Jesus they fall short of words and keep their mouth shut. In reality, how much more important is forgiveness unto heaven than a thrill filled day of roller coasters.

Mark 16.15 instructs us to tell people about Jesus, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ to everyone. We find it easier to tell someone that it costs $50 for a trip to Cedar Point than to tell someone that the cost of eternal life is death... thankfully Jesus paid that price already for us.

Think of it this way: If I told you, I have 10 free tickets to Disney land, all expense paid including travel, lodging, and food; and you can use them whenever you would like to, you would not wait to start calling people and asking if they wanted to go even though they could be used at any time. No, you would get on the phone asap. When I tell you, I have an unlimited number of tickets to heaven, you can take anyone with you, and you will go at any moment; we then tend to become lazy and not tell anyone about it.

Face it. You decide who will accept the forgiveness of God enter into eternity in heaven; and in turn you decide who will spend eternity in hell. Start praying today that you will have the courage to tell people about the free forgiveness through Jesus Christ.