I’m speaking to you today from Pennsylvania. But our guest, however, is speaking to us all the way from the other side of the globe. Ryan Swanson is a young man who’s had a big part in making the Thee Generation Podcast a possibility and making it what it is here. And I’ve appreciated so much his heart for you all and his heart for souls. Ryan is currently interning in Australia, and I’ll let him say more about that. But God’s put a very specific burden on his heart for this podcast. So Ryan, I’ll just turn it over to you here at this time.

Well, this is certainly a privilege, not just speaking on Thee Generation, but also to be speaking from one of my favorite places on earth, Adelaide, Australia. This is my second time here, and certainly it’s already seems like a second home to me. I was here two years ago with a group of about 10 other college students from the U.S. We came over to do cold clashes and other youth outreaches, both in Sydney and down here in Adelaide. That was when I first got in contact with the pastor here, who I sincerely appreciate. His heart for evangelism and for the ministry he has here. Brenton Honeychurch is his name at Southwest Baptist Church. I’ve certainly appreciated my time here, and I have another four weeks here in Adelaide. Sorry, but I don’t think that’s enough time to pick up on the Australian accent. I know you’d all rather be listening to an Aussie right now and hear their native tongue. But don’t worry, in the next few weeks we’re hoping to get at least one or two interviews with some locals here so you’ll be able to hear that notorious accent that comes from Australia. But there’s more to Australia that’s unique other than just crazy accents, crocodile hunters, and the fact that any little thing that moves can probably kill you. Okay, it’s not quite that bad. But my point is there’s something else unique about Australia that we found out when we came two years ago. Actually, before I even came, I got an email from someone who really probably meant well. I think he was. I think he was a great guy and he meant well. But he emailed me when he heard that we were going to try to do youth evangelism in Australia. And he said, you know, I just wouldn’t advise coming over here. It might be a waste of time because people don’t want the gospel in Australia. I was kind of surprised by that. But honestly, I couldn’t say anything because I didn’t understand Australia at that time. I’d never been there. Well, when we went, you know what we found out? That in a lot of ways, he was right. There is a lot of people in Australia that didn’t want the gospel. There’s a lot of teenagers that weren’t interested. And I heard the phrase several times when I was there, not just from native Aussies, but from people who had visited Australia. They said that trying to do evangelism in Australia is like trying to plow a concrete field. And you know what we found? That in a lot of ways, that was right. In a lot of ways, that is exactly how it seemed. People would reject the gospel. People would slam doors in your face. People would not even take tracts from you. People would cuss you out. People were not interested in the gospel, but yet, we’re promised in John 4.35, Jesus himself said that the fields are white already to harvest. How do you reconcile that? How do you reconcile a white harvest with a concrete field? And that’s what I want to talk about for the next few minutes, because I know some of you are either listening from Australia, and you know exactly what I’m talking about, or you’re listening from another country or another state in the U.S. where you know what it means to have people who are antagonistic to the gospel. It seems like people in your area do not want to hear the gospel. What do you do with that? How do you reconcile a white harvest with a concrete field? Well, you know what else we found when we were in Australia? That no matter where we were working in this concrete field, how it seemed, there were always people who were ripe and ready for the gospel. In those same neighborhoods, on those same streets, were people who were ready. We just had to find them. And so our prayer then became, Lord, lead us to those people who are ripe. Lead us to those people within our reach who are ready. It might be just one. It might be two. But Lord, help us not to get discouraged with the people who are antagonistic and don’t want the gospel so that we miss the people who are ready. And you know, that’s exactly what Galatians 6 verse 9 is. And this is the verse that I really want us to focus on here for the rest of this time. It says, And let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. You know that’s a promise to us. And your ears should perk up right away when you hear a promise like that in Scripture. It says the reason that we’re not supposed to grow weary in well-doing is because in due season we shall reap. It says the reason that we’re not supposed to grow weary in doing the right thing in well-doing is that in due season, we shall reap if we faint not. It’s conditional. If we faint not, then we’re going to reap in due season. You know what that tells me? That tells me there’s going to be times when we want to faint. There’s going to be times when we want to give up, when we want to quit. Why? Because at times it seems like you’re plowing a concrete field. At times it seems like no one’s receiving it. No one wants the gospel. And so we give up. And so we go home. And we quit sharing the gospel because of people that aren’t ready and because of people who don’t want it. But the fact is, there’s people there who do. And we’re promised that if we keep on continuing to give the gospel and keep looking for those people, that there are people within our reach ready for the gospel. That’s pretty cool. You know, just a few weeks ago, as I’m looking at coming to Adelaide again, and I know a little bit more of what to expect, I was very specific in one request when I asked the Lord to give me a family I could lead to Christ during the beginning of my time here so that I had time during the rest of the eight weeks to disciple them and see them added to the church. When I got here, Pastor and I went out. It was just the second day I was here. He and I went out to hand out tracts. We didn’t have a lot of time, but we were engaging people whenever possible. And we’re walking down the street when I see a family on the other side of the street coming towards us. And I run across and intercept them and introduce myself. And I said, look, I’ve got a quick question for you. Do you know 100% sure that you’re on your way to heaven? And they all said yes. This was a dad. His name was Raymond. And he’s there with three of his four kids, all what they call here uni students, short for university, they’re college students. And they said yes, and I asked them how they knew they were going to heaven. They said, well, because we’re good people, we do good things, do more good than bad, we’re baptized, that kind of thing. And it was obvious that they were trusting themselves. so I just started giving them the gospel gave them Ephesians 2 8 and 9 showed them that it’s by grace that we’re saved not of works and the Holy Spirit began to convict and at the end of only 5 to 10 minutes they admitted that if they were to die right then they’d go to hell because they’re trusting in themselves and not solely in the work of Jesus Christ so I took another few minutes and went through the gospel start to finish and it clicked with them they understood and they were white and they were ready for the harvest and when they asked them if they wanted to make the decision then or they wanted to do it later, the dad didn’t even hesitate. He just started to pray and he accepted Christ as his personal Savior. He said amen and then looked right over at his kids and he said, now this is a decision that you need to make yourself. I can’t make it for you. He said, I’m not going to force it on you. I want you to decide whether or not you want to do this. And, you know, each one of them decided right there and prayed right then to accept Christ. So here we have a dad, Raymond, and three of his college-aged kids who just accepted Christ on the side of the road of a concrete field. They were white, ready to harvest within our reach. You know, the story didn’t end there. They invited us over. Here’s a family who I had never met before, but they invited myself and a friend from the church over for dinner that following Monday. We went just expecting to do a discipleship Bible study with them, but unbeknownst to us, they invited a whole bunch more of their college friends over. As we walk into the house, the dad sits all of them down in the living room, and he turns to myself and my friend. He said, how much time would you like to give the gospel? How much time would you like for your Bible study? And I said, well, 30 minutes would be great. And he said, yeah, no problem. He said, go ahead and do that Bible study before we eat. You take all the time you want. And I had nine college students there sitting in that living room, eagerly listening to the gospel. And at the end of that time, three more, including the last one of Raymond’s kids who wasn’t there the other day, three more were saved. A direct answer to prayer and a direct fulfillment of these promises. The fields are white, ready to harvest. And in due season we shall reap if we faint not. You know, there are those people that may just take a tract and not want to talk to you about it. And there is that biblical aspect of you’re just sowing the seed. Someone else will water. The Lord gives the increase. And someone else can reap that harvest later. But you know, promised to every one of us is not just the fact that we’ll sow the seed. And not just the fact that we’re going to water. But that we will reap. That’s promised to every one of us no matter where you’re from. No matter who you are. it’s promised to you where you’re at and there are always people within your reach who are ready for the gospel you know what that means that means when you go out there and it seems like oh no one’s listening and all this don’t give yourself a time limit like i’m going to come back after a certain amount of time go out there and say god i’m going to go out here till i find that one that’s ready for the gospel but don’t get discouraged just because as you’re walking down the street people aren’t running to you asking for gospel tracks asking for you to them about Jesus. Now don’t get discouraged because at times it’s going to seem like a concrete field but the promise is there is someone there who’s ready to be harvested. I grew up in the state of Maine where if you look at a list of the most unchurched states of the 50 states in the union Maine would be number three. It is not a religious place at all and would also be said very antagonistic towards the gospel but I remember going home on a Christmas break from school and giving the gospel to a guy at the top of a ski mountain and leading him to Christ right there. I was just in Dubai not long ago. You know, that’s a place where people told me, they warned me, don’t give the gospel in Dubai, you’ll probably get killed. And you know, I was honestly pretty scared. I only gave out two tracts the whole time I was in Dubai. One of them went to a Christian, a born-again believer I found out from Nigeria, who was very encouraged by it. We ended up eating dinner together, spending some time together there in Dubai, and we’ve been in contact since. The other tract went to a man from Macedonia. who was there with his daughter. He had never heard of the gospel before. He had never heard of the Macedonian call. And he listened there eagerly as in Dubai, as I explained to him the gospel, and he soaked it up and he held the tract down to his daughter and he said, we’re going to read this tonight in the hotel room. You know, that’s pretty neat because that’s in a concrete field right there. And there’s people who are ready to receive the gospel. It can happen in the state of Maine. It can happen in Dubai. It can happen here in Australia. And it can happen wherever you’re at. You can be a part of it. For in due season, you will reap if you faint not. Just like you know you’re saved today because you’re depending on Jesus Christ and what he’s told you and what he’s promised, that if you believe in him, that you know you’ll be saved, you’ll have everlasting life. Look, it’s in the same way we take John 4.35, and we believe that the fields are white, all ready to harvest. In the same way we take Galatians 6.9, and we stand on that, and we believe that if we faint not, we’re going to reap. and you stand on those things from the Lord. Surrender any self-dependence. Go out depending on God to give the increase and he will do it and you will see a harvest. Look, this is something the Lord’s been showing me and honestly, I’m really excited about it, seeing God work in these great ways and it’s gonna be you too if you surrender and depend on God’s word. Now, I also wanna mention real quickly, I know there’s some of you who are listening from Australia right now and I would love to hear from you. Maybe there’s some way I can encourage you or maybe you have some insight on how to reach Aussies with the gospel, and I would love to hear from you. So I encourage you to shoot me an email at ryanatthegeneration.org. Let me know where you’re at. Let me know how you heard about Thee Generation. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help out. Maybe there’s not a good gospel preaching church that you’re going to and you’d like help finding a church. I know the pastor here and I would be able to help you find a church in your area that you could go to. So ryanatthegeneration.org. I’d love to hear from you if there’s anything I can do to help. Thank you all. God bless. Go out there and find the white harvest.

Amen, Ryan. Thank you so much for that. You know what? God is on the move today. And I sincerely believe that if you young people will get a hold of what he’s talking about and begin to share the gospel, to sow those seeds, to let God use you in your harvest field, God’s going to use you to turn the world upside down. And as I’m sure you know, that’s our heart here at the Thee Generation Podcast. Total surrender, total dependence to turn the world upside down with the gospel of Jesus Christ.