"LET ME TAKE IT FROM HERE"
- The Lord has given us a job to do
- The Lord has picked up where we have left off
For the most part, young children love to help their parents. Helping their mother clean the windows, helping their father fix a broken toy, helping to pull weeds from the garden… Whatever it may be, young children almost seem honored when asked to help their parents with anything at all - even though the parents don’t really need their help. In fact, when those young children do “help” their parents with something, it usually slows the process down. It takes longer to get it done. And sometimes it even creates more work for the parents because they have to undo what the children have done wrong. But the parents ask for their children’s help anyway - because they want them to grow, they want them to learn, they want them to contribute. And the children, in turn, are eager to accept the invitation.
As children of our heavenly Father, we have been asked to help God himself. Our Lord has given us a specific job. And as members of a small mission congregation, we are acutely aware of what that task is: we are asked to scatter the seed of God’s Word so that as many people as possible can be brought to faith in their Savior. The Lord doesn’t exactly need our help, of course. He could have decided to share his salvation in any way he wanted. And it’s not as if we are the most efficient way of getting things done either! In fact, we sometimes slow the process down. The Lord even has to undo what we have done wrong at times. But he wants to use us anyway. He wants us to learn. He wants us to contribute. He wants us to carry out this crucially important job of scattering the seed that he has made us responsible for. And as his children, we are more than happy to be used for that very purpose.
Early on in his ministry, Jesus told a parable about what our role is in the advancement of his kingdom. And listen to what the difference is between the responsibility the Lord gives us and what work belongs to the Lord alone. “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain - first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it because the harvest has come.” Our job is to scatter the seed. Everything else is up to the Lord. He gives us one specific task to do and, after it has been completed, he gently puts his hand on our shoulder and says, “Let me take it from here. You have done a good job. I will use what you have done so that my kingdom grows and my will is done. Step back, don’t worry, and let me take it from here.” And he says that to us because the Lord is the one who does the real work. After we have scattered the seed, we sleep and we get up, we go about our daily business, and all the while that seed of God’s Word is growing in the hearts of those who came into contact with it. “First the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel.” The seed grows and we don’t know how. And we aren’t supposed to know how. Nor are we supposed to worry about it. How and when and where the seed grows is the Lord’s business. We are simply to scatter that seed and then let it go.
But it’s hard to let go, isn’t? We not only want to plant the seed, we want to check on the seed, we want to nurture the seed, we want to observe the seed growing with our own two eyes, and we want to do something about it if it doesn’t! We like to be in control. We like to have a say when and where and how things happen. And so when we spread the seed as an individual or as a congregation, we expect to see some results! And if we don’t see those seeds growing, we suddenly become discontent with what is happening and frustrated that our work seemed to be all for nothing. And it is even happening right now, isn’t it? A congregation that has been around for so long and a congregation that has done some many things pertaining to evangelism is still small enough that we cannot support ourselves on our own. There’s been some frustration lately, some discouragement…
My fellow sowers of the seed, let’s stop evaluating the Lord’s work as if we were experts in the field of spiritual farming. Let’s stop coming to rash decisions about the Lord’s ability to use the seeds we’ve sown for the good of his kingdom. Because although we’d like to be in control, although we sometimes act as if we actually are in control, after the seed is scattered, every other task falls under the purview of our all-knowing God. Only he can nurture the seed. Only he has a say when and how and where it will grow. Only he is control of the size of the harvest. He doesn’t give that job to us. In fact, he doesn’t even tell us how he performs that task. He simply asks us to scatter the seed and he promises to take it from there.
That doesn’t usually stop us from critiquing the Lord’s efforts, though, does it? We have a certain cause and effect in our minds when it comes to planting the seed, we have hopes and plans and aspirations about what should happen if we do these particular things in these particular ways with these particular people. And so we get discouraged when things don’t work out according to our way of thinking. We almost get a little upset when those seeds we worked so hard to plant do not grow in the time frame we thought they would.
Now, although I realize that this frustration stems from a genuine zeal for the lost souls around us, that attitude is also crossing the line. Because that attitude is letting the Lord know that we aren’t satisfied with the way he is handling things, that we think he should be doing something different than what he is doing right now, that our plans might actually be more in line with what he wants than what the Lord himself is getting done! But what do we know about the inner workings of the soul? What do we know about how the Word works on a person’s heart? Who are we to say anything about what the Lord is doing or how he is doing it or when he is doing it? We have no authority to say or think those things. And what an offense it is to our Father when we imply that his work in the hearts of people in this world really isn’t measuring up to our standards. The Lord knows exactly what he is doing! He knows exactly how to do it and he knows exactly when to get it done. He has always proved faithful in making those seeds grow in the hearts of sinners and he has never failed in picking up where we have left off.
Consider what he picked up that we left for him at the cross. We were sinners. And no matter how hard we would have tried, we would have still been sinners to the core. There was nothing we could do about it. There was no solution. There was no man-made remedy that we could possibly conjure up that would make those sins go away. And so the Lord picked up where we left off. He took up the sins that we could not carry and he placed them on his own back. He took up the guilt that we could not bear and he let it press down on the thorns in his head. He took up the punishment that we could not survive and he let it drive the stakes into his flesh. He took up his Father’s anger that we had provoked and he let it push him down into the horrors of hell and into the cold pit of the grave. Jesus has always picked up right where we have left off. He finished what we started! We sinned and we could go no further. And so Jesus took it from there, shouldering our sins through temptation, through suffering, through abandonment, and through an eternal death sentence. Jesus was willing to pick up right where we left off even though he knew it was going to be far from pleasant. And he did a perfect job. And he did it in exactly the right way. And he did it at exactly the right time. Even though that was about 4000 years after the first promise of the Savior was made to Adam and Eve in the Garden. I’m sure there were plenty of frustrated and discouraged Christians by the time the Lord finally fulfilled his promise. But he did it exactly when it needed to be.
The Lord has given us no reason to doubt his ability to pick up where we have left off - and to do it well. And if he could do that and was willing to do that with our sins, he will certainly be willing and be able to pick up where we left off in the spreading of this gospel message to others. He didn’t pick up our sins just to voluntarily leave people drowning in their own. He didn’t suffer to such a great extent just to watch people suffer in their ignorance. He didn’t go as far as death itself just to watch people die without a knowledge of their Savior. The Lord knows what to do for those he so passionately cares about. He knows how to do it. And he knows when to get it done.
That’s the joy of being a sower of the seed. We can throw out the seed of the Word of God to those who need to hear it, and then be fully confident that the Lord will take it from there. The one who created the soul knows how to convert the soul. The one who created the mind knows how to convince the mind. The one who created the heart knows how to move the heart. The Lord is the original architect of it all, and so he knows how to fix it all. And since we are the highpoint of his creation and the focal point of his love, we can trust that the Lord never gives up on a lost soul and he never sits on his hands to the detriment of his people. He is always working. He is always directing. He is always making that seed grow.
“Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.” Night and day the seeds we have sown as a congregation are working. They are growing. And they will produce a harvest. It may not be in the field you were expecting. It may not be in the season you were hoping. But know that the Master Gardener will produce a crop. We are proof of that. We are part of his harvest. We are the results of seeds planted. We are Christians now because he made that seed of his kingdom grow in our hearts. And we will be his children forever because he will not let his work for our souls be in vain.
And so the question we should ask is not: “When will we see the fruit of our labor?” Because even if we received an answer to that question, it shouldn’t change a thing. We should be doing the exact same thing no matter what the Lord decides. The question we should ask ourselves is: “How can we best carry out the work the Lord has given us to do?” That is our responsibility - as Christians and as a Christian congregation. That is how the Lord wants us to contribute to the growth of his kingdom. That is our small part on the assembly line of God’s kingdom.
Back when assembly lines began, each part was put together by a real live human being instead of the machines that do most of those jobs now. And when those men worked on those original assembly lines, many of them had just one simple job. A worker may have just put one bolt into a car door and then the car door continued down the line. Bolt after bolt, door after door, the worker did his job. But that worker did not place the bolt into the car door and then follow it down the line! He did not take it upon himself to make sure that every other part of the car was put in exactly the right place at exactly the right time! Nor did he follow it into the next room where the outside shell was attached or into the factory where the engine was set it place. And the worker certainly didn’t follow that car out to the dealership to see the salesman finally sell that car to the costumer. That worker rarely saw the end result of all his work day in and day out. Because he if tried to, he would be neglecting the job that he was held responsible for. Don’t neglect the job you are responsible for because you are worrying so much about the results. Just place that bolt into the door. Scatter the seed of God’s Word to others and let the Lord take it from there. He will produce crops. He will gather the harvest. He will finish what we started.
Amen.
“May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” - Heb. 13:20-21
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