Today we are continuing with the parables of Jesus. It is just awesome how Jesus uses these powerful illustrations to communicate His truths.

Pastor Fred’s last two messages regarding the parable of the talents is going to tie in perfectly with the parable we are going to cover. Today we are going to examine the laborer’s and the great harvest. Pastor Fred taught us from God’s word that if we do not use our talents to further the kingdom of God then we are in some serious trouble.

What is a talent? I think this is important to understand before we move on. A Talent in Jesus’ day would represent a large sum of money. Something that is very valuable. The talents God gives to believers does not necessarily refer to some natural talent, skills or abilities in this parable. Both believers and non believers poses these types of resources. But the talents Jesus is speaking of refers to two main types of Spiritual Gifts. These gifts are speaking and serving. They are given by the Holy Spirit to all believers.

Speaking gifts would include prophecy, knowledge, wisdom, teaching, and exhortation while serving gifts would include leadership, helps, giving, mercy, faith, and discernment.

1 Peter 4:10-11 says:

10 As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
11 Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Two main points we need to understand, First every person who is a believer has been given a gift by the Holy Spirit and second we were given these gifts or gift for one reason, that God may be glorified!

This helps put in context what Jesus goes onto say about the slothful slave in the talents parable. Jesus said this to the slave who did nothing with his talent the following Matthew 25:26-30

26 “But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed.
27 ‘Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest.
28 ‘Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’
29 “For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.
30 “Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

What do we make of this story? There were three professing believers and two who demonstrated that they were filled with the Holy Spirit who used their gifts and multiplied them for the Glory of God. They had faith to use their talents. This last slave illustrates the faithless/fruitless person. He is unmasked as a hypocrite and is thrown into Hell.

If we love God we want to glorify Him. If we love God then we will want to obey His commandments. Jesus tells us in John 14:15-17
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, [6] to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

When we repent and believe God places the Holy Spirit within our hearts. It is through the power of the Holy Spirit that allows us to use our Spiritual Gifts.

As Pastor John took us through the book of Acts we saw how the Holy Spirit descended upon believers and gave them power to act according to His will. Jesus right before His ascension said the following to His followers when they asked Him if He was going to restore the kingdom in Acts 1:6-8

6 So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;
8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

Here we have Jesus telling us that when His Spirit comes down upon us we are going to have the power to be His witness. Not only in or local towns but across the country even to the remotest parts of the world. How does that work, what does that mean to us today?

Which brings us to the parable of the harvest.

Please open your Bibles to Luke 10:1-4 and lets read the parable of Jesus regarding the Harvest.

1 Now after this the Lord appointed seventy bothers, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come.
2 And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech(Therefore pray earnestly) the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
3 “Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.
4 “Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes; and greet no one on the way.

Is this passage so relevant today? We look around our society and see so many lost people. I cannot think of a time when there has been more lost people in the world. I guess the only other time was when Noah and his family entered the ark that there were only 6 righteous people. I see the harvest is huge but the laborers are so few!

This last weekend Pastor John explained that we are in church to learn about God, we are to learn to be followers of Christ in all that He commands us to do. Pastor John keep going back to the first chapter in Joshua and how we are to meditate on God’s word. How we are to keep His word in our hearts so that we can be strong and courageous and not turn to the left or the right but to do all that God commands us.

Pastor John is teaching how to be disciples and God has told us to go into the whole world and make more disciples. It is a command by God. Jesus in three of the four Gospels and in Acts tells us to go into the whole world and make disciples.

Matthew 28:19-20

19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Mark 16:15

15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

Luke 24:47

47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

There is no question that the body of Christ is to go into all the nations and proclaim the Gospel and make more disciples. That is clearly taught by scripture. Our desire as followers of Christ are to reach the lost and make more disciples. And as we are going to discuss there are incredible was that we can make this happen.

But before we get there I want to take a look at the paragraph before this parable. Jesus tells of three different individuals who desired to be disciples of Jesus but they were not fit for the Kingdom.

Please look back one chapter in Luke 9:57-62 and lets read about these wannabe disciples of Christ.

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.”
58 And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
59 And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”
60 But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”
61 Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.”
62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”


In Verse 57 the first wannabe disciple didn’t realize it was going to be a difficult road. No 5 star hotels, no beach side resorts but it is going to be difficult. Jesus says don’t follow me expecting that it is going to be comfortable. This is not about self-fulfillment. I am not going to guarantee you health, wealth or prosperity. I don’t have anything to give you in the material sense. And he is gone.

In verse 59 the man tells Jesus please first let me go bury my father. We know that his father was not dead yet but the man wanted to wait until his dad had died so he would be able to gain his inheritance. He then would follow Jesus being able to live the life he wanted. But Jesus said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead, but for you go and proclaim the kingdom of God everywhere.

And lastly in Verse 61 we have the wannabe tell the Lord, I will follow you but let me fist say goodbye to those at home. He wanted to make sure he has sorted out all his relationships and drawn out all of those things he needed for the future. And we know tho Lords response. No one after putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God.
Jesus is explaining to us that our hearts need to be in the right spot. It is going to cost us to follow Him to be a disciple of His. But as we continue we are going to see how Jesus rejoices over His disciples. It is awesome.

In verse 1 of Matthew 10 we see that Jesus sends them out in pairs. He does not expect us to be lone warriors out there but we are to hold one another up. We are to be in the body of Christ lifting and exhorting one another. If one of us fails or makes a mistake the other is there to lift us and and help us. I love this about Jesus. I am so thankful that we have brothers in Christ to encourage us in difficult times.

In Ecclesiastes 4:9

9 Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.
10 For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.

Then in verse 2 he tells us to pray to the Lord earnestly for the laborers because the harvest is huge. Why do we pray for the laborers because we know that the harvest is the end of the world. At the end of the harvest we know the wheat and tares are going to be separated. The wheat represents Christians and the tares are the children of the devil. The wheat is going to spend an eternity with God in heaven the tares are going to be bundled and burned in the lake of fire for all of eternity.

We know their are so many lost and we see the harvest is huge and to compound the problem there are not many laborers. We understand the massive issue at hand. How can you be content to do nothing? How can we be content to sit idly. Do you not see why we need to make disciples? They are heading towards the wrath of God. They are going to perish forever unless they hear the Truth. It is why we need to get out of these 4 walls and spread the truth of Christ. Just as he commands us we are to go to the ends of the earth no matter what it costs us to preach His word to those who are perishing.

Verse 2 also tells us to pray to pray that he will raise up more missionaries in the world. To send out more laborers. How hard is it just to get on our knees and pray for the messengers of God.

He then goes on to tell us we are going to be like lambs thrown into the midst of wolves. It is not going to be easy. You are going to be attacked, you are going to be persecuted, you may even be killed.

On top of that he says to to take no bags, no shoes, no money. Ok God you are telling us to go out and we are going to be thrown to the wolves, don’t take anything to defend ourselves. Take no money and what am I supposed to eat? What is God telling them? It is a life lesson we need to learn. I can trust God. I can believe in His promises if I am a true believer. If I am a disciple it is going to cost me something.

How many of you have seen the movie FireProof? I want to close today with a few facts about the making of that movie that I hope helps us understand what God is telling us in this parable. How being laborers in the harvest and using our talents to ultimately glorify God.

Two brothers Stephen and Alex Kendrick the began to pray for their next movie after Facing the Giants was hitting theaters.

After much prayer they decided to do a movie that would help struggling marriages be restored and to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. [Power of Prayer]

More than 1200 people from the community volunteered. 500 of those are church members
Local Albany fire departments and Hospitals allowed them to use their facilities. They had 16 locations that they shot from all for FREE! [God Provides]

In one scene they needed to place a wrecked car on the railroad tracks. No one thought how they were going to get the car on the tracks with over 200 people staring at the car not knowing what to do a man came out of his house who lived by the tracks and said I have a forklift. [God Provides]

Tragedy hit them with their lead camera man was killed in a car accident in Albany. The enemy had attacked them where it hurt but it drew them closer together.

The prayed, God provided their needs, the wolves attacked them but in the end they proclaimed the word of God.

2,000,000 Million people have heard the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. They have over 10,000 letters so far of people who have been saved.

Here we have a group of people who used their talents to further the kingdom of God. They trusted and this tiny little church in Georgia has fulfilled the great commission of our Lord Jesus. Go and spread the good news to the ends of the earth.

And here is how God responds in Luke 10:17-24

17 The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.”
18 And Jesus said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. (How AWESOME is that?)
19 “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.
20 “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.”
21 At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.
22 “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”
23 Turning to the disciples, He said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see,
24 for I say to you, that many prophets and kings wished to see the things which you see, and did not see them, and to hear the things which you hear, and did not hear them.”

Is God rejoicing for us? Are you using your talents to further His kingdom? Or are you hiding them?