The harvest truly is great, but God needs to give us the eyes to see this reality.

OCI 2015 Board of Directors Retreat

<p>The harvest truly is great, but God needs to give us the eyes to see this reality.</p>

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Outpost Centers International

Derek Morris

The Harvest Truly is Great

I was born on a fairly flat island, at least the south of the island where I was born was fairly flat.

My grandfather was from Switzerland, though I never met him.

He abandoned my mother and the family when she was little.

So I never met him, but I remember when I was about 11 years old, I took my first trip from the little island where I lived, which I thought was actually the center of the world.

It was just actually a very small island off the coast of Europe.

But I thought the map centered around this island.

And so When I went to Switzerland for the first time, and I got on a funicular train, it's a train that has a cog on the bottom, that's how steep it goes up, and I went up to the top of the Jungfrau, this is near Interlaken, in the Bernese Oberland, I went up to about 13, 000 feet above sea level, maybe 12, 5, and literally looked out over the top of the Alps.

I don't know if any of you have been to Switzerland.

You probably could get something of a similar sensation if you went up mammoth in California and looked out over the Sierra Nevadas, but you literally feel like, unless the next best thing would be an airplane, but you're actually still on the ground, but you feel like you're on the top of the earth.

That experience is etched in my memory, seeing the world from a totally new perspective.

Tonight, I want to challenge you to see the world from a totally new perspective.

And I need to pray again before that happens.

But I've been studying a passage of scripture for the past 16 years, and God is still teaching me new insights.

And it begins with seeing the world from God's perspective.

Our Father in heaven, we are so blessed to be here.

We have heard songs of praise, testimonies of praise, and then this beautiful song, and Our lips praise you even now.

We are thankful to be part of a movement that believes in the word of God.

And so I pray in the name of Jesus that you would touch my mouth and touch our ears.

And may our hearts be open to your spirit, even this evening as we study together is my prayer in the name of Jesus.

Jesus is about to send his followers out.

And retreats are good, but they are not the end.

And Jesus is about to send his followers out in the same way that he sent the 12.

If you read in Matthew 9, you will find that the same words that Jesus spoke to the 12, He will now speak to the 70.

Do you remember the difference between the 12 and the 70?

The 12 are sent on their first assignment only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

The 70 are sent to every town and village where Jesus will go.

They are in fact to go to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.

And He will say to them and also to us, I will be with you always, even until the end of the age.

So, to these 70 who represent, and some ask, what's the significance of the number 70, and in Jewish thinking they represented all of the nations.

You'll find in the genealogy in Genesis 10 of Noah, you've got the 70, It's a symbolic number of all of the nations.

And they are to go to every nation, kin, re-tongue, and people.

And as he sends them out, he begins with 5 words in English.

Now, we have Bulgarian spoken here, we have what other languages?

Korean, Japanese, I don't know how many languages, I have, I don't know how many languages, my wife speaks Danish, but in English it's 4, it's 5 words In my Bible, which is the New King James, I don't remember how it reads in the King James.

But Jesus sends them out with these 5 words that I want to focus on tonight, the harvest truly is great.

How does that read in the King James again?

The harvest, we're in Luke 10 and verse 2, this is New King James, that I wrote that up because that's what we memorize as a family.

For some, it's second language, so I said it clearly.

It's up there just in case you forgot it already.

Do you think you could remember those 5 words this evening?

Before you leave, I will stand at the door like at the brook, you know?

Question, what harvest is Jesus referring to?

Well, the metaphor of the harvest, Frank, is used in 2 ways in the New Testament.

But let's just refresh our memories here because we know right after the 3 angels' messages in chapter 14, there was also a harvest and 1 seated upon the throne and the harvesters are the angels.

That is the harvest at the end of the age, right?

It speaks about that when Jesus tells the story about the tares, the weeds, you remember?

The metaphor of the harvest is used in terms of the end of the age.

How do we know this isn't the harvest he's speaking about in Luke 10?

Who are the harvesters in the present harvest?

The 70 and also us to the end of the age.

And the harvest is not the final judgment.

Men and women, boys and girls, just waiting for the invitation to become part of the kingdom of heaven, right?

And Jesus says, when I'm sending you out, I want you to remember, we're in English now, 5 words, what are they?

Are there times when it is obvious to us that the harvest is great?

Peter and the other apostles preach in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Conviction touches the hearts of the people.

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The Harvest Truly is Great

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