World Harvest | Pastor Lynne Hammond
Recap
Pastor Lynne shared her excitement about church planting and about world harvest. Sadly, most Christians never even think about world harvest. She pointed out that world harvest was the very first prayer assignment Jesus ever gave His people. It says in Matthew chapter 9 that when Jesus saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them. He turned to His disciples and said, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” We are to pray that God would send out laborers into His harvest. World harvest… that is the first prayer assignment Jesus gave to the church. Pastor Lynne went on to talk about the 10/40 window, what it is and how we can pray about it.
Dive Deeper
Scriptural reference:
Matthew 9:35–38, “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news (the Gospel) of the kingdom and curing all kinds of disease and every weakness and infirmity. 36 When He saw the throngs, He was moved with pity and sympathy for them, because they were bewildered (harassed and distressed and dejected and helpless), like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 So pray to the Lord of the harvest to force out and thrust laborers into His harvest.”
Jesus’ perspective for the Gospel is to reach every city, every village, every single unreached people group.
Pastor Lynne said, “I believe Jesus looked down through the ages to the ‘every and to the all,’ and wondered who was going to carry His heart.” Jesus was able to reach the villages in His area when He was here on the earth, but who was going to carry His heart to the rest of humanity, to those who would be born in the ages to come. Who is going to do that? So He turned to His disciples and said, “We need laborers into the field.”
We see Jesus saying, “In light of this problem… pray.” Jesus said, “The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the laborers are few. So pray to the Lord of the harvest to force out and thrust laborers into His harvest.”
Pray… this is our marching orders, for all time and space.
In every story of missions, the deciding factor about the success of harvest is prayer.
Pastor Lynne said, “There is a place on this earth that I’m very interested in. And I’ve been interested in it for many years. It’s called the 10/40 window. This is the resistant belt in the whole world, and it includes the world’s Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists. It’s an area from North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. It’s approximately 10 degrees north and 40 degrees north latitude of the equator. There are in this 10/40 window approximately 5.11 billion individuals residing in 8,717 distinct people groups. 68.7% of these people are totally unreached. Unreached doesn’t mean unsaved. Unreached means you’ve never heard about Jesus… you have never heard that name or know anything about the Gospel.
The 10/40 window is home to the majority of poor people, and these people exist on less than a hundred dollars a year. There’s an overlap between the poorest countries of the world and the country’s least evangelized.
Lynne led the congregation into a time of prayer to pray for those inside the 10/40 window and also to pray about our church plants, the pastors and their families, and the congregations.
Using photos, Pastor Lynne introduced the pastors of our church plants and encouraged the congregation to lift them up in prayer on a regular basis. The following are our church plants.
Santiago, Dominican Republic:
Church plant 1.
Pastor Leonardo (Francis) Marte and Kenya Pena De Marte
Church plant 2.
Pastor Jose Estrella and Veronica Monsanto
Church plant 3.
Pastor Joel Ruben Sosa and Maxima Rodriguez
Church plant 4.
Pastor Antonio Acasio Reinoso
Alotenango, Guatemala:
Pastors Carlos and Damaris Galindo
Maracaibo, Venezuela:
Pastor Danilo Antonio Cohen Bernal and wife Pastor Gina Espina de Cohen
Soacha, Bogota, Columbia:
Senior Pastor, José Antonio Ruedas and Pastor, Gladys Ruedas Carreño (Daughter)
Naas, Ireland:
Pastors Bradley and Amy Beebe
Read About It
Matthew 9:35–38, “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news (the Gospel) of the kingdom and curing all kinds of disease and every weakness and infirmity. 36 When He saw the throngs, He was moved with pity and sympathy for them, because they were bewildered (harassed and distressed and dejected and helpless), like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 So pray to the Lord of the harvest to force out and thrust laborers into His harvest.”
Discussion Questions
After hearing about the 10/40 window, were you surprised to learn of its existence?
Would you be willing to commit to spending a certain amount of time each week to pray for world harvest?
Do you feel called to missions? If yes, what part of the world does your heart feel drawn towards?