LOOK ON THE FIELDS - ALREADY TO HARVEST

1. INTRODUCTION

· You have never looked in the eyes of any person who was not of value to God.

· 2 Pet. 3:9 God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

· The heart of God continually longs for people to come to Him and be saved.

· “Long suffering” (3114 Strongs) = to patiently endure, put up with much pain so as to accomplish purpose.

· God’s love perseveres and does not give up on people but “pursues” them.

2. “THE FIELDS ARE RIPE”

Jn. 4:31 - 38

· Content : The disciples had overlooked an opportunity to reach a person - already to harvest.

· Even though Jesus weary and tired - did not miss the opportunity to reach out.

a) What he did -

i) Showed attitude of acceptance, value

ii) Initiated interaction and response

iii) Aroused her interest

iv) Identified the key issue and left open for response

            Response:

i) Personal refreshing and strengthening, fulfillment (vs32)

ii) Reaped a harvest of souls             (vs 28,29,39-42)

b) Why the disciples missed the opportunity -

i) Prejudice - a negative attitude to woman, to Samaritans (v27)  “Marvelled” (2296 Strongs) to admire, wonder, be amazed.

ii) Priority - their focus was on getting food, meeting own needs (v8).

iii) Procrastination - putting off important work of Gospel to another day (v35).

· People are open and willing to talk about spiritual matters - not yet rejected Jesus.

· many don’t know that they are ready to be harvested - we think they are not.

· People are left in unsaved state until die and enter eternity of suffering.

c) “Already to harvest” (v35)

· Jesus has commanded us to do more than be a witness by our lifestyle.

· he has called us to be an active worker or labourer.

· Commission is for all Christians not just some.

            Mt. 4:19 Follow me - I will make you fishers of men (first command)

            Mk 16:15 Go Ye into all the World (last command).

· God desires all believers to locate those he has prepared and to harvest.

· Reality : - 10% share Gospel easily freely - 90% concerned but never share gospel claim they witness by their lives.

· Root Problems : Don’t think of purposefully reaching out to receptive, open people.

a) Fear - ignorance or past bad experience

b) Self centredness - lack of concern

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Characteristics

10% 90%

Gifted in evangelism                           Gifted in some other areas

Love to persuade convince                Say witness by life

Love to share testimony                     Uncomfortable talking about spiritual things

Love to confront with gospel and        Unwilling to confront or persuade

persuade

Focus on removing obstacles             Happy to talk - steer clear of controversial

to the gospel                                        subjects

Stirred by any outreach opportunity   Keep low profile - yes - but I could never do that

Regular success                                 One or two failures - not for me!

Want to persuade the 90% to be        Threatened by the 10% - not want to be

more aggressive                                 aggressive

Key Question

How can the 90% become involved in personal evangelism.

4. SIMPLE GOSPEL OUTLINE

Must first become familiar with what the Gospel is and what is involved in making a commitment to Christ.

1. Believe Jesus Christ died on the Cross for your sins, was buried and rose again (1 Cor. 15:3-4)

2. Admit you are a sinner (Ro. 3:23) - all have sinned

3. Agree to turn from sin to God (Act 26:20) - Repent, turn to God, do works

4. Acknowledge Jesus as Saviour and Lord (Ro. 10:9) - Confess with mouth, believe in heart.  God has raised Him from the dead.

5. Accept God’s free gift of Salvation (Eph. 2:8,9;  Jn.1:12).

5. A SIMPLE STRATEGY

1. Pray for opportunities to come - for Holy Spirit to draw people to you whose hearts are open and to help you be sensitive.

2. Initiate conversation and interaction.

3. Ask simple non-threatening questions that probe how ready person is rather than confronting or attempting to persuade.

· Ask permission - don’t push

· Look for honest answers to opinion questions

· Any no or resistance - terminate or change subject.

4. Recognise stalls and objections

· Stall = comment or question that diverts attention.  Redirect focus back to basics.

Responsibility - That’s an interesting comment

Responsibility - Don’t really know the answer to that

· Objection = genuine reason that keeps person from responding.

Responsibility - Offer to obtain information, change subject.

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QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

Do not attempt to answer all the questions.

1. Sharing Christ with Others

· What opportunities have arisen that gave you opportunity to share about Christ with an unsaved person?  Share how you got on.

· What was the most difficult aspect for you in speaking with an unsaved person about Christ?

· Do you know a simple outline of the Gospel that you could use?

· Could you lead a person through the sinner’s prayer and lead them to Christ?

2. Making use of the opportunity - Read John 4:6-29

· What was Jesus physical condition like as he waited by the well? (v6-8)

· Why do you think the woman came to draw water at the hottest part of the day when the rest of the village rested?

· What attitude did Jesus reveal towards the woman?

· Why was she so surprised by his initiating contact?

· How did he turn the conversation towards spiritual matters?

· When the woman’s interest in spiritual things were aroused how did he go about addressing the issue of personal sin and relationship failure?  (v16-18)

· Why did the woman try to divert the conversation away from her personal life and get onto another topic?  What topic did she raise?  (v20)

· How did Jesus bring the conversation around to the key issue? (v21-24)

· What stages of understanding about Jesus did the woman progress through?  (v9,19,29)

· What impact did Jesus Word of Knowledge have on her?  (compare vs 18,19,29)

· What place does the Holy Spirit have in the process of people coming to Christ?

a) In setting up the opportunity

b) In touching the person’s life

c) In bringing about conversion

· What impact did the woman’s conversion have on the city?  (v28,39-41)

· What does this story reveal about God’s attitude to broken rejected people?

· What does this reveal about the potential impact of one of your friends coming to Christ?

3. Priority of Evangelism

· Why were the disciples so surprised to see Jesus speaking to the Samaritan woman? (v27)

· Why do you think they missed the opportunity totally and walked past a broken person ready to be saved? (v8,9)

· Why did Jesus start talking to the disciples about meat? (v31-34)

· What were they preoccupied with?

· What spiritual activity did Jesus reveal was a source of great refreshing and strength to him?  (v34)

· What did Jesus command his disciples to do that would refocus their priorities? (v35)

· What 3 personal rewards did he reveal would come to people who made it their priority to harvest souls?

· How does this priority relate to the vision of our church?

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4. Personal Application

· Begin to pray individually and as a group on a regular basis for the Holy Spirit to set up encounters with people who are “white already to harvest”.

· Start to look out each day with expectancy for opportunities to initiate contact with people and discuss spiritual matters.

· Prepare a simple Gospel outline and commit the Scriptures to memory so that they can be shared easily and without feeling awkward.

· Practise in the group leading one another through the sinner’s prayer.

· Pray and plan a social event/outreach that you could invite unsaved friends to.