Think Like A Reaper

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 your 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 EVAAN, 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 prompt tell them I thank God for you. You are the greatest person I sat next to in church.

Ah 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.

It will be September twenty fourth, God willing through October third in Seattle, Washington, Vancouver, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Anaheim, Boise, Idaho, Salt Lake City, Utah and Denver, Colorado. Go to Elevation Nights dot 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.

This is E Group connect weekend.

They're getting ready all the We should actually have a criteria for eGroups. If they have only healthy food, there should be a disclaimer at that 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.

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 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 thank God for all our eager 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 gonna come back out again. I'm gonna sit the reset button.

Now it's time to preach the word of God.

I'm excited to be sharing with you today from John chapter four, verse twenty seven through thirty nine.

Please give your attention to this scripture is 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.

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 came out of the town and made their way toward him, towards 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 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 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? Is 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 away and harvest the 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

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.

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 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.

Not the grim reaper.

I want to clarify you might begin in Spook 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, and give us the courage to obey. Speak Lord, we're listening in Jesus' name. Amen, you may be seated. I 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 sermons 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 buil a little bridge. Okay, this is what John four is about, that Jesus is the Messiah. But let me start with something that we

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 could tell they put niquill 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.

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, then she has plenty of taxes. God will help you in the hard place. You know well, they have kids. They're not struggling with infertility. Fertility has its own set of problems.

You never hear him.

I say that 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 thirty nine 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

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 worshiped in different places in different ways. And so everything is against the Disciples and Jesus in this text.

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 twenty seven, surprise 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 survived the surprise. So then what happens is life catches

You know, people who bait you.

With the text like hey, and that's all it says. I never responded that I'm gonna 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 thirteen.

You can get it at age thirty one, 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 Galatians six ' nine says, Please give me this verse.

Galician six ' nine says, let us not.

Become weary in doing good or 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 the tricky thing.

How do you do d O in a season what is due d ue in another season when the feelings don't come to support you and you say to me, this has nothing to do with you, 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

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 good verse good to verse eight.

I think that'd be good to Galatians chapter six, verse eight, where the Bible says Galician six eight, Please, whoever sows 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 sows 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 gonna take a minute, but we're gonna get there. So it looks like this.

I may want to eat the ice cream at ten pm, I don't want to feel the ice cream at three am, I don't want to see the ice cream. But if I am so into what I feel, then my feelings come first, because rather than thinking like a reefer 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 when you go.

To speak an unkind word, you can think this, if I sew this unkind word, what will I reap in this relationship later, because I'm gonna tell you the truth. It's gonna feel good to say it right now. It's gonna 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.

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.

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.

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 some area, 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 them 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 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, oh, 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.

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's 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 is so hard for us to resolve relationships when they end or when they change is because we assumed that the one who sewed into our life would be there when the reaping came.

It's not always like that. I tell you an example.

When I was sixteen, of course, I had been in church. What they say, the old preacher say, I had a drug problem. My mom drugged 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've 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 you know, old is just where I haven't been yet. So he saw something in me and he let me be the FCA director of Fellowship of Christian Athletes and also his youth pastor.

His name is Mickey White, Pastor Mickey White.

Mickey White ran an autoparts 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 sixteen or seventeen 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 seventeen 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.

For Mickey anyway, he wasn't doing it for me. He's doing it for Mickey.

And so he's writing a 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 you squeeze my leg? He said, when you've made the sales, shut up. He was writing a check. It could only get worse from there. It can only stop writing, So stop talking, good little thing.

Time, and so that 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 SCA 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 is cann 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, try and 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 reaper. A leader thinks like a reaper. See if you just go through life and you go, oh, well I did that. I tried that, I said that I did it. You're still only a sewer.

But to grow up is to say, not only am I responsible for the task, but I 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 even 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 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

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, 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 onto harvest.

And then he goes into a saying.

Now this saying isn't something we say, but it's something that they said. He said, that's the saying one sows and another reaps. It's true, like Pastor Mickey said, it's a leader's job to do it or get it done. I never forgot that say it. Certain things that my family used to say when I was growing up, they

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

This was a saying that they had.

Put it back up verse thirty seven 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 us disciples something.

I believe he's trying to show us. Thus, the saying one sows 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 sows 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

Because the enemy would love to say that to me.

Just like if you were a volunteer, there will be eager for in this church that will sign up to lead an e group, and the 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 don Jesus, you have a.

Sand one sows in 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 now, 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, so's another reap. Look at verse thirty eight. He gives it a twist.

I sent you to read 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 sewer, but you never even realize how much you're already reaping.

Put it back up. I sent you to read. 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 much many verses to get to this one. Tell somebody said 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 him and say, oh, you have help, you just.

Haven't called for it yet.

Now take about thirteen seconds if you know Jesus is my help.

I'm not letting this go. You 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.

On my soul and all all.

That is within me, bless his holy name.

Praise the Lord o 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 gap was too great, My sin was too bleek, 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 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 you No, I'm praising them for the surgery that I didn't have to have.

What I thought?

Somebody say, the harvest is here, the harvest. Come on this, son, don't feel left off. You can get in on this too.

The harvest, it's already here.

So 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 sales. 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. Breed out his praise. 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?

Why would you cry over the seed and then not reap the harvest when it came.

It's I went twenty six.

One of my favorite things that Thesauma said was that they that sow.

In tears will what.

Read with songs of joy? Are you so in your tears that you cannot even reap what you cried for?

And it's here the herv this is always here.

I was talking to my mom about some things 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,

Open your eyes and look, the harvest is here. I believe this thirty five. I messed that up. That's 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 this 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 fifty years? I mean, I'm just want to stand on this thing.

Because the tears in the passage belonged 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. The 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 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

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 sow in tears you got it, you got it, will read 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 gonna blow your mind. I'm gonna blow your mind. God blew my mind.

If he had sent the disciples into the town, the men wouldn't have come back with them.

She 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, nothing will be wasted.

I'm reaping this. Nothing will be wasted. Tell your neighbor. Nothing will be wasted.

Nothing, nothing, not a breakup, not a bad turn, not a left turn, not a bad day, not a wrong nothing that you'll been through. I'm thinking like a reefer now I am seeing that God is transforming through my tears.

And feelings don't come first, Faith does.

So we're gonna do something that is going to absolutely confuse the enemy in.

Just about twelve seconds.

We are going to absolutely rejoice because we're reefers, and reefers 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 gonna start rejoicing.

Because we're reaper. Give me my joy back. Get me up. I'm a wicked when I think of all you go.

When I think of volume, when I think I'm reaping where I didn't sew I never seen.

I'm standing in what I didn't deserve.

I think I'm breathing breath that's borrows.

I'm gonna need every reaper to get your hands something like that. Hold on, let's receive, let's receive seed, and then let's turn it the plain.

Come on. When I think, thank thank you for joining us special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.

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