[0:00] If you would please stand with me as we honor the reading of God's Word together, reading from the Gospel of John chapter 4, verses 1-15.
[0:26] ! And as they were speaking to the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, whoops, excuse me, that's Acts chapter 4, John chapter 4. Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize but only his disciples, he left Judea and departed again for Galilee.
[0:50] And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well.
[1:05] It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. And Jesus said to her, give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
[1:17] The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? For Jews had no dealings with Samaritans.
[1:29] Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him. And he would have given you living water.
[1:42] The woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and we drink from it and drink from it himself and his sons and his livestock.
[1:59] Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.
[2:13] The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here and draw water.
[2:29] May God add a blessing to the reading of his word. Would you please be seated? Many of you know that we came here to Bartlesville from Leavenworth, Kansas, from Lansing, Kansas to be more correct.
[2:47] Lansing and Leavenworth are two towns right next to each other. They're different, but they operate in very much like one major community. And if you know anything about Leavenworth, you know that Leavenworth has a lot of prisons.
[3:04] To the north of town is the federal penitentiary, however you say that, right? Over, close to that, is the military prison, where if ever you've watched movies and you hear, especially if it's a movie about military or war and them breaking protocol, that we're going to go to Leavenworth.
[3:29] That's what they're talking about. In Lansing, the town just south of Leavenworth, over to the east, there is the state prison. That house is maximum, minimum, and prisoners in medium and minimum security.
[3:46] And also, there's a prison for women. We've got a prison for everybody in Leavenworth. And so many people in our community worked as guards in these prisons.
[4:00] Or they had been retired from working as guards in these prisons. And so, in some way, it was similar up there to how Phillips 66 or ConocoPhillips works in our community, where really those businesses are anchors for our community and they employ a lot of people.
[4:18] Well, in Leavenworth, it was the military base and these prisons that employed a lot of people in the community. I found during my time there that many of those who worked in the prisons had a disdain for prisoners.
[4:39] Just as Nathaniel, remember, as we've gone over, when he first heard that the Messiah had come and that he was from Nazareth, remember, he scoffs at the notion that anything good could come from Nazareth.
[4:54] And so, these people, these prison guards, would scoff at the same kind of notion that anything good could come from these prisoners, that they could truly reform their lives, that they could truly become productive members of society, that they could truly live law-abiding lives.
[5:18] They didn't believe that it was possible. And they had a reason to believe that way. They had been jaded over the years of the different antics that they had seen these prisoners doing in the prisons.
[5:36] And then afterwards, when they got out of jail, they saw them doing and saying horrific things. They watched them manipulate naive people whom later they would get out of jail and take complete advantage of.
[5:49] There was also the occasional prison escape. And so, in community, you would hear stories about, well, you know, Mrs. Jones, back in such and such a time, a prisoner got out and tied her up and shoved her in the closet and stole her car.
[6:06] And, you know, and so you'd hear all of these stories. I don't know if they were true or not. But stories of these prisoners getting out and doing horrible things. So all this to say that they were very leery of convicts, which is understandable in that line of work.
[6:25] But I observed that for a lot of them, they had developed a deep disdain and even an unabashed hatred for the prisoners whom they kept watch over.
[6:38] A member of our church at the time, they worked for a Christian ministry that actually went inside of the prisons.
[6:49] They were actually located inside of the prison. And their objective was to primarily share the gospel with these men and then to teach them job skills so that when they got out of prison, they would be productive members, not just of society, but even of churches.
[7:08] And the Lord used that ministry in a mighty way. Many of those men who were hopeless came to hope in Jesus Christ and knowing Him as their Lord and Savior.
[7:25] On occasion, some of these prisoners who had been in the program for a while and who had proven themselves to be model prisoners, they were allowed to leave the minimum security prison to visit churches on Sunday morning and in many cases to actually lead the church in worship and give their testimonies and in some cases even to preach.
[7:49] And so our church was invited to do this and we took part. We invited these prisoners to come and to do just that.
[8:01] At the time there, my predecessor welcomed them with open arms. But not everyone was as welcoming or as accepting.
[8:14] And I'll never forget the following Sunday morning before Sunday school as people congregate and I was sitting at a table with a man who had retired as a prison guard and he made a comment.
[8:33] He said, It's fine that that ministry is there, but why do they have to come here? And he concluded by saying, I say if they want to worship, let them worship somewhere else.
[8:52] That was his comment, but truthfully, I knew that he wasn't truly only speaking for himself. There were others in the church who had the same thought process.
[9:05] They just weren't willing to share what they truly felt like he was. But really, behind this man's statement, I felt were two false assumptions.
[9:17] First, the assumption that some sinners are just too sinful to be saved. And the second assumption, that some sinners are just so sinful that God shouldn't save them.
[9:35] As we come to John chapter 4 today, we see that such attitudes did not exist in Christ. And since they did not exist in Christ, neither should they exist in his people.
[9:53] Last week, we covered John 3, 31 through 36, the passage of Scripture that bears witness to the truth that Jesus is the perfect witness of God the Father. Having firsthand knowledge of God the Father.
[10:33] This is how we are to share the good news of Jesus Christ with unbelievers in our world. And so no doubt, many of you, I'm sure, have probably heard this story before.
[10:46] It's about Jesus witnessing to. It's about Jesus sharing the gospel with an outcast. A person who many thought was beyond loving, was beyond forgiving, and was beyond saving.
[11:00] A woman who many, no doubt, thought that this was a person that God would want nothing to do with. She's too sinful.
[11:12] She's too messed up. She's got too much baggage. She's beyond hope. She's beyond redemption. She's not worth the time. She's not worth the effort.
[11:22] But Jesus does spend the time with her. And he does exert the effort. And she does come to faith in him. She is saved.
[11:36] And she is used by God to go back to her village and share the gospel. And more people believe it and are saved. A revival breaks out.
[11:49] And it all starts with Jesus interrupting this woman's life. Verse 39 summarizes the results of this encounter.
[12:01] It says there, Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. So here we have a clear model of our Lord evangelizing a sinner.
[12:15] What I mean by that is sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with a sinner. Sharing the good news. Sharing the gospel. And so this passage is very instructive for us as we seek to be obedient to his command to go and to make disciples.
[12:34] How can we effectively do that? How can we effectively evangelize? Well, he shows us. And as we pursue the Best Highland Park Baptist Church in 2020 we'll see how this passage helps us, will help us pursue that as we live our lives committed to him.
[12:58] And we'll see that at the end. Jesus again has called us to go and make disciples and now he's shown us how. So here's the main idea for this morning's message.
[13:09] In John chapter 4 verses 1 through 15 Jesus reveals to us that the gospel is for everyone and instructs us in how best to effectively share it.
[13:23] but as we go along this gospel it's important that we understand John inspired by the Holy Spirit's purpose for writing this account of our Lord's life and he says that very clearly in John 20 verses 30 and 31.
[13:45] Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name.
[14:04] And so John's purpose is Christ's purpose which should also be our purpose. Sharing what we know to be true and what we've experienced to be true the unsurpassed the unlimited the never ending flow of God's grace and love and mercy and forgiveness to us and we want unbelievers to experience that same thing that they'd know the hope that we have in Jesus Christ.
[14:41] And so if we're going to be effective if we're going to get over any ill-conceived notions that we may have that some people are just beyond God's ability to save or that some people shouldn't be saved then we must follow our Lord's example as he modeled it for us in this passage.
[15:01] And so Jesus provides us with four principles of evangelism that we should follow and I'll tell you right now we will only get through two. So you'll just have to wait until next Sunday.
[15:11] The first principle that we must follow in modeling our Lord's example of evangelism is this that Jesus was not too tired to minister. He wasn't too tired.
[15:23] Let's recap verses 1 and 6. Jesus is on the move. The Pharisees have heard that he's making more disciples than John and so Jesus realizing that his time had not yet come he's still got more things to do but he knows that each step takes him closer to the cross.
[15:42] He decides to leave from there and head towards Galilee and in order to do so it says there in your Bible that he had to pass through Samaria.
[15:55] So again Jesus is on a divine schedule. His earthly ministry is underway. His ministry is also flourishing but this creates problems. The Pharisees already hated John the Baptist because he called them out for their hypocrisy.
[16:12] He called them if you remember a brood of vipers. He pointed out that they were doomed unless they repented of their sins and as unpopular as John the Baptist was with the Pharisees Jesus was even less popular with them than John.
[16:27] If you remember Jesus has already entered into the temple and he has already turned over their system of religion their system of making profits off of God's house. He also has pointed out the fact that they are hypocrites and the Pharisees are jealous to keep their positions of power and they feel threatened by Jesus and they don't like the true things that he is having to say about them and so they are wanting to put him out of the equation.
[16:59] But his time has not yet come. He has many more towns to go through. He has many more people to meet with. He has much more to do in order to share the good news before he goes to the cross and so he heads towards Galilee and he'll continue to minister there in that place for well over a year.
[17:20] Again, this is just another stop that Jesus knows that is on the road to the cross. So it says there that in order to get there he had to pass through Samaria.
[17:33] So when he arrives there in Syker you've got to understand that Jesus has been walking for 23 miles.
[17:44] 23 miles. A person in good shape and who keeps a consistent pace walks a mile in about 15 minutes.
[17:56] About 15 minutes. But this journey wasn't covering flat ground. If you have ever been to the Holy Land I haven't but you know you see pictures. This was not flat ground that he was walking across.
[18:08] This was a hike. There were ups and downs and ups and downs and twists and turns. And so this was a strenuous hike that he had taken.
[18:21] And remember that he's hiking this long distance in sandals. There weren't Nike cross trainers or hiking boots back then.
[18:32] And if you've ever walked a long distance in sandals you know that it's a little bit painful. And also John tells us that it was about the sixth hour which according to the method of how Jews kept time back then meant that it was midday so likely it was also very hot when Jesus finally reached his destination.
[18:56] Again hiking somewhere between seven and ten hours in the heat he's exhausted. Have you ever felt like that where you're just so exhausted that you saw a comfortable place to sit or anywhere to sit and you just plopped?
[19:13] I know I have. I'll be doing that after church this morning. And so Jesus is tired. And so it's interesting here as a side note we see the true humanity of our Lord.
[19:27] He was fully God yes but he was also fully man. He walked in our flesh. He was truly tired. He was truly thirsty but as tired as he was and as exhausted from his travels as he was he was not too exhausted to meet with this woman.
[19:49] In fact I believe that as we'll soon see this was precisely his intent to meet with her. This wasn't a chance encounter. This was a divine meeting.
[20:00] Being fully God he knew all things and he knew that he would meet this woman though she was unaware of it. I know that for those of you who serve in some kind of ongoing volunteer role here at our church listen I know that it's exhausting.
[20:30] Sunday after Sunday Monday after Monday Wednesday after Wednesday and so on and so forth whether you're teaching you're playing an instrument you're serving as a deacon you're working in the nursery you're teaching Sunday school whatever the case may be you do it persistently you run the audio and the video Sunday morning and you're here consistently but it gets exhausting and I've been there but I want you to know Jesus wants us to know that all of your work and all of your effort bears fruit it bears fruit in fact I feel like it's been the case for me where when I'm ready to be done when I feel like I don't I don't feel like I got anything left to give that often times that is when God really starts to get to work you don't feel like you see the fruit but then man
[21:34] God just there it is it wasn't for nothing Lord it all was for a greater purpose and so I just want to say by the way to those of you who that's you thank you thank you so much for what you do and I can tell you as a parent it's encouraging to me to be able to know that I can send my kids to different places in the building and I know that they're being taught I know that they're being loved on I know that they're being cared for I can tell you in coming in here on Sunday morning it's so great to know that you know everything regarding sound and video that those two got it back there that they don't root for the chiefs that's that's okay Christ is greater but you know there are things that people do here all the time John and all that you do thank you for what you do and I know we don't say thank you enough please don't be exhausted in what you're doing because what you do matters and Jesus shows us that even though he was tired he wasn't too exhausted to love somebody in desperate need of it and so neither should we
[22:47] Galatians 6 9-10 and let us not grow weary of doing good for in due season we will reap if we do not give up so then as we have opportunity let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are the household of faith and so let's keep this in view as we seek to be committed to the best for Highland Park in 2020 that it takes all of us but ultimately we're doing it for God's glory and good things will result from it Jesus didn't allow his weariness to affect his witness so we are always like him to be prepared to share the gospel and provide a defense for the hope that we have in Jesus Christ don't be too tired or use that as an excuse not to share the gospel not to minister second principle Jesus took the initiative the Samaritan woman had come and as we said she had no idea who she was going to meet that day
[23:51] I believe Jesus fully was aware of that and so they come and they meet at a well and Jesus addresses her he's the one who speaks to her it's interesting to know that we've got to understand in this time and culture men predominantly worked in the fields and they did other jobs that required them to be in hard labor so one of the tasks that fell to the women in this community was to draw water and understand that this was a very important job it's hard to do much without water and there was no indoor plumbing at this time that was still a ways away from happening and so the women would go just about every single day to go draw water from the well for their family and so also the women would go usually around dusk because the sun was going down it wasn't so hot and so they would go in a time where this strenuous work wouldn't be as strenuous because the added element of it being hot wasn't there also water was scarce in this region so again this was a very important job and so many of the women in a town would go to the well at about the same time at dusk and as they worked to draw water the well served as kind of like an ancient office water cooler you know how in the office there will be the kitchen or the water cooler a place where people congregate and fellowship and talk so the ancient well served very much like the same place for the women in the community they would come get their work done and they would talk and they would fellowship with one another at the well as they did it however as you've probably noticed or heard mentioned before this woman does not come during the time of day when most other women would have gone to the well she comes at midday which makes us wonder why would she perform this task then instead of when the other women were gathering together to do it well from this text we know as we go along we'll see that
[26:20] Jesus points out that this woman has been married five times and that she's currently living with a man who is not her husband and so we assume that perhaps she was coming to the well at this time intentionally in order to avoid these other women who no doubt knew a lot about her past have you ever been involved in a conversation where you're with some other people right because you've got to be with other people to have a conversation and the topic gets on to somebody that you all know and maybe you're not talking poorly about them but maybe you are and you shouldn't be a part of that if you're but anyhow for sake of illustration you've probably been in that case before and then as you're talking about this person this person that you're talking about all of a sudden comes within view or even maybe walks into your group and wants to know what you're talking about have you ever been in that situation before and you know how uncomfortable that is now has it ever been the case where you were the subject of the conversation where all of a sudden you entered the room and you noticed!
[27:43] that the loud voices begin to get softer and quieter and people are all of a sudden pretending like they've been busy doing all these other things all along because they can't talk about you when you're there so if you've been in that situation before you know in just a very small way I believe what life was like for this Samaritan woman she'd been talked about she'd been the subject of gossip for years she was probably the type of person who people felt were just so sinful so messed up so beyond rescuing or helping that they wouldn't even try I imagine she would walk into a place and people would continue on as if she didn't exist not acknowledging her not extending any kind of greeting and so she probably lived a lot of her life feeling like she didn't exist at all people didn't want to talk to her she had also probably been the recipient of many dirty looks constantly ignored uncared for uncared about but
[29:17] Jesus doesn't ignore her he takes the initiative he engages her in conversation I like what J.C.
[29:28] Ryle had to say about evangelism he said in of this passage he said this is a gracious act of spiritual aggression on the sinner and I like that because we don't often think about aggression in terms of evangelism but maybe we should so Jesus here is aggressive in his initiation with this conversation with this woman and he does something totally shocking that we can't truly appreciate because of the culture in which we live in back then in this culture you didn't talk to people of the opposite sex so like in ours if you enter an elevator and somebody is in there there's usually like a feeling that you should say something you know or at least even smile and nod your head that was not the case in this culture and so what
[30:32] Jesus did in this instance would have been considered to be a major breach of religious etiquette men didn't speak with women especially rabbis it said that rabbis wouldn't even talk to their wives in public so here Jesus a rabbi a Jewish man not only engages in conversation with a woman but he's speaking to a woman who is despised a woman who has been marked out as being very sinful and on top of that a Samaritan without having anything to draw water with and in order to illustrate a more deeply profound truth about himself Jesus then asked the woman for a little help and so Jesus uses a tactic here that we should model in our evangelism think about it these two people were very opposite
[31:36] Jesus was a man she was a woman Jesus was a Jew she was a Samaritan Jesus was a rabbi she was an adulteress Jesus had never sinned her sins were many what could these two opposites have in common well the need for water he finds a common link that they share in order to share the gospel with her you can do the same kids work we can just talk about the problem of sin we all share that in common don't we there are many things that we can use that we have in common with unbelievers in order to initiate these conversations all we have to do is be observant it's also interesting to note that Jesus did not use his miraculous power to satisfy his physical need you ever notice that he could have spoken to the water and had it shoot up out of the well and right into his mouth if he wanted to certainly he was tired certainly that seemed like it would have been an easier course to take but he didn't do that because if you notice
[32:58] Jesus never performed a miracle for his personal benefit it was always for the benefit of others in order to show them revealed to them that he was Jesus Christ the Messiah the Son of God additionally back in this culture to accept anything from a Samaritan especially a woman again was a major faux paw most devout Jews wouldn't even step foot into the land of Samaria if they had to travel north they would take a longer route in order to avoid even stepping one foot in that region because doing so they felt meant that they would be contaminated they would be unclean because Samaritans had cooties when the disciples arrive at the well later on remember it says there that they marveled at what they saw because they couldn't believe what
[34:04] Jesus was doing today we'd be concerned that maybe the cameras were rolling you know somebody is recording this with their phone and they're going to put it on social media and it's going to slander our master our Lord they're going to see him doing something that he should not be doing and talking with somebody whom he should not be speaking with they're going to use it to discredit his ministry and so they go in a little bit of a panic mode the woman at the well knew that what Jesus was doing was way out of character for a man in his position so in verse 9 she says therefore the Samaritan woman said to him how is it that you being a Jew ask for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman and John adds parenthetically for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans literally the verb here in the Greek means something like they don't use the same utensils they don't touch the same things Jews had developed such a disdain for
[35:08] Samaritans that it was forbidden for them to use anything that had been handled by a Samaritan again for fear that they would be made spiritually unclean so I think this would be similar to a white person pulling a reverse of what Rosa Parks had the courage to do back during the days of racial segregation in the deep south volunteering to give up their spot in order to move and associate with those who were in the back unafraid of what people would say or think about them for doing such a thing and by the way Jesus has totally shattered the idea that it is ever okay to discriminate based on a person's race those things are non biblical traditions and they should never be tolerated by the people of
[36:08] God it's wrong and it's unchristian the Jews should have considered Samaria to be their mission field but instead they'd become a nation of Jonah remember Jonah remember his problem he hated the Ninevites he couldn't believe that God would save people whom he thought shouldn't be saved and so they were a nation that refused to answer their God given calling to engage with the Samaritan nation their neighbors telling them the truth instead of trying to draw them to the knowledge of the one true God through the scriptures they treated them with contempt scorn and disdain and this woman knew all of that she was totally aware of all of that and she knew that for a Jew to engage in a conversation with someone like her and to ask for water from someone like her was a major taboo that
[37:17] Jesus was breaking but again Jesus didn't care and he doesn't care for man-made traditions or man-made stereotypes he cared about this woman he cared about revealing truth to her and not just to her he did all kinds of things that broke traditions and taboos he touched lepers and he healed them he touched dead bodies and he raised them to life he welcomed disruptions from children in the middle of his sermon he dined with tax collectors he was crucified with thieves and he shared a cup of water with an immoral Samaritan woman why because he cared because he loved because he cared about revealing truth and to
[38:22] Jesus Christ there was no one so deplorable that he was not willing to initiate in a gospel conversation with life these people knew these people whom the Jews had effectually cut off from society and whom they had shut out in violations of God's will and heart Jesus went to and God sent his Messiah to do what these people would never do what the religious leaders could never bring themselves to doing going to the least of these in John 8 48 the Jewish leaders thought to slander Jesus for all of these things remember there they say to him but because I tell you the truth you do not believe me which one of you can convict me of sin I tell the truth but you do not believe me whoever is of God hears the words of God the reasons why you do not hear them is that you are not of God the Jews answered him are we not right in saying that you are a
[39:23] Samaritan and have a demon Jesus answered I do not have a demon but I honor my father and you dishonor me yet I do not seek my own glory there is one who seeks it and he is the judge the Pharisees prejudice had deep roots they were deeply embittered towards those who were not like them but it can never be that way in the church of Jesus Christ those kinds of attitudes should never have a place amongst God's people if you remember in Galatians Paul speaks to a very similar problem where Judaizers had come and they were teaching the Gentiles whom Jews for years had thought being beneath them and incapable of being saved but we've seen through the book of Acts that the gospel has spread to them the apostles are aware of that they have a council and they say yes even Gentiles are being saved and
[40:24] Christians but there were those still who were of the mindset well you've got to go backwards right we want you to be a Jew first and make sure you keep all the laws and the traditions and then we'll say you're a Christian and when they came to the church in Antioch Peter was swayed by them he disconnected himself from the Gentiles in order to spend time with them because he was afraid what are they going to think of me they might say bad things of me I might be the one on the outside instead of the one on the inside and so Paul took it upon himself to confront him for this and tells the Gentiles or the Galatian church that it should never be the case for them I want to read Galatians 3 26 through 29 with you for in Christ Jesus he tells them you are all sons of God through faith for as many of you are as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek there is neither slave nor free there is no male and female for you are all one in Christ Jesus and if you are
[41:26] Christ then you are Abraham's offspring heirs according to promise but we must be careful here as Christians that we don't develop the same attitudes that Jews did towards Gentiles in the church and we understand that at the foot of the cross we all stand on equal ground we are all sinners in need of a savior and that's true for every single one of us the gospel is truly for everybody we are all members of the body of Christ and while that means that we are equal it does not mean that we like the body are the same each part has an important function and a role to play and it's different but it's important to the rest of the body as we strive to initiate gospel conversations with all kinds of people especially those type of people whom we maybe have harbored bitter attitudes towards so who is your
[42:46] Samaritan today who is your Samaritan that person or that kind of person belongs to that group of people that you think I couldn't be seen with a person like that that person who you think they're just too far gone to be saved it's not even worth the effort because they're just so far out there with what they believe and what they say and what they do for Christians who are our Samaritans maybe be a little controversial here maybe somebody who identifies with LGBTQ whatnot and we can think they're too far gone to be saved what would people think of me if I tried to initiate a conversation with one of them even tried to show any kind of friendliness towards one of them they would think that
[43:51] I automatically accept this person and their lifestyle and their beliefs I can't be seen with that person maybe it's a Democrat maybe it's seriously maybe it's a Republican I think they're ruining our country they are driving us in the wrong direction I can't stand what they believe I couldn't believe that they could be saved maybe it's something like people who have tattoos or ear piercings or have dyed their hair different colors let me tell you as your pastor I've had an earring and I've had bleached blonde hair before I confess to you but I'm thankful that people in my church there were some people I would come to church and be like we got to pray for you brother but there would be others who would be like that's interesting but I'm glad you're here maybe your
[44:55] Samaritan is young people young people they want everything to be new and fresh and they're constantly changing things or maybe it's old people your Samaritan is old people they won't change they won't give us opportunity they're the problem and unfortunately maybe even still today it's people of a different race listen the Lord commands us in this passage to not be bitter and to not disregard anybody to not think that that person is too far gone to be saved or that person is too far gone that God shouldn't save them so the church needs to be a place and we'll get into this next time we're we're not saying hey here's a list of rules and once you follow these rules then we'll accept you no we initiate with the gospel full of grace full of mercy just as we'll see next week that
[46:04] Jesus did and I want to conclude my story I still have application so bear with me that ministry that prison ministry that I talked to you about there was a prisoner in that ministry who got out of prison and started coming to our church and people knew who he was and I believe that some people were uncomfortable and maybe afraid this is going to start happening the prisoners are going to get out of prison and they're going to start coming to our church and they're going to vote on things and who knows what's going to happen to our church after that he came to church and he was there all the time all the time he loved to ride his Harley and he looked like a guy who rode a Harley a lot not trying to be stereotypical but he looked tough right he was not the type of guy that you would want to pick a fight with but he was so after church was over and
[47:08] I love this guy and he got married to a woman who was working with that ministry as well and she had a history also of drug addictions and problems I never knew what he did and I told him I don't care what you did because that was who you were in prison you served your time you came to know Jesus Christ and I know who you are now this is what they would do on vacation they would get on their Harley and they still do it and they would drive on road trips out of state and along the way it was his objective and his mission to share the gospel with as many people as he could and he did that and he would come back and tell me Pastor Mike!
[47:51] I gotta tell you about there was someone in our church who thought that that kind of a person those prisoners should go worship someplace else it's tragic may it never be the case for us may it never be the case for you as we'll see later on with the Samaritan woman God had great things in store for her life and so how does this apply to our church well as again you know we're seeking to pursue the best Highland Park Baptist in 2020 for the glory of Jesus Christ why shouldn't we we want to be the best church that we can for him and for his name and so we see that firstly we must build community well how can we take this scripture and apply it to building community well very simply people are welcome here people are valued here we want to be a multi-generational multi-ethnic church yes the gospel is what grounds us right this is the one common denominator that we all possess but when people come in here we know that hey we want to make sure that you know that you are welcome here and that we want to share the gospel with you secondly equip believers don't allow weariness to affect your ministry effectiveness continue to initiate gospel conversations with everybody in our church with new people who come continue to equip them and also teach them how to share and so secondly share
[49:46] Jesus this means that we seek to initiate these conversations it means that we must be observant that we must pray that God would cultivate within us a desire to share the gospel with other people and then thirdly teach the word reveal the truth wherever you're at to whomever is around you now listen this is how we should apply it but the question is really on you is will you apply it in obedience Bye.