Ripe for the Picking

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 21st of September, 2025, the International Day of Peace.  A recording of our service may be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Family, with our advanced agriculture methods and being able to import edible goods from all over the world, we enjoy a rich supply of food year-round.  But Fall is still our typical harvest time.  We have fall festivals to celebrate the harvest, and Thanksgiving Day to give thanks for the harvest.  Jesus even spoke of the time for harvest.

One day when He had been out in the towns and villages, teaching about the kingdom of God and healing folks of their infirmities and illnesses – you know, the usual things He did – He looked out over the multitudes and had compassion for them.  He felt they were weary, and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd.  So He turned to His disciples and said, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few.  So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask Him to send more workers into His fields.”  In this, Jesus meant that there were many souls that needed to be saved, so more workers are needed in the field making disciples.  And this need also holds true still today.

Our good bible speaks of another type of harvest in a number of passages, and often as a warning as much as a plea.  For instance, Jesus tells of what will happen at the end of the age, when the wheat and the weeds will all be harvested together, cut at the same time, with the wheat going into the barn and the weeds being burned in fire.  That’s a warning to us that we do not want to be a weed in God’s garden.

I don't often lead off with scripture from the Old Testament, usually referring to it for supporting text.  But what we are about to look at has great relevance today.  It is definitely one of those warnings, and it comes from God Himself through His prophet Amos.  Leading up to this passage, Amos has been shown a series of visions from God.  Please listen and follow along to another of these visions as related by the prophet Amos in the 8th chapter of the book bearing his name, and I’ll be reading from the New Living Translation of our Holy Bible this morning…

1 Then the Sovereign Lord showed me another vision. In it I saw a basket filled with ripe fruit. 2 “What do you see, Amos?” He asked.

I replied, “A basket full of ripe fruit.”

Then the Lord said, “Like this fruit, Israel is ripe for punishment! I will not delay their punishment again. 3 In that day the singing in the temple will turn to wailing. Dead bodies will be scattered everywhere. They will be carried out of the city in silence. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”

4 Listen to this, you who rob the poor

and trample down the needy!

5 You can’t wait for the Sabbath day to be over

and the religious festivals to end

so you can get back to cheating the helpless.

You measure out grain with dishonest measures

and cheat the buyer with dishonest scales.

6 And you mix the grain you sell

with chaff swept from the floor.

Then you enslave poor people

for one piece of silver or a pair of sandals.

7 Now the Lord has sworn this oath

by His own name, the Pride of Israel:

“I will never forget

the wicked things you have done!

8 The earth will tremble for your deeds,

and everyone will mourn.

The ground will rise like the Nile River at floodtime;

it will heave up, then sink again.

9 “In that day,” says the Sovereign Lord,

“I will make the sun go down at noon

and darken the earth while it is still day.

10 I will turn your celebrations into times of mourning

and your singing into weeping.

You will wear funeral clothes

and shave your heads to show your sorrow — as if your only son had died.

How very bitter that day will be!

11 “The time is surely coming,” says the Sovereign Lord,

“when I will send a famine on the land —

not a famine of bread or water

but of hearing the words of the Lord.

12 People will stagger from sea to sea

and wander from border to border

searching for the word of the Lord,

but they will not find it.

13 Beautiful girls and strong young men

will grow faint in that day,

thirsting for the Lord’s word.

14 And those who swear by the shameful idols of Samaria —

who take oaths in the name of the god of Dan

and make vows in the name of the god of Beersheba —

they will all fall down,

never to rise again.”

--Amos 8 (NLT)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, we thank You for both the words of assurance and the words of warning contained within our bible.  You inspired its authors to tell us what to look forward to and what to look out for in the days to come.  Your Son even shared His words with us, recorded and saved for us by the men who walked with Him.  Father, we thank You for giving us the means of knowing how our lives, now and in eternity, will be affected by our obedience or disobedience to You and Jesus.  But, Father, we seem surrounded by evil.  People do the worst things to each other.  We know we’re supposed to hate the sin and love the sinner, but how can we love them, Father?  Please forgive us our failures.  Help us be more obedient to Your will, more open and caring, more compassionate, showing Your love to others so that they too might find salvation through Jesus.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better grasp the message You have for us this day.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, our worship, and our service.  And please keep us healthy and safe through these trying times.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

Christian author Patrick Morley writes that the church's integrity problem is in the misconception that, “we can add Christ to our lives, but not subtract sin.  It is a change in belief without a change in behavior."  Morley goes on to say, "It is revival without reformation, without repentance."

Perhaps this misconception leads to what George Gallup, the famous pollster, once noted when he concluded, "There's little difference in ethical behavior between the churched and the unchurched.  There's as much pilferage and dishonesty among the churched as the unchurched.  And I'm afraid that applies pretty much across the board: religion, per se, is not really life changing.  People cite it as important, for instance, in overcoming depression -- but it doesn't have primacy in determining behavior."

We often easily believe what we want to believe, whether it is true or not.  We adopt the good parts, while ignoring what makes us uncomfortable.  More and more, people do not want to hear the full truth, just the truth that agrees with their worldview.  We see this all around, in the news, in our neighborhoods.

“Somebody is saying things I don’t like, all kind of stuff I don’t agree with?  First I’ll demonize them and try to turn others against them.  If that doesn’t work, I’ll just kill them.”

These folks don’t want to hear that they are dooming themselves to eternal damnation by their behavior.  The truth hurts, and will hurt for some in the end, whether they want to believe it or not.

At the beginning I referred to Amos as one of God’s prophets, but a little earlier in his book he described himself, saying, “I'm not a professional prophet, and I was never trained to be one. I’m just a shepherd, and I take care of sycamore-fig trees.  But the Lord called me away from my flock and told me, ‘Go and prophesy to my people in Israel.’”  And he did just that.

One of the accusations God levied through Amos comes in verse 5, which, when translated directly from the Hebrew reads, “You make the ephah small and the shekel great, and you deal falsely by using deceitful balances.”  Now an “ephah” was a unit for measuring grain while the “shekel” was a unit of weight.  So these people were making a little look like a lot while charging more.  Sounds like ancient shrinkflation to me.

When reading this prophecy, we need to understand and keep in mind that the Old Testament is not just a history lesson.  It always ultimately points to Jesus in some way.  For instance, the 9th verse of our passage, Amos says the sun will go down at noon and darken the earth while it is still day.  This happened exactly as stated when Jesus hung on the cross, as recorded by the Apostle Matthew in the 27th chapter of his Gospel account, in verses 45, 46, and 50…

45 At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. 46 At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me?”

50 Then Jesus shouted out again, and He released His spirit.

--Matthew 27:45-46, 50 (NLT)

And family, we’re told this will happen again at the end of the age, by none other authority than Jesus Himself, as recorded again by Matthew a little earlier in his Gospel account, in chapter 24 verse 29…

29 "Immediately after the anguish of those days, 

the sun will be darkened,

the moon will give no light,

the stars will fall from the sky,

and the powers in the heavens will be shaken."

--Matthew 24:29 (NLT)

So here in this passage from Amos, I feel we’re not only looking at the fate of Israel, but also at the end of time, the end of the age when Jesus comes back to judge us.  This could just as easily be the fate of the United States and other nations around the world, including Israel.

And just what is this fate that Amos warns of?  That the word of God will no longer be heard, will no longer be found, no matter how far we search.  Those who worship false idols will fall, never to rise again.  Some have said that the true “hell” will be total separation from God.  Doesn’t this sound like what Amos is warning us of?  If God’s word can no longer be heard nor even found, wouldn’t that mean that God has abandoned that person, that they are now separated from God?

We’re also warned to be careful of worshiping false idols, or spending our time and resources on things or other people while ignoring our Father God.  Anything or anyone we put above God in our list of priorities becomes our false idol.  Anything we give our heart to instead of to God is our idol.  Worshiping anything other than God will lead to our downfall and we’ll never be able to rise again.  After we’re dead to this life, it will be too late.  The time to repent is now, while we still draw breath.

Family, we’re seeing a lot of craziness in the world.  Today is the International Day of Peace, but peace seems to be in very short supply right now.  There is so much outrageous behavior, so much disregard for human life, so much cruel intent.  Violence has seemingly become the answer to any disagreement, from the nation’s highways to its college campuses.  Intolerance rules.  Some blame politics, some blame ideology, but this is not an issue of left versus right, of conservative versus liberal.  We can even see that believers are not immune, as noted in the earlier comments of Morley and Gallup.

What we’re seeing up close and personal is the war between good and evil being fought in our streets.  Satan is hard at work, making his converts more active as the day of reckoning draws near.  We need to heed the words God spoke through Amos, we need to heed the words of our Lord Jesus, and avoid the mindset and worldview and behavior that will lead to our ruin.  And we need to face evil with the strength of faith, standing firm in our belief, knowing Jesus is standing right beside us.  Let’s keep doing the work He assigned us, trying to save the non-believers from the horrible fate Amos describes, sharing the Gospel with anyone who will listen.  For this is God’s will for us, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In the blessed name of Jesus.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for giving us so many chances to get things right in this life so that we can spend the next life with You.  As long as we draw breath, we have the opportunity to turn from our disobedience and avoid the fate You warned of through Your prophet Amos.  And thank You for giving us the faith to believe in and follow Your Son Jesus.  Please help us follow Him and His teachings more closely, something we admit we don’t always do.  We often behave in ways that displease You.  We try to not live as the world lives, but it’s hard to differentiate ourselves from our non-believing neighbors.  We need Your help, Father.  Please keep reminding us of our fate if we continue to disobey and displease You.  Keep reassuring us of our reward for following Your commands.  And please remove all distractions that pull us away from spending more time with You and Jesus.  Please help us reach out to others and share with them all You teach us through Your word. 

Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith, trying to make us his own.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what comes our way.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, thank You for standing by our side in this world gone mad.  Even as we worry about our safety and the safety of our loved ones, we know that while the world may take our mortal life from us, our eternal life is secured by our faith in You.  We love You, Jesus, and thank You for all You have done and continue to do for us.  We just ask that you please keep blessing us, keep helping us through the difficult times.  And please forgive us, Lord, when we struggle to love others like You want us to.  We know it disappoints You when we let our fear keep us from approaching others and showing Your love as we walk through each day.  Please help us be more like You in how we live and behave.  Help us reach out to the non-believing world, sharing the Gospel message, showing Your love through our love.  Give us the words to say, show us the deeds to do to lead the lost to You.

Holy Spirit, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this world might offer.  All this we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.