Elevation with Steven Furtick - Think Like A Reaper

Episode Date: August 18, 2024

In “Think Like A Reaper,” Pastor Steven Furtick shows us how to think about the outcome while living in the fear, frustration, and fatigue of right now. You’ll be encouraged that God is with you in your hard place, and help is closer than you realize. To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here: www.elevationchurch.org/giving/ If you’ve just made a decision for Christ, please respond HERE: ele.vc/tIepfr Scripture References:John 4, verses 27-39Galatians 6, verses 8-9Psalm 126, verse 5See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. Just put in the chat right now if you're joining us on our eFAM, one thing that you thank God for today. And while you're at it, tell your neighbor here at Valentine. One thing you thank God for. University City, one thing you thank God for. And if you need a little love, prompt, tell them, I thank God for you.

You are the greatest person I sat next to in church all week. I thank God for you. Well, elevation nights is coming soon, everybody. Clap your hands and thank God. I haven't been announcing this like I should. I keep forgetting. It's weird because I get up here so excited to preach. I don't even look at the announcements.

But we will be September 24th. God willing through October the 3rd in Seattle, Washington, Vancouver, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Anaheim, Boise, Idaho, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Denver, Colorado. Go to Elevationnights.com for more information. We want to meet with you. We want to praise God with you. I want to preach to you. We want to celebrate the awesome things God has done and believe with you for all of the things

that he is going to do. It's going to be an amazing time. Speaking of an amazing time, many of our e-group leaders are expecting you to come over to their house this week. This is E-group Connect Weekend. They're getting ready. We should actually have a criteria for e-groups. If they have only healthy food, there should be a disclaimer at that e-group. I don't look at that as a benefit.

I look at that like a hazard. But I'm sure you can find an e-group that will really speak to your stage. of life and I would love for you to do that. That way that when you finish here in the sermon this week, you can take it like they said earlier and really apply it to your life and have help doing that. Tell your neighbor, you need some help sometimes. I don't mean to offend you, but you do. Sometimes. Sometimes the enemy comes to snatch the word of God and you need somebody else to help you keep it planted and to stay stable. So we've got people to help you. Let's just. Let's Just thank God for all our e-group leaders.

If you're leading the group, hey Holly and I want to thank you. Thank you for your partnership in the gospel. I hope you will avail yourself to that. And now, it's time. Preach. The Word of God. Your excitement level is amazing. I'm going to come back out again.

I'm going to just hit the reset button. Now it's time. Preach the Word of God. I'm excited to be sharing with you today from John chapter 4, verse 27 through 39. Please give your attention to this scripture. It's very powerful. The Bible says just then his disciples returned and we're surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked what do you want or why are you talking with her?

Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, Come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah? Look at your neighbors. Say, this could be the one. I'm not sure yet, but I'm curious. This could be the one. I'm not completely solid on it yet, but I'm suspicious.

This could be the one. And they, verse 30, came out of the town and made their way toward Him, toward Jesus. Now, meanwhile, his disciples urged him, Rabbi, eat something. But he said to them, I have food to eat that you know nothing about. There's a fine line sometimes in the scripture. I can't tell whether Jesus is training his disciples or trolling his disciples, because that's kind of of, you know, on the nose. Would you like to eat?

We brought some food. He said, I have food to eat that you know nothing about. But then listen to what he says next. This is a lesson all in itself. My food, said Jesus, is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. So the question becomes, what's your fuel? What fuels you to do what God has called you to do?

Is your fuel comparison because that's bad fuel? Is your fuel validation from others because that's bad fuel? Is your fuel feelings because that's unreliable fuel? Jesus said, my food, my fuel. See, most of us eat food for fuel. Jesus was fueled and that was his food. but he was fueled by an agenda that was set by his father. Are you?

Am I? My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Now pay attention. We're getting close to our main point for today. Don't you have a saying? It's still four months until harvest. I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields. Look at the fields.

They're full. They are ripe for harvest. Even now, the one who reaps draws a wage and harvest a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus, the saying, one sows and another reaps is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor. and many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Him, Jesus, because of that woman's testimony,

he told me everything I ever did. You know your testimony is a tool. You've got to put it back in God's hand. Don't let the devil have your past. Your testimony is a tool that God wants to use in your future. That's where your ministry is going to come from, from your misery. That's where your ability. to help put other people back together again is going to come from from the broken pieces that you

feel inside of you. So today I want to give you an important lesson. One of the things that God is teaching me, I think this can be so powerful if you will think with me. Think with me. Now, I want you to feel the presence of God today, but today I want you to think with me as well about this story, about your life, about what God is saying. Think with me. And I want you to think a very specific way. And this is the title of the message. I want you to think like a reaper. Think like a reaper. In this season of your life, it is important that you mature to the point that you think like a reaper. Not just an eater, not just where's my next meal, not just is it convenient right now, but tell your neighbor, it's time.

to think like a reaper. Not the grim reaper. I want to clarify. You might be getting spooked. It's not October. But think like a reaper. Father, I praise you for what you said to me. Help me to say it so clear that it can't be missed.

Give us the courage to obey. Speak, Lord. We're listening. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. I'd like you to write this down somewhere. feelings come. Let's write that down. I like to start somewhere that nobody can argue with. You start my sermon saying, you know, Jesus is the only true way to God, and he is the son of God, and he died for

your sins, and he rose again. You know, you may or may not believe that, and I believe that, but you may not believe that. So let me build a bridge, okay? This is what John 4 is about that. Jesus is the Messiah. But let me start with something that we all can agree with. Feelings come. And one of the things that happens in worship a lot of times when we come to church is that we will come to church, not even wanting to come. And then when we get in the atmosphere of God's presence, we are glad we came. And we're so glad that we didn't obey the way that we felt and let it keep us from what we were supposed to receive. And I feel this way every time that I do a physical workout, like a weightlifting thing or something like that, I never work out because of how I want to feel in that workout.

I meet psychopaths who do CrossFit. I'm not wired like that. They say they enjoy the actual workout. And I am getting more to that point, but actually what puts me in a workout is the way I want to feel after the workout. And that became a powerful journaling exercise for me. I call it reverse journaling. It's where before, instead of after your day, you usually go like, oh, well, I did this and I shouldn't have and I ate this and I shouldn't have and I went there and I shouldn't have and I said that and I shouldn't have and I do plenty of that. Trust me. But if you can reverse journal sometimes, which is a really good spiritual practice, it's like asking the question, how do I want to feel when this day is finished? And you ask it in the morning. And then you kind of like try to work toward that with your actions. Because if you just wake up and let the feelings just come,

They'll come, and sometimes the feelings come, and they catch you before you've even had your coffee. And this is a whole room of people who have not had their coffee today. I can tell. They put NyQuil in the communion cups out there in the lobby here today. But what I'm trying to say is feelings come. Watch this. But they don't come first. Now, that might be one of the most powerful things that I ever learned, and I'd like to break it down with you a little while today.

Say feelings come, but they don't come first. Say it again. Feelings come, write it in the chat. Feelings come, but they don't come first. And so the feeling of being tempted is never a sin. It is when the temptation takes the throne in your life and leads you to a place that you have no business being that the sin is committed. feelings of sadness do not negate the joy of the Lord.

But it's when I allow the feeling of sadness to become the primary soil in which my life is grown, that it becomes a problem. Feelings come, but they don't come first. And what I mean by that is, first of all, sometimes you have to do the thing and the feeling follows. Amen. Sometimes you have to lift your hands and the burden is lifted as your hands are. But if you wait for the burden to lift for your hands to follow, you may keep them in your pockets. You may never feel the freedom that you could have felt because feelings come, but they don't come first. All I'm trying to get you to see today is that God is very aware of the hard places. in your life. And the very clear thing that I heard God saying to me today to preach to you was

He will help you in the hard place Just encourage your neighbor. They need to hear it God will help you in the hard place Say it to your neighbor even if you don't believe it's true for you God will help you in the hard place And see when you said that to her you don't know what her hard place is, but you can be sure She has a hard place. No, she doesn't. She has plenty of money wasn't then she has plenty of taxes. God will help you in the hard place. Well, they have kids. They're not struggling with infertility. Fertility has its own set of problems. You never hear anybody say that, though. I'm struggling with fertility. But the truth of the matter is, whether you're struggling with

something that you can't have or something that you do have, the pressure is real for all of us. And the assuring word of the Lord is that God will help you in your hard place. God will help you in your hard place. The text that we read, I'm not sure if the section that I read got the point across that Jesus and his disciples were traveling through a hard place. We know that because verse 39 says, many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. And two things in this text I want to give you before we really get practical here is that

Samaria was a place that was very hostile to the Jews, and the woman had lived a very hard life and had been through several men. In fact, she'd been through five men, and she was currently in a situation with number six. Into the complexity of this situation, I'm cleaning it up and making it King James. There comes the presence. of purity, the presence of purpose, the presence of potential in the dirt of a place that they didn't want to be. Samaria was a place that was racially tense. Samaria was a place that was religiously polytheistic, not that they didn't each think they were right, they just worshipped in different places in different ways.

And so everything is against the disciples in Jesus in this text. And I think that's worth its own sermon, really I do. Because some of the things that God teaches us that go the deepest happen in the places that we did not choose to be. You don't really get to sign up for a class to learn the things that Christ wants to teach you. And I'll prove it to you right from the text. The disciples were, look at verse 27, surprised to see Jesus talking to a woman. Now, that lets me know if they were surprised that they did not get a syllabus. I got a son going back to college this week.

What's up, my boy? Some of the stuff that gets taught is not on the syllabus. And when we read discipleship, we think class, because that is our modern Western interpretation of learning. But God's version of learning usually looks like this. I am going to show you how strategic I was after you survive the surprise. So then what happens is life catches you off guard. Oh, whoa, hey, no, didn't even see that coming. Oh, hey, no, I didn't even see them coming. I definitely would have duck. I definitely wouldn't have answered if I knew that's what they wanted to talk to me about. You know people who bait you with the text? Like, hey, and that's all it says? I never

respond to that. I'm going to need more information. That is inconclusive data to give me. Surprise! He's talking to a woman. Surprise! He's sitting down having a chat. Surprise. She's somebody you don't like. She's a Samaritan. Surprise. See, they thought we went through Samaria because it was shorter geographically. The Bible says that Jesus took them through Samaria. Well, most Jews walked around Samaria so that they didn't have to deal with those people. And now Jesus is talking to one of those people. And not even one of those people, a woman, which was not very good PR strategy for a rabbi. And yet, I have learned in my life. Now, you can get this lesson at age 13, you can get it at age 31, or you can die not getting this lesson. But you'll find out one day

that God is often most strategic when you are most surprised. And that means that God will allow things to come into my life, even my day, or even my feelings that I did not expect. And what I have to learn how to do in those moments is what Galatian 6.9 says, please give me this verse. Galatian 69 says, let us not become weary in doing good. For at the proper time, or one version says, in due season, in due season, at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. But if your feelings come first, you give up while it's growing. If your feelings come first, if you cannot separate the feeling, you will never experience your due season, D-U-E season.

But this is the tricky thing. How do you do D-O in a season? what is due, D-U-E in another season, when the feelings don't come to support you. And you say to me, this has nothing to do with Jesus and the Samaritan. It has everything to do with Jesus and the Samaritan. It has everything to do with you and your kid. It has everything to do with the fear that you feel about your business. Because I think this passage speaks to every one of our fears,

every one of our frustration, and it speaks to something else that we're going to be. We should talk about the fatigue that we feel while we do what we do. And what is due doesn't come. What do you do when what is due doesn't come? And the Lord might have sent me to preach this message for myself. And if that's the case, I invite you to listen in. Because too many times in my life, I have thought only about what I am sewing in this moment and I lose consciousness of the harvest that awaits me if I don't give up.

And so it looks like this. Do not be deceived. Actually, go to verse 8. I think that would be good to Galatians chapter 6, verse 8, where the Bible says, Galatians 6.8, please. Whoever soes to please their flesh from the flesh will reap destruction. That's another way of saying, just doing what you feel.

So to the flesh. Whoever souls to please the spirit from the spirit will reap eternal life. And that's how we're trying to think now. We're trying to think about the lasting thing. We're trying to think about the eternal thing. We're trying to think

about the long-term thing. And we don't want to be so into our feelings that we only sew into what we feel like. I'm coming. I'm coming. It's going to take a minute, but we're going to get there. So it looks like this. I may want to eat the ice cream at 10 p.m. I don't want to feel the ice cream at 3 a.m. I don't want to see the ice cream. But if I am so into it, what I feel, then my feelings come first. Because rather than thinking like a reaper and thinking, well, if I eat the ice cream just tonight, that's fine. But if I eat the ice cream every night,

I mean, every night. Then I go back for a fourth scoop because I had a very stressful day and don't judge me about it. I won't like what I see, but I will like what I feel. And so I need you to start, okay, growing into a place in God. When you go to speak an unkind word, you can think like this. If I sow this unkind word, what will I reap in this relationship later? Because I'm going to tell you the truth. It's going to feel good to say it right now. It's going to feel good to go off right now. As a matter of fact, when the woman in the text was talking with Jesus, the part I didn't read you, she was so in her feelings, she went off on Jesus. Jesus said, give me a drink. She said, you don't have a bucket. And why are you talking

to me anyway? I'm a woman. You're a rabbi. I'm a Samaritan. You're a Jew. You don't have anything to do with me. No, I have everything to do with you. And what you do in this moment, where you feel offended, what you do in this moment where you feel weary will determine what you do in this moment will determine whether your due season is going to be full. of thorns and thistles or fruit in favor. I am not saying, by the way, that God's love is on the basis of our behavior. I am saying that the consequences are built into the system of humanity. So to think like a reaper is to watch this fancy term I came up with this week, to become con- I almost forgot it. See, that's what happens when you try to show off with big words.

conscious of the consequence, right? Conscious of the consequence. Pattern recognition. Every time I go down this road, every time I just, like, respond out of what I feel, every time I just continue to rehearse this thing that happened three weeks ago, every time I just let myself go there in my mind, every time I indulge in it, I hate where it takes me. And that's my conflict, because some of the things in my life, I love what they bring me,

but I hate where they take me. And if you'll be honest with it, there are certain vices, certain things, certain actions, certain states, certain relationships. Oh, don't let me preach a relationship seminar. I'll preach about the certain things that make you feel a certain way, but they take you a place. And what do you do when you love how they make you feel, but you hate where they make you go? Jesus is going somewhere. He's going through Samaria.

He's working on something. And just remind your neighbor in case they haven't felt God's presence lately or in case they're unclear about what God is doing in their life. Just tell him he's working on something right now. He's working. You need to be more convincing than that. Don't be mumbling that at them. say, say, Jesus is working on something. Come on, put it in the chat.

Jesus is working on something. Jesus is working on something. That's why the disciples were surprised, isn't it? Because when they left him, he was sitting on a well alone. They went to get food. And Jesus started talking to a woman. We call her the woman at the well. She's much more than that.

as I will show you in a moment. And so are you. Because where she was is not indicative of who she was. And what she had done was not indicative of who she could become. And when they left Jesus, he was sitting down. The Bible actually says he was resting because he was tired. He was resting because he was tired. And then so tired becomes the camouflage that he uses. to fulfill the purpose he came for. Because when they left to get food, a woman came to get water. And when the woman came to get water, ooh, I love it. Jesus started working on her.

He started asking her questions, can I get a drink? And she said, you don't have a bucket, and I'm not a Jew, and I'm not a man. And he said, well, if you knew who was talking to you, you'd ask, and I'd give you the drink. And she said, well, are you greater than our Father Jacob, who gave us this well? And Jesus is thinking, actually, I don't know. I really am. I'm like, Jacob, I made him, but let's don't get to that right now. He started to argue, we worship here, you worship there, you're like this, and I'm like

that, and all of a sudden Jesus cuts through all of that because he was thinking like a reaper. Now this is difficult for us because as we go through life, we only see seeds, and the seed looks nothing like what it's going to be. So what the disciples would have seen if they had been in this scene would have been the woman who had had five different husbands, the woman who was not worth Jesus' time, the woman who had made so many mistakes or had been through so many relationships, whether her fault or the other, that her broken heart would make a horrible place for a new beginning.

But Jesus thinks like a reaper. And a reaper begins with the end in mind. How many of you have had somebody in your life at some point who saw something in you you didn't see in yourself and you're grateful that they invested in you? How many people wish you could be that person that the person who believed in you saw? I told a buddy the other day, sometimes I'm sad because. I'm grieving the me that I thought I would be by now. I am grieving the absence of the patience that I thought I would have by now. I am grieving the let it go that I thought I would be able to access in stressful situations. And this woman is not necessarily looking for an encounter

with the living God, but she gets one because Jesus sees what she can be. There was a man that I met, you know, God brings different people along in our life in different seasons. By the way, don't ever think that just because people were seasonal in your life, that it makes them insignificant. One of the reasons it's so hard for us to resolve relationships when they end or when they change is because we assumed that the one who sowed into our life would be there when the reaping came. It's not always like that. I'll tell you an example.

When I was 16, of course, I had been in church. What did they say? The old preacher say? I had a drug problem. My mom drug me to church every Sunday morning, every Sunday night, every Wednesday night. Y'all heard that one before. But there was an older pastor, and I talked about him many times in this pulpit. And I call him older, but I guess the time I met him, he wasn't that much older than I am now. So it's kind of getting weird, but he is old now. But old is just one. where I haven't been yet. So he saw something in me and he let me be the FCA director, Fellowship of Christian Athletes

and also his youth pastor. His name is Mickey White. Pastor Mickey White ran an auto parts store in Monks Corner, South Carolina. He would disciple me on Tuesdays. And when I say he would disciple me, I'm not saying that he was like Jesus, but he helped me through my hard places. And one of the things about mentoring a 16 or 17 year old or whatever I was at the time, is that he had explained to me things that I should just know.

And by hiring somebody that was 17 to be a youth pastor, I remember we were doing one FCA banquet. This thought just came back to me for the first time in years while I was preparing. I went around. He took me around to all of his friends who were businessmen in Monk's Corner, and I was wanting to raise money so we could bring in really good speakers to preach the gospel at our FCA events. And so I would go around to his friends.

The first guy I sat down with, I said, I want to raise some money and this is my vision. And he pulled out his checkbook and started writing the check while I was talking. Because he was going to do it for Mickey anyway. He wasn't doing it for me. He's doing it for Mickey. And so he's writing the check. And I keep talking. And I'm like, and we could do this.

And we can do that. And I felt a hand on my leg, kind of squeezed my thigh. And it was Pastor Mickey. And so I just let him write the check. And I thanked him. I said, hey, why do you squeeze my leg? He said, when you've made the sale, shut up. He was writing the check.

It could only get worse from there. It can only stop riding. So stop talking. Good little thing. I always remember him saying that. Well, we were having our first one of those big nights that I'd raised the money for. Long story short, I know you want every detail, but just out of consideration for others who have lunch appointments.

I didn't get the doors unlocked in time and so the event was a complete disaster. because I had another thing and I had asked somebody else to unlock the doors. So at the end of the night, he pulls me aside. He doesn't grab my leg, but it looks like you're about to grab my throat. And he goes, what happened? What happened? You are the FCA president. What happened?

And I mentioned the name of the person who was supposed to unlock the door that didn't do it. He didn't even let me finish my sentence. When I said their name, he said, stop. You're the leader. The leader's job is to do it or get it done, and you didn't do either. Never forgot that. Up until that point in my life, I had just thought like a teenager. And a teenager doesn't even do it if it's a task.

He was trying to skip me all the way from teenager to leader, trying to tell me, not only is it just do the task, just check it off, but it is actually making sure that the outcome happens because he was trying to get me to think like a reaper, a leader, thinks like a reaper. See, if you just go through life and you go, oh, I did that, I tried that, I said that, I did it, you're still only a sower. But to grow up is to say, not only am I responsible for the task, but I am. am going to be responsible for the outcome. Now, the good news about it is this. Tell somebody think like a reaper. The good news is this. Everywhere God sends you, he's already been there. Everywhere somebody needs to hear that, because you're going into a situation that's like a

Samaria to you. You're going into a situation that's a hard place for you, that's a hazardous place for you, that might be a hostile environment for you. But notice when the disciples got back, Jesus was already talking to the woman. And in fact, by the time they got back to Jesus, she was already on her way back to the town. And she didn't even get the water that she came for. She left her jar and went to town. Now, let's contrast the two. You've got a woman who Jesus wasn't even technically supposed to be talking to. You've got a woman who Jesus wasn't even technically supposed to be talking to. You've got a woman who has had a salacious past. You have a woman who is only known and identified by what she's been through. And then you have the disciples, the ones that Jesus is using, his leaders who are going to take

the church and really move it forward and all this wonderful stuff that they're going to do as leaders. And the woman, she goes back to town and starts telling men about a man that she met. The disciples come to the man that she just met and say, hey, you want to eat something? And this is what got me. While they were thinking about a meal, she was already thinking about a harvest. It didn't take long for her mentality to shift. And all of a sudden she saw herself differently. And all of a sudden, I imagine in that flash, she thought, wait a minute, I'm talking.

to the Messiah. I am talking to possibly the one who can save me. And the first thing she thought about it, the first thing she thought about it was, I've got to go back to town and get the men and bring them to this man. The disciples come back. The first thing they think is, we've got to eat. And it makes me wonder, who's the real disciple in this passage? makes me wonder, did the ones who had been with him so much take him for granted, but the one that had just met him saw the potential of what he could do? Because it's amazing that they're just thinking about eating, and she's thinking about reaping. You say the Bible doesn't say that she reaped. It implies it. When she came back from the town with the men, Jesus started preaching.

He said, open your eyes and look. The fields are already white unto harvest. Then he goes into a saying. Now, this saying isn't something we say, but it's something that they said. He said, thus the saying, one sows and another reaps is true. Like Pastor Mickey said, it's a leader's job to do it or get it done. I never forgot that saying. Certain things that my family used to say when I was growing up, they terrified me once I understood what they meant. My dad used to always see somebody that he

thought was kind of snobby, and he would say, I wish I could buy them for what they're worth and sell them for what they think they're worth. And as a little boy, I always heard him say that. And one day, right when I hit puberty, I realized what he was saying. I was like, dang, that is crazy what he just said. I wish I could buy them for what they're worth and sell them for what they think they were. My dad was such a menace, and I didn't even know it at the time. And then some of the stuff is just cuter, little sayings that we get, right? Little things that we say, little things that work and weave their way into our vocabulary. As Southerners have all kinds of sayings, right? I met a guy one time. He was so Southern,

even I didn't know his sayings. And that takes a lot, because I've heard a lot of Southern sayings through the years, and I feel like I'm a pretty good interpreter of my own language. But I remember this guy named Brian that I met one time from Louisiana, and when we were getting ready to go somewhere, he used to say, if you're waiting on me, you're backing up. And I said, say that again. And so he would just say it slower, but even after he said it slower, I still didn't know what that meant. You know what I'm saying? It takes one to no one. It's just a saying, right?

Right? This was a saying that they had. Put it back up, verse 37, because this really got my attention. Jesus is talking to this woman. He's working in her heart. She has had a hard life, and this is a hard place. And Jesus is trying to show his disciples something. I believe he's trying to show us, thus the saying, one soes and another reaps is true. It was a saying they had, and Jesus said, is true. that sometimes life isn't fair. Think about it. One soes and another reaps.

Like, sometimes you do all the work and they get all the credit. Sometimes you build it and you don't even get to enjoy it. Sometimes you put all the love into the relationship and then they end up with somebody else. Sometimes you put all the investment into making the thing good. And then you feel like when it finally starts hitting, you get shut out of it. One sows and another reaps. Be honest, have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt like you put more in than you got out?

Have you ever felt like you were the only one who seemed to care about it? Because you're the only one who did it? But everybody else enjoyed the benefits of what you did. Now, I'm not saying I've ever felt this way about y'all. But even as a preacher, you see how easy it could be to have a resentment about, oh, my goodness, I worked so hard on this message, and I don't even know if they care. So what I could think about that is, watch this. I guess I'm the only one who loves God's Word.

Because the enemy would love to say that to me. Just like if you were a volunteer, there will be e-group leaders in this church that will sign up to lead an e-group and no one will come. And it will be easy for them to think, well, I was willing, I was trying, I gave it all I had, and it didn't work. There will be people in this room today who will really give all of yourself to something, only to find that the people who you did it for don't even say thank you. Wonder if God ever feels that way about us, by the way.

I'm just asking. So Jesus, you have a sand. One sows and another reaps. And at this point, the disciples are probably feeling like, yeah, that's us. We're the sewers. We're the disciples. We're the ones working hard. We're the ones out here in Samaria following you, Jesus. But isn't the irony in the fact that the woman was the one reaping and they were just eating? Isn't the irony in the fact that the ones who should have been reaping, were only focused on their next meal, and the one that Jesus shouldn't have even been talking to was going back to the town to share her testimony. And here's what I'm saying to you. You might be surprised who God uses. You might be surprised how he uses you. You might be surprised what he uses in your life. Because the fact of the matter is, when God is using you, you don't always feel it. You don't. The feeling comes. But it doesn't come first.

You have to obey Jesus when you see no evidence that your obedience is yielding anything. You have to instill in your kids certain values that you can only hope you are going to envision later in their life. But the disciples are the sowers, right? No. Jesus said, and this blew my mind. Holly, this blew my mind. He said, the saying is true. One sows and another reaps.

That's how it works, right? She's like, yeah, that's how it works. One sows another reed. Look at verse 38. He gives it a twist. I sent you to reap what you haven't worked for. Wait a minute. No, no, no, Jesus.

We're the sowers. They're the reapers. Jesus says, not really. You always see yourself as a sower, but you never even realize how much you're already reaping. Put it back up. I sent you to reap, come on, what you have not worked for.

Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor, which makes me think that maybe you've been reaping and you don't even realize it. Maybe you've been reaping, and, you know, the enemy has got you so focused. on how hard it is to sew, how hard it is to show up, how hard it is to dig in, how hard it is to be you. Wave at me if it's hard to be you. Yeah, it's hard to be you. How hard it is to be you. But if the enemy can only get you to focus on how hard it is, or here's another one, if he can get you to focus on how hurt you are. Y'all, I am sick and tired of people only talking about church hurt because it's a ridiculous distinction to call it church hurt. It's human hurt. People hurt. People hurt people. If you quit going to church, it wasn't because church hurt you. It's because you allowed the hurt to become greater than the harvest. This is what I want to preach. This is what I want to preach. I've been preaching so many verses to get to this one. Tell somebody, so next to you, say, oh, you've been reaping.

You just haven't realized it yet. Tell them, oh, God's been good to you. You just haven't realized it yet. Now look at them and say, oh, you have help. You just haven't called for it yet. Now take about 13 seconds if you know Jesus is my help. I'm not letting this go. Y'all might sit on me all day, but I'm not going down without a fight today. Because God sent me on assignment to tell somebody that you have been so focused on how hard it is, so focused on how hurt you are, that you have become blind to how much help you actually have.

That's why the Bible says, praise the Lord, oh my soul. And all that is within me, bless His Holy Name. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. And Chris referenced it when he was leading worship, and I took it as a confirmation when he said it, and forget not all his benefits. Let me give you a list. Who forgives all your sins. You didn't earn that. You reap that. I said you didn't earn that. You reap that.

I couldn't earn forgiveness. The chasm was too wide. The cap was too great. My sin was too bleak. My shame was too great. But Jesus was greater who heals all your diseases. Yeah, I feel it now. I feel it now.

Why is the only time that we thank God for our health when we need to be healed? Why am I not thanking God for the stuff that feels good right now? Look at that. Look what I can do. That's a big deal. You say, Pastor, did you have a shoulder surgery that you came through and now you're really grateful? No, I'm praising them for the surgery that I didn't have to have. Find somebody say the harvest is here.

I don't get left out. You can get it on this too. It's already here. The disciples are thinking about food and they mean well, but they are missing the mission over a meal. I said they're missing the mission over a meal. Don't let what you didn't get keep you from praising God for what you have. And wherever he is sending you, please believe he's already been there. Because he's the sower.

I'm the reaper. He gave his life so I could live mine. He is the breath. I am the sails. He is the vine. I am the branch. I'm trying to get you to say, out loud, I'm reaping this. This life that I have is a gift. This opportunity that I have

is a gift. This moment that I have is a gift. This breath that I have is a gift. Breathe out his and if you were the devil. I'm not saying you are. I'm sure you're an angel. But if you were the devil, if you were, if you were, tell your neighbor, if you were, wouldn't you want to keep you from reaping? because you've already cried. You've already cried. You've already shed tears over it. You've already been through the pain of it. Why would you cry over the seed and then not reap the harvest when it came?

In Psalm 126, one of my favorite things that the psalmist said was that they that so in tears will want. What? Reap with songs of joy. Are you so in your tears that you cannot even reap what you cried for? And it's here? The harvest is always here. I was talking to my mom about something she went through in her past, and I was ministering this message to her because she couldn't be here today.

Now, I can't do that for everybody, but I can do it for my mom. When she's not in church, I'll call her and give it to her personal. And she said that when I told her, I know it's hard because of some of the things she's been through in her past, and I know it hurts and it didn't stop hurting, but God is with you in your hard place and you have more help than you have hurt. She said, thank you for telling me that, because I get bitter sometimes, because I start thinking, well, where was my help when I went through the abuse? Where was my help when my husband?

was dying of ALS. Where was my help? But I realized that the answer is always, John 4, 36. Open your eyes and look, the harvest is here. I believe this 35. I messed that up. That was a good moment, too, and I really ruined it. Open your eyes. And look at the fields. Wait a minute. The fields, Jesus. We're trying to get you to eat a meal. Eat, Jesus, eat. The Samaritan woman, we'll deal with her. No, no, no. I've already dealt with her. She's bringing me a harvest. Now watch this. This is mind-blowing. I love the Bible, y'all. Can I preach the Bible to y'all for like the next 50 years? I mean, I'm just want to stand on this thing. Because the tears in the passage belong to the woman who had been through so much. And the opportunity belongs to the disciples.

And Jesus said, open your eyes, verse please, and look to the fields they are ripe for harvest. Yeah, Jesus, but we're not ready for the harvest. Just because you're not ready doesn't mean it's not ripe. And if you will open your eyes, your eyes, that's the first tool you need is your eyes. moment that they opened their eyes, let's pretend to be the disciples, they open their eyes, Jesus is talking about a harvest and coming their way are the Samaritans that they hated. What do you do when your harvest comes looking like something that you hate? This will be the test in this season of your life.

Will you think like a reaper to say that even the regret, we all have regrets. This woman had regrets. I'm sure she regretted every man that she said yes to that had left her. But through the power of faith, you can reach into a regret and reap a lesson. So I'm harvesting this. It's hard for me right now, but I'm harvesting this because those who sow with tears will reap with joy. And I came to call somebody today who the devil has been reminding you of every reason

that you have to feel bad about yourself, every reason that you have to feel resentful about your life, every reason that you have to give up and throw in the towel and quit and duck and hide under the covers and not call anybody back till next Thursday and delete your hope for the future. But God said to remind you, you have a reason to rejoice because those who so in tears, you got it? You got it? We'll reap with joy and you, my friend, are one thought away from joy. And many in that town believed in Jesus because of what that woman went through. I wonder what God wants to do through what you went through.

I'm going to blow your mind. God blew my mind. If he had sent the disciples into the town, the men wouldn't have come back with him. We had to have been with men in order to bring men. I'm not telling you to go live a sinful life so you can build a bigger testimony. But I am saying, watch this. Nothing will be wasted. Nothing will be wasted.

Nothing will be wasted. Nothing will be wasted. I'm reaping this. Nothing will be wasted. Tell your neighbor, nothing will be wasted. Nothing. Not a break-up, not a bad turn, not a left turn, not a bad day, not a wrong thing. I'm thinking like a reaper now.

I am seeing that God is transforming through my tears, and feelings don't come first. Faith does. So we're going to do something that is going to absolutely confuse the enemy. In just about 12 seconds, we are going to absolutely rejoice because we're reapers, and reapers reap with joy, and we have been crying with tears of anxiety and crying with tears of regret and crying with tears of pain and unhealed trauma. But we are going to confuse the enemy in just about three seconds, because we're going to start rejoicing.

When I think of all you die, when I think of all you go. I'm reaping where I didn't sow. I'm standing in what I didn't deserve. I'm breathing breath that sparrows. I'm going to need every reaper to get your hands up like this. Come on, let's receive, let's receive. And then let's turn it to praise. Come on, when I think of them.

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