The Harvest is Plentiful But the Workers Are Few. What is God Calling You to Do?

This sermon was first preached at All Saints Church, Oakham on Sunday 18th June 2023.

Matthew 9:35-10:8

The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. What is God calling you to do? The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. What is God calling you to do?

Jesus is out telling people about the gospel, teaching, healing and caring for those in need. He then speaks to his disciples and tells them to look and see the needs of the world. How there is both a physical and material need but also a spiritual need for God in the lives of these people, in the lives of so many across the world who do not know God. He invites his disciples to ask God to send workers and labourers for the harvest. That is we are looking to God for the future mission and building up of his church.

We have been very fortunate at this time in our Oakham Team to see four people called for ordained ministry right now and are embarking on their training for going out into the harvest fields. This is wonderful and we thank God for these workers he has raised up and we continue to pray and support them in their ministries. But note that Jesus did not say God will send out priests or church leaders to the harvest. God says he will send workers, labourers. God will send people who are able and willing to do the work of the gospel.

Each of us works in some way, and so by that very definition, each of us is a worker able to be used by God to reach out to the harvest of the world with the gospel. And God calls the full breadth of people to be workers in the harvest fields.

Look at his calling of the 12 disciples. These were an eclectic group of people, people that wouldn’t have worked together or even liked each other. People from different walks of life. Fishermen, tax collectors, religious extremists and more. These people have different political beliefs, social customs, ethics and more. But each are called by name by Jesus to be workers in the harvest. Each brings their own story, their own background, and their own skills and experiences. And each is valued and has a use in God’s kingdom for the work of the harvest.

God calls people from all walks of life to be his disciples. Each of us here today are a disciple of Jesus, a follower of Jesus from our own walks of life. We know that we have differences amongst one another. But each of us receives this same calling by Jesus as his disciples to go out into the harvest. We know that each of us is different, and sometimes we can put ourselves down by thinking we can’t do what the other person can. But that doesn’t matter. Jesus calls each of us like he called the 12 for who we are. Peter wouldn’t have been able to do finances like Matthew, but Matthew wouldn’t have known how to sail like Peter. That is fine. It’s why God calls so many people, so that each of us can support one another in the work of the harvest. Collectively we cover all the skills and tasks needed for the harvest of the kingdom. Each of us has a unique part to play in the harvest.

Also, we don’t go alone. And we don’t go in our own strength, but we go with the strength and power of Jesus and his authority and presence.

‘Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.’ When Jesus calls the 12 disciples, he does not send them on their own to work in the harvest fields, instead he sends them with his power and authority that they will drive out demons and heal the sick in the power of Jesus’ authority over all things spiritual and physical. Because Jesus is God, when he tells his creation to be healed, it listens to God the creator. God is with us in the harvest. This world is his and anything the world throws at us God can handle because he made the world. We go out into the world and can face it because even if the challenges of the harvest are too much for us, they are never too much for God. So we can go out as workers in the harvest with full confidence in our work being supported and protected by God.

Where is God calling you to go? God is calling all his disciples to labour for the harvest. We are to go and see the people in need of God and bring God to them. We are to bring each of ourselves to our work. Peter was the fisherman who proclaimed the good news, Matthew was the tax collector who proclaimed the good news, and each of you are bring the good news as yourself. As Sarah, Mark, Elizabeth, Adam and each of your names and what you bring.

We go with God’s strength to do things we could never do. Speak words, give generously, help the stranger, a heart for those in need. How to comfort the broken. God sends us and sustains us.