tried to do. My pastor would always tell me, I would just say, yes, sir. Say, Lord, what do you want today? And I'll say, yes, sir. And take it one day at a time and just say yes. And that has been the story of this last couple of years, and it's been Just a incredible experience. So many stories I could tell and I don't know if the stories would be as meaningful to you as they are to me and to my family of just God's divine intervention in our life, people that we've gotten to see saved. I'll tell you a pastor said that our strong start, a great advantage that we've had was directly related to Pastor Scott Hanks and the people of Lawrence and Heritage Baptist Church. So, Just to catch you up just for a second, I was a youth pastor in Texas. Through circumstances, Pastor Hanks and I were connected and Pastor Hanks says, our church has purchased the building. It was an old dentist office. We need somebody to pastor it. And the Lord led us in that direction. So they gave us a building that the church had raised money for and had purchased. And we have no mortgage. We have no rent. We get to own this building and get to operate out of it. And so all of our expenses go straight into evangelism. And the last year and a half, I've had no salary from the church. The people of different ministries, like Bethel Baptist Church, have supported our family. And so the funds of the church get to go right back into being reinvested into the ministry. So, the advantage of having a building to start with. Incredible. Not only that, Pastor Hank said, one of the reasons I have a burden for Topeka is because I have five or six families that are commuting from Topeka to Lawrence for church. And I've met with all six of these families and I've asked them to prayerfully seek God's face about being members of Capital City Baptist Church. Every time I say it, I think of Capital One now, every single time. Thank you, preacher. And two families, Ron and Susan Cornwell and Jacob and Emily Johnson felt the Lord's leading in that direction. And so when you say you're planting a church, you get the visual of kind of like a seed going into the ground and there's nothing there for for a long period of time, just waiting to see something visible. But I'm telling you, we started day one with a building. We started day one with two solid families, plus our family. And the template in which God has allowed us to see this church has been very evident that it's a winning template. It's a fruitful template. And so we've been able to just see God move in a great way. And from day one, the church took on a very much of a church family feel. It seldom had the feeling of a church plant. Because you do, you have this anticipation of sometimes I'm going to go, it's going to be me and Laura and the girls and bless God, that's what we got. It's not been like that ever. I tell you, Sunday nights, though, might be one of the most unusual services, because brand new Christians, they're trying to figure out why I just didn't say everything Sunday morning, why I saved some of it for Sunday night. What was the point of doing that, split it up? Just like, let's get it done, and then we'll call it a day. And so I said, no, we got to come back. But Thursday nights have been more easily promoted, and the idea of a midweek service. But Sunday nights have been unusual. And I'm still trying to figure out which service is my favorite service. I come to the conclusion that it's the next sermon that's coming up, the next service that's coming up. I like Sunday nights. There's a church family feel. There's a relaxed feel about it. It's just home folks for the most part, a few guests coming through, but it's a time to just be able to meet together. I've enjoyed the spirit of the church this evening and looking forward to seeing what God has for us together tonight. If there's any questions about the church plan, anything, there's always gaps in the stories. You consolidate a year and a half into two minutes, there's going to be a few gaps. So please go ahead and ask me after church. I'd like to be able to tell you about it and just rehearse some of the stories of what God has done. Mrs. Savage, I have this question. What name did you trade in to become a Savage? Because I'm curious about the Lati Obshendik trade. Baker. And your first name is? Debbie Baker. It's got a nice Debbie Savage. Okay, just curious. Laura Laddy did have a nice ring to it and she turned it into Laura Opshendik. I appreciate that very much. I know, I know. That is the truth. And all the Polish jokes that come along with being married to a Polack. You have refrained. You have a good Polish joke repertoire? No, I think you do. I think we need to talk later. I'm looking forward to hearing those. You heard that the Polish National Library burned to the ground, but they were able to replace both books. So it's OK. Coloring books. We better preach. They keep going. OK, we're in John chapter 4, yes? John chapter 4. I will stop for just a minute in case I didn't give you enough time. Let's go ahead and stand, if you would, please. We'll read chapter verses 1 through 10 together tonight. John chapter 4, verses 1 through 10. I'll go ahead and read out loud if you'll follow along on the pages of God's Word. John chapter 4, the Gospel of John 4, verse 1. When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself baptized not but his disciples, He left Judah and departed again into Galilee, and he must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, give me to drink. For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat. A bit brisket, I think, is what they're buying in anticipation for a feast for the men. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and how it is, who it is, that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. You may be seated, and let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you asking that you would speak to us tonight. God, I do ask that my speech and my preaching would not be with enticing words of man's wisdom. but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that our faith would not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. We ask that you would take your word tonight. May we apply it to our hearts. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. There's a pastor in Indiana, his name is Jerry Ross, and I heard him say this, the purest and highest motive in seeking to be a bold witness for the Lord is that in doing so, you will be like Jesus. There are few categories in the Christian life that can compete with the supreme privilege it is to be involved in personal evangelism. you and I get the opportunity, the supreme privilege, the responsibility, not me as a pastor, not my family as they try to support us in starting a church, but you and I as Christians, as followers of Christ, getting a chance to be a witness. Ye shall be witnesses unto me. Was that not Christ's last words as he ascended back to heaven? His last command, our first and foremost here, ye shall be witnesses. That's your responsibility. That's my responsibility. But I'm telling you what, there are very few categories in the Christian life that compare to the supreme privilege it is to be involved in this matter of personal evangelism. Back to creation, in Genesis chapter 1 the scripture says, God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. My friends, a great commission, ye shall be witnesses, perfectly aligns with God's first commandment, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. He told them to replenish after their kind. And I'm telling you what, if we're gonna see more Christians in this world, it's gonna come from Christian people. Yes, if we're gonna reproduce after our kind, it means that somebody that is a kind of a Christian better be reproducing themselves. Otherwise, the population dies, it's done, it's over with. If there is no reproducing, And there is a large spectrum of Christianity, and anywhere on that spectrum, you will find some save some loss, but I'm telling you, if you're in an independent Baptist church, you are poised to be involved in personal evangelism like very few other categories of Christendom are. The Catholics aren't doing it. The Catholics don't have the gospel like you have the gospel. The Catholics aren't following Fulbright Grace or you save through faith and that not of yourselves. You are though. You know that. You have that message. You believe that message and now you get to do that. I was in Texas for 11 years and there's a lot of giant Southern Baptist churches and I went to one. Fielder, well, it's still Baptist incognito, it's just Fielder Church now, and we go there with thousands and thousands of members, and they have this massive wall for their missions program, and all seven of the missionaries that they support, all seven of them, for 3,000 members, there are 10,000 members, 3,000 strong on a Sunday, seven missionaries, Southern Baptists. I'm glad I'm an independent Baptist. I'm grateful for the men that invested in me and the churches that I have been involved in. And you and I, you say there's a lot of pressure. There's a lot of responsibility. And it is one of the few categories in the Christian life that you and I get to take a personal approach in. Listen to me. I got to go out knocking doors. I was telling Pastor Chelsea and I were knocking doors over by the governor's mansion, and we met a lady named Patty, I think, first name, Shaw, and talked to her about the gospel. She said, I don't have time right now. She said, but I would be very interested in hearing more about this. I love those words. We scheduled a time to come back. It took three or four weeks to be able to get this scheduled, but we came back and Laura and I and Chelsea sat in her living room, talked to her and to her husband, got to go through the gospel, and at the conclusion she said, I need to spend some time talking to Jesus about my soul. And that night she did. She texted us the following morning on Friday morning and said, I talked to Jesus about my eternity and I know for sure I'm going to heaven. How far back do you have to go for you to be able to give a testimony of being able to see somebody's soul saved, personally? For some of you, I would suspect the last personal experience you had with this was your own salvation experience. And I want to encourage you, why don't you go ahead and start reproducing after your own kind? Why don't you get involved in this? Do something that counts towards eternity. It is one of the most exciting categories that you can be involved in as a Christian, and there are some barriers to entry. There are some hesitations for getting involved in it, and I want to try to help you with that tonight. I want you to get invested in this, so I'm going to give you tonight seven ways to fail at evangelism, just so you know them, okay? And you can take this route if you like, but seven ways to fail at outreach, and we're going to look at this together this evening. We take it from John chapter 4. and Jesus, our supreme example in everything, witnessing to this woman at the well. Verse four, we see this phrase, John four, verse four, and you must needs go through Samaria. Number one way to fail at a personal outreach, fail at evangelism, wait for opportunities to come your way. What other category of the Christian life is a passive category? Raising Christian children. You can't take a passive approach at that and expect your kids to turn out for Christ. You wouldn't, you couldn't, right? Reading your Bible. Number one reason people don't read their Bible on a regular basis is they don't plan to read their Bible on a regular basis, on a day-to-day basis. You can't take a passive approach. How many times have you been told, you know what, I'm gonna try to be there at church. I'm gonna try to be there at church means that they're taking a passive approach and if they wake up on time and they're feeling good and there's no good games on TV and their kids aren't involved in any sports and nothing's on the schedule, then they're like, Oh, well, might as well go to church. Nothing better to do. Right? And how often do those people actually get into church? If you want to be in church, you have to purpose to be in church. If you want to be able to see someone, oh, that would be really neat to be able to see someone say, I tell you what, a great way to fail at that is just wait for opportunities to come your way. Jesus says he must needs go through Samaria. He said, I'm going to seek out opportunities. So, gospel tracts. You have so many of them. You have different SKUs, you have some for mercy and truth printing, you have some for your church. If you're going to give out a gospel tract tomorrow, I don't want to be patronizing, but that means you're going to have to have them with you. So, grab some today, so you have them tomorrow to hand them out. And you say, I'm going to be purposeful in this. Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. There's a preparation that is involved with this. And if you want to fail at personal outreach, at evangelism, just wait for opportunities to come your way. Okay, we'll keep going with this. Plan on giving some things out. Schedule some time to go soul winning. I tell you what, I'm most effective. I win more people to the Lord when I'm going out with a thought and a mind and a will to say, I'm gonna go win somebody to the Lord. I have more people saved during scheduled soul winning times than I do any other time of the week because I've purposed and designated that time to be able to see for this exact purpose. And I say, I'm not gonna try to make visits and I'm not gonna try to take phone calls and I'm not gonna run errands. I'm gonna go try to find somebody and lead them to the Lord. And guess what? I find people, and guess what? I get to lead them to the Lord. That's coincidental. No, you just made plans for it, and I want you to be involved. Do you have a scheduled sowing time that you're involved in? We have scheduled sowing time. I was there yesterday for it, okay? I know this isn't a new concept to you, but you're looking at me like, what are you talking about? Sowing, door-to-door evangelism, knocking on doors, or going out with the express purpose of seeing people saved. If you decide, hmm, I'm going to pass on this opportunity, you're missing out on one of the most exciting categories of the Christian life. Do you remember when you got saved? Do you remember just the burden? I remember. I was 18 years old. I remember I was sitting towards the back of the church, and it was a time of testimony on a Sunday night. And man, the Holy Spirit of God got a hold of me like never before. And for nine months I had struggled with my salvation. For nine months there was this uncertainty. And for nine months, I was happy to walk the aisle, I was happy to pray a prayer, I was happy to get baptized. I just wanted to get this thing settled, but the Holy Spirit of God just gripped me that night and said, go now, right now. And I walked the aisle, and I just remember kneeling in the burden that was lifted from my shoulder. And I'm telling you what, when I rehearse my salvation, the only thing that comes close to comparing to that feeling is when I get to be close by someone else when they get saved. And you're gonna pass up on that opportunity? You get to be right that where two or three are gathered together, there I am in the midst of them. And I understand the context of that, two or three, I think about soul winning. I think me and a partner knocking doors, and there's the third person and the Holy Spirit, and I get to be that close when I see his soul convicted. I get to be right next to him when his soul is snatched from eternity, and I got to have a personal part in that. God used my voice, God used my fingers to point it, God used my knuckles to knock on that door. I'm telling you what, you take a passive approach, go ahead, sit there, and see how many people come up to you and say, what must I do to be saved? You're missing it. You're missing it. Take a passive approach to this. Best way to fail. Number two way to fail at this is focus on getting through rather than being yielded. What do I mean by this? Chapter four, verse five. Scripture says this, then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now, Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied from his journey, sat. He come into the city of Samaria. His final destination wasn't this city. The scripture tells us that I think he was trying to get to Galilee. Am I right about that? That's where he's trying to get to. And there's important things on that side, but he's not just focused on getting through. You have a schedule. I acknowledge that. You have deadlines. You have responsibilities. So does every other person in this world. I met a man named Juan. He came to church. He was extremely burdened for the homeless people in Topeka. He didn't speak English very well. And he said, would you go with me? and go talk to the people. And he had a pamphlet that he had written and had somebody translate for him, but he just said, I can't talk. He was a Spanish man. He said, can you go and talk? And so we did. We walked the banks of the Kansas River and so many tent communities and so many homeless people. And it's very eye-opening. And so many of them, I said, look, I just want to talk to you about your eternity. Guess what the number one thing was that I heard from these people living in tents along the river? Homeless, jobless, futureless. Guess what they told me? I don't have any time. What are you doing? You have no job. What is the schedule that you're living? I don't have time for this. It's just an excuse. Exactly. It's just an excuse. And for you and I, my friends, focus on getting through rather than being yielded. The song we heard, Pastor said he brought him back to Lester Rolloff. So, pastor of People's Baptist Church in Corpus Christi, he also had some children's homes, some boys' and girls' homes. In 1973, the state of Texas passed a law mandating the inspection of childcare facilities. 1977, Lester Roloff said, this is a ministry of the church. The state has no right to step foot in here. It is the church. And they said, we're bringing you to court. So 77, Roloff Evangelist versus the state. They go to court together. And this might be a Texas-sized tall tale. I don't know. But I talked to some old guys that said that they were familiar with the story. And they rehearsed it to me. They said that the... Lawyer defending Brother Roloff one day in court did a phenomenal job as a lawyer and he obliterated the state. He just laid it out there and humiliated them. They walked back to their, there was a recess called, Brother Roloff and his lawyer walked back together and had a conversation and he said, we did it today, I'm pretty sure we did it. He said, we put them in their place, it was a good day. And Brother Roloff hung his head and he said, no, we lost. No, you don't understand. We set them up to look like fools. And Brother Roloff said, you may have just lost me an opportunity to witness to these people because we humiliated them. He said, sir, if you can't represent me with kindness, you cannot represent me. What was Pastor Roloff's objective? He said, I want to see souls saved. I'm not just worried about getting through this. God put me into this for more than just me to get out of it. It's for me to be able to see someone saved through it. You know who was terrible at getting out of trouble? The Apostle Paul stunk at that. He'd get in trouble, right? And what would he do? He'd run his mouth and witness and he'd get himself in more trouble. He said, my objective isn't just to get out of this, my objective is to... be able to see people safe through this. This is an opportunity to witness. You and I, we go through our days and we've got to get through the grocery store, you've got to get through the traffic, you've got to get what you need and get home, and you just blow past souls for whom Christ died. A great way to fail at outreach is to just focus on getting through rather than being yielded. Doing okay so far? Okay. Good, good. I don't want you to fail. I just want you to identify these things. Number three, use the excuse. Verse five, Jesus therefore being wearied. What's the excuse? Well, you pick it. It doesn't matter what it is. Just anyone will do. So I'm tired. When's the last time you weren't tired? So I have lots to do. I cannot remember for the life of me the last time I finished a day and was like, oh, it's all done. What am I going to do tonight? I'm done with everything. There's always a to-do list when I go to bed that night. There's always something lingering to do. Always, always. Jesus was weary. He could have used the excuse, but he didn't. There was a nobleman in Galilee, very important person. There was a dying kid, very important issue on the other side. But listen, I'm not belittling the big things, but don't use these as your excuse to miss out on something incredible. There's no season of life that will be better to win someone to Christ than right now. So what season is it? It's soul winning season. Say, you don't understand, I got this on my life. As soon as I get this off my plate, I can come. There's always gonna be something on your plate. There's always gonna be an excuse. Say not ye, it's in John chapter four, there are yet four months and then cometh harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes and look on the field for they are white already to harvest. The best time is immediately. This is time-sensitive, my friends. People are dying. The Lord is coming. Let's find an excuse to go bring somebody with us. Thank you. I mean that. Number four, schedule your selling time. You say, wait a minute, wait a minute. You said that the best time to win people is scheduling time. Yes. But if you exclude your witnessing only to schedule times, you're going to miss a lot of opportunities, a lot of opportunities. There cometh a woman of Samaria, is what the Bible says in verse 7. You said, look, the sixth hour? No, soul winning time hasn't started yet. That's scheduled for the seventh. We're going to just call time out here. Hopefully, you're around when soul winning starts. Take a personal evangelism personally, is what I'm asking you to do. Kim and I, we were out on a date together, and I was riding my motorcycle, and some guy was at the bus stop. He's like, hey, nice bike. And I don't know, it just came out. I was like, you know Jesus? That was the response. It just kind of popped out of my mouth. It doesn't always pop out like that. And he was like, yeah. He's like, you got a church? I was like, yeah, I do got a church. And I'm trying to yell over the rumble of the motorcycle. It was just one of those. Coincidences that God had this guy holler at me on the side of the road. I think we might be able to call these divine appointments. I'm standing in a hotel. I talked to a lady who flew in from DC for a graduation. A couple that's in town for a 40th wedding anniversary. A man moving from New York to Texas with his two little kids. And why? Why I'm from Kansas. But somehow, at the exact same place, at the exact same time, God had some lost individuals just come right across my path. Because I know something about eternity. I have the gift of God, which is eternal life. And I have the great privilege of being able to just passing it along to them. And I want you to see every interaction, every person you come in contact with. I pray that this gets a hold of somebody at their soul and just absolutely consumes you. And you can't walk into any place without thinking about somebody's soul. Some guy at the restaurant today compared me to, I don't even know who he was, a rock star, Buddy Holly. He said I look like Buddy Holly. And I looked to the preacher and said, help me with this. This is a reference that's before my time. Bail me out on this one. Yeah. Just the girl that gave me the bagel at Panera and the guy at the 1097 guy at Dunkin Donuts. But I leave there just thinking, I got to talk to this guy. Why me? Why now? Why would God have me cross their path? I know the truth. I'm not going to just wait for a scheduled sowing time. We have such a convenience in tracts to be able to just give out the gospel quickly and hand it out, and it can preach a message long after we're gone. Can you imagine the response if you had no printed tract? If you had to stay there and just communicate everything? I would say it's a little bit more challenging, but we have zero excuse in this category. Don't find one. You have so many excuses to give out the gospel. You have tracts at your disposal. Pastors not being stingy with tracts and like what you make your quota we can't afford you to give out any more this month hand them out hand them out liberally okay Laura had a guy in her church growing up who was a little bit on the slow side and he used to take him and throw him out the car window and That was frowned upon by the policemen, so I would not say that. The people you'll get to influence for eternity. The day before our very first service, so it would have been March 5th, it was a Saturday, and I went to a restaurant that night and just gave a lady a track. And she, this doesn't always happen, okay, but she took it and she, why did you give this to me? I'm like, give them to everybody. But I do have in my heart the idea of, this person needs it. It's a philosophy of life. I don't know if it's a good one yet or not. I'll tell you when life's over if it is. But I have this idea that I kind of tell myself these things. I don't know if they're true or not. But I tell myself, this person wants this. And I go up to them with this anticipation of, and they don't know they want it. But I tell myself, they want this. Because it's the gospel. Who wouldn't want, this is an eternity. This is salvation. They want this and with enthusiasm I give tracks to people and I know, I know, I get to see them walk away and throw it right in the trash can and look back at me. Wow, it hurt my heart right there, it hurt. But I just tell myself, well somebody else wants it and I go find them and so I give this lady a track. And she just, she said, you don't have any idea what I just went through about how my apartment just burned down and how I'm facing a lawsuit because I think I burnt it down myself. And she said, I need something. I need, I don't know what it is, but I needed this. And she showed up at church for our very first, her name is Merlina Heisey. She is one of the charter members of our church. And she came in and that next Saturday, Laura and I got to lead her to the Lord. And the following Sunday, she got baptized. And I'm telling you what, her eternity has been changed. because I just ordered, asked about pie, handed a track. And I'm telling you what, my thoughts were, here's a track, where's the pie? Honestly. But you hand out enough of them. Let's keep moving, let's keep moving. We got, because we're only on number, what are we on, four? Schedule here, so anytime, okay, number five. Number five way to fail at outreach. Just don't talk to people. Verse seven, the Bible says this. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her. I want you to get this in your mind. Friendly people speak first. Friendly people speak first. You engage people in conversation. It's not easy. You say, well, it's easy for you. No, it's not. It's not easy for me. I know very few people that it's easy for. But you engage people in conversation. You put yourself out there. Friendly people speak first. Be friendly at all times. Pastor, I don't know if you're familiar with, I'm sure you have in your life as a pastor. You see these guys come into the pulpit and they're incredible pulpiteers. Their articulation, their pointing, their pivoting, and just their expression. And they walk out of the pulpit and they're as boring as dirt. And you go out to eat with them and they're just like rude and they're short. And you say, well, apparently that was a great performance from the pulpit. I applaud your performance because that's all it was. and I, oh, it drives me crazy. What, if you're gonna be enthusiastic about the gospel here, if you're gonna talk about it here, why don't you talk about it out there, please? Engage people in conversation. Be a normal person, just be normal. You say, I don't know, I don't really, you shall be witnesses. You think of it in terms of a courtroom. You say, this is what I saw. And I'm going to repeat back to you what I witnessed. God did something for you. Why don't you just tell what God did for you? Why don't you just be a witness? And don't worry. Once again, you can fall back on that excuse. Well, I just don't know. I'm not an expert. I've not been trained. The Romans wrote. I'm still working on the scriptures. I don't know about the presentation. I don't know if the knock should be like, or if it should just be like a, or if it should be like, so I'm not going to, I just, I don't want to, so I better just, Go for it, go for it. And the people on the other side of the door, somebody's loved one, somebody's mom, somebody's son, that you could have saved for eternity because of your, absolutely not. Talk to people. I'm not good at it. It's not part of my nature. I'm not enthusiastic. Jesus wasn't all gung-ho about going to the cross, but he said, nevertheless, not thy will, my will, but thine be done. Did he not? And he said, this is the right thing to do. And he did it for you, and he did it for me. Talk to people. I recently read a book about, we've got to go fast. Guys, OK, we're not going to tell you my book club, but we'll keep going. Number six, think too much of yourself. Verse nine, the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. I don't know if I'm unusual in this category. Maybe you fall in the same category. I don't really like humiliating myself. It's just me. I kind of have this sense of self-awareness that I don't like making a fool of myself. I'm telling you, you put yourself out there enough times, you embarrass yourself. And just so many times I remember standing there looking like an idiot. Oh, that didn't go well. This is really embarrassing. And just kind of wanting to find a shadow to curl up in and hopefully no one sees you. It's kind of hard when you're 6'2 standing in a playground. It's not a good way to not look embarrassed. My pastor in Texas used to always say this, you will never give a trap to a wrong person. If you ever extended a track to somebody and they just had their hands down and they stare at you, you're like, OK, what do we do now? Well, I guess I have one for somebody else then. This is awkward. And you're going to have those moments. It's awkward. It's awkward. You're risking some of your pride to be able to see someone say it. It's worth the risk. Man, don't think too much of yourself. My pastor would say, when you go after something you didn't get, God will give you something you never went after. That would encourage me all the time. I'd go after that person and that person and, man, people in Texas are nice. It's kind of code for they lie to you all the time. I'm going to be there. Bless God. And I didn't learn this for like the first seven years in Texas. I come home, law, I'm having 15 visitors tomorrow, 15 promises. No, you're not, Mark. They promised me. We're in Texas. Come on. So kind. So generous. At least in Illinois, they're not so nice, but at least you know exactly how they feel. Exactly. I don't know which way I prefer it. But when you go after some you don't get, God gives you some you didn't go after. Just go after everybody, all of them. Which one? I don't know, any of them. Everyone. Number seven, let's finish. Leave the witnessing to the experts. Verse 10, Jesus is the one that's talking. Jesus is the expert in the art of personal evangelism. But look at this lady in verse 28 of John chapter 4. If you follow down in the scriptures it says, then they went out of the city and came unto him." This lady was everything Jesus was not. A woman, no pedigree, a sinner living in sin, zero Christian maturity, no formal training, no scriptures committed to memory, but somehow she was able to lead someone to Jesus. He said, I'm not going to leave it to the expert. I'm going to use my testimony and I'm going to use my mouth and I'm going to point people back to the man that made a difference in my life. And you can do that too. You most certainly can do that. Sometimes I think that we do an error by allowing ourselves to become experts because we have the script and we have the handshake and we have the entry. And God just says, I just want to use a yielded person who's genuine, who loves me and cares about sinners, and might fumble through a presentation, but it's personal to them, and it's meaningful to them, and it's not a script. It's something that comes from their heart. Go ahead and try it. And don't use the excuse, I'm going to leave it to the experts. God wants to use you as a seven, eight, nine-year-old child. God wants to use your voice. God wants to use your hands as a widow woman or an elderly man to be able to hand a track out. God wants to use you with your temperament and your instability and your insecurity. God wants to use you as a professional, and God wants to use you as a blue-collar worker, and God wants to use you, Mom, to be able to win someone to Christ. God wants to use you. God's commanded you, and if you decide to use any one of these reasons not to do it, you are missing out on one of the greatest categories of the Christian life. And I want you to go out and do it. And so you're going to take some tracks today, and you're going to commit tomorrow that you're going to hand them out, and there's going to be that moment of, I don't know, or I am too busy, or I'm going to wait until Saturday when I have somebody, or I need to practice a little bit more. All of the things are going to go through your mind, but I'm telling you what, you're going to miss it if you don't decide, I am going to be involved in this thing that God said, ye shall be witnesses. You could tell them your story, or like the lady said, come back and talk to him. You could just invite people to church and say, my pastor knows a lot about this. If you sit and listen to him, you will hear about eternity. Try it. Try it this week. Personal evangelism. Seven ways to fail at outreach. Wait for the opportunity to come your way. Terrible idea. Focus on getting through rather than being yielded. Use the excuse. Relegate your outreach to scheduled sowing times. Don't talk to people. Think too much of yourself. Leave the witnessing to the experts. Or you can make a difference in someone's eternal destination immediately. the majority of my dad's family is in Poland. There are very few witnesses, there are very few gospel preachers, very few good missionaries in the entire country. And as I knock doors and I think, I hope that if anybody ever that knows the gospel ever crosses paths with my cousin or my uncle or my aunt in Poland, I pray to God that they won't be too prideful to give them a track. I pray to God they won't be too busy and pass them up. If they know, and they're 6,000 miles away, I don't even speak the same language as them, but I pray that somebody will intercept them and give them the gospel. And then I look at the person right there and say, I wonder if someone's praying for that person. I wonder whose mom that is or whose cousin that is. I'm right here. I'm right here. You're right. You're right here. Jackson, Tennessee. Great door and effectuals open to you. Please, please don't miss this opportunity. Let's pray together about it tonight and then let's take some action about it tomorrow.