Whoever Really Means Whoever
First B Jackson
2012-11-18

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Alright.

Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. All 13 of us are going to go ahead and get this church service started. So, what I'm going need you to do is sing really loud for this first song.

We're going to make it audible all throughout Jackson and then the swarms will show up. So, let's go ahead and stand together and sing.

Echoes in my soul. And though the storms may come, I am holding to the rock I could. Can sing when I win. I can sing when I lose my step and I fall down again. I can sing because you pick me up.

Sing because you're there. I can from shouting your name? I know I am by the king. And it makes

Alright. Let's take a moment and you guys can greet one another and looks like we got a few more people in here. So, two thumbs up.

Good to go. Sounds good.

Good morning. Come on in. Grab a seat. Good morning. I'm Mike Merrim, your lay leader this morning, also an elder, and I'm, going to be, helping out with the lay leader responsibilities this morning.

As you'll notice, today we kind of had a plan for the Gideons to, to do the service this morning, but our speaker got caught on the rim in a blizzard and turned back. So we're gonna postpone that, the Gideon service, that we had scheduled for today. But we will tell you a little bit about the Gideons today and maybe prime that pump, so to speak, yeah, for next time. We'd like to welcome everybody. If you are new, we'd especially like to welcome you.

Thank you for joining the service here at First Baptist. We do have a welcome desk back there with some information about the church. If anybody has any prayer requests or prayer needs, that's also a place where I'll be back there during in between services and we can talk, we can pray, we can you can learn more about the service or or just to visit with us if you'd like. We also have the connect hour in between services which means if you go down into the fellowship hall, you can have a cup of coffee and and greet. We are very good at fellowship here at Firstbeat with all we are loving God and loving people.

We're pretty good at that one too as well. Couple of quick announcements as we look down into the future, the Buzzard Breath Chili Cook Off is coming up. So, I want you all to to be getting ready for that, get your recipes out and always have a good time with that. We also do some caroling. That's coming up I believe on the sixteenth.

So mark your calendars for that. Also today is Discovery. So Discovery Class is happening in between services. That's for if you're interested in becoming a member. And what we do with that is you'll meet with me and Martin Murphy, a couple of the elders and we just kind of, we talk about it, make sure that this is a good fit for you, any questions you might have about that.

It's not retro not to make an interrogation as much as possible but it's just a time of getting to know you and talking through that. It's just one of the steps in becoming a member here at First Be. So if that's something that interests you, that will be happening during the Connect Hour in pastor Ray's office. So, just briefly a couple things about the Gideon. I also am a Gideon.

Fletcher didn't make it this morning, but, just a little quick word about what the Gideons are. Anytime you stay in a motel room and you pull out that little drawer on the nightstand, there should be a Gideon Bible in there and that's what the Gideons do is we place the word so that people have a chance to come know the Lord through his word. We believe it's a powerful thing to put the word of God in people's hands and we do that throughout the throughout this country and across the world. So a lot of our Gideon members, actually another quick tidbit is Vern McAdams, our camp president who is in Pinedale just actually went on a mission trip with the Grabers. You guys might know the Grabers, our missionaries to China.

Wasn't able to actually participate. The Gideons, Grabers have kind of their own thing going on with Bibles, but he was able to participate in that just recently. But that's kind of what the Gideons are about. The Gideons pair up with with churches. It's really not a ministry that can happen without the churches.

The First Baptist Church has a long standing time with the Gideons. Some of the former people of this church, Tom Lamb, who's gone to be with Jesus and Bob Cranenberg Also, Otis Strong who's now in Casper but the Gideons have a nice tradition here at First Baptist and we really appreciate that. So with that, I'm going to turn it back over to Renzi.

Go ahead and stand again. We'll get into some more worship.

By name. You are amazing God. All powerful, unattainable. Awestruck, we fall to our knees as we God. Parable, unchangeable.

You see the depths of my heart and you love me the same. You are amazing God. You are amazing God.

Let's have a word of prayer. God, thanks for this morning. Thank you for the snow coming down and just your plans for the weather. We pray that you would just be here with us today in our worship and with Ray speaking. Thank you for the Gideons in that ministry.

Pray that we would just worship you this morning. Jesus name, amen.

Jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane. I am a tree beneath the weight of his wind and mercy. The weight of his wind and mercy. And all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory. And I realize You may be seated.

You know, in Ephesians six, it calls the word of God the sword and got me thinking a little bit. I'd like to share some scripture with you this morning. It's out of second Timothy actually chapter three starting at verse 15. And how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through the faith in in Christ Jesus. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

That the man of God may be confident, equipped for every good work. Again, as I I think about the Gideons this morning and and what we do putting the word of God in people's hands and all the lives that have been changed, I heard one just last night. We had a Gideon's meeting and a guy was in a gang and he was a runaway and he ended up in jail and they stole the Gideon Bible. What we do after the Bibles are are in poor shape in hotels and motels, we take them out and we put them in prisons and jails. And this guy was using the pages of the Bible to roll cigarettes with.

He had tobacco he found and was rolling cigarettes with the word of God. But, so somebody didn't take it from him. He started reading the word. And after he read it, he came to know Jesus Christ and was saved. And there's many many stories like that.

But again, there are one of the last pitch for the Gideons. We do have cards in the back in the foyer. They're in recognition and memory cards that you can do, that you can fill those out and Bibles will be placed, in that person's name. So I'd like to ask the offering team to come up at this time and as they do, I'd like to turn your attention to the prayer requests. I'd like to go to the Lord in prayer for these prayer requests this morning.

Dear heavenly father, there's so much to be grateful for, within this church. We thank you for the Gideon ministry, the partnership we have with the churches, the ministry that we provide. Lord, we thank you for the word of God. Lord, there are many unspoken prayer requests. We know that God is moving in Kenya with Roseanne.

Lord, we'd also like to lift up Tanya and Pascal as they have safe travels to Kenya. Lord, we like to lift up our military and our country. We'd like to lift up the leadership of this government within The United States, Lord, and we pray for them. We'd like to, offer up praises for the finalization, the adoption for the girls into the Smith family. Thank you for that, Lord.

There's so much. There's so many people suffering. We just lift those people up to you. We know that you are you are the healer, Lord. And, again, we thank you so much.

We like to lift up these offerings this morning. We know that everything we have is because of you and this morning, we just like to give a portion of that back. We do this in Jesus name. Amen.

Good morning. I, gracious. That thing is really loud this morning. I'd like for you to turn in your Bibles to John three. I know we spoke on John three last time.

I want to catch the last couple of verses and go to John four but y'all can be flipping there if you want to. I don't have it on the screen this time. Fletcher Tocato is going to be back eventually. But like Mike mentioned, he called this morning. He said the rim was kind of nasty.

That means nothing to a guy from Georgia. So I don't know what that meant. But he the long and short of it is he was on his way and could not make it. So, he will be back but I'm going to give you what I had planned to give you and then a little more. So, John three, the last couple verses in John four and but I do want to start out with this.

Before going to Mexico, before we ever got to be missionaries down there, I worked... And I've told you all this several times about working in sawmills and factories all over Georgia and working primarily with Mexican immigrants but somehow Salvadorans and Guatemalans. And while I was teaching these safety lessons for OSHA compliance training stuff, I'm learning how to speak Spanish to them. A couple of embarrassing things I won't go into, but I did tell 80 guys one time that I was pregnant. And they got a big kick out of that.

That's a fairly easy one to do. It's a false cognate. Yeah. Embarrassed is not embarassada, if y'all are wondering. So anyway, I got up before those guys every day and I would do this spiel, the safety lesson, and it would be usually five points because there are five questions on the test.

They were true false tests. And I'd say, this point you need to know I beat it to death. This point you need to know I beat it to death. I do that in English and then I do it in Spanish. They would give them the five question test.

And the guys basically were a lot of them were illiterate. And so when I would come down to the test and I'd say, okay, so you should have circled an f for falso or f for falx, you know, on that one. And I'd get the test back and they would be an f circled in the middle of the senate somewhere or something that wasn't even an f, something that looked kinda like an f. But those guys are the ones who taught me how to speak Spanish. And every day after those meetings, what I would do when I got through the meeting, I'd say, if you would like to have a Bible, I have a case of them in the truck in Spanish, I'd say this.

I have a case of New Testaments because I could not express what I wanted to express, the truth of God. I wanted to express it to him but I couldn't express it to him in my broken Spanish but I had Spanish Bibles and I could always hand those out and that's what the Gideons do. So, after I had been doing that for about two or three years handing out these Bibles, somebody said, duh, why aren't you a Gideon? You're handing out Bibles all over the place. You believe in the power of the word.

You know that the gospel is the power unto salvation for all who believe. It's not the preacher. It's not somebody who knows how to walk em down the Roman Road necessarily. The Roman Road is right here. It's right here in this Bible and so this is where people are going to meet Jesus.

If they meet him at all, they're going to meet him through the pages of God's word. If they're going to know the divine logos, the divine word we talked about in John one, this is how they're going to know him. So, we're going to go to John four but I became a Gideon before I went down there and then I figured out that just because you're a Gideon doesn't mean they give you a bunch of Bibles. I was paying for the Bibles that I had been given out for a long time and when I became a Gideon, I found out that most of those guys who are Gideons, they put their own money into that organization to be able to put those Bibles into those hotel rooms and prisons and all over. So, even the schools, they'll stand out beside the stand out beside the road when the buses are leaving and hand them through the windows to anybody who'll take em the little tiny New Testaments.

I don't know if that's still going on but I probably handed out. I don't know how many thousand Bibles over the five years that I was with that safety company and God's promise is that his word will not return void but will accomplish that which he set out for it to accomplish. Sometimes, that happens through the Gideon. Sometimes, it happens way way after the fact. Today, I want to talk about the Samaritan woman at the well.

So, we're going to read the whole story first. I'm going to catch the last couple of verses of chapter three. Then we're gonna read the whole chapter four. Bear with me. I'll try to be as exciting as possible.

The last couple of verses of chapter three say, let me let me go back to verse 34. For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God. For God does not give the spirit by measure. The father loves the son and has given all things into his hand. He who believes in the son has everlasting life.

And he who does not believe the son shall not see life but the wrath of God abides upon him. I'm going to pray before we go into chapter four. God, I pray that if there's anyone here right now, on whom your wrath is abiding, lord. I pray that you'd touch them today. I pray that you would show them through these three interactions that you, Jesus, had with three different people.

I pray that you would show them that anybody may come. That whosoever in John three sixteen really means whosoever. They've done nothing to keep themselves out of this glorious inheritance, and they could do nothing to earn it. God, it's a free gift. I pray that you would show us that today through your word.

It's in Jesus name. Amen. So chapter four. I'm gonna read the whole chapter four and then we'll come back. Therefore, when the Lord knew that the pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself had did not baptize but his disciples, he left Judea and departed again to Galilee but he needed, my version says, or a must needs in old King James or it was necessary in some versions that he go through Samaria.

So, came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph. Now, Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore being wearied from his journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. That would be about noon, right at midday.

Sun straight over the head. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to him, how is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, 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 have asked him and he would have given you living water. The woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water?

Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank from it himself as well as his sons and his livestock? And Jesus answered and said to her, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst, but the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman said to him, sir, give me this water that I may not thirst nor come here to draw. And Jesus said to her, go, call your husband, and come here.

The woman answered and said, I have no husband. And Jesus said to her, you have well said, I have no husband. For you have had five husbands and the one whom you now have is not your husband and that you spoke truly. The woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain and you Jews say that this in Jerusalem is the place where you ought to worship.

Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the father. You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews but the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth. For the father is seeking such to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.

The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming who's called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things and Jesus said to her, I who speak to you, am he. And at this point, his disciples came and they marveled that he talked with a woman. Y'all remember a couple weeks ago, the woman come in. Woman, what has this to do with me?

It shows up so many different places but Jesus elevates women on every hand. Everywhere where you see Jesus interacting with women. If you understand what he's saying, he's always elevating. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you, I'm he. And at this point, the disciples marveled that he talked with a woman.

Yet no one said, what do you seek or why are you talking with her? The woman left her water pot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, come, see a man who told me all things I ever did. Could this be the Christ? Then they went out of the city and they came to him and in the meantime, his disciples urged him saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat of which you do not know.

Therefore, the disciples said to one another, has anyone brought him anything to eat? Jesus said, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish the work. Let's just stop right there for a minute. I want to talk about the Samaritan woman and the experience that she had there and what Jesus's experience was with her. Now, Nicodemus, who we spoke about last week, really what we talked about was the content of what Jesus said to Nicodemus.

We went back to numbers 21. Moses in the wilderness and what he was saying to someone who was a teacher of the Jews. So, what was Nicodemus's social status? He was a religious guy, a teacher, someone who searched the scriptures, someone who was of relatively well known and in a decent social class. That's what we know of Nicodemus.

And he came to him at night probably hiding the fact that he was coming from the other Pharisees. They didn't know what to think about Jesus. Although, Nicodemus says, we know that you're from God. Nobody could do what you do if they weren't. So, that's Nicodemus.

He has been a good guy. He's done all that he can. He's probably fairly wealthy. We see him later on in the scriptures and we can ascertain that he's probably fairly wealthy and he has done everything that he thinks he is supposed to do in order to receive from God a blessing. The Samaritan woman, y'all have probably heard sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon on the Samaritans.

I have. I've heard tons of em. Samaritans were considered to be a half breed. They had some of the Bible, some of the old testament. They did not have all of it.

They had the five books of Moses and they had a very specific, the Samarian Samaritan Pentateuch were the first five books of the Bible, but it was with the Samaritan slant. They had changed a few things. And the Jews hated them. Absolutely hated their guts. For one thing, they hated them because they were half breed Jews.

Jews were told not to marry outside of their cultural line and when they did with the Samaritan, you know, they became this half breed Samaritan. Another thing is, don't ever change this word. Nothing shall change from this word and the Samaritans had changed that. Now, they still had teaching on the prophet, the Tacheb, and Arabic Hebrew whatever Tacheb is the prophet. It would be the one who would come, the Messiah.

When she mentions back to the Messiah, that's what she's talking about. They had enough of the truth mixed in with their heretical book and enough of the truth that she knew something about that Jesus was able to relate to her and rather than saying, that Samaritan Pentateuch is awful. It's terrible. There's no way it can be redeemed in any sort of way. He didn't say that.

He didn't start out that way. He didn't go that direction with her. He went with what she knew. He went with where she was. Now, what was her social standing?

She was there at midday. Typically, women did not go to the well at midday. They went either in the morning or in the evening when it was not straight up overhead. So, there would have been a big crowd mornings and evenings but this lady was there at midday, probably avoiding the crowd. Since the conversation seems to have taken place alone with possibly just Jesus and the Samaritan woman, maybe John was there recording for us.

Jesus could have told him the story in Samaritan in Samaria later too but this story points toward the fact that she was not terribly religious. She was not of great reputation. In fact, she had had and we make a lot about the fact that she was a very sinful woman and usually you hear sinful, sinful, sinful but if you'll think about women at this time and the way that they were considered without a man, they were not able to do a whole lot. They weren't able to buy and sell property. They weren't able to do a lot of things.

So, women were kind of second class citizens at the time. If she were married early on and her husband died, she would have automatically gone to his brother to take care of her. That would have been a normal thing. We talk about the sinful and and I believe that it, I believe that she was sinful but I think that a lot of times we put that on there and think, oh, it's all her fault. It's all her fault.

Circumstances of life had beaten this woman down. That's what I'm trying to say. I'm reading it with eyes of mercy and saying, poor lady. She's had a tough time. Husband number one may have been the love of her life.

Have you ever known anybody like that? I had an art professor when I was in seminary and he married his college sweetheart and they were absolutely fantastic together and she got cancer and died. And he has been married five times since then and he's wanted to recapture that. He's a great guy and I love him but he cannot get along because he's trying to make everybody else into that one. Do y'all do y'all know people like that?

Do you know things in your life that are like that where you just can't get out of your own way? That's the way the Samaritan woman. To me, that's the way that I read the story. I think it's there. I think it's there.

No doubt. She's sinful. We're all sinful. We talked about this last week. All have sinned fall short of the glory of God but in Jesus's interaction with her, I want to look at five different things.

First of all, he engages her in conversation which he did not have to do. It surprised her. When she mentioned that it surprised her, she brought it up. She brought up the gender difference. She brought up the ethnic difference.

He didn't bring it up. He just said, may I have a drink? He was avoiding any unnecessary hindrances and challenges and he's challenging her to think more deeply, get outside of her comfort zone. He overcomes the initial discomfort by tapping into her latent spiritual desire. When he starts talking about that living water, that's a play on words.

The living water is like running water. She would like to have had a stream clear, cool mountain stream running right by her house but she didn't have to walk in but when he mentioned that living water, it wasn't what we think. We think living water, oh, living water, capital L, capital W, that's Jesus because we're looking at it from this side of the cross. She didn't know that but he tapped into something and said, hey, I can give you this clear flowing stream that's going to well up into the spring of eternal life. He gets on to that.

She changes the subject. She switches the subject. She says, oh, but you Jews think this and we Samaritans think that. What is it? Jesus without, he confronts her spiritual condition.

First of all, he confronts that spiritual condition question and points out that she does... You know, she's spoken truly. He doesn't say, you liar. He says, you've spoken truly because she did. She said, I have I have no husband.

You're right. You don't. But you have had four. So he tells her what she has done. It's very similar and recalls what he had said to Nathaniel about being under that fig tree.

He knew who Nathaniel was. He knew where he was. He knew this woman. But he forced her in a gentle way to come face to face with that. But as soon as she did, she changed the subject.

So, changing the subject, she went to well, you you say that we should and we say this, and he turns it but he does not give up the scriptural truth. He says, you know, a time is coming where we will worship in spirit and in truth but he does say to her too, salvation is from the Jews. That salvation that's from the Jews, that was him. That was he and himself. He was the salvation that was from the Jews.

That's what he was talking about. He called her to a decision about his identity. If you look at the story with Nicodemus, Nicodemus, he he lays it out there. It's the whole for God so loved the world. He gave his only begotten son.

He lays everything out there. He says, whoever believes has it. We don't really have an ideas whether this religious guy accepted what he said or not at this point. In John three, we don't ever know. So, he's done everything he can.

He's been a good boy. He's done everything he can but we don't know whether he accepted him or not at that point. This woman has done everything she can to be out of it. She's a Samaritan. She's sinful.

But she can't be bad enough, Jesus says. To to disqualify herself from the prize. It comes back down to belief and when he said to her, I who speak to you, am he. So the Samaritan woman knows of the Taeb. She knows it from Moses all the way back to Moses.

The word not returning void. It had been through a lot in the intervening time, couple thousand years. And going through all of the history, you all see how far off. You see how far we can get off in just a couple of hundred years with a little heresy? Heresy is insidious.

And through the eyes of mercy, there are a lot of people who are deceived by a heresy that's just a couple 100 years old here. Can you imagine having a thousand years for that to go and build and build and build? When I read the story about the Samaritan woman, what I think of is the Mormon man, Mormon woman who has had opportunity at the Old Testament and the New Testament. And because someone in the past was deceived, that's carried on. I think that what we need to do...

This... For for me, I was looking over this message all week this week, and I had originally ten minutes. I told somebody a little while ago, I might be tap dancing up here today. I had really three different messages that I wanted to speak and I could not decide on which one. I'm preaching all three of em right now.

One of em was about the three different people. Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, and in chapter four towards the end, the nobleman's son. So, the religious guy, the irreligious, sinful woman, and then this nobleman. The nobleman when he comes, let's read that too. Just throw it all in there.

We still got twelve minutes left. So, Jesus came again to Cana Of Galilee where he made the water to wine and there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. Now, Cana and Capernaum are 20 something miles apart. When he heard that Jesus had come of out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him and implored him to come out and heal his son for he was at the point of death. Then, Jesus said to him, unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.

And the nobleman said to him, sir, come down before my child dies. And Jesus said to him, go your way, your son lives. So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him. And he went his way and as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him saying, your son lives. Then, he inquired of them, the hour when he got better and they said, yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him.

So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, your son lives. And he himself believed and his whole household. This again is the second sign Jesus did when he come out of Judea into Galilee. So the people were driven to him for various reasons. One of them, religion drove him there.

One of them, she thought pure happenstance, but it was really the circumstances of her life that had put her right there with Jesus at that time. He met the religious man where he was in terms he could understand. He met her where she was in terms she could understand. And then this last guy, this nobleman, social status, he's a nobleman. That's the only way he's described, a nobleman.

He's a man. That elevates him. He's noble. That elevates him. But he was in need and he was desperate.

He had been to all the physicians. He'd been everywhere else. He'd been to everybody else. He did not have any other hope and he heard that Jesus was there, that he come up out of Judea, and so he went to him, met him on the way, 20 miles away. He didn't want to wait for him.

He thought his son might die. He was completely desperate. And Jesus met him where he was right there and he said to him, the only thing that he asked for but he didn't even have to go with him. Now, we talked about the water into wine was Jesus was showing his mastery, his his deity over the concept of time. You don't get from water to wine without going through the stage of being roots and leaves and vines and grapes and squishing and all that stuff.

But Jesus can do it. Water to wine. This is over the concept of space. 20, he didn't spit on the ground and rub anything on anybody. He didn't make a poultice.

He didn't give him any kind of prescription. He just spoke it into existence. His healing, he spoke it from 20 miles away. So, We've got those three. We've got the way that he interacted with her.

First of all, he engaged her in conversation. He gets over her discomfort by going into that latent spiritual longing. Augustine said it, Blaise Pascal said it again. Billy Graham repeats it every time he preaches a message that there is a god shaped void within all of us. And Jesus tapped into that.

God has set eternity in our hearts. He confronted our sinful spiritual condition without giving up the truth of scripture. And he called her to a decision about his identity. He didn't call this nobleman to a decision about his identity. He didn't call Nicodemus to a decision about his identity outrightly.

He said, whosoever to Nicodemus and to the the nobleman, he gave him what he asked for. But if you'll read on ahead in John, John 19, it appears Nicodemus accepted him. Coming from where he did, all the religious stuff, and everything he had to deal with and all of his friends telling him not to. The lady, there's no doubt about her story. She ran back into town, left her water pot behind what she had come out here for and she went back and said, come.

See this man who told me everything I ever did. Now, if you're a woman of bad reputation, would you go back and say that? Y'all all know what I did anyway. It's gotten around. Everybody knows who I am and this guy doesn't know me but he knew who I was supernaturally.

Come listen to him and it says that they stayed there for a couple of days. Jesus and his disciples stayed there for a couple of days. Later on, we have Peter saying, lord, you know I have never eaten anything unclean. Everything that the Samaritans touch were unclean. Their house was unclean.

Everything about them was unclean. Peter either wandered up into the wilderness and found food or didn't eat the whole time that they were there. The racial tension was still very very high the whole time that they were there but they were willing to go with their new master, Jesus. I feel like I'm giving you the shotgun effect this morning. But the truth is, it's all here.

It's all right here in this word. I want to look into something else too. My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say there are still four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your heads and look at the fields for they're already white for harvest.

And he who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life. That both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this saying, for in this the saying is true, one sows and another reaps. One sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored.

Others have labored and you have entered into their labors. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified. He told me all that I ever did. Her story although we can make it, you know, it's a Bible story and we can make it into a, she's a sinful woman. It's a horrible thing but her story is just a normal everyday story.

That's just the way she was. Normal everyday story. Her story was a broken story. Now we all have everyday stories. Do we all have broken stories?

Absolutely. For there's no one that's without sin. But ultimately, what her story was and why I think it made the list here is because it was a shared story. She simply told everybody else what Jesus told her. The application points on this one to me are profound.

If you will just tell your everyday broken story to people, tell what Jesus has done for you. That's the way that he'll work. We are surrounded by people who I think are Samaritans. They have a little bit of truth but it's mixed with a whole lot of error. We need to not give up on the truth.

So, we need to know our Bibles for sure. Don't ever, don't ever give up on that. Jesus didn't say, yeah, Garrazim's fine. That's a good place. Whatever.

He said, that's not important. This is not important but this is important. We need to focus back on Jesus, the person and work of Jesus Christ. What he's done, the fact that salvation is a gift. It cannot be earned.

You cannot be good enough to get it and you can't be bad enough to be disqualified from it and sometimes Jesus is just going to give you exactly what you ask for. All of those things John has written. Merrill Tinney in this book calls John the Gospel of Belief And he calls this period, the first period here, the prologue which we talked about. The first period he calls it the period of consideration. He is laying out example after example after example of testimony.

And he's laying it out for you to see that there are a lot of different people from different stripes, different places, and all of em received from Jesus no matter where they came from. It's still saying that. The period of consideration is today. I'd ask you to consider what it is that Jesus is speaking to you about. What is it that Jesus is asking from you?

What is it that Jesus is offering to you? And if you are tripping over that, y'all come on up. If if y'all are tripping over that and you don't know what it means, you're just confused by it. You think, oh, preachers preach. That's what they do.

He just has to say something. So, he's standing up there and talking. I believe this because I've seen it to be true. I have been in church my whole life but my wife hasn't. When I was talking about the the word not returning void, Tanya became a Christian by reading the Bible alone by herself.

Everybody else in her family didn't was not a believer at the time and she just read the Bible by itself. It will not return void. Get into this. If you don't know about him, get into this. John's a good place to start.

If you want to know personally what God has done, you can come speak to me personally. I'd love to talk to you about it. They're going to start singing. I'm not going to play this one. So, go go ahead but I'm going to wait right down here.

If you'd like to come and pray, you're welcome to come and pray. If you'd like to come up and speak to me, you're welcome to do that. Alright.

Let's stand together.

My foes are many. They rise against me, but I will hold my ground. Up. Thank

you. I will ask y'all if y'all would be praying for Tanya and Pascal. I spoke to, well, I didn't speak to her. Wanted I to speak to her. Spoke to her in New York and they Emailed and said that they were in London having coffee just below Big Bend because they had enough time in between over their layover.

So, they were in London last time I spoke to him. They should be heading out for Nairobi in about an hour and a half. So, hopefully, they're in the airport. Now, but if y'all would be praying for them and pray that what they would carry with them is this. That's what that's where the power lies.

It's not about traveling around halfway around the world to do something. It's who we carry with us and so the one who has touched her, she's sharing that story. She's sharing it and I pray. I want you all to pray for this too. I've been a kind of overcome emotionally.

We had communion last week and I looked back there and I saw Paschal. Take the bread, take the cup, and I thought, we haven't prayed that sinner's prayer. And I talked to her afterwards. Tanya talked to her before and she said, she's a Christian. Praise God.

And praise God. She is going over there and telling her story. Thank you to the Alwanna volunteers and to all of you who are pouring into the lives of the young ones around here and into this community. It is reaching the world. So praise God.

May he make his face to shine upon you and give you peace. Amen.