Amos 9:13 — David Guzik

It's our privilege to welcome David Goodsick. Good morning, everybody. It's so great to be here. It's great to see so many of the former students that we've had, Germany campus. Oh, it's wonderful to see you guys.

I hope you're doing well. We're very blessed. You know, it's exciting to see what the Lord is doing at the Bible College campus in Germany. And naturally, we just want you to pray about coming and being a part of it.

And there's really three different ways that you can do that. One is, of course, to be a transfer student and to spend a semester or more with us. And several of you in here have done it. Just talk to some of the students who have been with us for a semester.

And I don't know. I'll leave it up to them whether or not it was a good experience or bad. A good experience? Yeah? Yeah? We see our C, yeah? Patrick? Good. Don't listen to Patrick, though. He likes the wrong soccer team over there.

Yeah. Yeah. Don't get him started on Bayern München. So yeah. No, we just think that God's doing something special over there in Europe. And that'll be part of the message that I have to share with you in a few moments.

But just pray about it. God is doing exciting things in so many of the extension campuses. But I certainly think that what he's doing in Siegen, Germany, is part of it. And there's a lot of opportunity to see firsthand what the Lord is doing over there.

So it's just an exciting opportunity that you should really pray about. I don't know. Some of you guys are just too chicken to go out and do something bold like that. Or your parents are too chicken to allow you to do it.

Well, just get on your knees and prevail in prayer. God can change the heart of your parents and let you go. And you know, I'm not saying you should disobey your parents. But you should just pray them into seeing what the Lord wants you to see.

But the second thing we have also is this summer, we are doing a summer semester. It's a two-week program with both a church history class and a special mission seminar class taught by a guy who's been a missionary in the Philippines for more than 20 years.

He's one of our German-English teachers named Wolfgang Jung. Wolfgang does a great job in teaching about missions. He's going to be doing a special seminar class. So you could pick up a couple classes, visit a lot of great Reformation sites in Germany with guided tours and such.

And you'll also be there during the World Cup final. So it'll be an exciting time to be in Germany. Yeah, you should really come. Jason will have the information. If you need any information about that, we've got a flyer that you could go pick up from Jason at the Extension campus office.

But then also something that we're just starting, it's rolling more and more, is an intern program. We've got a 10-month intern program where you come over and you're involved both with an aspect of classroom instruction and discipleship and personal mentoring.

But then also, we just put you to work with a lot of different things. Our whole goal is to give you a real hands-on exposure to what God is doing in the mission field there in Europe. And we're very, very pleased with how our intern program is progressing.

I just think it'd be exciting if a lot of you took the step to do it. You just need to get bold in your Christian life. Too many of you are just out there, you're just playing it safe. You just, you know, you got it all planned out in front of you.

Okay, I'll do this step and then that step and then the third step after that. And you got it all planned out and pretty much you've conditioned it in your mind to plan it according to what seems safe, what seems doable, what seems manageable.

You got to shake yourself out of that. That is not from Jesus. Now, he may have you follow a course that seems safe to other people, but you should be doing it because Jesus tells you to do it, not because it just seems safe.

So I would just exhort you to boldness. And for some of you, that bold step would actually be coming to our campus in one way or another as an intern, a summer semester, or perhaps to come as a transfer student.

We would welcome you. And again, I just recommend that if you want to know what the experience is like, stand up and talk to some of the students. You students who have been to Germany, stand up. We've got a bunch over here.

Who else? Nick. Hey, good morning. Back there too? Yeah. Well, talk to those guys because it's been a great experience. All right. I've got a message to share with you this morning. Turn in your Bibles to the book of Amos chapter nine.

Amos 9:13 and the Promise of Restoration

Let's pray. Father, we ask for your blessing upon this time in your word. I thank you for the opportunity to speak to so many people who have a heart to serve you, Lord. They're looking out at the beginning of their life, laying out in front of them, and they want to hear from you, Lord.

They want to hear from you as to what you'll do with them and where you'll take them. Well, Father, I pray that by your spirit, you would be speaking to them. But Lord, I just pray that you would have your spirit presence with us in a special way to speak to us through your word, Lord.

We just love the way that your spirit operates and how you speak to us through your word. Speak to us now this morning, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Our text for this morning will be the book of Amos chapter nine, verse 13.

So take a look at that with me. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when the plowman shall overtake the reaper, the treader of grapes, him who sows seed. The mountain shall drip with sweet wine and all the hills shall flow with it.

Now, if you pay attention to the news at all, you know that there's very serious concerns about the future of Europe. Secularism there is very strong. And it seems like Europeans oftentimes have a very genuine problem in discerning good from evil.

And sometimes it seems that the only thing that many Europeans care about is a secure job for life, a welfare state, and five weeks of paid vacation for everybody. Two weeks ago today, my wife Inge-Lille and I, we were walking through Paris.

We were able to go there and spend some days there and to speak at the Calvary Chapel there, which is a wonderful place for you to visit and do an outreach team too, or to spend some time with Mike and Becky Dente there in Paris.

But anyway, as my wife and I were walking through the streets of Paris, we passed by one of the most prestigious universities in Paris, the Sorbonne. And in the Sorbonne, or outside of it, at the grounds there, maybe you've heard about it in the news the last couple of weeks, there have been huge demonstrations.

Thousands of young people demonstrating because they want more job protection and better job benefits and these kinds of things. And there were hundreds of police surrounding the grounds of the Sorbonne in riot gear, and they were barricading streets, and they were ready for the demonstrations that were to come.

And you just have this air over so much of Europe that there's a crisis, maybe not to come immediately, but somewhere down the road. And I would say that when you consider the demographic trends of Europe, when you take a look at what's happening, the fact that about the only groups that are reproducing themselves in the population are immigrants from Muslim countries.

The future looks pretty dark. And without sounding overdramatic about it, I would tell you that from my viewpoint, I would say that in the next generation in Europe, you're either gonna see Islam or revival by the spirit of God.

It's either gonna be Sharia law in some form or an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Now, with those two pictures, with those two destinies in mind, I'm happy to say to you this morning that the picture in Western Europe is not all dark.

You can really say that revival is beginning to stir. And one place that it's stirring, not the only place by any means, but one place that it's beginning to stir is among the Calvary Chapel churches in Europe.

Did you know that there's 13 Calvary Chapels in Germany alone? And most of them are thriving congregations. Now, I'm not just talking about Calvary Chapel of Siegen. That's the church that the Bible College is associated with there.

Calvary Chapel of Siegen is a wonderfully blessed church. On a Sunday, they have more than 1200 people there, and it's making a very significant impact on the whole region. But I'm not just talking about God moving in one church among the Calvary Chapels of Germany.

You go to the other congregations there. You go to Hanover. You go to Stuttgart. You go to Freiburg. You go to Heidelberg. You see that these churches are healthy and growing and really beginning to impact the whole region for Jesus Christ.

Well, when you take a look at that, you see that it is an exciting season of God's work in Western Europe. And I think that you should very seriously pray about being a part of it. I think that there would be some real blessing for you to get up close and to see that kind of thing firsthand, because when the Lord is moving in a unique way, you should take a look at it.

You should see what he's doing. And I think that the text that I just read from Amos chapter nine speaks to us about that exact thing. Let me read to you it again. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes, him who sow seed, and the mountains will drip with sweet wine and all the hills shall flow with it.

Amos's Warnings of Judgment Against Judah

Now, the book of Amos is filled with many strong warnings to God's people. In their prosperity in the days of Amos, the people forgot God, and he sent them prophets like the very simple farmer Amos to come and to turn the people back to God.

God knew that they would not turn back on their own initiative, and so he sent prophets like Amos to warn them. And so most of the book of Amos is filled with very dark prophecies about coming judgment.

Chapter nine that I just read you to is the very last chapter of the book. But if you go to some of the earlier chapters of Amos, it's dark. The verse I just read to you isn't dark. That's filled with promise and hope.

But it's out of character with the rest of the book. Overall, it's a very dark book. For example, take a look. Amos chapter two, verses four and five. Thus says the Lord, for three transgressions of Judah and for four, I will not turn away its punishment because they have despised the law of the Lord and have not kept his commandments.

Their lies lead them astray, lies which their fathers followed, but I will send a fire upon Judah and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem. Man, that's a heavy word of judgment. Look at Amos chapter two, starting at verse 13.

This is the Lord speaking to his own people. He says, behold, I am weighed down by you. As a cart full of sheaves is weighed down, therefore flight shall perish from the swift. The strong shall not strengthen his power, nor shall the mighty deliver himself.

He shall not stand who handles the bow. The swift of foot shall not escape, nor shall he who rides a horse deliver himself. The most courageous of men shall flee naked in that day, says the Lord. And just one other section to give you a feel for the book of Amos.

Chapter five, verses 21 through 23. Listen to this. This is the Lord speaking just very straightforwardly to his people about their own sin. He says, I hate, I despise your feast days and I do not savor your sacred assemblies.

Though you offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. Take away from me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.

You gotta admit, those three passages I just read you, that's heavy. God's speaking to his own people and he's saying, that sacrifice you said you wanted to bring to me, get it out of here, I don't wanna see it.

That worship song you wanted to play to me, I don't wanna hear it. Because there's wickedness in your heart. Your spirituality is superficial. The book of Amos is a heavy, heavy book, but chapter nine shows us that nevertheless, God would not abandon his failing people and he promised them an ultimate restoration that he points to at the very end of the book.

And so here in chapter nine and those verses that I read to you at the very beginning, verse 13, he talks about the ultimate restoration and the very rich images, rich images that come very easily to a man like Amos who was a farmer.

He wasn't raised in the school of the prophets. He didn't go to Bible college. He didn't go to seminary. He was a farmer whom God called to be a prophet and God spoke to him in his farmer vocabulary about the great reinvigoration of the nation.

Gives us a lot of hope. I tell you, when I look out across Europe and when I look at how dark the picture is sometimes, you read a passage like this and you say, Lord, it was dark in those days of Judah too and you turned it around then, you can turn it around again.

It also shows us that God is very interested in restoring. It's a mistake to think that when things are weak, when things are spiritually dead, when things are failing, that God just wants to write Ichabod over those works and start with something brand new.

Sometimes that's what he has to do, but it's as if that's the last arrow in God's quiver. His greater hope is often to restore, to rebuild. And I don't think God has done with Europe yet. No, the beginnings of revival that we see there, the beginnings of a restoration of God's work, the beginning of another great work of power, I think it's something for us to take encouragement from and to see that God has not given up on that continent yet.

The Plowman Overtaking the Reaper

But look at what Amos said in chapter nine, verse 13. He said, behold, the days are coming. That means that through the prophet Amos, God speaking through the prophet, through this inspiration, he promised that the nation would see this restoration, a return to great spiritual prosperity, to great spiritual abundance.

You see, Amos spoke mostly during the days of the very corrupt King Jeroboam II, a time when they had material prosperity, but it wasn't in the Lord. God promised to return them to a true spiritual prosperity.

And Israel had no idea how good it could be until they came back to that season of real spiritual prosperity. And so it used this picture. Did you see that picture that I read to you from chapter nine, verse 13?

He says, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when the plowman shall overtake the reaper. Now with that phrase, Amos described just how miraculous and just how amazing this blessing and restoration of God would be.

He described what you could call revival, what you could call a great spiritual awakening, a time when God's work is uniquely blessed. Just think about the picture that the farmer painted with those words.

The plowman shall overtake the reaper. Picture in your mind, a reaper out there working in the field, right? You can picture that, can't you? There with the sickle, they're going out, there's the bundles of grain and he's cutting it down and they're cutting it down and they're tying it into bundles and you see the reapers busy at work, right?

You can just picture it in your mind, the sun shining down hot, it's hard work, but it's harvest time. There's a joy about all the work because they're bringing in the harvest. Yes, the reapers are at work, but then all of a sudden, one of the reapers, he hears a noise behind him and he turns and looks over his shoulder and what's behind him?

It's a man with a plow. There's a man with a plow being pulled by an oxen or a donkey and he said, it's not time to plow yet. I'm not done reaping. But the plowman shouts on, he goes, no, the work is so blessed, the harvest is so big that there's not time to bring it all in before it's time to plow again.

This is how blessed God says he'll make it. He promised that it would be so blessed that the plowman would overtake the reaper, that there would be so much to reap, so much of a harvest to bring in, so much of a season of God's miraculous work that the plowman would be running up the back of the reaper saying, hurry up, reapers.

It's time to plow again for another season of God's work. Now, I think that this picture that he paints for us here in chapter nine, verse 13, it tells us many different characteristics of God's work when he sends blessing and restoration.

Revival Brings Swift Spiritual Fruit

And I don't know what you want to call it. Do you want to call it revival? Call it revival. Do you want to call it spiritual awakening? Call it that. Do you just want to call it a unique season of God's blessing and restoration?

I'm not so hung up on the terminology, but it's something special indeed. You see, normally the plowman and the reaper work apart. Their work is separated by many months, but under such seasons of blessing and restoration, God moves quickly, so quickly, that the plowman and the reaper bump into each other.

The crops are so big that the plowman and the reaper don't have time to let each other finish the work. We should pray for such seasons of quick fruit. And there are times like that. There are times when the Holy Spirit of God is poured out upon his people and is poured out upon a community to where the harvest is so big and comes in so fast that it's nothing short of just plain miraculous.

Now, one of the classes that I'm teaching this semester at the Bible College campus in Germany is a class that we teach on Monday nights. We call it the history of revival and spiritual awakening. And what we're just doing is going sequentially, talking about the theology of revival, the biblical understanding of revival, and then taking a look at these mighty seasons of God's work in days past.

And I'm here to tell you that those seasons are real. For example, in a town called Holly in South England, William and Catherine Booth, they were the founders of the Salvation Army. They had a meeting at a church in August of 1861.

Now, they were somewhat discouraged because at their first meeting, nothing really seemed to happen. There was not much of a response. There were no real conversions the first Sunday. And so they met again on Monday night.

And on that night, William Booth spoke to the group and he spoke to them on the subject, hindrances to Christian labor and Christian joy. And so they had a prayer meeting after the message and everyone stayed for the prayer meeting.

And then they had a second message by Booth. And then a woman made her way to what they called the anxious seat. The anxious seat was the place where people who wanted prayer, who wanted counseling came up and they sat and somebody else would come and speak to them one-on-one about what God was doing in their soul.

And William Booth, when he saw this one woman come forward and sit up front and respond to the message and wait for somebody to come and speak to her about it, he said, I pray that this woman would be the first fruits of a glorious harvest.

And she was. Over the next 18 months, in that somewhat obscure town in Southern England, over the next 18 months, 7 ,000 people were converted. 500 were converted in the first six weeks. I don't know, that sounds like the plowman overtaking the reaper right there.

Now that revival under which that happened, that revival actually began in the United States in the year 1859 and over about a 12 month period in the United States at that time. By the way, the population in the US at that time was about 30 million people.

And out of that population of about 30 million people, there were approximately 1 million conversions in a 12 month period. I want you to think about that and do the math in your head. Right now, there's about 300 million people in the United States.

What would it be like if there were 30 million conversions in the US? You think that would have an impact? You think that would change the spiritual landscape? Now you say, that's impossible. There's no way that that many people...

What do you mean it's impossible? God did it in 1859. Are you telling me that such seasons when the plowman overtakes the reaper, that those are just for the pages of history? That God can't do that again?

But instead that work spread to Great Britain. And in the years 1859 to 1860, in a population of about 27 million, there were another million conversions in one year. Now again, you might say that sounds impossible, but it's not impossible.

When God sends this kind of blessing and the plowman overtakes the reaper. Now I get excited when I research this stuff about the great things that God has done in the past. I hope it's exciting to you too, because a lot of it's just plain forgotten.

How many of you have heard, and I hope that many hands raise when I ask this, how many of you ever heard of the great Welsh revival under Evan Roberts? You just heard of it. Well, some of you. That's one of the remarkable outpourings of the Holy Spirit that has ever been seen in a fairly small area, Wales, which would probably be about the same as San Diego County.

Within a matter of a couple months, 100 ,000 people were converted. But that revival wasn't just remarkable for Wales, it actually spread all over the evangelical world at that time. And it had an amazing impact on the United States of America.

The Welsh Revival and Its Spread to America

An amazing impact. And probably you and I and a lot of other people, we've never even heard about it before. But do you want to know how the 1904 Welsh revival impacted the United States in 1905? Well, for example, it started among the Welsh speaking people or the bilingual churches of Pennsylvania.

There were these churches there in Pennsylvania that had a combination of Welsh people and English speaking people. The revival started there, which you would expect because it came from Wales. And then in one section of Pennsylvania, the community of Wilkes-Barre, the pastor J .D. Roberts there, he instructed 123 converts in one month of 1904.

You say, wow, that's pretty impressive. 123 converts in one month. And then in Scranton, it said that congregations were gathered all over the area with a spirit of evident revival in all the churches.

In Philadelphia by 1905, the Methodists reported 10 ,000 recent converts. They said that it was the greatest work of God that had been seen since the days of Moody and Sankey in the previous century. In Atlantic City, they said that such a revival happened that in a city with the population of 60 ,000 people, there were not more than 50 unconverted people in the whole city.

In Atlanta, in November of 1905, stores, factories, and offices closed for a day of prayer and thousands of people gathered for prayer. In Louisville, more than 4 ,000 conversions were reported and 58 leading business firms of the city closed at noon for an hour of prayer.

In Michigan, the Baptists saw more baptisms in 1905 than in any year for a decade. In Denver, on January 4th, 1905, was declared a day of prayer, and at 10 a .m., the churches were filled. At 1130 a .m., almost all the stores and businesses in the city were closed, and at 12 noon, this is in Denver, 12 ,000 people crowded into the largest theaters of the city for combined prayer meetings, and every school in the city was closed for a day of prayer.

In Los Angeles, 100 churches cooperated and combined for meetings that saw more than 180 ,000 people in combined attendance, and there were more than 4 ,200 decisions for Christ. And then in Portland, 200 major stores signed an agreement to close between 11 and two to allow their customers and their employees, excuse me, their employees, to attend prayer meetings.

Did you ever know that there was such a magnitude of revival, that there was such a season when the plowman was overtaking the reaper in the early part of this century in the United States? But it happened, and this gives us great hope for what God wants to do in the future.

Revival Comes in God's Timing

You see, and I can't explain all the details. Revival is not a mechanical thing. Sometimes it seems like God's work is just kind of left hanging for a long time with a loose end here and a loose end there, and it doesn't seem to have much coherence or much power.

It's out there, you can see the Lord moving, but you don't know what's gonna happen. And then finally, God just draws together things quickly in His timing, I think as much as anything to just demonstrate that He's in charge and that He had a purpose in doing it in His timing.

Friends, when God sends these seasons of blessing and restoration, the work of God can happen very quickly. That's why you wanna be close to it to see it. But I think this text tells us something else.

If you look at verse 13 again, it shows us that when God sends blessing and restoration, fruit not only comes quickly, it comes in unexpected places. Look at the verse again. It says, when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes, him who sows seed, the mountains will drip with sweet wine and the hills shall flow with it.

Fruit in Unexpected Places

Now, normally grape vines don't grow well on mountains or on high hills. Grape vines tend to grow in lowland areas. But in the days of Israel's restoration, even the mountains will drip with sweet wine and the hills shall flow with it.

Fruit in unexpected places. When God sends these seasons of blessing and restoration, that's a glorious thing about the fruit. It comes in unexpected places. And you know, perhaps God wants to give you fruit in an unexpected place.

But the problem is this, you're not expecting it there. So you're not looking for it. Your heart isn't open for it. But understand, God sends these seasons where the mountains drip with wine. And so God should show you places where he might unexpectedly produce fruit, but perhaps it's in an unexpected place.

You never thought God could use you at that place, but he did. You never dreamed that God would take you to Europe or to Peru or to England or to some other place. Oh, but you listened to the Lord. He took you there and God had you bear great fruit in an unexpected place.

Perhaps God wants you to see that fruit born in an unexpected person. You know, that person that he's called you to disciple, that person that he's made just a special connection with between you and them.

And there's something beautiful about that connection. Well, let me tell you, that can be a great source of God showing a place for you to bear fruit in an unexpected person. Or maybe it's an unexpected ministry.

And you said, well, you know, Lord, I know what you've called me to do. I know, I know. And you're not looking for him to use you in another place. Well, you need to be open for God to bring you fruit in an unexpected ministry.

Have your heart open for what God would do, because when the mountains drip with sweet wine, he will bring during that season of blessing and restoration fruit from unexpected places. By the way, I should point out as well that when God sends blessing and restoration, this is another thing we see from verse 13.

Quality Fruit from God's Restoration

The fruit not only comes from unexpected places, but it also comes with great quality. Amos looked forward to the day when the wine that came quickly and the wine that came from an unexpected place would be what?

He says, sweet wine. And without being a wine connoisseur, Amos used that phrase to describe good and high quality fruit from the work. And we should pray for such seasons of good fruit. At some time after the great Welsh revival in 1904, there was a man who wrote a book criticizing the revival.

And you know what his criticism was? He said that after 10 years of the Welsh revival, 10 years afterwards of all the hundred thousand converts, only 80 of them still stood in the faith. He said, only 80%.

Man, I mean, could you imagine such fruit lasting in a modern day evangelistic crusade? That's a number that the Billy Graham Evangelistic Organization would be incredibly proud to have. But the man tipped his hand when he discussed his research a little bit further.

He said, yes, only 80 of them stood as converts. Many were lost to the Pentecostal movement and to the mission halls. In other words, of the 20 that were supposedly lost, they just went outside of some of the normal channels.

Listen, that's not just quantity of fruit, that's quality of fruit that God sends in such a time of blessing and restoration. And don't you want to see that? Don't you want to see a time when God sends forth such a mighty outpouring of his spirit that there's just not a lot of converts.

Oh, but they're true converts. They're really saved, saved, saved. Well, you don't have to talk them into a conviction of sin, they know it. Well, you don't have to talk them into a love and a devotion to Jesus.

They have it birthed within them according to the spirit of God. Well, that's what happens in these unexpected times of blessing. And I suggest to you that maybe in a season that God wants to use you, the quality of the work will be more evident than the quantity of the work.

Your season of blessing might be expressed more in the quality of the fruit than in a massive quantity. Sometimes we see this with the churches that are founded out in the mission field. It's a difficult work that the pastor has.

Maybe he has five people or 10 people or 15 people, and God has called him to just pour his heart and to pour his life into those people. But I tell you, and I mean this solemnly as I stand before you and before the Lord, you can do ministry to 15 people and shake the world with that ministry.

What would happen if you sent forth 15 people on fire, trained to serve God, and sent them all over to plant churches? That can be massive fruit through a small group if God blesses it with this unique sense of quality, if the mountains drip with sweet wine.

Anonymous Servants in Revival

And so this is what happens when God sends these seasons of blessing and restoration. It's not just a massive quantity of the work. It's not just that it comes quickly, but it happens in a way that really reflects quality.

But not only that, take a look again at verse 13. It tells us more about what these seasons of blessing and restoration are like. If you notice, it tells us that when God sends blessing and restoration, the workers may be anonymous.

Who do you have in this verse? Who's doing the work? Well, you have a plowman, you have a reaper, you have a treader of grapes, and you have him who sow seed. They're anonymous. You see, they don't have fancy prophet names.

They don't have a fancy prophet resume. They're totally anonymous work, and it shows us that even in times of great harvest, even when God is impacting a whole region with revival, God may not raise up a high-profile prophet or preacher.

He may choose to do his work through relatively anonymous servants of his. And I tell you this as a caution, because there are some people who pray diligently for revival, who pray diligently for such a time of real blessing and restoration in the work of the Lord.

Oh, Lord, send revival that I may be known as a great leader of revival. Oh, Lord, send revival that my name may be written down in history. We should be content to be anonymous servants, and we must always check our own hearts to be aware that we are wanting revival because we want to make a name for ourselves.

Listen, many, many times, when God sends these unique seasons of blessing and restoration, he does it through his anonymous servants. And so maybe that's been hidden away in your heart somewhere. Maybe nobody would ever know it.

You're far too spiritual to talk about it, but it's in your heart. You've wanted God to do a great work so that you could be known as a great worker. I say it to you right now this morning, let God purge that from your heart.

Let God purge that completely and say, Lord, I am willing, in fact, I would probably even prefer to be completely anonymous. Let your work go forward. Let the plowman overtake the reaper. Let the mountains drip with sweet wine.

That's what we want to see, Lord. I think there's still more that our text shows us about these unique seasons of blessing. Take a look here. It shows us that when God sends blessing and restoration, there is still a division of labor to be done.

Faithful Division of Labor in Ministry

If you notice here, in our verse, it tells us about the plowman and the reaper and the treader of grapes and him who sows seed. Do you know what that tells us? It tells us that the plowman still plows.

It tells us that the reaper still reaps. The treader of grapes still stomps the grapes and him who sows seed, he still sows the seed. In other words, each one had his own particular job to do. And the important thing is their participation in the harvest in general, which is far greater than the work of any particular individual.

Can you see the plowman being jealous of the reaper? You know, oh Lord, I wish I was one of those reapers. Oh, to just handle the stalks of grain and to see the full fruit and to hold it in my hand. Oh Lord, that's really the work.

And then the reaper, oh, he envies the one who sows the seed. Oh Lord, that's the glorious ministry. Sowing forth your seed, casting out your word. Oh Lord, that's what I want to do. And then they all envy the guy who gets to tread the grapes.

He goes, oh Lord, that's the great work. Processing your work after it comes in, training them, deepening, making it useful for many people, getting to step on all the grapes. That's just fun to see them squished between your toes.