Wesleyan Fellowship Lesson 15

The Harvest

Welcome/Icebreaker: What is the best thing that happened to you this past week?

Worship:

Word: Luke 10:1–16

Lesson: From Scripture and experience we know that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. In terms of numbers, there are plenty of believers to complete the task of sharing the Gospel with every person in the world (for every one evangelical believer* in the world there are 9 non-believers; that means there are about 680 million evangelicals and about 5.32 billion people who are not evangelical world wide), but many are unwilling to enter the harvest field.

Things we know about the harvest:: It is plentiful. Even here.; It belongs to Jesus. Jesus died so that every one could be in the harvest. Those that aren’t don’t belong to Satan so the workers are just trying to reclaim what already belongs to Jesus; It has few workers. In spite of the fact that there are only ten nonbelievers for each evangelical.
Things we know about the worker:: Jesus must be Lord (as opposed to savior) of the worker.; The worker has authority.
Things needed for the work:: To be filled (led by) with the Spirit.; A life of prayer. Prayer plows the ground for the seeds of the harvest. Sowing on hard ground sometimes works but we need to plow it with prayer. God is calling us to elevate the importance and the priority of prayer. We must have faith to believe God is going to do something. This is how we get the authority. through this faith. If we don’t have the faith, then ask God for it.; When we pray for someone’s needs and God begins to move in their lives, they become much more likely to accept him. Relational evangelism is the best kind, but it has a weakness. Its weakness is that it does not require anything. We just keep hanging out and building the relationship and never really introduce the person to God.; Knowledge of the Scriptures. We need to understand Scriptures well enough to witness, but not to be an expert. We will be asked questions that we can’t answer. That’s OK. We should not use lack of knowledge as an excuse.; Willingness to announce the Kingdom. If we can see the harvest, we will be willing. (Use the fishing story). If we can’t say the harvest we should pray that God make us see the harvest.
Responses the worker can expect:: Rejection.; Reception.; The joy of Jesus.

Are you surprised by the number of believers/non-believers in the world? In the U.S.?

Do you think the current secular climate of the U.S. makes our job as harvesters more or less difficult? Why?

Of the four qualities of the worker, which are you the most confidant about personally? Which are you least confident about? Why?

Can you relate any personal experiences where you shared Jesus with someone? Tell us how you felt, what you said, how they responded, and how their response impacted you.

What do you believe is the biggest obstacle in your life to entering into the harvest fields?

* Just over 2 billion people worldwide (1/3 of the world’s population) consider themselves Christian. Not to be arrogant or judge another’s walk with the Lord, but a better indicator of faith (particularly as it concerns fulfilling the Great Commission) is probably whether or not a person considers him/herself to be an evangelical. Of course labels can be misleading, but a person who does not affirm the following four tenets is probably not going to participate in the harvest.

An evangelical believes:

that salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
every believer has a personal conversion experience.
that the Bible is the only basis for faith and the Christian life.
that evangelism and mission are important aspect of a believer’s life.

Ministry Time:

Pray for any ministry issues that came up in the discussion as you feel led.

Witness/Works:

Discuss outreach as appropriate
Ask for concerns
Pray for outreach efforts and concerns as appropriate