Message from Sunday, March 14, 2021

Numbers 33:54. And ye shall divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families: and to the more ye shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer ye shall give the less inheritance: every man’s inheritance shall be in the place where his lot falleth; according to the tribes of your fathers ye shall inherit.

When the people of Israel had conquered the land, each tribe was given a particular portion of the land.  Each tribe had a special place it was to inhabit, and each family in the tribe had a portion of the land on which to settle.  Every family had a place they were to use to sow seeds, tend the crops and their livestock and reap the harvest from the land their family would enjoy.  

Let’s fast forward to the establishment of Jesus’ church in the book of Acts. 

1 Corinthians 12:4-7, 11, 18 NLT. [4] There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. [5] There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. [6] God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. [7] A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. [11] It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.  [18] But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it.

When the Holy Spirit came to reside in the followers of Jesus, He gave the disciples many different spiritual gifts to use in the overall assembly of believers so the whole body could be encouraged and strengthened.  As the followers of Christ began to share the good news about Jesus, they each developed their own ministries under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Peter became the leader in spreading the gospel to the Jews in and around Jerusalem, and at one point, God interrupted his Jewish ministry to send him to the home of a Gentile named Cornelius to show him and the other disciples the gospel was for everyone, not just the Jews.  Phillip moved to Samaria, where he became known as an evangelist, and eventually settled in Caesarea and became a pillar of the early movement there.  Paul became the apostle to the Gentiles.  

Barnabas went with Paul on his first missionary journey, and later, he took Mark with him toward Spain on a second missionary journey.  Aquilla and Priscila became great exhorters and teachers and local pastors.  Apollos became one of the most influential Christian debaters who convinced many to turn to Jesus.  Lydia became an important businesswoman who supported traveling missionaries.  

Each of these individuals had an impact on the overall ministry of the early church Jesus was building.  And each one had a particular place to land in life and a particular group of people God wanted them to influence.  To utilize a farming term related to sowing and reaping, each one had their own row to hoe as they worked together to spread the gospel.

And each one of us will have our own place in this land where we have never been before.  In our individual places, we will all have our own rows to hoe, too.  I’m here to encourage you because God has given you a special place and a special ministry, a special row to hoe, to prepare for the harvest of souls He has promised us.

We each have our own sphere of influence that includes people the rest of us don’t necessarily know.  You know people I don’t ever cross, and I know people you may never see.  And, just like the leaders of the early Christian movement, we all work together doing our own ministries that combine to create the overall work for the kingdom of God.

The Holy Spirit did not give us all the same gifts and talents because it takes many differing people with many differing gifts and talents to make up the ministry of any one congregation, just like it takes many different parts of a body working together to create the whole physical body.  Our national motto is “e pluribus unum,” which means “out of many, one.”  A body operates as a unit under that concept, and a congregation does, too.

This concept of many making up the whole is the very reason you will need to hoe your own row as we move forward for the kingdom of God.  You are going to witness to people the rest of us very possibly will never see.  You are going to do good deeds most of us will never know about.  You are going to help people by filling needs in their lives, and we might not know you have helped them.  But all of us working together, planting seeds of faith and tending spiritual crops, will make up the ministry of this congregation.

There will be times when we are in the same place at the same time with the same people.  We’ll have worship services designed to encourage and strengthen those in attendance so we can go out into the community to minister to people.  We’ll host community gatherings and special events where we invite as many as possible to attend.  And we’ll go to where groups are gathered for other reasons than to worship so we can interact with them where they are, because they may not choose to come here.

But those instances of ministry are not the primary way this new ministry will move forward to build the kingdom of God.  Each one of us will accomplish ministry outside these walls.  Each one of us will pray for hurting folks out there where they are.  Each one of us will encounter people who need to know about the love and judgment of God, and we’ll have to talk to them somewhere besides inside this building.

God has chosen you to do something special for His kingdom.  He has placed in you the ability and anointing to make a difference in the lives of people you know.  God has placed His plan of salvation in your hands and has called you to be part of His great harvest.

We have asked God to give us a renewed burden for the souls of men and women, boys and girls.  We have asked God to anoint us to do the work He has called us to do as individuals and as a congregation.  We have asked the Holy Spirit for guidance and understanding.  We have sought to be filled with Him so we can be given boldness to be witnesses for Jesus.

We have committed ourselves to the task of entering the place we’ve never been before.  We’ve dedicated the coming harvest to God.  We’ve given God glory for all He has accomplished for us and in us and through us.

It’s time for us to begin to go where we’ve never been before.  This is going to be exciting.  It’s time to go from this meeting house under the power of the Holy Spirit to spread the good news about Jesus.  It’s time to allow God to show us when and where to plant seeds of faith, when and how to water those seeds and when to reap the harvest.  Now it’s time to hoe our own God-given rows so the harvest can occur.