SAINT
Vision Sunday: The Harvest Is Plentiful - Al Gordon
(upbeat music) - Welcome to the same podcast. Thanks for joining us. Our vision is to bring hope to the people of East London. And I'm praying that you would feel so encouraged by this week's talk. (upbeat music) - It's welcome. It's so great to see you. Welcome to your visiting. Or you're here for the first time this Sunday morning. Today is our vision Sunday. We do this twice a year. Where we look at the vision of the church, where we're heading as a community. And I love vision Sunday because it is a moment where we just see God do incredible things, mobilizing people, stirring our faith, outpouring of generosity, all the fun things. And so I'm excited about today, we're praying that God will move powerfully. And I want to just begin by drawing your attention to a couple of updates. Firstly, on your way in, you will have been given a vision Sunday update. I'd love you to get that and just have a little look. By the way, you can take this away with you. You can use it as a fan if it's too hot. If you're bored, you can just read it at any point. If the person next to you is being annoying, roll it up and poke them with it. It's quite sharp. And just generally, take it with you and pray. But I'd love to draw your attention to a couple of things. Firstly, if you open it up, if everyone's got one, have a little look inside. The statistics, the numbers, the numbers give you a picture that is indicative of people. We don't care about numbers. We do care about people. And these numbers are really encouraging. You'll see that the church is growing. You'll see that 338 people made commitments to follow Jesus in the last year. Isn't that amazing? You'll see that there are over 13,000 volunteer hours or 132,000 people who stepped through the front door of the church to come to gigs or Sunday services in the past year. You'll also, on the right-hand side, see 26,000 hours of prayer. 300, 400, 438, exactly, regular givers. 492 people in the cruise. Lots of encouragement. But also on the right-hand side, you'll see in the small print, the cruise we have and the gaps we have as the church grows, that we're praying God will fill today. You might be the answer to that prayer. And then if you turn to the white sheet, you'll see that the financial snapshot. Twice a year, we lay the need of the church in front of the church. Now, if you're a visitor today, please rest assured we don't do this every Sunday. But twice a year, 'cause we're a family, we kind of have a family meeting. And this is a family meeting. We're looking at the budget and we're heading in the next six months to a year. So you'll see the projected expenditure for the community across St is 2.7 million. And the projected income currently is just under 2.5 million, 2.481. And that means that today, we have an opportunity to give towards the vision between now and the end of the year. And that's not unusual. We don't, we always say that it reserves the congregation, it reserves the church in the pockets of the congregation. So you and I get to play our partners. And it might be today you respond by saying, well, you know, I'm gonna pray about how I might give or I might give my life to Jesus. That's great. No one's under any compulsion to give, as we'll see. Each of us should give as we can as the Lord leads us. But it might be you say, well, actually, I can help with the 60 pounds or 300 pounds, or the 200,000 pounds. It doesn't really matter. God will work out the maths. And that's the great venture involvement. It's not fundraising. This isn't our kind of drive to fundraise. We just say, Lord, here are the needs. We ask that you provide them according to your riches in Christ Jesus. And so we're praying, I'd love you to pray as I speak, that God would move our hearts, that we might play our part in that. And our vision as a community is real simple. We are here to bring hope to the people of East London. We've been doing it for hundreds of years. And as we look to the future, our goal, our dream is that every person in this neighborhood, in this city, in this generation would experience hope in Jesus. And to give you a little snapshot of what God has been doing if you're new and maybe you haven't been around that long, the story hasn't always been like this. You know, I remember the 11 o'clock service when there was 30 people here. And the first time I led a service here, it was raining outside and it was raining inside because the roof leaked. And I stood about here in an altar table in my robes as I do at 10 o'clock in the morning each week. And the rain dripped in through the ceiling down the back of my neck. And if I moved to the left, I thought I'd be safe and there was more rain there. I moved to the right, there was rain there. It hasn't always been like this. What you see today has been the fruit of prayer, of hard work, of faith and of your generosity over the years. And the reason we're doing this is we wanna bring hope to the people of East London. 99% of people outside of our doors do not know Jesus yet. We're living in the most secular generation recorded ever in this part of the world. And our job in this moment is to say, "Lord, would you use us to play our part in bringing hope?" And that's what we've been doing these past years. So have a little look at the last recent chapter of this community. The same story so far, have a look at this. (audience applauding) I didn't grow up with a faith. In fact, my life was a mess. My parents had got divorced when I was six. I came from a broken home. I was broken. I got involved in all sorts of stuff as a teenager, like millions of young people today. I was involved in drugs. Age 16, I had found myself in a police prison cell for being arrested in possession. And my life was heading in a direction where I would have been stuck in a cycle of addiction, despair. Despite my background, I was heading straight towards a life of utter loneliness. And just before my 18th birthday, a friend said to me, "Well, you know what? You should try Jesus." I thought she was mad, but I thought, "Well, I'll give everything a go, so let me try that." I prayed, and Jesus walked into my room. Filled my heart, changed my life, led me out of the prison that I was in. And I haven't looked back ever since. My life has been completely transformed by Jesus. Maybe you've grown up in church. You've never known a time when he wasn't leading you out of a prison. Maybe you're here today and you don't yet know him. Well, let me tell you, he's alive. He's on the move. And he wants to help you walk with him into the future. He's calling you to. There are millions of people like me and you and I. Outside the doors of the church today, 99% of people won't have any contact with their local Anglican parish church. What was 99% of people coming to church a few hundred years ago is dwindled to a point where it's hardly a statistic anymore. People walking past this church on a Sunday morning, no idea that there's a God who wants to lead them out of the prison of addiction or despair is a community, a family, where they can experience hope. My story is not different to so many. We're living in a moment where we look around the nation, the city, the neighborhoods and we see a nation in need of Jesus. We look at the race riots over the summer. What does that tell us? Look at the murders on our streets even ten days ago and the Kingsmen of state in this parish here, man murdered in broad daylight. What does it tell us? It tells us that there is a desperate need for people to experience the love of Jesus that will set them free. And that's why we are here. You may have thought you came to church because, well, you know, there's a nice thing to do on a Sunday morning and there's kids' work and coffee and I heard there's going to be lunch afterwards. That's not why we're here. You're the answer to Jesus' prayer. He's been praying that you would be here because while the need is great, in this moment, the harvest is plentiful. Something is happening. We've been praying for years. You know, I shared at least twice a year about the vision of the church and say, well, you know, we want to bring hope and we go on and we keep going. We keep going. We have crews and teams and worship crew and production crew and we serve and we help the kids and we pray and we gather and we've been praying for one particular thing. God, would your kingdom come here in Hackney in Homerton, shortage, West Ham, Layton, across the city here as in heaven that a generation would come to know you, that we'd see an awakening in our time. And over the last year, something's begun to change. I put it like this. Gerald Manning Hopkins, very famous poet, talks about the great sea of faith retreating. Well, it seems the tide is its lowest air, and I believe we're beginning to see the changing of the tide, the turning of the tide. Just the first signs of the water beginning to rise everywhere. Let me give you some examples. Finland just found some data in their centers that they can't explain an unexpected spike in young men seeking Jesus, attending church. They're like, this shouldn't be happening. It's a very secular nation. But suddenly young men are turning up at churches saying, how can I be safe? France, one of the most secular nations on the planet, found that over Easter, they were overwhelmed by people. Young people wanted to get baptized. They can't explain it. 12,000 people alone baptized Easter weekend, record-breaking. Well, take the Olympics. You notice that the Olympics, it was just me, but everywhere you looked, there were Christians sort of saying, hey, I may be a Brazilian surfer, but Jesus is Lord. It's a Brazilian hurtler, but none of this matters. Jesus is what saves me. Oh, Adam Petey, probably our greatest swimmer in the pool right now, three times Olympic champion, interviewed by the BBC at the end of the pool, tripping, and we were ordering medals around his neck, and he's had a journey, and he said this. He said, winning gold isn't what defines me. My faith is faith in Jesus. My faith gives me peace and perspective beyond my success in the pool. Is Glastonbury, was anyone at Glastonbury? Yeah. (Laughter) I watched on my player. (Laughter) Sunday night, I got home from church. I think it was something like Coldplay's set. Brilliant. Great show if you want to go and watch it. And they close out that kind of high point of Glastonbury this year with their new song. They've released with Burnaboy. Do we have any Nigerians here? Burnaboy, Nigeria's favorite son. Burnaboy actually came to a gig here. I stood in the balcony, except with a show. That's another story for another day. Burnaboy, if you're Nigerian, he's kind of like pretty big, right? Chris Martin, if you're from London, is not as big as Burnaboy. I told the 10 o'clock service by mistake that Burnaboy's from Ghana, and I got heckled, so forgive me, forgive me. Burnaboy, if you're listening, forgive me. But what is Coldplay and Burnaboy's latest single one? What are they singing about? What do they close out Glastonbury with? Do you know what it's called? Pray. Based on Psalm 23, a hymn, a call to intercessory prayer in God, and hundreds of thousands of people in that field that Glastonbury, their hands and the air, saying, "We just need to pray." It was a prayer meeting. Something is changing everywhere you look. Culture today from Russell Rand declaring, you know, actually, after all, my life is such a mess, I'm going to become a Christian, giving his life to Jesus, or you can make what you want of that. But he's standing up saying, "I repent, I'm becoming a Christian." Hundreds of people becoming Christians to their friends, said to all take the leading new atheist, poster girl for new atheism, the writer, thinker, Iron Hershey Ali. Who is probably the most influential voice of a young generation of new atheists. Two years ago, began to explore that there must be more than life, and then she said, "I just feel like there's a God-shaped hole that none of this stuff can satisfy." A year ago, very privately, she gave her life to Jesus. And this year, she started talking about it and said, "You know, you're not going to believe it, but actually, I know I'm the leading new atheist right now in the world, but I've become a Christian, very awkward." But she said, "Jesus has saved me. What I believe wasn't enough. Jesus is real." Richard Dawkins sat opposite of her debate and was like, "Really? Like so annoyed by it." But then even Richard Dawkins now describes himself as a cultural Christian. Things are changing. People giving their lives to Jesus, they're unlikely people. People singing about a relationship with God. And even here in Hackney, I read this, someone sent this to me in the Times newspaper, a journalist called James Marriott, who writes the Times, brilliant journalist, lives locally, was wandering past here on a Sunday morning. I don't know when it was earlier in the year. I think it was in May or June he wrote this article, and he wandered in, and he writes this. Recently, I walked past for the first time on a Sunday morning on a Hackney, and hearing a clamor — that's you lot — hearing a clamor — I strayed inside to witness a huge jubilant service. It's not exciting. He says this, "I believed I was contemplating a ghost of the past." But he concludes, "Perhaps it was a vision of the future." See, God is stirring people's hearts. They're hunger. Something is changing. What is it? Well, this is it. I believe the harvest is plentiful. We're a generation who need love, need hope, need healing, need saving, can't do it on all our own. And the harvest is plentiful. So let's look together at the words of Jesus. And we're going to turn to Matthew 9, verse 35. We'll call up on the screen. But I want to read you a few verses from Jesus sending out His disciples. Jesus went through all the villages and towns, teaching their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and illness. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few." Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field. Jesus called His twelve disciples to Him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and heal every disease and illness. These are the names of the twelve apostles, Simon, Peter, his brother Andrew, James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector, James, son of Alfeas, Stadia, Simon, the zealot, Judas, the scariot, who would betray Him. These twelve, Jesus sent out with the following instructions, "Do not go among the Gentiles or any town of the Samaritans, go rather to the lost sheep of Israel." And as you go, proclaim this message, "The kingdom of heaven has come near." Heal those who are ill, raise the dead, cleanse those who have let proceed, drive out demons, freely received, freely give. The harvest is plentiful. The question is, what do we do about it? How do we respond? Four things I take away from this passage that Jesus is calling every one of us to do. Play this day from the Word of God. Here are four things that we need to do. Number one, everyone who calls Saint Home, were called first and foremost to pray. There is an urgency to this season. We need to not stop praying together, gathering, humbling ourselves before God, seeking His presence, worshiping, seeking God. And Jesus says this, the first thing He says, Jesus, in verse 38 of chapter 9, is ask the Lord of the harvest. Look at that word, ask. In the NIV, we'll have it up on the screen, please, Ben. In the NIV, it just says, ask. But in the Greek, the word used there is deomy, which isn't like a request. It isn't, hey, could I ask you a favor? Or I've got, you know, I'm going to ask you a question. The word deomy literally means to plead urgently, to, like, not let go, to, like, call out desperately. There is a desperation to what Jesus is saying. He's saying, the harvest is plentiful, plead with the Father, the Lord of the harvest. And that's why there's an urgency to our prayer times. That's why we want to make space to worship and pray. And tomorrow night, let me encourage you, cancel your plans. Come and pray with us. We've got our joint prayer gathering here. We're going to gather hundreds of people praying from seven to eleven, crying out for revival in this generation, crying out for the harvest to come in. Maybe you want to find a friend and pray with them. We have house of prayer that starts next week. It's wonderful. Monday nights just over the road in the hall. We gather and we pray. We learn to pray. We see God together on your way back from work. Just come and spend an hour or so praying. Read your Bible, pray on your own. If you watch your line and you're stuck at home, just pray, pray for awakening in our generation. Wherever you are, pray. First thing we're called to, to pray. There's a prayer stand. You'll find that you can find out about joining house of prayer crew. At the end, you'll be able to connect him. So first thing we're called to do is to seek God's presence. Secondly, we're called to belong. Look with me at verse one of chapter 10. Before Jesus sends anybody out, he calls them to him. Verse one, Jesus called his twelve disciples to him. And you know what I love about this is that he calls the twelve and they're like not perfect. They're not like vickers. Not that vickers are perfect, but they've not got theology degrees. They're not like the godly, the god squad. It's like Judas that they say it was Judas who would betray him. Peter, who like really missed Mr. Mark. You know, James and John, who are like to the end, like fighting and pushing and hustling. You know, you don't have to be perfect to follow Jesus. In fact, the qualification isn't perfection. It's quite the opposite. It's just here we are little. We're broken. We need you. Perfection isn't the qualification proximity. Yes. That's why we belong to Jesus. We come to him. We drew a close to him. And you can't do this on your own. Now, let me break a myth for you today. Christianity following Jesus is not a solo sport. The only church had a phrase in Latin. Una Christianus, nullus Christianus. Pretty harsh. It was like one Christian, no Christian. They were like, you can't be a Christian on your own. You get baptized into a family. And therefore, don't walk on your own. We live in a culture that's so independent. But we're called to interdependence. Called to each other. So can I encourage you? Join a connect group. You know, even if it's hard work. If you don't like, you try one in sight. It's not for me. Try another one. Find your family. Find a home. Find a connect group where you can belong. You know, there's a connect stand at the back. And Isaac and Kara who are waving there. Go and find them. They'll find your connect group. Or fill in one of these connect cards. If you're online, the QR code will come up in the chat. But find a way of connecting in. Let me tell you, this is good for you. I'm saying this is a past. I'm also saying this as a friend. You're going to live longer if you're in community. A study found recently. The people who are in a faith community and turn up every week. That was the catch. Live on average 10% longer. If you come one week and two, I can't guarantee that for you. But the data is, if you want to live a good life, turn up. Because, you know, we're loved. You know, the week is better, isn't it, when we spend time with Jesus and each other. However hard life gets, we know we're loved and we're known and we're safe and we're forgiven and we remind each other of that and we're working it out and we walk together. So number two, we're called every one of us. Not just to pray, but to belong. Let me encourage you today, fill in one of these connect cards afterwards. When we have lunch, you'll find loads of ways to get involved and belong. And the third thing Jesus says, the half-spendable, ask, pray, belong. Thirdly, he says, serve. Go. Jesus calls us to serve. You know, I can't teach the Bible any planer. You can't really be a Christian and follow Jesus without serving Jesus and others. That's just not Christianity. It's a philosophy. You follow Jesus. The expectation that he puts on our lives is that we would serve others. That we live our lives for others. Love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus says in verse five, six, seven, eight. Listen to these commands. We'll bring the verse up. He says, Jesus sent them out. Go, he says. Go again, he says. Go again, he says. Proclaim, heal, raise, cleanse, drive out. You see what the point is, these are all active verbs. Like he's like, guys, it's time to go. What's the job description? You know, when you fit in one of these connect cards at the back, you know, kids' work. Youth's work. Lighthouse. What's the job description when it's raising the dead? Heal and the sick. It's amazing. What a job description. Go. And you're going to have a great time. This is a thing. We think of service as like a dirty word. Oh, you know, give vision Sunday. We've got a give. And, you know, they're asking for volunteers because, you know, they want to, like, they're trying to get me to kind of do stuff. I mean, can't Al do it all. Well, you know, no. But also, like, this isn't a burden. This is the stuff we're here to do. And we get to heaven and we look back and we're like, how do we spend our time? This is stuff where we'll be like, that's what made an impact. And let me tell you, for particularly those of you who are perhaps new to church, it's the most powerful way to get involved. It's not saying, well, how can I feed my spiritual life? We want to do that too. But how can I give and help others? I want to introduce you to one of our congregation, Deb's. Deb's story is going to come from the screen. But Deb's is common of so many people in this church. They get involved and they serve and they find that gives far more to them than they could ever give out. They put the screens and hear Deb's story. They will say hi. Hi, I'm Deb. I'm a creative from freelance photography to working full-time in social media marketing. After lockdown, it felt like I needed to be around people and community. So I came across a state church and yeah, I just never looked back. I've been here ever since. In constant, I don't know. It's important to walk into a church and know that you belong. Sometimes you walk in and you're just like, we're just this big building. I don't know anyone here. I feel like being at the same, I've been able to use gifts that God has given me and build community and have them all rise into one. It's been an amazing experience in the amount of times I've encountered God share. Serving on production, I feel like I've had transferable skills to my workplace. I'm more confident and been able to communicate what we actually want to achieve and the vision. It's just been amazing. The year focus just gone, I was actually directing, which is quite nerve-wracking, but it was very challenging and it was so amazing to see like 6,000 people which is a worshipping guard and being able to be a part of that team. The verses from the last Peter all like 10 to 11, and it talks about when we serve God, we should start from his strength so he gets the glory out of it. Having that spirit and having that mindset of we're doing this for Jesus and for other people to encourage Jesus to always go in, not like it's not a me show, it's a God show, so I'm going to show. But it's all for his glory and it's fun to drive me to wake up every Sunday and Saturday. Why don't we encourage devs? Thank you so much. I think she's involved behind the cameras today. But when you serve, you get far more than you give. I was having dinner with some friends last night and over dinner I was sitting between two people who are a couple and I forgot that they met 18 years ago serving at church. They got married, they were there with their children. It's like it can change your life. You're going to find service of Jesus is never a burden. It is a blessing. We get far more than we ever give out. We can't out give God, which brings us to the final point. What I'm kind of saying today really is that we as a community want to learn to give ourselves away radically and generously. Praying that an awakening would come, belonging, helping each other connect in, serving Jesus so that we might be so generous towards the world. Take, for example, Lighthouse. Lighthouse, the work we do with the vulnerable, well, it doesn't necessarily impact Sunday, but actually we want to be a church that prioritizes the vulnerable. Alpha, people coming through the doors of questions. We want to give ourselves away in service of the hunger and the need in the culture. Or take Renaissance. What's grown over the years here at St. People started coming and saying, well, we'd love you to help train our church in how you guys do what you're doing. We've no idea what we're doing. So we said, well, we can learn together, can't we? So why don't we create a space where we have a weekend where we invite people to come? We didn't know if anyone were coming. Now a thousand leaders turn up in November and now around the world in these spaces where we want to give away anything we've learned here. But more than that, we want to pray that every single church around the world would see awakening in their community. The poor-out generosity would seek Jesus and pray. We want to serve Jerusalem, Jesus says, Judea, and the ends of the earth. We want to have a vision for giving ourselves away. Beyond the people of East London. And that's because we want to be the most generous church we can be. That's why we run Renaissance. That's why many of you open your homes and your host families and you come and you serve. There's a Renaissance sign up there, so come and be on the volunteer crew for that. It's amazing watching hundreds of people, over half people who attended Renaissance are from around the world, from outside of the UK. For the people of East London and our friends in Peru, you saw on the screen there in New York, in Australia. Why? Because God is moving around the world. We want to be part of that. We want to give ourselves away. Not because we're very excited about that stuff for the sake of it, but actually because we want to be as generous as we can. We want to give and pour ourselves out as a community. And you do this. I think of the awakening project, gathering 300 young leaders from around the world. Many of you hosted them in your homes. I'm looking around the room, seeing a whole bunch of you who I rang up and said, I'm really sorry. There's a party of 30 coming from Latvia. They've nowhere to live. Would you mind putting them up in your house? I know you've only got two bedrooms, but they're happy to share. And you guys have done that. You've opened your homes and your lives. We want to be a resource church, a church that pours itself out. We want to be famous for our service of others in generosity. Service, third thing. And then the final thing Jesus calls us to is to give. If I'm honest with you, when I was preparing this talk the last couple of weeks, I pray about all the summer and all the summer I was mulling it over and thinking, look, what are you saying to us, Lord? What's happening? And I felt the Lord saying it's the harvest plan for us time to mobilize the church. And I was like, that's great. I can see how that works for the connect stand and, you know, join a connect group or the crews, there are loads of crews, kids, and hey, baby, and youth, and students, and lighthouse, and, you know, all the way around, you'll be able to find a way you can get involved in volunteering and serving. I get that. But I don't get how that works with the money because it's a bit awkward. We're British. We don't tend to talk about money that often, but we do it twice a year. And we say, look, the need of the church, 221,360. Well, I don't know how that fits in the passage here. I know you're calling us to go to the harvest. And then, of course, I hadn't quite read the whole passage because Jesus makes it very clear. He ends that teaching with this verse, verse A. It says, "Freely you received that freely gave." We don't want to forward what God gives us. We want to pour it out. Our money, our time, our generosity. Because a harvest is hard work. Hands up if you haven't been involved in harvesting something. Just raise a hand. A few of us have. What did you harvest? Strawberries. Anyone beat that? Who had a handout? Sunflowers? Anyone else? Peppers? Go on any other harvest? Wine. That's a good one. I'll stop on that one. Wine. We'll come back to that. Harvests are expensive. They take time and energy and changing your plans and dropping everything and making space. It costs when you sow and you look after and you nurture and then there's fruit. That's costly. Freely we give, freely, because Jesus has given freely to us. Maybe you're here and you're like, "Well, how do I play my part in the harvest?" Well, can I encourage you to start giving? We have a give card here. You know, we always say this. The reason we do this this way, we bring this to the church twice a year is because the reserves of the church are in your pockets. God has promised to provide for our needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus. As long as we play our part in responding. So today what we're doing as we fill in the give card, as we will do in a moment, is simply playing our part. Maybe you're new and let me just encourage you. In fact, plead with you. Start giving today. Don't be a spectator. Be a participator in the harvest. Start. Just today doesn't matter in a sense how much you give. That's up to you. It's a private matter between you and God. It might be you don't yet know Jesus. Give your life to Him. Write your name in the box in the card. That's wonderful. But let me encourage you, start somewhere because today is the harvest. It might be you already give and we have the most incredibly committed people you've seen over 400 of us giving regularly. Let me encourage you to stretch your giving. We try and do that each gift day. Just a little bit stretch your giving so that we're not outbid by inflation. Or maybe you're here and you think, well, it's a moment I want to sew into the harvest. I want to respond with a one-off gift. That's what we take up an offering for today as well. The harvest is plentiful because the need is vast. And harvesting is hard work. Grapes, we'll come back to the wine. So my grandmother was French and we grew up as an Anglo-French family with one particular weekend each year that was marked out from the earliest memory. It was around this time of year, the first weekend or second weekend in September, when the vines in the vineyard that my grandmother ran, that was her livelihood, would get ready to be harvested. And all the way through August, she'd be out there each day tasting the grape. And it was bitter and then it got a little bit sweeter and a little bit sweeter. And there was a moment when she would know that the harvest was ready. And it was just her and a guy called Gaston, a laborer, I remember Gaston. He was, yeah, the classic French laborer. My grandmother and Gaston kept the vines. They'd walk up and down each day checking the vines are okay. And then nothing would happen until this moment when we get a message in those days on a fax machine in London that just had two words. Le Vondage, the harvest is here. And we all knew what that meant. Wherever you were in the world, you got on a plane, a train, a automobile, whatever it took to get there as quickly as you could because the harvest was urgent. If you left it too long on the vine, it would die on the vine. And you'd miss the harvest and the fruit. And so we would come and assemble family members, relatives, long lost cousins, people my grandmother had met on the train earlier in the year. People's sailors would turn up. I remember one guy who would turn up, I sailed it with a glass eye and an eye patch. I was fascinated. He was, I was convinced a pirate. He would arrive as the harvest started each year like walking in like, you know, a character out of Pirates of the Caribbean with a tail of having sailed across the ocean to be there in time for the harvest. And then the harvest would start and we'd all go out in the fields early in the morning as soon as daylight and I remember sitting on the truck where they would tip the grapes into and watching as they got fuller and fuller and fuller. And as a kid, five or six years old climbing on top of this mountain of grapes and watching the harvest coming in. And in the evening when the light would go down, that was the point where you would stop and you'd be exhausted. You'd spend your energy. You'd, you know, got everything to get there and you were hungry and tired and they'd lay out a big table among the vines and they'd be food and they'd be singing and they'd be celebration. Because let me tell you something about harvesting. It's never boring. It's a lot of fun. And we celebrate together because the harvest had come. Today is a harvest day. Look around you. The stories we've heard. I can see George here. Where are you, George? You stand up for a moment. George, Polly's brother, Polly prayed for George. George wasn't a Christian. The joint prayer gatherings. We'd pray and cry out for George. And then one day George, 18 months ago, gave his life to Jesus. What difference has Jesus made to your life? A lot. Yes. Thanks, George. Yeah, these aren't numbers. These are people being transformed because you're praying and you're helping belong. You're giving and serving and the harvest is plentiful. But the work is a few therefore Jesus is praying that we'd respond. One of the moments in this passage that I love the most is when we see Jesus' heart. When he sees as a harvest, the first thing he does is say, look, we're going to ask the Father, the Lord of the harvest. Know that when you woke up this morning, before you woke up, Jesus was praying for you. You are bearing the balcony. You are watching online. You ride at the back in the sunshine in the royal box. Jesus has been praying. What's his prayer? There's a harvest out there. Millions of people in the valley of decisions. And there's people like I was trapped in prisons of darkness and despair. And he's praying that the Father would send you. The harvest is plentiful. The work is a few. Ask the Father, the Lord of the harvest, to send out workers. So knowing that what we do today is very close to the heart of God, knowing that Jesus is praying, what we're doing in a moment when we fill in these forms is actually checking off Jesus' prayer list this morning. So yet they made it. They responded. I've been praying for them. I'm watching. And the exciting thing is none of what we do today will maybe see the fruit of right now. It's like sowing seed. But let me tell you, in generations to come, your children's children, your children's grandchildren across generations, you'll see the fruit of what God is going to do today. So friends, the harvest is plentiful. Should we ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers, send out you and I into the harvest field? May we pray in Jesus' name. Let's take a moment. I'm just going to ask the Holy Spirit to speak to each one of us right now. It might be that you're here for the first time and you don't yet know Jesus. Let me encourage you to give your life to him. We'd love to pray with you later if that's the case. Maybe you're here and you are already involved in the life of the church. Let me encourage you. We're going to take off our offering. We do this, as I said, twice a year. It's a sort of harvest moment. Let the Lord speak to you about what you might contribute. It's between you and God, no pressure. Freely. You've received free new gift, Jesus says. Or you might be here and you might, so I want to get involved. This is your wake-up call. This is your message. The harvest is here. Live on Arge, God says, time to come. And that might look like for you starting to give, starting to help, committing to loving others. So let's pray. In a moment, we're going to have an opportunity to fill in the giving card. And then later on, we're going to have stands all around the back where you can go and get involved, sign up for crews. But Holy Spirit, we pray that you'd help every one of us here today respond, those watching online, catching up, that none of us would be left out, that you'd speak to each one of us right now about how we might play our part in the harvest. And pray you'd guide us. It says in Corinthians, each of us should give what we've decided to give in our hearts. Holy Spirit, speak to us about a number in our hearts and help us to respond with obedience today in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening to this week's talk. If you'd like to find out more, give or connect with us, visit our website saint.chat. Have a great week and we'll see you soon. [MUSIC]