Take your Bibles and I turn to John chapter four, John chapter four tonight. Can't quite get through that song without getting a little emotional because it's true when Jesus comes, all is changed, amen. If you're saved tonight, your life should be different than it used to be, amen. We need to be looking for that and maybe remember how things used to be. I pray that you're thinking about how Jesus changed your life from the inside out tonight. All right, and we're moving this over here. All right. You know that's for a safety hazard, right? You don't want your pastor falling off the stage tonight. All right, John chapter four. So we've been going through evangelism, how we can be evangelizing our world, the community that we live in. So last week we looked at the technique of evangelism. So that was part number one. We're going to pick up where we left off last week. I'm going to have a little bit of a shorter service. So bear with me. There's that fire on the fort and is messing with my contacts tonight. So if I'm stumbling through things a little bit, that is why it's because I can't see. So I'm doing my best to be able to see right now. But John chapter four, we're going to look at verse number thirty five. And so we're going to be picking up kind of where we left off last week. And we know that as a Christian person, we have the command of God in Matthew chapter 28. Near the end of the chapter, we have the great commission of God that we're to go into the world and share the gospel. We're to share the gospel not just around the world, but with our neighbors, with our coworkers, with people that live near us, people that we run across along the way, people at Walmart, H-E-B. Amen. And then some people that maybe we run into at the doctor's office, we ought to always want to be a witness, amen, to share our faith. Because if you really believe in it, you're going to want to tell other people about it. Amen. We're going to want to do that. And tonight we'll look at John chapter four. We need to have some some attributes in our life, especially the idea of sowing and reaping and preparing the ground. Because there are some people that we talk to that they have never heard the gospel before, or maybe they don't know much about the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is some preparing for them to get saved. They're not going to get saved when you talk to them. They're not going to accept the Lord Jesus Christ. But you begin to plant some seeds and you get to prepare the way in their life. And that is exactly what we need to do. And other people, they already have some preparation. We get to sow the seed. We still don't get to see the harvest with them, but the seed of the gospel has been planted. They begin thinking about it. They begin really considering what the relationship is with the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we see some reaping people that have had that preparation. People have had the seed sown and has sprung up and they are ready to get saved. We run across all these types of people at different times. And tonight I want us to look at John, chapter four, verse number thirty five. We could stand out of respect for the ring of the word of God. John, chapter four. And verse number thirty five. tonight. Say not either are yet four months and then come with harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white already to harvest. He that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. In herein is that saying true, one soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap, that whereon ye bestowed no labor, other men labored, and ye are entered into their Let's pray and ask the Lord's blessing tonight. Dearly Father, I thank you, Lord, for this evening. We thank you, dear Lord, for all that you have allowed us to accomplish, for your word and for your work. I pray that tonight we would understand what our responsibility is as we gain more understanding and as we gain more knowledge to be a more effective witness tonight. Lord, help us to grow. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. So the important thing about plowing or sowing or reaping is that you have to go out in the field to do it. You can't be sitting in your lazy boy and go out and plow the field. Now today I understand we don't use mules or oxen with a plow as they used in days past. We have machines for that, whether you have a rototiller or you have big machines that do the plowing. for that but maybe you have a garden in your backyard and maybe all you have is just your regular rake and a shovel and a hoe and you're just going out there and you are just really, you want to do it but it's one of those things, it's a Texas day, it's hot, the conditions aren't perfect and if you've ever tried to plant anything in Texas ground, is Texas ground soft? No, it is not. If you raised your hand, you have not dug a hole in Texas. When you dig a hole out here, actually, it was just the other week, I think it was a week and a half ago, we had a problem with our septic system in the other building. We have one of those in-ground systems. And one of the electrical things wasn't working. And so when they installed the tank, they put the conduit box underground. Smart idea, right? Put it underground. But not only that, it was put on there And then when it was installed, it had somehow or other, we got a, back when it was installed probably 15 years ago, got a dump truck full of roadbed material. Amen. So what was roadbed material pasture? What it is, it's a bunch of small rocks that are meant to pack down and then they pave over, they put roads on top of it. So they got some of that and maybe they got it cheap. I don't know, I wasn't here, but they put that in there. So this gentleman with the septic company said, you know what? It's probably just right down here. He was digging a hole about maybe one foot by one foot square. He had a spade and he was ready to go. It's probably only maybe about a foot and a half two feet down there. Well, it was more almost three, but it was down there a ways. But you thought, you know, I'm just gonna move right through this and we're gonna be set. Well, we were there. I felt bad. I was watching him. I went inside. I felt bad watching him. But he spent almost an hour digging that hole because that ground was hard. And then he finally found the box. He says, usually this is soft material. You know, sometimes when we're going out and when we're soul winning, we're going to run across some people that have the condition of their heart is in a soft condition and that they are, you can do some plowing there and preparing the way. And it's easy to plant a seed, but sometimes you run across people that it's not so easy to plant a seed. Maybe they're concerned more about what religion says, or maybe they have this idea of that work, say, whatever it is, but there's a promise here that we need to go out and we need to be going and doing. Amen? We need to be going and plowing the way. We need to be going and sowing. We need to be going and reaping. And the promise is in Galatians 6, 9, we will reap if we faint not. It's hard work. If anybody worked on a farm or worked in a garden, it's hard work to keep up with the garden. It's hard work to dig in the earth. It's hard work to plant plants. It's hard work to water them. It's hard work to reap the fruit off of them. There is nothing about a garden that is easy. It's satisfying having that fruit come in, isn't it? It's satisfying to have those vegetables. And the time you invest and the amount of effort you invest, you will get more fruit, the more work that you do. And that same thing was so winning. The Lord Jesus Christ, he compared it to farming over and over again, because it's hard work. Why a lot of times, why we don't evangelize is because we think it's easy. And then when we find out it isn't, we don't wanna do it anymore. because when we get rebuked a few times, you know, we went out visiting yesterday, knocked on the door and I said, you know, I'm from Tabernacle Baptist Church. Actually, I don't even think I got that out of my out of my mouth. I was carrying my Bible under my arm. knocked on the door, opened my mouth to say something. She saw me, she saw the Bible in my hand and said, no, thank you, slam. I had opened my mouth, you know, literally like this, ready to say something. She said, no, thank you, slam the door. And you know what? That can discourage you sometimes. That person didn't want to hear. And there's going to be people that don't want to hear. But don't let the devil deceive you to think that's everybody. There are going to be people that need to hear. And we need to make sure that we are reaping, that we are plowing and sowing and reaping. but it takes time. How do we prepare the way? You know, one of the ways that we can prepare the way for the Lord to work is showing someone that they're a sinner. We know for all of sin it comes from the glory of God. But you know, some people don't have an understanding of what sin is. There's a lot of people, they think it's just, you know, something bad that they've done, but if you take them to Exodus chapter 20 and show them that, what the Ten Commandments, what the law of God says, and then take them to Matthew chapter 5, what God says about the heart, then you can effectively show them and begin to prepare the way. No one gets saved in a vacuum. There needs to be some preparation work done and some explaining, and maybe you'll be able to see that reaping, you'll be able to reap that fruit Maybe you won't be able to, but we need to be faithful in all three of those areas. Sometimes we like to focus on the reaping part. We like to focus on that, but sometimes we just need to be plowing and we need to be sowing and then we will reap. Because it says right here in John chapter four, is that verse number 37 here it is that saying true one soweth another reapeth. Verse 36 and he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And as we look, as we continue going forward, is that you're reaping something that you did not invest in. You did not prepare the way, you did not sow the seed, but you bring in the fruit. We need to be faithful in all three of those areas. So when we go, we need to go Plowing, sowing, and reaping. The second area we need to go in, we need to go with the word of God. We need to go with the scripture. Turn to Hebrews chapter 4. When you go out sowing, go with your Bible, amen? And make sure you know your Bible and how to use it, know how to rightly divide the word of truth. When you go out and you are sharing your faith and sharing what the truth of the gospel is, are you using the word of God? You're saying, well, I believe I think you can believe it, but make sure you have a Bible verse to go with it, because we're not seeing people get saved based on our word, because are we fallible? Yes, but we base what we believe on the infallible, inspired word of God. And we need to go out and use God's word. Remember, Is it us that does the convicting? We learned last week, no. It's the Holy Spirit of God and we need to go in the Spirit of God. We don't do any convicting. We don't do any saving. All we are is messengers and ambassadors for Christ. And we need to pray and ask the Lord to do a great work and to be with us when we go out. It's exciting that we are partners with God when we go soul winning, when we start to evangelize. We need to be faithful in that. Hebrews 4.12 says this, for the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the spirit and of the joint, dividing a certain soul and spirit of the joints and marrow, and is discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. You know what? You can try and bring conviction all you want on somebody, you need to use the word of God. The word of God will do a much better job. Just use God's word. Amen, and that's what brought us to salvation. If we really think about it, what was it? Was it some man's words? No, it was the Holy Spirit of God, and it was the word of God that brought us to a place of understanding. We needed salvation. And this is the example that Jesus gave us. He quoted scripture even to the devil in Matthew chapter four, and to the unbelieving Jews in John chapter six. He quoted God's words, his father's words. This is why we need to memorize scripture and have some verses memorized. Know where some places we're supposed to go. Maybe, like I mentioned before, Exodus chapter 20, the Ten Commandments, Matthew chapter 5, know the Romans wrote. Know these verses, have them memorized, have them in your heart so that you can bring them up. But I encourage you, not just memorize the verse, understand what the verse means. That's very important. If you go through and you meditate on that verse, and you think about that verse, and you understand that verse, you're going to be able to explain it to somebody else. You're going to be able to effectively share that and share it at the right time. So we need to go with the Word of God. We need to go with God's Word. Amen? We need to be faithful in that. Another area we need to go in. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 2. We need to go with prayer. Go with prayer. We covered this a little bit last week. We need to be praying before we sow. We need to be praying every day before we witness to a soul. Because remember, this is a partnership with God. This has nothing to do with us. This has nothing to do with our salesmanship, has nothing to do with our personality, has nothing to do with our charisma. It has to do with us being a messenger. And if you look at testimonies of people that have won many souls to Christ, you will look at them and they don't have, many of them have great speaking ability. They don't have, there have been testimonies of some that have been faithful in one area of a town and they stand there and they hand out tracts all day long. and they hand out tracts for years and years and years, and they prayed over those tracts, and they cried over those tracts, and they saw a great harvest of souls come to know the Lord Jesus Christ simply because they prayed and they trusted God to do the Word. A lot of soul winning today is based off charisma. Charisma has nothing to do with it. It's based on your relationship with God. It's based on the word of God. It's based on our prayer life. And it's based on are we gonna give God the glory for what he has done, is whether we're gonna see results or not. We've already stated, but it's worth repeating, prayer is intimately associated with salvation. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verses 1 through 6 tonight. 1 Timothy chapter 2, we need to be in prayer. before we go so winning every day, because many times we have opportunities that come up we're not expecting that we're able to witness. Are we ready at any moment? 1 Timothy 2, beginning of verse number one. I exhort, therefore, that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for, how many men? All men. Not just a few, but all men, for the kings, And for all that are in authority, amen, we need to pray for our president and pray for our country, pray for our leaders. A lot of them need more prayer than others. We need to, amen, need a lot of things going on in our country right now. We need to be faithful In that I'm going to keep politics out of it, but what we're dealing with is what is true and what is a lie. That's what we're dealing with. It doesn't matter what political party you're in. If you're for God and you're for the truth, then you're going to be interested in what's going on in the Senate this week. Amen? So we're getting to the truth of what really has gone on, and that's what you ought to be concerned about. You need to be in prayer for kings and for all that are in authority. that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved and to come unto a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. So we need to pray. We see the same things over in Ephesians chapter 6, that we need to be in prayer that people would be saved. Pray for all men. Pray for our leaders. Pray for those that live next door. Pray for our co-workers. Pray for our boss at work. As a pastor, you don't know my boss. You don't know my first sergeant. You don't know. You don't know, pray for them, amen? The best way to change your boss around, to treat you right, see him get saved, amen? We need to pray and see them come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not saying all of them are that way, but sometimes we have bosses that aren't the nicest, or maybe they have a problem with us personally. We need to pray for them that they might be saved, amen? We need to do that. Also, this is very important with the technique of evangelism. Go with understanding that men will respond differently. Different people will respond in different ways. We see this in the parable of the sower. Turn to Luke chapter 8. There is four conditions of the heart in Luke chapter 8, and we're gonna read it very quickly. Luke chapter 8. I'm moving a little quicker than I usually do because we're trying to get through this, so that we can get to the main event of the evening. Amen, all right? I'm sure Bob and Tamar are excited over there, all right? But Luke chapter 8, verse number 11. Now, the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside, are they that hear? Then cometh the devil and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They on the rock, are they which then, when they hear, receive the word with joy? And these have in root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. And then which fell among the thorns, are they which, when they have heard, go forth choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to perfection. But then on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit with When we see in this passage, as we see that even in Acts 17, with Paul's preaching on Mars Hill, some believed, some didn't, some received it, and some dismissed it. We have to understand, people are going to respond differently. You know, sometimes when we have people reject, maybe we have a series of people, maybe we're knocking on doors. And it's just, you know, we've all had these weeks where it seems everybody's rejecting, everybody's rejecting, rejecting, rejecting. Well, I guess no one wants to hear that. So the devil begins to whisper in your ear, no, just understand, people are going to respond differently. The next week, you may have a lot of people that are accepting and wanting to hear. It depends on the person. So understand, not everybody's the same, but people respond differently. And when we go, With that understanding, we need to deal with people as individuals, as individuals. I'm sorry to say, as after trying many soul-winning programs and formulas and things like that, there is no one-size-fits-all evangelism program. There isn't. You cannot say one size fits all evangelism with dealing with different people. Different people have different variations of knowledge of the Bible. People have different knowledge of what, maybe they have some knowledge of some false doctrines. You can't go in saying, I can do this, this, and this. with every single person. You have to be ready to answer questions. You don't know where that person is at. Nothing wrong with having a plan. Nothing wrong with having a direction that you're going in and know where you're going. Nothing wrong with that. But to say that you can deal with everyone the same way would be a fallacy. because not everybody is the same. We must understand that. In that we can become too formulaic in the sense of that everybody's the same, we must do this and go through these steps. Not everybody's going to be the same. What I have found is that I have tried going and having a particular plan. And you know what? I get a lot of false decisions. Why? Because there were some areas that weren't properly explained. But when I started dealing with people on an individual basis and dealing with individual knowledge that they have and going through different areas, areas that I never intended to go into, but that came up, was able to see more fruit, genuine fruit of God in that way. We need to deal with people as individuals. If you look at the Word of God, we see that Jesus dealt with people as individuals. Paul did. Peter did. Dealt with them on an individual basis. But we all know that the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15, verses 3 and 4, is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. We need to go through that, and that needs to be part of it. But the knowledge of sin and the knowledge of other areas, we need to deal with people on an individual basis and understand that. If we understand that, then we will be ready. That's why we need to have our Bible knowledge sent, and we need to have our scripture memorized, and so that we know how we might rightly divide the word of truth and give people the right answers. I'd also go with understanding of the enemy. Look at Ephesians chapter 6, Ephesians 6 verse 12. The real enemy of soul winning is not man, but the devil. The devil hates it when we go so winning. The devil hates it that we're going and stealing his subjects from his kingdom and bringing them into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior. And so he is not going to be happy about that. He is going to try and discourage you. He is going to try and dissuade you. He is going to do all that he can to bring you to a place of giving up, to a place of not wanting to go out or not be a witness, being afraid, whatever the case may be. Why? Because before we wrestle, not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. That's our enemy, the devil and his demons, when we go out so winning. But we go out and evangelize. Sometimes it's yourself, but if we're submitted to God, it's not man. It's the devil. I don't understand that the devil uses people to discourage us, but we have to understand something. We need to understand the enemy as the god of this world. He blinds the minds of unbelievers. Don't be surprised when someone is lost, that they have some things that come out of their mouth, or they act in a way that they act like a lost person. I say this all the time. Don't be surprised when a lost person acts like a lost person, when they don't see it always. They've been blinded, understand. They have blinders on. And you're presenting the Word of God, which is quick and powerful and sharp like a two-edged sword, trying to cut those blinders off of the Holy Spirit of God. It's a battle that we're in. This is not Sunday school class. This is a battle that we're in with people. And that sometime you can see it in that invariably you're getting to the important part of bringing them down to a decision, making a decision for the Lord Jesus Christ, and they're ready to pray and the phone rings. And it's somebody that they had, you know, from out of the blue or a child becomes running and screaming or the dog goes nuts at that moment. You know, you've been out. You know what I'm talking about? It's uncanny. It's strange. You know, there are some things, you know, it's. You know, I mentioned this before, but I don't know what it is. I think this may be I'm going to ask other pastors about this. I have little children. But, you know, back when Phillip was younger, when he was a baby, you know, it was always, he would sleep through the night or he'd maybe wake up once, he was great and everything until Saturday night. The night before Sunday, we're getting everything ready, need a good night's sleep to work on the bus and to do different things. And about every single Saturday night for up to three months, that child woke up 10 times a night. Woke up, would not go back to sleep, wanted to play, and now Timothy's doing it now. I don't know, he's teething, he has a little bit of a legitimate excuse there. But still, like last night, everything's happening, and you know what? I said, well, I guess God's gonna do something today, because the devil wants to discourage that. I said, are you saying, you know, we're trying to redeem us? I'm not saying that, but I'm just saying that there are a lot of things that happen that there can be no other explanation. except the adversary, and we need to understand that we need to be understanding of that. And that when you go out and you go so winning, do not be surprised when you encounter some adversity. When you encounter that adversity, when you encounter that pushback. You know, sometimes some people, they get that pushback, they go running, and they go hiding. I didn't know I was gonna get pushback, I didn't know this was, this is a battle, my friends, understand that. Don't be surprised, expect it to happen. And when it is happening, be encouraged. Say, passion, that doesn't make any sense. being encouraged that I'm in a battle. Yes, that means you're getting into his territory when you start fighting against him. And remember, you can't stand in your own might. You'd have the armor of God. We just read that in Ephesians chapter six. We need to have the whole armor of God on when we're out. So winning, well, just on every day as living, but especially when we're so winning when we're in hand to hand combat with the devil, you can't do it alone. You got to do use the word of God. You have to go in the power of God's might. And then lastly, tonight, Need to go with persistence, need to go with persistence. One of the most important things about evangelism is faithfulness and persistence. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter four, verse two. 1 Corinthians chapter four, verse two, and I'll close tonight. Is we need to be diligent, we need to be persistent in our soul winning. Faithfulness, faithfulness is the theme of this year. Moreover, it's required to ensure that a man be found, what? Faithful. As a pastor, I already knew it before we turned there, amen. It's required. If you're gonna serve God, you gotta be faithful. You gotta be faithful, you gotta be faithful in doing it. And it might be a while before you see some fruit. and there's gonna be a time that maybe you're discouraged and it seems like no one's listening anymore. You just keep going and being faithful. And by the way, that moment that you're about to quit, the devil sees you're about to reap a harvest. He always makes you quit right before you see the finish line. He always makes you quit right before your God's gonna do something great. He always, because you know, the devil doesn't know everything, but he can see ahead of what's gonna happen. He knows that someone's been questioning his rule over their life. He knows when someone's been reading the word of God. He knows when someone is beginning to ask too many questions and is starting to ask about God and that you're about to, God sent you to knock on their door. I mean, do you see that? I tell people that. And that people say, you know what? I've been asking a lot of questions about the word of God. I've been wondering about that. You know what I tell people? I say, God sent me to your door. They kind of look back at me like that, like it's not a weird thing, it's true. That God chose at that time, at that moment, for them to be whole and for me to knock them. God sent me. I told people that many times. You know what? That really makes them think, hey, God did hear me, and God really does want me to know him and to share with them the word of God. That's our job. Every Christian's job. That's just not my job as a pastor. That's everybody's job. Are we gonna be faithful and persistent in it? So tonight, Don't get discouraged if nothing seems to be happening. Don't get discouraged by opposition. You're doing the right thing. And we will reap if we faint not. Don't give up. Don't give up. Be persistent. Be faithful. Keep going. Keep sharing. Keep plowing. Keep sowing. And you'll reap if you faint not. Let's pray.