Sermon Transcript
Good morning, and thank you for choosing to worship us. Let's welcome our Broomfield Campuses worshiping along with us this morning. So great to have you. Let's prepare our hearts as we've continued to worship and seek the Lord this morning. Let's prepare our hearts to hear his living and his active Word among us this morning. Would you pray with me?
Lord Jesus, we just thank you for who you are, we thank you for your Word, Lord, the Bible, that is your revealed Word to us. That every time it is opened and proclaimed faithfully, you speak directly to our hearts. Lord, our prayer this morning is that you would speak directly to us, that you would share with us the very things that you have for us to know and to believe and to put into practice and to do. And so, Lord, we invite you to do your work right now in this place. And all of God's people who agreed with that, who want what God says, who will own what he shows you, who will believe who you are and will put into practice what he shows you to do this morning, agreed with me by very loudly saying the word, amen. Amen.
When I was back in high school, I learned to drive a stick shift. As a matter of fact, when I was growing up, when you bought a car, it was very common that you could either buy a model that was an automatic transmission or a manual transmission, and you got to choose. Usually, the manual transmission was a little less expensive because you had to do a little more of the work. And the hard work in driving a stick shift is not knowing where the gears are, I mean, you can teach that very quickly. The difficulty of knowing how to shift is how you engage the clutch at the right time, so that you get comfortable doing it, so that it becomes automatic when you're doing it.
We're in this series called Discipleshift. Much of what I'm teaching you, you've heard before, but in this shift, if you're not fully engaged, or when you start doing these things, you may feel a lot like I did when I first started driving a manual transmission car. And here's what it looks like when you drive, you kind of rock it a little bit, but you want to get it done. And that's what we're doing as we go through this. As a matter of fact, when I was in high school, I had a teacher of mine ask me one time when I was a senior, I was just learning how to drive one, he's like, "Schwarzentraub, can you drive a stick?" And I'm like, "Yeah, totally." I'm lying, you know? And he said, "Well, come with me."
And he took me to the dealer, he's like, "I need to drive my wife's car home. I need you to drive mine." And I remember how hard it was just trying to... I wanted to get out of the parking lot without looking like I didn't know what I was doing. Right? And so, I was very, very careful. And a lot of us as we're doing this, as I told you, as we go on this journey, my job in helping you is it's okay if you're rocking a little bit. It's okay if you're not getting it down. It's okay if you're learning to worship and you're like, "I didn't want to raise my hand all the way, but I kind of did this, but I'm uncomfortable." It's okay. Okay?
Now, what we're going to talk about today I believe is one of the shifts that need to be made in the church, that when you hear about what we're going to talk about, you'll say, "I've heard this one before. I know that the question is, 'Do you put this into practice?'" Because all these things we're talking about really go in order. I mean, foundational choice number one for us was choosing to surrender to Christ's authority. That where it starts, Jesus said, "If you want to be my disciple, you must deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow me." In other words, there's denial of self, there's death to yourself in the world, and there's glorifying God by following him and his Word.
And then last week we talked about foundational choice number two, which is choosing to worship the Lord, Jesus Christ, which is giving adoration to him and praise to him and reading his Word aloud and knowing what he says. And with all that we are and all that we do, bring him worship. Well, step number three goes along with these first two steps, they all kind of happen simultaneously as we shift. And step number three for us is choosing to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Choosing to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what we're going to talk about this morning. It's a choice that goes hand in glove with worshiping the Lord, Jesus Christ, choosing to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now, I know what many of you are thinking, "I'm not qualified for that, I'm not good at that, I don't know that I have what it takes, I don't know that I know enough to do what you're asking me to do." I mean, there's a video I saw yesterday I want to show to you today, because I think many of you as you start hearing me talk, you're like, "This is kind of how many of you feel when you hear a pastor stand up and say, 'Hey, you should just go out and share your faith, you should go share the good news of Jesus Christ. This is what you should do.'" Many of you feel a lot like the guy in this video. Take a look at this.
Oh, help. Can you help me please? I'm stuck.
I don't think that's a good idea. I have zero experience in lumberjacking.
Because you're here, can you make some food? I've been stuck here for six days, and all I've had to eat are two pine cones.
Well, I'm not a nutritionist. So, I wouldn't know what someone in your condition would eat.
Do something.
Do what? I'm not a zoologist.
There's a gun in the tent. Get the gun.
I don't have a license. I've never operated a gun.
Look, just throw a rock or something.
I'm not a geologist. I don't know which one would be most effective.
Oh, I don't want to die. I don't even know if I'll get into heaven. Do you at least know how to get into heaven?
Well, actually I'm a Christian, but I'm not a theologian. So, I wouldn't really know what to say to you, but if you ever get out of here, you really should look into it.
Oh, it's coming. Run!
But I have no formal training in long-distance running.
Right? That's how many of us feel. And the reality is I want to encourage you this morning you know enough if you've known Jesus for five seconds, how to do what I'm going to show you to do this morning. If you'd open up your Bibles to John chapter four. John chapter four. We were in John chapter four last week. Those of you that were here will know where to participate when we get to that section. But I want to read this because really Jesus is spending the whole time leading this woman into a relationship with himself so that she can become a worshiper, because those who worship the Father must worship in spirit and in truth.
So notice this, it says, "Therefore when Jesus knew that the Pharisees had learned that Jesus was making more disciples than John, although Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were, he left Judea and went away into Galilee."
So, we talked last week, he was in the Judea area around Jerusalem, he's going to go back to 60 miles north to Galilee. Now, notice verse four, this is an important verse. It said, "And he had to pass through Samaria."
No, he didn't.
No, he didn't. No, he didn't. But yes he did. As a Jew, he wouldn't have gone through Samaria. We talked about why he wouldn't have had to. He would've gone around the city. Now, no faithful Jew would go through Samaria, because Samaritans were considered half breeds, because they intermarried generations earlier and they weren't true to the Word of God and what he had decided for them to do. So they were considered outcasts, they were considered people that weren't worthy of the truth of God. So people would travel around, but Jesus had to go, not because geographically he had to, he had to go because his Father had an assignment for him to be there.
When it comes to sharing the gospel, the Father has assignments for you all the time for where you need to be. Now, let's just read the rest of this. There's a lot to cover here. "And so he came to a city in Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph. And Jacob's well was there. So Jesus being wearied from his journey was sitting there by the well. It was about the sixth hour. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water, and Jesus said to her, 'Give me a drink,' for his disciples had gone away in the city to buy food.
Therefore, the Samaritan woman said to him, 'How is it you being a Jew ask me for a drink since I'm a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.' Jesus answered and said to her, 'If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would've asked him and he would've given you living water.' She said to him, 'Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water? You're not greater than our father Jacob, are you? Who gave us the well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?'
Jesus answered and said to her, 'Everyone who drinks this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.' The woman said to him, 'Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.' He said to her, 'Go call your husband and come here.' The woman said, 'I have no husband.' Jesus said to her, 'You've correctly said I have no husband, for you've had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband. You've said this truly.'
The woman said to him, 'Sir, I perceive you're a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.' And Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem will you worship the father. You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such people the Father seeks to be as worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.' The woman said to him, 'I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When that one comes, he will declare all things to us.' Jesus said to her, 'I who speak to you am he.'"
And that's what we talked about last week. Jesus has this whole encounter with this woman. So she will know that he is the Christ and can do step one, which is to surrender her entire life to him and follow up with step two, where she can be a worshiper of him in spirit and truth. Not where she's going to worship, not the geography, not the denomination, but she can personally worship Jesus Christ everywhere she goes. That's what we spent the whole time doing.
Now, all of this section of scripture, this is one of the longest accounts in the New Testament of Jesus having an encounter with somebody. We don't even get this long of encounters with him and his disciples talking. I mean, so God obviously wants us to understand something from this text. And what he's teaching us about is how is it that God can use us to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others? Now, when we talk about this, when we talk about sharing the gospel, we better ask the question, what is it?
This morning we're going to talk about three questions, what is the gospel? How can I share the gospel? And why should I share the gospel? Those are the three questions that we're going to take a look at. But first we got to know, like what is this gospel that we're going to share? Okay? Look back a couple columns, or flip back one chapter to John chapter 3 and verse 16. Listen to what he says. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but should have eternal life." That's the gospel. The gospel in a nutshell is the Father sent his Son to be the savior of the world. The gospel in a nutshell is that God loved the world so much that while you were dead in your sin and you couldn't do anything to get right with God, God sent his Son to make everything right with himself so that anyone who confesses the Son has life in his name. That's the gospel.
Now, notice what it says in verse 17. "For God did not send the Son in the world in order to judge the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." Why did Jesus come? Jesus didn't come to judge the world, Jesus came to save the world. Jesus came to redeem the world. Jesus didn't come to condemn the world. Why? Verse 18 tells us. "Because he who believes in him is not judged, he who does not believe in him has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
In other words, this gospel is the news that God has hope for the world. That's the gospel. It's this, simply put. Okay, here's what the gospel is. Listen, listen, it's good news. Okay? You didn't hear me. The gospel is good news. It's good news, right? Why? Because God didn't come into the world to condemn the world, the world's already condemned. Anyone who doesn't believe in Jesus Christ is already condemned. They already have a death sentence. They will already stand judgment before God. They will already go to hell. Why did Jesus come? To give good news, to say, "You don't have to stay there." It's good news. What's the gospel? Say it really loud with me. What's the gospel?
Good news.
It's good news. That's all it is. You're just telling good news. That's all you're doing, you're sharing good news. You're not going to condemn another person, they're already condemned. You're not going to tell them how awful they are, they already know that. You're not telling them that their life is... You're giving them good news. That's what the gospel is.
Oftentimes, for someone who's engaged, they'll send out a Save the Date Card with a picture of them and their fiancé. Why? Because it's good news. Or if you give birth to a child, oftentimes you'll create a postcard of that child and you'll send it out saying, "It's good news." When you're called to go out and share on behalf of Jesus, here's what you're sharing, good news. What did the angels say when Jesus was born to the shepherds? "Behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which shall be for all the people." It's good news. Here's what you get to be the bear of when you go share the gospel, you get to go tell people good news. Now, I read the news like you, I see what's going on in the world. Do you think the world could stand a little good news?
Yes.
Amen, they could. You are called to be the bearer of good news. Now, here comes the question. If the gospel's good news for the world, here it becomes question number two, how do I share this gospel? How do I share the gospel? We feel so inept like that guy. "I don't, I've only been in church for five years, I haven't gone to seminary yet, I don't have all my Bible memorized, I didn't do my verses in Awana, I'm still feeling shame about that. I mean, how am I going to share the good news?" I have great news for you. I'm going to teach you this morning how you can do this. If you listen to this, you'll be able to do this by the time this message is done.
Okay. So, how do you share the gospel? Point number one, you love God and you love people. You love God and you love people. Now, I could say just love people, but the reality is, if you love God you will automatically love people. Do you know why? Because when you're connected to the God of the universe and you truly love him, and he created everybody and he has a love for everybody, you're going to love who God loves. You're going to love people. Right?
Now, how do you know if you love God? "I totally love God, brother. I've always loved God." The Bible says how you know if you love God. Okay? John 14:23 and following says, "If you love me, you will keep my Word." That's how you know if you love God. I mean, if you died to yourself, if you're denying yourself, if you're following him by keeping his Word, that's how you know you love God. Now, if you're loving God, you're automatically going to love people. You're going to love people.
Now, when Jesus had to go to Samaria and his Father said, "You're going to Samaria," and he's obedient to his Father, because he's going to Samaria, he's not going begrudgingly, he's not going saying, "Why do I have to go to Samaria? I hate Samaria. Why do I have to meet this woman? I don't like this woman." What you're going to see in Jesus in this entire passage is his incredible love for this woman who has been in several adulterous relationships. And he loves her. He loves her. Right?
Now, can we just talk about how we love somebody? Okay. I'll say it like this. Be genuinely interested in people. Okay? Too often when we share the gospel, we go out loaded for bear with tracks and Bibles and everything and just throw them on people without any love for the people.
Amen.
You are called to love God's people. Love has a way of opening up the heart unlike anything else. Do you know when people love you and when they don't? Do you know when people genuinely care about you and when they're just trying to push something on you? I know the difference between somebody that cares about me when they're trying to sell me a product versus a telemarketer, I can tell the difference. Can you? People can too. So how do you know that you're genuinely interested in people? Can I give you three L words that you can use? Okay? Number one, look at them. Like make eye contact with them. Like look them in the face. Like pay attention to them. Okay? Look at them. Number two do this, listen to them. How about this? Let them talk a little bit, listen. And number three, learn from them. Learn from them.
Now, when you study Jesus with the Samaritan woman, what did he do? He looked at her. Did he listen to her? Absolutely, he listened to her. He was learning her whole story from her. They were having a dialogue. He was allowing her to talk. Jesus didn't just show up at the well and say, "Repent! I'm God, get right or you're going to hell." That's not how the story went. It'd be so much shorter in the Bible, we can memorize John 4 faster. We have this long dialogue with Jesus. Does he need to listen? Does he need to learn anything about this woman? He knows everything about her. He could have started way down the track and say, "Hey, go call your husband and come here. The truth is you don't have any. I know you. I've known you before the foundation of the world, because I am. Worship me."
He didn't do that. He was looking at her, he was listening to her, he was learning from her. If you don't do that, you will categorize people and you'll be wrong every single time. You will group people according to their color of skin, you will group people according to their political opinions, you will group people according to their socioeconomic backgrounds, you will group people according to where they live, and you'll make judgements about why they do what they do and you'll be wrong every single time.
You can't say, "All white males are." That ain't true. I'm a white male and I'm not like every other white male. You can't say, "All black people are." You can't say, "All rich people are." You can't say, "All poor people are." You can't say, "All gay people are." You can't group people. If you love people, you'll look at them, listen to them, and learn from them. And if you're unwilling to do that, you won't be fit to share the good news, and it won't come across as good news. And really you're not sharing good news, all you're doing is pumping yourself up in your own prideful religion to make yourself feel better, because you don't even care about their response.
Come on, preach it.
Love people. Look at them. Listen to them. Learn from them. I started off my career as a financial planner as a life insurance salesman. Okay? That's kind of funny, but I did. But early on, like our company would tell us that we were the number one company in the industry and we had been for a significant period of years and I had a sheet on that. And how we had the best products and I had a sheet on that. And how we had the best life insurance and how you group greater cash value, I had a sheet on that. I had a sheet on everything for why we were the best. I had a whole folder of it.
And early on when I would go out to sell, I would tell people about how we're awesome and how we're the best, and how they want to buy our product. Nobody cared. Nobody cared. I didn't realize nobody cared about how good we were until I did what? I looked at them, I listened to them, I learned from, "Hey, where do you want to spend your money? What's important to you? Oh, freedom is? Oh, security is? Oh, long-term is? Oh, you want to have resources to do this? Oh, you need a product that would help you do that? Let me see what I have in my arsenal to help you."
Can I just tell you something? If you look at people and you listen to people and you learn from people, you will discover that people have needs that only Jesus Christ can meet. You will learn you have the answer for anything they need, it's Jesus. And if look at them and learn from them and listen to them, they will tell you their need at some point in time, and you'll be able to just kind of insert Jesus right into the conversation. It ain't hard. It's hard if you don't look at them, and it's hard if you don't learn from them, and it's hard if you don't listen to them.
Now let me just back up a second. I'm not against preaching, I'm a preacher. I'm not against preaching in the streets, I'm a preacher. I've done it. I'm not against preaching in subway cars, I've done it. Preaching is proclamation for God on behalf of him when he calls you to do that. I'm for that. Preaching still works. I'm talking about life on life sharing the good news with people. And while I'm a preacher, I know that at Thanksgiving dinner, when people come to my house and I got 20 to 40 people in my house, I don't say, "Hey, listen up. You 10, we know we're going to heaven. What about the 30 of you that are going to hell? Repent right now before we eat the turkey."
It won't work unless the goal is to exit people and cause a schism in my family. But if you look at people and you learn from them and you love them and they know you love them, even though they know you think differently, everything changes, and God has a way of working in those situations. Can we just love people? I have a friend that watches more documentaries than anybody that I know, and he told me about one he saw recently of people that commit suicides. And he told me one story about this person that had committed suicide, that left a suicide note before they went to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge, and it said something like this. "I'm going to jump off the bridge today and kill myself. But if one person will just smile at me, I won't do it."
Folks, everybody you ever meet has a sign around them that says, "Do I matter? Am I valued? Am I loved? Does anybody care? Is anybody looking for anything?" They're not looking for your doctrine, they're looking for your love. That's where it starts. If you don't love people, you can't share the good news of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Right? Are we getting this?
Yeah.
So this is really easy, because everywhere you go today you're going to have the opportunity to choose to love people. Like when you go to your restaurant, you can try to make them love you and say, "You deserve... You work for me and that food was cold and you didn't do well and..." You can make them try to love you or you can love them. You can make them feel your love, so that you can have a chance to ensure the gospel. How about this? Number two, be authentic. Be authentic. That means this, be real. It means be who you are. It means God gave you a personality, and their personality didn't change when you got converted, it just got redeemed.
You are who you are. You like what you like. You enjoy what you enjoy. Don't be fake. Christians, we can act fake around non-Christians. I remember when I was in seminary at Dallas Seminary, we would be in a preaching class and we'd be reading scripture and they'd be like, "Hey, so and so why don't you read John 4?" And we were just having a conversation like this and all of a sudden the guy would pick up his Bible and go like this, "Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus had made and baptized more disciples..." I'm like, "What happened?" You went into like super Christian mode. Don't do that, be you. Answer their questions.
Do you like to drink beer? We get all nervous. Well, I don't know if I'm supposed to say yes or no, or don't... If you don't, don't. If you do, do. I mean, be you, for crying out loud. God chose you. Notice who he chose in this story, he chose a Samaritan woman. Think she had some baggage she was going back with? He chose you. He chose you. You're his ambassador. He's got a message through you. Be authentic.
Now, let me just ask you by show of hands on both campuses here this morning, how many would say they still have some questions concerning things about God that he hasn't quite answered yet? When you get to heaven you got some questions. Okay? Just by show of hands. Anybody not put their hand up yet? I mean, participate please. Okay? Show of hands. Okay. How many of you would say that there are still ways in your life you're depending upon God, you're relying upon God? There are just things that you're just, "Man, if God doesn't come through in this..." Okay. So here's what you've told me, you are needy people with a lot of questions, right? You are. And so am I.
So how come it is when we go out and share the gospel with people, we pretend that we're not? If you're needy and you have questions, then how come when you talk to people about Jesus you pretend that you don't have any? "Yeah, I used to have that question brother, I don't have that question anymore. Yeah, I used to be needy, but now that I have Jesus everything works out..." Really? Liars. You can't share the gospel and lie.
That's right.
You can't. Be real.
Yeah.
Be authentic. Trusted Jesus Christ when I was 18 years old, and I still have some questions. And there's areas I'm still depending on Christ for, and there's areas I need him more in my marriage, there's areas I need him more with my children, and there's ways I'm trying to grow more as a pastor because I don't fully understand how to do it perfectly yet and I never will. And so I'm kind of relying on him. So, I totally get that. I went and shared at a junior college one time, I got called by a friend, and they were... set up this table, this atheist group, and they wanted to invite people for questions. So me and my friend just went to talk to them.
And I remember we were talking to them, I'm like, "I don't know where this thing is going to go." But we were looking at them, we were learning from them, we were loving on them, we were listening to them. And it was going nowhere. And finally, this one guy said, "Hey, we just believe this." And I said this, it just came right out of my heart. I said, "Jesus said we're supposed to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind." And I said, "I really appreciate the fact that you want to use your mind to see what's really true." Changed the whole conversation.
Then he started asking me questions, then we ended up talking for an hour. By the time we got done talking, I'll never forget what happened. I was watching this guy and this guy, we were sitting in three chairs, and this guy got up and he stood on the chair and he pointed down at my friend and he goes, "This is what I thought Christianity was. This is what everybody tells me Christianity is." Then he sat back down in his chair and he looked us in the eye, he said, "But if what you guys are talking about Christianity is," he goes, "I think this is what I've been looking for my whole life."
See, we make judgements about people, "That person's too far from God, that person's too smart, that person's too wayward, that person's too sinful." Go spend time with them. Go love them. Go serve them. Right? And can I just give you two ways to do that? Okay. Sometimes we go loaded for bear, man. We got our tracks, we got our Bibles. And I'm for tracks and I'm obviously for the Bible. There's nothing wrong. I've used all those things, right? But how about this? How about ask questions? I've been in a lot of evangelism training classes, I've had very few people tell me, "Go ask people questions."
See, if you really want to learn from them, ask them questions. What do you think about this? What's your opinion on that? Learn from them. And they're going to tell you things you don't agree with, and just listen to them. Notice this woman. All throughout this story she's telling Jesus things he doesn't agree with. He just keeps guiding the conversation. Where's he guiding the conversation? To himself. Ask questions. How about this? Christian, please, please, please, please, please, please, please do this, ask for help.
I didn't say ask to help. See, there's a difference if you come to my house and say, "I'm here to help you today. You obviously don't know what you're doing. I'm here to help." Now, anytime you guys want to do that mechanically, come on over, I'm happy to... Right? But there's a difference between coming to my house and saying, "Hey, could you help me?" There's something that goes off different in my heart. One is like I'm backing up because you want to do something for me. The other one is you need me. How does Jesus start this story with the woman? "Give me a drink." Did Jesus need help to get a drink? And please answer this. Did he need help to get a drink?
No.
I mean, she's looking at him like, "Yeah. Oh, okay. Well, I'm..." What was Jesus doing? He was showing his humanity. He could have got a drink anytime he wanted. He could've said, "Father, just pour it in my mouth. I'd like to see it come up out of the spring and into my mouth. I'd like you to purify and freshen it and do..." He doesn't need her help, he's asking for her help. It opens her heart. That's why she says, "How can you a Jew ask me a Samaritan woman for a drink? Like how can you cross these boundaries? How could you love someone like me? We know Jews don't love people like us." Think there's any groups in our society that think Christians don't love them?
A little. A little.
Yeah.
I can think of several populations of people in our world that don't think Christians love them. And the reason that they don't is because we as Christians preach to them without loving them. I mean, it's easy to quote a Bible verse and tell people they're going to hell, because it makes you feel good that you're right. It's hard to associate with people that are unlike you, that live differently than you for so long that they actually see your love. And by the way, this isn't just one conversation. And it's really interesting because when the disciples show up, you're going to see what they say, because when they see Jesus talking to this woman, they're curious too. Like, "How could you hang out with people like that?" Like, "How could you hang out with people like this?" Like, "I don't get how you being God could hang out with people like that." God hangs out with everybody.
Yes.
God loves the world, he doesn't love sections of the world. Just a word on racism. If you're a racist, you're going to hate heaven, because you're going to have people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. It'll be every multicolored skin there in the world. And if you don't like worship, you're going to hate heaven too. It's going to be loud. All right? "Turn it down, Jesus." I mean, it's going to be loud with people from every tribe, tongue, and nation, worshiping the Lord.
And see, so what we're doing when we share the gospel is we're sharing vulnerabilities and we're asking questions. We're saying this, I was, but God, and now. That's all we're sharing. That's how quick a testimony can be. I was a prideful religious kid that thought I was really, really awesome doing everything I wanted to do, thinking I was going to heaven because of my good works. But God got ahold of me at Young Life Camp and told me I needed him as the Lord and Savior and I confessed my life to Jesus and became surrendered to him. And now I am trying my best to follow him all the days of my life. That's my testimony. What's yours?
A testimony is what has God done in your life? Right? So, is Jesus being these things? Yeah, he's being... He's loving his Father, clearly, he loves people, he's being authentic. And notice what else he's going to do, what we need to do number three, which is declare Jesus Christ as Lord. Now, you can insert whatever words you want there. You can put confess Jesus Christ as Lord, you can put announce that Jesus Christ is Lord, you can talk about the fact that Jesus Christ is Lord, you can demonstrate that Jesus... You're going to speak something to the fact that Jesus is the Lord of your life, because notice what he's doing throughout this whole thing where we're talking about worship and how to worship and how to be surrendered. What does he end by saying? "I who speak to you am he. The Messiah, you want to know who the Messiah is? I am." Right?
Jesus didn't have to talk about any vulnerabilities, he didn't have any. His vulnerabilities were the fact that he had put on flesh for all eternity. That was his vulnerability. That's why he's asking for water. Our vulnerabilities look different. We still sin. We still make mistakes. We still have questions. We still do dumb stuff. We can tell people about that and tell them how Christ is working on that. And then all we're doing is this, as we love God and people and as we're being authentic, all we're doing is shining the light on Jesus. We're just pointing people to Jesus. We're just pointing people to Jesus. That's all we're doing. We're just telling them, "Hey, Jesus did it." That's all the gospel is.
And when you point people to Jesus, you know who gets excited? The Holy Spirit, because that's his job. Oh, you want to talk about Jesus? I'm all in. I'll do this. See, it's not your job to convict people of sin. It's not your job to win people to Christ. It's not your job to do all the work. It's your job to announce that Jesus Christ is Lord, and let the Holy Spirit do the work, because John tells us his job is to convict of sin, righteousness, and judgment. When you can look people in the eyes that are non-believers, love them and listen to them and talk about what Jesus has done for you and how he's willing to do it for them, and continue to love them. Even if they don't respond, the Holy Spirit gets all up in there, all over that, like, "Dude, you are a sinner. What he's saying is true. God is righteous. You need to repent." I mean, all that stuff happens, but not because of you. This is not a sales pitch, this is a relationship.
See, we're shifting from rules to relationship. Rules would say, "Get out there. How many people did you share with this week? Check the box. How many people did you talk to this week? Check the box. How many people got saved this week? Check the box." That's rules. That's wrong. Here's what it is, I'm in love with Jesus. And because of him, I'm opening my eyes to look at whoever else is around me and I just want to tell them about the fact that God loves them. And here's how you know he loves you, because I'm broken and frail and I love you. And God loves you way more than I do.
Amen.
That's how we share the gospel. I mean, simply just love people. You'll have opportunities to talk about who Jesus is. I mean, in a conversation, anytime you love somebody, things come up that they don't understand. Yeah, well, I just don't understand why if God's so loving my mom died early of cancer. I don't understand how church people say you guys love everybody, but then I don't feel loved. Hey, I just don't understand how like you Christians talk about why marriage is so important, but 50% of your marriages are broken. Here's what I would tell you. Don't argue and don't debate. Jesus is not arguing and debating over the fact he's Lord. I don't argue and debate over the fact that Jesus Christ is Lord, I just declare that this is what he's done in my life, he's the Lord of my life. That's all I do.
Don't argue and debate. People will always try to argue and debate. And here's why they always try to argue and debate, because you got to realize there's a spiritual battle taking place for their soul. So they'll always throw something else in there that has absolutely nothing to do with Jesus, like this. "Well, if what you're saying is true, then what about that migrant farmer out in Africa?" They don't know any migrant farmers out in Africa, they're just throwing that out there to see if you're going to chew on that rather than point people to Jesus and say... So then what I say is this, say, "We can talk about that, but I want to talk to you about how much Jesus loves you." "Yeah, but do you really believe God created the world just from two people and that the whole population came from just two people? I think that's crazy." "We can talk about that, but I want to talk to you about the fact that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that he loves you."
There'll always be distractions. The gospel sharing is so easy, love people, be authentic, and point them to Christ. That's all you're doing. Just point them to Christ. Love people, be authentic, be real, and point them to Christ. Now notice this, picking back up in John chapter four, let's see if the woman did this.
Jesus said, "I who speaks to you, am he." Verse 27, "At this point, his disciples came." Now, when it says, "At this point," in the Bible, what it means is right at this exact moment that Jesus declared, "I am the Christ." Right at this moment where Jesus is declaring to this woman, "If you want a relationship with God, it's through me. I'm the Christ." Like right then the disciples show up. They've been out buying food. "And they were amazed that he had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, 'What do you seek?' or 'Why do you speak with her?'" In other words, here's what's going on in their head.
"Jesus, what do you want with a woman? You find her attractive? I mean, what do you want with her? Like, why a Samaritan woman? Like, she's garbage. She's no... Like, what do you want?" Nobody's going to dare speak that out loud, but they're asking that. If you're really living out the faith, there should be other Christians that question who you hang out with. "Why are you hanging out with those people? Why are you going to that place? Why do you call those your friends? You're a Christian, aren't you?" Yeah, that's why I hang out with them, because I'm demonstrating the love of God to people. Right?
So right then is when they show up. Now, notice what happens next. I love this verse. Love it. Love it. Love it. "So the woman left her water pot and went into the city and said to the men, 'Come see a man who told me all the things that I have done. This is not the Christ, is it?'" Now, check this out. What was the woman doing at the well? Why was she there? Help me out. What was she coming to do?
Draw water.
She was coming to draw water. What was she holding in her hand to draw water with?
A water pot.
A water pot. How important was the water pot to her drawing water?
It's everything.
It's everything. She can't draw the water without a pot. As a matter of fact, she asked Jesus, "Are you greater than our father Jacob? I mean, are you going to draw water without a pot?" In other words, what she needed to satisfy her greatest need, she was holding in her hand. It's why she came. Jesus had told her earlier, "If you would ask me, you wouldn't need that thing anymore, because what I'm going to give you is going to fill you up with eternal water that's going to continue to spring forth from your soul." What do you see next when she learns that he's the Christ? She drops her water pot and leaves.
You're not hearing me. The very thing that was once giving her life that she was clinging onto that was most important, when she discovered Jesus could give her something greater, she dropped the thing she thought was giving her life because Jesus had already filled her.
Amen.
See, the question in salvation is not when did you pray the prayer? When did you do this? It's when did you drop your pot? When was the time in your life that you were getting fed by this, you ain't getting fed by that anymore?
Yes. Hallelujah!
Amen.
When was the time that you dropped your sexual immorality because you found Jesus? Or your drugs because you found Jesus? Or your pride because you found Jesus? Or your greed because you found Jesus? When did you drop your pot? If you haven't drop your pot, you're not surrendered to the Lord. You're not a disciple of his and you're not a Christian. When did you drop your pot? I was 18 when I dropped my pot. See, because if you're still holding onto the pot, you're saying, "I still want to get filled up with this, but Jesus is pretty cool too." No, you're still clinging. You let go of the pot and you worship. And here's how you know you've let go of the pot, you're going to go tell other people you've found something greater than what you were once hanging onto.
So, who does this woman go to? Did you see it in the text? Did you read it? I mean, look with your own eyes, because I don't want to make this stuff up. I'm preaching the Bible here, I'm not making up a story. Who did she go to? She went to the men of Sychar. Why did she go to the men? They knew her.
Wow.
They knew her.
Never saw that. Yeah.
They knew her. Why didn't she go to the women? I don't know, the Bible doesn't tell us, but my experience and kind of counseling and seeing things, women don't like their men hanging out with other women that they may sleep with. This woman wasn't liked by other women in the town. They go back to the men. And what's she going to do? She's going to love them in a way she's never loved them before. She's going to love them with her body. She's going to love them with the good news. She's going to love them with the transformation that's taken place in her heart. And she's going to tell these men, "Come and see a man who told me everything I've ever done."
Did Jesus tell her everything she'd ever done? It wasn't that long of a conversation. I mean, she's easily in her 20s or 30s or 40s. He couldn't have told her everything she's ever done. What's she saying? In the area that was the most private, that I was the most ashamed of, that I didn't think I could ever get forgiveness for, this man told me everything and he loved me in spite of it. And I dropped my water pot and I'm coming to tell you that this Jesus could be the Lord.
Now, can I just get this through your head really quick? What was her testimony? Did you read it? Notice what she said. "Come see a man who told me all the things that I have done." That's the gospel. That's her story. Remember the blind man story in John chapter nine? Here's what was his story, here's what was his testimony. "All I know is this, I was blind, now I see, Jesus did it." Her story, "Come see a man who told me everything I did. He's over there by the well." Like, that's all the story is. Like, listen to me. Some of us get so caught up... because I want to know, I'm just asking you this question, we get so caught up in stupid theologies.
I'm a theologian, I study this, I think it's important, but when I'm sharing the gospel, I'm sharing Jesus. Like it's her testimony, that testimony we just read about the woman. Was that reform, dispensational, or covenant? I mean, what kind of theology was that? I mean, did she really point out the five points of Calvinism there? I mean, I don't know that she did, because she really gets a... Share Jesus, share Jesus, share Jesus, share Jesus. All right? That's all you're doing, pointing people to Jesus. You're just telling your story.
I mean, some of your story may be, "I went to Brave Church this weekend, and I don't know what happened, but I'm free, and you should go to Brave Church." That's a testimony. As your testimony grows, you'll be able to be better at what you say, but leave all the results to him. Some of you don't share because of this, "Well, what if they don't come to Christ?" Let me tell you, 90% of the time, they're not. Just sow seeds. Some of you are going to water seeds, some of you are going to build people.
When I was first learning how to do this, I remember I was at a mall in Minneapolis. And I went out with a group of people and we were told before we went, "Don't hang out with people, do this yourself. Don't let people know you are part of a group, whatever." So, I just went into this mall and I was totally nervous. Right? So I'm going to walk up to strangers, start loving them, building a relationship with them, and see where God leads the conversation to see if I can talk about the gospel.
So I remember seeing this lady in the food court. And so, I grabbed something to drink and I went and sat down next to her. I was so nervous, I almost spilled my drink. And I sat down and just said, "Hey, do you mind if I sit here?" And she said, "No." I said, "Well, my name's Jeff, and what's your name?" And we just kind of started talking and I started asking questions, started letting her hear about me, I answered questions about me. We went back and forth.
She started telling me about her son, who she had been praying for, and how she was hurting about him. And I said, "Will it be okay if I prayed for your son?" And so, I prayed for her that day. And when we got done praying, she looked up at me, she had tears in her eyes and she had big eyes and she's like, "You know what?" She said, "This is the greatest mall I have ever been to." She's like, "Three people today have prayed for me." I'm like, "That's amazing." Right?
I mean, that's what the church is supposed to be. I mean, you all would know if Starbucks went away and got raptured, you'd be like, "Where'd it go?" And you don't know where your favorite restaurant went, Mile High Stadium went, "Where'd it go?" If the church were raptured, would anybody know it was gone? The answer should be, of course, they do. Because where did all those loving, kind, grateful, good news proclaiming people go? That's what we're to be known for. Right? So that's how we're supposed to do it.
Let me answer the question, why we're supposed to do this. Why share the gospel? The Word tells us back in John chapter four, notice this, "They went out of the city and they were coming to him. Meanwhile, his disciples were urging him saying, 'Rabbi, eat. You haven't eaten anything all day.' But he said to them, 'I have food to eat that you do not know about.'" In the Greek text, this is so emphatic. You can use double negatives in Greek like you can't in the English language. Jesus is saying to them, "I have food to eat of what you do not know nothing."
I mean, he's saying, "You don't know about this food that I have." So his disciples are saying to one another, "Did anybody bring him food to eat?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work." What's the Father's will? That I would believe in the Son. What's his will? That people will be pointed to Jesus. That's what feeds me.
Now, the Bible tells us as pastors that we're to feed the sheep, we're called to feed the flock. That's part of why we preach the Bible. You're called to be at a church where you are being fed. If you want to take your diet to the next level, start telling people about the good news of Jesus Christ. Like when you start to share your faith, everything will begin to change. Like, why share it? Because it feeds your faith. It feeds your faith. Because when you start sharing with people, they're going to ask you questions you don't know the answer to. And do you know why God put you in that conversation that you don't know the answer to? So you'll go find the answer and be more secure of your faith.
I was sharing the gospel with my cousin one time, who's a podiatrist, that's a foot doctor, and he asked me this question to stump me. He said, "Hey, in the Old Testament it says that not one of Jesus' bones would ever be broken. And in the Book of John it confirms that not one of his bones were ever broken. And yet, how can you have a nail driven through your feet without a broken bone?" He goes, "Even the smallest nail would break several bones if I put it in your foot."
Now, you know the answer that I gave him? The answer that you guys should get really, really comfortable with, "I don't know. I never even thought about that before. It's not been important to me, but that's a great question. Let me find out." Do you know I started researching how people were crucified, and I discovered something that I didn't know. First of all, I discovered that while the T-shirt says, "One God plus three nails equals forgiven," I mean, it's a great shirt, but there's nowhere in the Bible that said there were three nails. Didn't see it anywhere.
That's right.
What I found is that oftentimes when Romans would crucify people, instead of putting foot over foot, like in every picture I'd ever saw, sometimes they'd bring the feet up on the side and they drove it through the Achilles into both feet so that the person wouldn't have broken any bone. Shortly after that, I was in Israel and I was at a museum where they had a foot bone with a spike in it, right where they said it was. Now, to this day, I wasn't there, I don't know how Jesus was crucified. It doesn't waver in my faith, but here's what I went back and said. "In all likelihood, because I believe the Bible's true, Jesus was crucified with both feet coming up on the side with spikes driven into his feet."
Doesn't change my faith.
Doesn't change my faith either, but it bolstered it.
Yeah.
Because I said, "There's nothing in God's Word that's untrue." And every time I've gone out and said, "I don't know," and look for the answers, all it's done is strengthen my faith in God's Word. If you don't put your faith into practice, it won't strengthen the Word. All you're doing is listening to other people tell you what to do that you're not doing. God is teaching you everything, he's teaching you at this church to go out and tell other people about it. And when you don't know about it, it's actually going to grow your faith.
Don't worry about not knowing the answers, that's how I began growing. You see, it's kind of like this, if I could just tell you, it's kind of like you can have a gym membership, but it doesn't make you physically fit. Can I get an Amen?
Amen.
Okay. So, just because you have a gym membership and go and walk into it, doesn't mean that you're physically fit.
That's right.
And just because you have a gym membership that teaches classes on diet and exercise physiology and you know all about the human body, doesn't make you fit. You have to do one thing to be fit, you have to exercise. You have to exercise. The longer you go with a gym membership without exercising, the more atrophied your physical muscles will be. Can I just tell you this? The longer you've been a Christian without sharing the gospel with other people, the more you will be spiritually atrophied.
Some of you have been Christians for a year, three years, five years, 30 years, and you're still spiritually atrophied. And because you're not doing the very thing you're put on the planet to do, you think church is about you, and you think it's all about coming here and getting fed and having your head all filled up and being a Bible fathead and all these things, it's not. It's about taking what you know and pouring it into the lost. The church exists for those who aren't here. That's the purpose of the kingdom.
That's it.
Amen?
Amen.
And I just want us to go on record, because you're not clapping, because you're kind of feeling conviction. I get all that. I love you. I want to see you grow. If you haven't been exercising spiritually, I want to tell you, just start. Just open your eyes and look, there are people all around. Just start. Don't feel guilt and shame, this is not a guilt, shame mess, I'm a guilt, shame preacher. Just look, there's people God just wants you to love. So just start. Because I find that some of the biggest detractions are not fear of sharing our faith and fear of getting it wrong and fear of all this, a lot of times it's the people who have sat in a church for 30 years who have themselves have never shared the gospel nor led anybody to Christ, but they're an expert on gospel sharing. They've written books on it, but they've never ever done it.
It would be like writing books on fishing when you've never ever caught a fish. And then what they do is they critique your gospel sharing that you're doing out of the love for Christ and they say you're doing that wrongly when they're doing nothing. Don't arrive in heaven and have God say to you, "What did you do with the love that I poured in your hearts?" And have you say back to him, "Nothing, but I criticized all the people that did it wrongly." Do it wrongly. "All I know is I was blind, now I see." Is that wrong? It made the Bible, I think it's right. "Come see a man who told me everything I ever did." It's in the Bible, I think it's right. "Hey Lord, here and now, my name is Zacchaeus, if I've robbed anybody, I'll pay them back." It's in the Bible. Just go tell people about the love of God for heaven's sake. Don't let prideful religious people keep you from doing the thing God put you on the planet to do. You can't mess this up.
Then notice this, Jesus said in the Great Commission, "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, therefore go." Here's what he's saying. "You can't screw this up. You can't mess this up by going and sharing my love. You can't mess it up." "I totally messed it up, I should have said..." You didn't mess it up. I've missed opportunities like you, I've said wrong things like you. That's how you grow. Why is it in every other skill in life we realize it takes time to get to where we need to go, but when it comes to gospel sharing we think we need to experts? And the enemy lies to us and says, "Keep going to church for the next 30 years. Once you get it down, then you'll be ready to share." Now, once you get it down, you'll have rigor mortis spiritually, and you'll never share it with anybody. Right? Share it. Love people. Go do it.
Notice what he says. "Not only does it feed your faith," but I'll tell you this, opportunities are everywhere. They exist everywhere. I mean, it's never been easier to share your faith. Now, check this out. If you wanted to reach the whole village at Sychar... I mean, if you wanted to reach the whole village and your God, who would you pick? I mean, just think about. If we were going to have a church committee today, say, "Who do we want to pick?" Who would you pick? Would you pick the mayor? Would you pick the person with the greatest integrity? Would you pick the person with the greatest influence? Would you pick the newspaper writer that can dispense the... Who would you pick? I think probably at the bottom of the list would be this woman at the well that nobody ever wants to be around. And yet she goes, and everybody comes. Amen?
Amen.
Women, listen to me, listen to me. Women, ladies, look at me in the face. Ladies, ladies, ladies, ladies, ladies, God loves women.
Amen.
God loves women. Who did he choose to reach the whole village? A woman. Who was the first convert in Europe? A woman. Who were the first two to see Jesus after he rose from the dead? Two women. Who does Jesus pick to go share the faith? Women. Women, listen to me, sometimes women you're so caught up into who's the women's leader? And who's the Bible... study this, and who's the... Forget about titles, just go love people so much that you're winning so many people to Christ, you won't care about what your title is. God loves women, he wants to use you women. We want to use you, right?
And God loves men too. He wants to use all of us in the sharing of the gospel. And here's what we think. We think things like this. Like pastors will say, "Just think if everybody here led one person to Christ this year, I mean, we'd double in size next year." No we wouldn't, we would gazillion in size next year.
You got it. That's it.
Jesus Christ led this woman to himself, one person gets saved and a whole village comes. I mean, you go lead one person to Christ, there'll be 30 others that are coming here. Right? I mean, that's what happens. Now, not everybody's going to go do this because not everybody wants to walk with Jesus, and I get that and I pray for you and all that, but I'm just telling you, if you're willing to take that step and saying, "Hey, I'll open my eyes and look. God, if you'll take me into a relationship with somebody, I'll love them and I'll look at them and I'll listen to them and I'll look for opportunities to insert the gospel," he'll do it.
I mean, they're everywhere. Notice what Jesus says to his disciples. He tells them, "I got food to eat you don't know about, my food is to lead people to myself." He says, "Do you not say, 'There are yet four more months, and then comes the harvest'? Behold I tell you, lift your eyes, and look on the fields they are white for harvest." I mean, haven't you heard it said? Evangelism will happen down the road. I mean, we'll harvest later. There's no need to do it now. When you get ready, go do it tomorrow. No, "I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields, they're white into harvest." What was he saying?
Everybody he would've seen from Sychar coming to that well, dressed in white, was walking across the fields. He was like, "Oh my goodness, look at this. I got food to eat you don't know anything about, there's going to be rejoicing in heaven, I'm going to be celebrating." Because there's nothing that fuels your faith by seeing a lost person drop their water pot and come to him. There ain't nothing like it. And don't believe the lie that you can't lead anybody to Christ and don't believe the lie that everybody you talk to has to come to Christ. Some of you are going to sow seeds more than you're going to see harvest, some of you are going to water, some of you are going to see harvest, but I believe by faith that everybody who is intentional about this will see somebody that they'll personally get a chance to lead to Christ. I just believe that. Open your eyes and look.
I knew I was getting ready to preach this, so I just kind of want to put it into practice, because as a former evangelist and then becoming a pastor, I think too often I get too focused on our church and not enough, so just been doing everywhere I go now. So my Uber driver, I've shared with, waitresses and waiters at restaurants, I'm praying with them, talking to them. If you genuinely love people, they'll love you back. They want what you have.
Happened at a gas pump just the other day. It happens all the time. If you see every person you see as needing eye contact and you start having a conversation, you'll know if God's in it or not. Some people might just be a friendly hello and a smile, that keeps somebody from jumping off a bridge that you never know about. For the people that'll engage in a conversation for a little while, and then you're going to meet somebody someday who's desperate and say, "I don't even know what to do anymore. What do I do?" "Hey, let me tell you about Jesus. Here's what he did to me. Here's what he can do for you." They're everywhere.
If you don't believe me, what you're saying is everybody I see in Denver, Colorado, and around the world is saved. And if that's your view, you just haven't dropped your water pot yet. They're everywhere. Leave this building. There are some in here that need to drop their water pot. They're everywhere. But why do this? Because people matter to God, and it provides great joy and it provides abundant fruitfulness. Look at this. It says, "Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life; so the one who sows and the one who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case the same is true, one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap for that which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor." Here's what he's saying.
When it comes to harvesting a soul, you have to realize that oftentimes it doesn't come right like that. There are seeds that are being sown. Even this woman knew, she had been taught that a Messiah was coming, she knew that, she had some religious background, she had something. Seeds had been sown, they'd been watered, and then the harvester came along and picked it up. And here's the truth, whether you're seeding, whether you're watering, or whether you're harvesting, here's what's going to happen in heaven someday, we're all going to rejoice together. We're all going to rejoice together.
I had a friend in college that I had led to the Lord and he used to send me little notes or emails when he would lead somebody to Christ, and he's like, "Hey brother, I just put another jewel in your crown." And then we'd celebrate together. I texted him yesterday, I said, "You're putting more jewels in my crown lately?" And he wrote back, he's like, "My jewels are my wife, my two boys, and the football team I'm coaching right now. And yes I am." Right?
See, when you share the gospel, when people truly get the gospel, they'll share the gospel too. See, the gospel is not, "You want to get out of hell and go to heaven?" "Yeah." "We'll just pray this prayer and don't ever change, and then you'll go to heaven." "Okay, great." I pray that prayer, I'm never going to church, I don't love Jesus, I don't... That's not the gospel. The good news is when you've dropped your pot. The good news is when you realize, I don't have to keep onto this pride anymore, I don't have to keep filling up with this. Like what is it you're filling up with that's other than Jesus you need to let go off? Like, when did you let go off that? That's when you got saved.
"No, you don't understand, pastor. I got saved when I was six. And then in 12, I kind of... And then 25, I did this." No, you got saved when you drop your pot, when you become a surrendered worshiper of the Lord, Jesus Christ. When did that happen for you? And if it has happened for you and you're a worshiper of Jesus, then open your eyes and look, because God is bringing people your way that you can genuinely love in such a way that he can use broken you to tell broken them about a perfect God. You want to see your faith skyrocket? This is how you do it. You want to see your faith go to the next level? This is how you do it. These first three things go simultaneously as you surrender to the Lord and you worship him and you begin to tell others about what he's done in your life.
And as you do, don't be scared, because here's what you got to know. The Holy Spirit's going before you, he's with you, he's coming through you. You don't have to get this thing right, you can't mess it up, all you're doing is telling about this, you're just one beggar telling another beggar where you found your bread.
Amen.
See, this is helpful to us as a church, because I want to see our church grow rapidly. But when I talk about that, I'm not saying this, I'm not saying I want more people to preach to. No, that doesn't mean anything. Here's what I want. I want to see more souls rejoicing with Jesus now and in heaven. I want to see your faith so filled, because you knew that God used you in a way you didn't think you could be used.
See, the gospel is not just for the, "Bring people to church, pastor will get you saved." No, no, no. It's you are a servant of the most high God. And if you'll open your mouth and you'll live for Jesus, God will give you opportunities to make other worshipers. It's on us. It's on me. This is what we're all called to do. Amen?
Amen.
Amen. Would you stand as we close today? Lord Jesus, we give you praise for the gospel of Jesus Christ and who you are. We give you praise that you've redeemed us. If you're here today and you would say, "I don't know that I've ever, ever dropped my water pot, I'm still feeding out this tank, but I'm wanting some of Jesus," would you be willing to drop that before the Lord today by admitting that you're a sinner, by believing that Jesus died and rose for you, and loves you? And right now in this moment would you confess him as your personal Lord and Savior? And for those of you who know him, would you say, Lord, help me become a surrendered worshiper, open my eyes so that I can see. Lord, I love you in every way, we give you all the praise, in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.