Gather up the Fragments

I would like to read from Luke chapter 8, verse 4. When a great crowd came together, and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, sun fell along the path, and was trodden underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And sun fell on the rock, and it grew up, and it withered away because it lacked moisture.

And sun fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And sun fell on good soil, and grew and yielded a hundredfold. As he said this, he called out, He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Now notice, when this sower goes out to sow his seed, he sows in all directions. He sows with unspeakable generosity. He doesn't test the soil to see if it's going to do anything.

He doesn't say, Oh, that's rocky over there, I won't waste my seed on that. And those people over there are deadbeats, I won't waste my seed on that. I'm looking around for the good soil.

That's not how he does it. He just takes that seed, and he flings it. Tons of the seed is wasted.

But that doesn't bother him. He wastes as much as he wants to. There's plenty of seed, because he knows that some of that seed is going to take root and grow and bear fruit.

Now that's exactly how Jesus sowed the seed across the land of Israel. Jesus did not try to distinguish between the people who looked like they would be a genius and the people who looked like they would be deadbeats. He didn't wait for evidence that people would be a likely prospect before he gave them the word.

He just gave the word in all directions, and he didn't form any judgments about people at that point. He just spread the seed, spread the seed, spread the seed. But once the seed began to grow, and some of it began to produce fruit, this wonderful sower, who was so abundantly generous with his seed, now becomes frugal, almost miserly, very, very, very, very careful.

He watches over every little stalk that comes up. He carefully attends to every little sheet. Now it's quite different.

Now, with this kind of care, if you have a hundred sheep and one goes astray, you'll leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and you go looking for that one sheep. You have ten silver coins, one of them gets lost, you stop everything and you turn the house upside down until you find it. And so, along with the lesson which the Spirit of the Lord is surely teaching us these days, to be abundant with the seed, to be bold as we proclaim the gospel of the kingdom, and not to worry about whether it's going to be received or not, just give it out.

While we learn that, we also need to learn the second lesson, which is, once there is a response, there is a need for us to exercise great care, to be very, very careful with that one sheep coming in, that tender lamb, that one silver coin, that little shoot. And we need to know this especially right now, because we're beginning to see a stirring of the Spirit very clearly among us and in many other places. And as the fruit starts coming in, and it is coming in, if we are not careful, if we are not cautious about each one, if we're heedless when that one sheep goes astray, or that one coin falls down through the crack, if we aren't careful in that area, the revival which is at work among us right now will very, very quickly.

Reading then from John 6, verse 1. After this, Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a multitude followed him, because they saw the signs which he did on those who were diseased. Jesus went up into the hills, and there sat down with his disciples.

Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up his eyes and seeing a multitude coming, Jesus said to Philip, How are we to buy bread that these people may eat? This he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred denarii wouldn't buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.

One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, and Andrew's always doing this kind of thing, said to him, There's a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish. Here's a man, you know, who always seems to know what's going on. He quietly goes around and finds out when everybody's busy with the theoretical things.

Here's a man who's very practical. There's a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they among so many? Jesus said, Make the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down and numbered about five thousand.

Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, Gather up the fragments left over, that nothing may be lost.

So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. Now we notice this generous sower of seed, Jesus, who has this tremendous word, so powerful that people are drawn to it. And he's so generous at performing the signs of the kingdom, so that people receiving these healings just come to him.

He's at the same time very, very careful about detail. Notice, he's concerned about the fact that this multitude of people is physically hungry for physical bread. The disciples' attitude is, What can we do? We didn't tell them to come up here in the hills.

If they don't have any food, let them go and find some. He's delighted. Jesus is delighted when Andrew comes along and finds one little guy who held on to his food when everybody ate theirs.

Maybe he was eating theirs too, I don't know, but he's still on his life. And Andrew brings this and he says, I don't know if this is going to do any good, but here. And the disciples' view is, What will that do? What can you do? One bag lunch for thousands of people? Jesus says, That's wonderful.

Wonderful. Give it here. That's all we need.

And then after the people are fed, Jesus says, Now, gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing may be lost. The disciples' view is, Let the birds have it. You know, it's getting late.

Let's get out of here. The park service will take care of it tomorrow. They'll clean up the mess.

That's what they're paid for. But no, Jesus says, Gather up the fragments, that nothing may be lost. Very, very important.

Now, if the outpouring of the Spirit and the ingathering of souls that's taking place among us right now is to have any lasting impact, we're going to have to learn, far better than we are learning so far, have done so far, what it means to gather up the fragments that are left over. In the late 60s and early 70s, there was a revival which swept over this country that touched many, many of our lives here. We saw a sudden influx of souls into the kingdom of God, you know, in the late 60s, early 70s.

And we saw people that we'd known for years make radical and wonderful changes in their lives. We ourselves, many of us, were affected by this. But, much of that revival has now dissipated.

And many, many, many of the people who were affected by it at that time have returned to their old ways. They've gone back into lives of despair, back into lives of greed, back into lives of cynicism. And the reason is that, if we're honest, we have to admit that we were, our part of this, as we look back at our part in this revival, we were far, far better at spreading the seed, giving forth the Word, than we were at gathering up the fragments, looking after that one lost sheep, going after that one lost coin.

We were great at spreading it out, and we can be even better at that than we are. But, we were not so careful when it came to detail. And as a result, and we can remember this, and some of it still goes on, many people who came into the kingdom at that time saw no connection between the glory of the kingdom and their practical life.

And so, believers would get to work late. What does it matter? I was up all night, until three o'clock in the morning, witnessing, you know. And that's far more important than making a few bucks.

In fact, many of them were those believers who didn't consider it important to get to work at all. As long as I can get by, as long as somebody will take me in, I mean, I'm going to serve the kingdom of God. Who needs to work? And, or in their jobs.

Three hours of company time would be spent in witnessing. Or this chap would hide behind the boxes and open his Bible and have his devotions for an hour, till the boss would catch him. What are you doing? I'm having my devotions.

People would come to meetings, and when the meeting was over, it looked like a cyclone hit it. Litter all over the place. You know, and in the middle of winter, the lights would be on, the doors would be open.

Nobody worried about turning off a light. Nobody. I can remember, that's when we had to put the door closer on here.

That door was open half the time. In the middle of winter, and loose ends flying everywhere. And I think it's fair to say that the only place that revival truly took hold and kept going and expanded and grew, were those places, really, where people tied together the loose ends and took care of the details.

Now, we're in the mid-eighties, and we are seeing evidence now of a stirring, of a spiritual awakening, a revival of far greater proportions than anything we saw in the sixties and seventies. Far greater. It's going on now, and it's going to increase.

And the theme of this year, not only here, but all over the body of Christ, worldwide, is, Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the people. But the Lord will arise upon you, and His glory will be seen upon you.

Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. This is happening. But, if it's going to have any lasting effect on the world around us, we not only have to learn how to rise and shine, we also have to learn how to gather up the fragments.

And so it's interesting to notice that Isaiah 60, which is this passage that begins with, Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you, ends with these verses. The end of Isaiah 60 goes like this. Your people shall all be righteous.

They have to be righteous. They shall possess the land forever. The shoot of my planting, the work of my hands, I watched over it.

I took care of that little shoot, that I might be glorified. The least one shall become a clan, and the smallest one a mighty nation. Details, details, little tiny things.

I am the Lord, in its time I will hasten it. And so, if it's going to have an impact that's going to affect the world around us with any lasting, eternal value, we're going to have to learn what it means, in practice, to gather up the fragments. Basically, to gather up the fragments means three things.

First of all, to gather up the fragments means everybody counts. Everybody counts. Everybody counts.

And the person who appears to have the least to offer is the one who is to be given the highest honor. Reading from 1 Corinthians 12, verse 21. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable. And those parts of the body which we think less honorable, we invest with a greater honor. And our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require.

But God has so adjusted the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior part, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all members suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Now it's true that in this world the way it works is the one who produces the most for General Motors gets the highest salary. At least that's the theory. The one who is the smartest at making a company prosper is the one who gets the most advancement.

At least that's the way it is in theory and largely works out like this in time. In the kingdom, that's not how it works. It's certainly true that in the kingdom there are rewards for faithfulness.

You know, we don't, not how many, you know, the one who brings in the most members this year gets a free trip to the Holy Land. Not that way. But there are rewards for faithfulness.

And those rewards, praise God, are given out by the master himself who doesn't make any mistakes. And they will be given out when the time comes. And we won't have to worry.

He won't cheat us. We'll get, there are going to be surprises on that day when the rewards are handed out. Great surprises for faithfulness.

Meanwhile, everybody counts. Everybody. Each one is important.

Nobody is neglected. Nobody is to be left out or forgotten or left behind. And so the question we have to ask when we apply this to ourselves, gathering up the fragments, the question is, do I pay honor to each one? Do I pray for each one? Do I take each one seriously? Do I listen to each one? Do I care about each one? Secondly, to gather up the fragments means tying up the loose ends.

It means that we take our faith in Jesus and our love for him and we bring it down into the details of our daily living. Reading from Luke chapter 16, verse 10, Jesus is speaking and he says, He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. And he who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.

If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous manner, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? Example that he gives is right here. Many, many people really want to serve the kingdom of God and worship his glory while at the same time being totally irresponsible in the way they handle their money. Their money.

It's not their money. It's God's money. Every dime of it.

But they say, Oh, money. Who cares about money? Unrighteous manner. I'm concerned about the glory of the kingdom.

What does it matter? Money. But if, even if it is unrighteous manner and even if it isn't anything compared with the glory of the kingdom, it is extremely important how we handle money. I'm talking about every dime that comes through our pockets.

Every dollar that God puts in our hands, all of it is his, not ours, and we answer to him. If we're not faithful in the way we handle it, then we're not anywhere, we're nowhere ready to be given the true riches of his kingdom and the powers of his spirit. Many of us want to serve the Lord and we want to live in the kingdom of God, but we don't pay careful attention, for instance, to our relationship with our wife, our husband, our child, our mother, our boss at work, our next door neighbor.

And we say, I seek first the kingdom of God. And didn't Jesus say, whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me? Whoever doesn't hate his father, mother, wife, children, and so forth, he can't be my disciple? This is true. Jesus must come first.

But if Jesus is first in my life, the place where his supremacy as my Lord is translated into real living is in my relationship with my wife and my children, parents, brothers, sisters, people. See, and if there isn't justice and righteousness and mercy and holiness and purity in those relationships, the loose ends are flying and there will be no power or life in me. Isaiah 58 talks about the Lord's fast, you know, feeding the hungry, holding the naked, bringing the naked, the stranger into our house.

And that we hide not ourselves from our own flesh. That is our family. Family isn't supposed to be God.

That's true. But the family is the ground where you begin to translate the mercy of God into real living. One more little example is the way we use time.

And again, we're so concerned about the glory of the kingdom and eternity, what does time matter? And so what happens is that time slips through our fingers. It doesn't matter whether we're gawking at the free press for three hours when you could have done it in ten minutes, you know, or looking out the window gathering wool and calling a prayer, or, you know, wasting time in front of the two, whatever it is. You know, it's very, very important how we use time.

It's not our time, it's God's. And if I'm not faithful in the way I handle time, then the power of the spirit of eternity won't be able to move into time through me. Gather up those fragments.

Tie up those loose ends. Finally, to tie up, to gather up the fragments means that top priority is given to the lost sheep and the lost coin. Reading from Luke chapter 15, verse 8. Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it.

And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found a coin which I had lost, even so I tell you there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. And that joy among the angels of God is to be translated into joy in the body of Christ. And so here's that one person, and we go, and we sweep the house, and we look for that one coin, and we do it by means of prayer, and we do it by reaching out, telephone calls, letters.

Now, if this person who has seemed to be drifting away and gives the impression of feeling like an outsider, unwelcome, as if God or the people don't care about me, whatever it is, if this person finally says, Look, leave me alone, I really don't want the kingdom of God, and we're satisfied that that's exactly what they mean, then we can shake the dust off our feet and go on. But, as long as there is evidence of thirst, of loneliness, of hunger, of woundedness, whatever it is, they're broken, they're troubled, then we keep pursuing that lost feet. We look for that lost coin, and we work on it until we bring it back to the Father's table.

And so we are to go out, truly, to rise and shine for our light has come, and take that word out with great boldness, and not to be stingy with it. You don't have to test the soils, never mind if they look like dead beets. How can you tell a dead beet? You know, we can't tell a dead beet from a genius.

You know, people look at us as dead beets, and we're really geniuses. But, you know, that's not our affair. Our affair is to sow the seed, just sow the seed, sow it, generously.

But when we begin to get a response, when people begin to find their way into the Kingdom, now, it's very, very important, far more important than we've ever seen in the past, that we attend to detail, that we gather up those fragments, gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing may be lost. Everybody counts. Every loose end has to be tied together, and the lost sheep and the lost coin get top priority.

To follow through on that, it may be, who knows, that that lost sheep or that lost coin is sitting in this place today. Maybe there's a man or a woman who has felt the call of the Lord, and the press of the Spirit, the invitation of God to come on home, make that commitment, make that new start, return to the Father. Then please, you know, respond to that now.

Feel welcome. Hear the call of the Lord, and while we sing this next hymn, you come on down and kneel at this rail, whether it's one or two or whatever, and the Lord will wash away in His blood the sins, He'll fill you with His Spirit, and He'll make you welcome as never before, as you could never imagine.