Make this Summer Count for Christ!

Jer 8:20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

This week, I want to just focus our attention on this simple verse from the prophet Jeremiah, where he says, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." It has been said that this verse represents the cry of the harvest. It is as if the fruit has been left to rot on the vine and no one is left to bring it in. It is almost as if the prophet is saying the same thing that Jesus said in Matthew 9.

Mat 9:37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly [is] plenteous, but the labourers [are] few;

It truly is sad to think that their could be souls that could be reached, if we would only go, but we are leaving them to rot on the vine and as a result, they are not saved! Too often, we sit back and blame our lack of reaping on the Harvest, as if it is the fault of the lost that we are not reaching them. I had a few thoughts about the Harvest, I'd like to share with you and may we not let summer end without doing all we can to find the Harvest and reap it.

1. The problem is not with the amount to Harvest. The Harvest is always plentiful and it is always ripe. There is always a Harvest to be reaped. Their are souls all around us that need saving. There has always been a multitude wandering around as sheep without a shepherd, and it is still Christ's command for us to go to them, not for them to come to us.

2. The problem is not that the Harvest doesn't want to be reaped. Can you hear the cry of the Harvest from Jeremiah? Can you hear them saying, "Time is running out! Please come back! Don't go back to the storehouse without us! Please come find us!" And all around us, folks are crying out the same things today! They are saying, "We're still out here in drugs. Don't leave us out here in sexual immorality! Don't ignore us, b/c we don't look like you, act like you, smell like you or sound like you! Please come over into Macedonia and help us!"

3. The problem is always with the laborers. The harvest is plentiful and crying to be reaped. But we who are willing to labor are few. We must pray as never before and work so that no one who could be reached is left unreached.

Now, during the Summer, there is always a tendency to get caught up in living, going and doing that we forget about the Harvest that needs to be reached. Now, we all need to take time to rest and relax and vacate. But we must not get so absorbed with that that we miss the cry of the Harvest. There is a Harvest to be reached this Summer. Let us not miss it, because we fail to listen.