Now look, if you would, in John chapter four. Now we've got a pretty lengthy text today, one through 42. And so I'm just going to give an opening reading, and then we're going to work our way through the text in our closing sermon on the ministry theme of this year, Project Andrew, Bring Them to Him. John chapter four, and let's begin with verses one through six. This is the word of God, inspired, inerrant, infallible, and sufficient. 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. 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, and it was about the sixth hour. The grass withers, the flower fades. The word of our God abides forever, and by his grace and mercy, May this is word be preached for you. Please be seated. Well, it's a little bit of a noteworthy Sunday. We are at the final sermon of the ministry theme for the year series, Project Andrew, bring them to him. And so here we are in our fifth sermon in this short series that introduces that ministry theme. And then next week into our missions conference. And then after that, into God's word and back to Romans and our study of Romans. We're in the eighth chapter, my favorite chapter in the entire Bible. Um, although every chapter in the Bible is my favorite chapter, but that's my most favorite chapter in all the Bible. So we'll be back into that. Now, if you would, if you will keep in front of you, John chapter four, we're going to look at verses one through 42, uh, this morning. So obviously we can't do the deep dive, but we are going to. do the appropriate study of this text that brings us to a distillation of this ministry theme on bring them to him. Now, if I can maybe even more focus our minds on this. At the end of every sermon, of course, I try to give us a takeaway from the sermon Well, today's takeaway is what I'm hoping is going to be a walk away to sum up what we've been studying, these five sermons, and take it into next year, this Project Andrew, as we build this ministry theme into our lives and the life of our congregation. Now, let me back up to kind of lay the groundwork for this just a little bit again for you. It'll be the last time I'll mention that because of this series coming to that conclusion. But let me just say it this way, if I can. We are in a present age that's very challenging. There's no doubt about it. The sifting and the shifting, the sifting that's taking place in the culture around us, The shifting that's taking place within the confessing evangelical church is very profound. We don't get to choose the days and the ages that we live, but we do, by God's grace, are enabled to make the choices of how we respond to it. So how do you respond to such an encircling, almost suffocating culture? that is intentionally deconstructing the blessings of Christendom that we have seen with all of its imperfections, the blessings of Christendom in Western civilization, and then watching the deconstruction of biblical doctrines within the professing evangelical church. How do we respond? Now, the temptation is relying on our ingenuity, or perhaps it's a personality. or perhaps it's a program. That's our kind of our reflex. Okay, special challenges, then we've got to come up with a special plan or a special person or a special program. That kind of is where we're going. And I've tried to suggest this series that that's not the way to go. That's not the way to go. The way to go in the days of adversity and testing is, to renew your commitment to the basics, to stay focused on the essentials, embrace them with persistence and excellence. So here is Christ's church, which he purchased with his own blood. We are not without direction. He has given us our direction in something called the Great Commission. He has given us the culture that ought to be at work among us that the world would see. in the midst of its polarization, chaos, and destruction. What would they see but a great commandment culture to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind, and that we reach out and love those made in the image of God as ourselves. That's what ought to be seen. And a church that's got purpose and direction. Our God has given us our mission. He has given us our message. He has given us our ministries. And it wasn't just for the first century. It was from his ascension until he returns. It's given to us clearly at the end of all four gospels. It's given to us in Acts chapter one. And I'll just reference that one at the end of Matthew chapter 28. All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. And if you just take that great commission and you begin to summarize it and distill it into a statement, this is what I've tried to just share with you, a church that's on mission, on message, and in ministry. Here's what he is telling us, that Christ, Christ, until he returns, Christ has unleashed, again, until he returns. He hasn't come back yet, so that means this age. Until he returns, Christ has unleashed his church on a God-glorified, Christ-exalting, Spirit-empowered gospel enterprise. to make disciples of all the nations. How? Through implementing a ministry of outreach, evangelism, a ministry of in-reach, enfolding, ministry of equipping, or a ministry of down-reach, equipping, and a ministry of up-reach, exaltation, or worship. through implementing ministries of outreach, ministries of evangelism, ministries of enfolding, ministries of equipping and ministries of exaltation. And all of it is just wrapped right up in that great commission. He gives us the imperative verb. Here's your mission. Make disciples of all the nations. He then gives us our message. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you whole Bible is necessary for whole Christians a whole Bible with the gospel at the center the circumference and the substance the whole Bible is necessary for whole Christians and Then what are our ministries going as? you're going going that's evangelism and They were baptized believers in their household and added to the church, enfolding, shepherding, communion of saints, the love of the brethren, bringing us together into the covenant community, winning them to Christ, enfolding them in the body of Christ, and then equipping them with the mind of Christ, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And what is the result? Well, it's demonstrated right there in the text. Here are the disciples who Jesus evangelized, enfolded, and equipped. And when they saw him, they worshiped. Exaltation. Lifestyle worship, whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. In all things, Christ's preeminent. And gathered worship in spirit and in truth. And this is our task. But this year, it's not simply look at the foundation of on mission, on message and in ministry. We've said let's narrow it even to number one, just the evangelism part. Let's just take the whole year and look at it. How can it be built into every congregational community, every small group, every worship service, every ministry? How can it be built in, embedded, embraced, woven as a thread throughout the entire tapestry of that assembly, of that community, of that ministry? And even more particularly, let's just learn it by graph. Let's just take one guy. His name was Andrew. He's mentioned in the other Gospels, but he's found with some description only in the Gospel of John. And when he shows up all three times, he's bringing somebody to Jesus. So it was Project Andrew, evangelism, bring them to him. And our very first sermon on this was we looked at how Andrew was brought to Jesus by John the Baptist. And then after he came to Jesus, he went and found his brother and brought Peter to Jesus. Bring them to him. And guess what? Peter's gonna bring 3,000 and then 5,000. So we begin to see that the expansion of the kingdom is not addition. It's not even multiplication. It's geometric expansion that takes place. And you never know when you bring someone to Christ how God's going to use them to bring others to Him. So here's what we learned in that first encounter. Bring them to Him by bringing Him to them. You bring them to Him by bringing Him to them. And then step by and watch out how many they may bring to Him. And we may not be Peter to bring 3,000, but we can be Andrew to bring Peter. Then the second one, the second encounter was a small boy who Andrew brought to Jesus in the feeding of the 5,000. And that small boy, when he got brought to Jesus, he brought five loaves and two fishes. What did we learn then? You bring them to him, and when you bring them to him, they bring with them to him what he has already given to them. When we bring them to Him, they not only come to Him, they bring with them to Him the things that He has given to them that the Savior may use them. And then watch what He'd... I think I've mentioned this to you. I would love to have heard the conversation when that boy got home to mama to tell him what the lunch he packed did. That must have been something. Then the third encounter was when Philip and Andrew brought the Greeks standing in the courtyard of the Gentiles that Jesus will cleanse the next day. But he brings the Greeks to Jesus and Jesus who had said five times, my time has not come. When he sees them said, the hour is now. And he will go to the cross to save his people from their sins from every tribe and nation. and bring forth the new covenant community, circumcised not in the flesh, but in the heart, filled with the Spirit, with new hearts, new lives, and new records, because of what He does on the cross, where He redeems His people. Well, after that, we said, let's go. And our fourth study was, what is foundational to all of this? Here's what you have to remember. We went to Matthew 9. We've stepped out of John, we went to Matthew 9 where Jesus said, the harvest is what? Plentiful. Pray earnestly, intentionally, persistently. Pray what? Bigger harvest? No, no. The harvest is plentiful. Jesus has secured the harvest at the cross. Pray what we're missing are workers in the harvest. Pray for the Lord of the harvest. Christ, the first fruit of the harvest, who has secured the harvest of his people, pray that he, through the Spirit, will send us into the harvest. So that prayer is foundational to the entire enterprise of bringing them to him, praying for those whom we're going to, praying for what will happen when we go to them and praying that there will be more of us to go to them because there's a plentiful harvest and we need more workers for that harvest to bring his people from every tribe and nation to himself. And that's another reason next week we do our missions conference. Yet we don't want to send people called out there into the harvest if we're not going into the harvest here. That we are here into the harvest. And then that brings me finally to just one more encounter for Jesus. Now the gospel of John, this is the fourth time of the five sermons we've been back in John. Hopefully you kind of got the idea here that John's very interesting text. First of all, the opening chapters are devoted to the first week of his ministry after he gets back from the, he'd been baptized and after he gets back from the wilderness and the opening chapters are his first week in ministry there at Bethany across the Jordan. And then you go into the, you move into John and you see the seven I am's. I am the door. I am the shepherd. You see his seven I ams. I am the bread of life. You see his seven I ams. He also, John, arranges seven signs, wonders, and miracles that point to Jesus. And then he gives us seven encounters where we see how Jesus works in the harvest himself. One of those is in chapter three with a religious guy that was sneaking in by night, didn't want anybody to see him to talk to Jesus. His name was Nicodemus. He's going to get converted. Now we see him in another place. I just read for you, it said that Jesus said, here's the way the original reads, I must needs go through Samaria. Now listen, geographically, he didn't need to go through Samaria, although it was the shortest way back to Galilee. But he didn't need to. In fact, most of the time, Jews, because of the distaste of Samaria and their apostasy, would not go through Samaria unless they dust their... and if they did, they would dust their shoes off when they got to the other side or their sandals. They usually went what they call the transjordan route and that's what normally what jesus did but not this time. He's in jerusalem He's going back to galilee and he says I have to go through samaria. I don't think it was for any geographic reason psychological reason I think it was a divine appointment. He's got this woman. He's going to meet it as well That woman doesn't know it yet. But this is a divine appointment of god's sovereign grace And Jesus goes to seek and save the lost at Sychar in Samaria by the well of Jacob. And he arrives there. I've been there at that well. That well is 150 feet deep. Think of a building 15 stories high. It's 150 feet. It has been used and drawn water for 2000 years. They're just taking water out of this thing all over the place. And they go there, it's right between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, right near the capital of Samaria, the city named Samaria. But there's a smaller town right there named Sychar. And it is from Sychar that this woman has walked out and you see her at the well at the six hour, that means 12 noon. Now, immediately we know something's up. Now, women were the ones that went and got the water. But they went in the morning to get the water for the day and they went in groups. You didn't. In other words, they didn't go get water without a support group. There'd be a bunch of them. They'd be together. I don't know whether they'd stop by Starbucks and have coffee before they went or not, but they would go in a small group and they would get there in the morning, get the water, take it home, use it all day. Then at night, come back or in the late evening, come back in the cool of the day, get some more water. That was the rhythm. Unless you were a social outcast, you went by yourself. She's alone. And you went at noon. in the heat of the day. And Jesus is sitting there. Here we see another evidence of Jesus' true humanity. He's wearied. He's thirsty. Fully God, fully man. And here he is with his full humanity, sitting by the well, and she shows up. And as they're sitting there, he turns to her, and this is what happens, verse seven. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink. for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 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 have no dealings with Samaritans." Now, let's stop right there. Well, actually Jews You have to understand what dealings mean and see this is John giving you a little editorial Why would she ask that question? Why are you talking with me a woman from Samaria? Maybe and John said the reason she's asking us because Jews have no dealings now that doesn't know doesn't mean no dealings in the sense of any kind of dealing. How do I know that? Because the disciples are in Sychar doing what? Buying food from Samaritans. So there's a deal. I promise you there was some dealing going on at that marketplace. No, the dealing here means intimate connection. Intimate connection. There would be no sharing of intimate utensils, forks, knives, cups, intimate associations, marriage, partnerships, intimate encounter, table, fellowship. You wouldn't do any of that. Why? Well, because of the following reasons. Number one, Samaritans had apostatized from the Pentateuch and the laws of God given through Moses after they'd gotten into the promised land. And they'd set up their own worship center at Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. They'd set up their own sacrificial system. And they'd no longer participated there at the temple in Jerusalem and the tabernacle and then later the temple. Secondly, secondly, they had intermarried with the nations that had come in. They had married outside of the covenant. Thirdly, syncretism. When the Greeks came in, they embraced the Greek paganism and then amalgamated it into their religion. So there was another apostasy. And then a fourth reason. They had fomented a rebellion against the throne of David and had departed the scepter that belonged to Judah and the line of David. So Samaritans were written off. All 10 tribes were written off. And the Jews would have nothing to do with it and not even go through the place if at all possible. And so she wants to know Why are you having anything to do with me? Number one, I'm a woman, you're a man. Number two, number two, not only am I a woman, I'm a Sumerian and you are a Jew. Number three, the unspoken reality that's clear by being there at noon, she's a social outcast. And number four, You just asked me for a drink from my jar? My utensil? Did you just ask me for that? That's what caught her attention even more. You would drink from my jar? Well, what is Jesus going to say to her? Here's what he says. Look at the next verse. Jesus answered her. If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is asking you and who it is, I'm sorry, 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, speaking of himself in the third person, and he would have given you living water. Now he's moved from water to living water, from physical water to spiritual water. a physical well to a spiritual well. And so, with this statement, the conversation changes. 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? She realizes something is being stated in this exchange. Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock. 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. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of waters, welling up to eternal life. The woman said, sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty. or have to come here to draw water. Boy, this is a jam-packed statement. Jesus moves the physical water to spiritual water. She's tracking with Him, but not yet quite with Him. And then He is telling her, if you knew who this was that was saying this to you, you would ask Me for water, and I would give you, one, living water, two, for eternal life, and three, a newness of life because Not only will you have something to draw from, a well of water, that's Jesus, that you can draw from, that will give you living water unto eternal life, but living water unto a new life. And I will actually make you a well, springing up from within you. When I played golf up at East Carolina, the Aiden golf course was not exactly the best golf course in the world, but at that time it only cost me 50 cents to play. And so that was great. And we would go there to practice and play. And I always loved hole 14. And it still got there today, an artesian well that's springing up, just springing up. You will become not only one who draws upon a well for new life and eternal life, but you will become a well. You can almost hear Jesus at the temple in the gospel of John when he says to them, if anyone comes to me and drinks of me, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. Water will not only come from me to you and you've got life and newness of life, it'll flow up and out of you. and into the wilderness it will cause the blossoming of redemption." And what he's telling her, it's not just this well. You've been going to another well. You've been going to the well that men, that adulterous, immoral men have dug for you. And you've been drinking of it with the jar of adultery and promiscuity. and it doesn't satisfy, it poisons, it pollutes, but you come to me and I'll give you not only living water for eternity, but it will change you now. And you've got hope. From the well of helplessness and hopelessness, to a well of redemption and life is what I offered to you. She says, give me this water. But he's not through with her yet. Notice what he says next. Jesus said to her in verse 16, Jesus said to her, go call your husband and come here. The woman answered him. I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You were right in saying, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true. And the woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. And Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship that which we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth For the father is seeking such people to worship him God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth and the woman said to him I know that Messiah is coming who is called the Christ and when he comes he will tell us all things Jesus said to her I who speak to you I am Literally, I am. I am that Messiah. And now they get to the crucial point of it. Don't you see what he's done? He's exposed to her, her sin that she knew, but was hiding. He brings it and exposes it. The good news is never good news until the bad news is known. Then the good news is not only good news. It is amazing grace. The helpless and the hopeless redeemed. And he not only exposes her violation of this second tablet of the law, he shows her her violation of the first tablet of the law. False worship. He informs us that there's one thing that the Bible says God seeks from us. Every Lord's Day you get a chance to decide whether you want to follow it or not. I understand providential hindrance. The Father seeks true worshipers. In the gathering of his people who will worship him in spirit and in truth. And lady, the answer in the word is no longer where, it's how. My people In spirit, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. My people with truth, God's word is truth, so that in worship we do only what He commands, which is what pleases Him. And that becomes the joy of their heart, and He exposes her idolatry of worship, and He exposes her sin. And she says, I need a Redeemer. And he says, I am. I am. Well, what happens next? What happens next when someone comes to him? Do you know what happens next? They immediately began to bring others to him. Go to the next verse with me. Just when the disciples came back, they marveled that he was talking with a woman. But no one said, what do you seek or why are you talking with her? So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people. Now, let's stop right there. I had about three people come out and say to me, why does it say she left the water jar? This is just folks. Listen, here's what you're learning. She's not only changing wells. She's no longer going to the well of sin and death. that she drew from with promiscuity and adultery. She's leaving the jars as well as the well. She's coming to a new well that you draw from through the preaching of the word and fellowship and worship. God's word and God's spirit. She's got a new well and she's got new jars. But where does she go? Well, this is interesting. Now I quarrel with the ESV translation here, and I'm gonna give you what I think the right translation is at this point. It's not a big quarrel. It's just a little quarrel. And so in verse 20, so the woman left the water jar and went away into the town and said to the men, she says to the men, come see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? They went out of the town and were coming to him. Now, if she's going back in to tell people what happened to her, will the women talk to her? Oh, no. But she's got a fishing pool. She goes to the men. What happens then? Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat. He said to them, I have food that you do not know about. So the disciples said to one another, Has anyone brought him something to eat? And Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do not say that there are four months and then comes the harvest. Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For when the saying holds true, one sows and another reaps, I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor." In other words, every time you go into the harvest field to bring them to Him, when they come, very likely you're not the only one that He has sent. Some are planting, some are watering, and some are cultivating. and some are reaping. That's what He's doing. He's bringing all of that to bear at a moment like that. But then He tells the disciples, My joy is not in the physical food. My joy is in the spiritual food that comes with the satisfaction and gratification when we are obedient to God's Word to go into the field and bring others to Him. And then verse 39, many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. The woman's testimony. And he told me all that I ever did. May I also stop there, folks? Learn to use your testimony. It's not the gospel. It's the results of the gospel. But it's a bridge to tell other people the gospel. She gave her testimony. And that brought them to him who saved her. The testimony is a wonderful instrument to use when you bring him to them so that you might bring them to him. And then what? What did her testimony say? Come see the man who told me everything I did. Now, I wished I had, honestly, I wish I had 30 minutes. Don't worry, I'm not taking it. I just wished I had it. But I'll give you 30 seconds. We are in the midst of the evangelical church where we're trying to win people to come to Jesus with the gospel to save them from their sins. And we're trying to do it without telling them that they're sinners. Note what endeared the woman to Jesus. What was it that endeared this woman to Jesus? Not only that he could save her from her sins, change her life with living water, turn her into an artesian well, but what endeared her to him was he told her the truth about her sin. Her false worship, and her adultery. When she said, sir, sir, give me that water. He could have just closed it right there. He said, no, no, you got to understand. I'm not saving you simply to myself. I'm saving you from your sins to myself. And so he backs up to make sure we understand you have to confess your sins to be forgiven. by the only one who can do so with justice because he paid for it at the cross. And that endeared her to him in her testimony. She said, he told me, told me I was, my worship was wrong. He told me about my sin. In fact, it seemed like he was telling me everything in those few minutes that we were there. And then what is it that they, what, what, what happens next? So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them and he stayed for the next two days. And many more believe because of his word. They said to the woman, it's no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is indeed the savior of the world. So here is the woman that came to Jesus and then she goes and brings them to Jesus. So let me just give you this takeaway and I'll close in prayer. Here's your takeaway. This is your walk away throughout the rest of this year. An authentic Christian, an authentic Christian not only comes to Christ as Lord and Savior, but reflexively and intentionally will seek to bring Christ to others, to bring them to him. Key words, reflexively and intentionally. Andrew intentionally went to Peter. And he reflexively would just go to everybody. When you become a Christian, you're commanded to share the gospel. Seek the lost. Preach the gospel to the whole world. But the authentic Christian actually wants their believers can't wait to tell somebody. It's reflexive. It's intuitive. He gave her no command. Now, by the way, all those people that you were engaged with sin with back there at Sychar, go over there, go get them and bring them to me. No, he never said it to her. She just went. Now, does he tell us to go to the loss? Yes. Be intentional. But reflexively, one of the evidences is we want to. We desire to. Now, sometimes we get fearful. And we need training and bridge to life or this or that or the other, but that's what it's intentional and reflexive. And folks, if we could just ask God to help us build that. The harvest is plentiful. Let's get in the harvest. Spirit of the living God, lead me into the harvest. Can't you just imagine when Jesus said to these disciples, look, the fields are what? The fields are what? Unto harvest. Now I'll tell you, what was happening when he said that? There's a woman coming with an entourage of men from Sychar behind her. Now, listen, Jesus may have, when he said that, looked out there on the fields and it was white unto harvest, the whitened grain. But I'll tell you something else it might have been. When he said, look, the fields are white unto harvest, they would have seen white robed Sicarian men coming to him, led by her. With her testimony, sharing the good news of the one who redeems and brings us to eternal life, it is in him. Brothers and sisters, I want you, first of all, if you haven't, to leave the jars of sin and quit drinking from the well of sin. It poisons, it'll kill you. It'll just say, keep coming back and drink. Maybe it'll work later. It never does, it's vanity. Come to Jesus. not only living water for everlasting life, but it will well up within you and overflow into your family, your friends, your team, your class, your work, your neighborhood. And so that's what you can't tell you what a pastor prays. Can't tell you what I pray. God, help me work hard at preaching and teaching. But if there's some way, oh God, not out of any desire not to work hard, but just if there's some way. Help me when I preach that it overflows of what you're pouring in. That's what he's telling you. Drink of him. And it'll overflow. People are asking me about the Asbury revivals. I did a program on it. It'll be on Monday, but I don't want to go there. What they've asked me, have you ever been in a revival? Yes, I've had the privilege. The most profound one is now six decades old. It's in the East African revivals. The epicenter is Uganda. The epicenter point is Kampala. I've been going there since 1980. It's absolutely astonishing. I remember my first time. I'm preaching all day to crowds that are coming every hour. And we'll preach, and they'll leave, and another crowd, and another crowd, and another crowd. I was so worn out on that Sunday that I went outside just to get a drink of water. And I looked across, and there's bamboo hedges with no trespassing signs in Bugandan around this old colonial house. And I took out a picture to take a picture. I took out my camera. That's right, we had cameras, no iPhones. I took out to take a camera picture. And my guide said to me, no Hadi, Hadi, no, no Mazuga. State identification house. State interrogation house. I said, what are you talking about? He said, that's where Idi Amin and the boti would bring Christians. I can't describe to you what he would do to them from the pulpit. But they died for Christ and their blood is stained all over that and Museveni has closed it. I couldn't help but look at that closed place of torture of my brothers and sisters in the 1970s when the revival broke out and their faithfulness. And that is a place of shame boarded up and across the street is All Saints Cathedral. I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. White robed Sicarians, the harvest is plentiful. It's all around us, it's all around the world. May God grant us the heart and the desire to go there. Pastor, let me ask you, what do I do? I feel so surrounded by this present age, the entrenchment of sin. I feel suffocated. It seems like it's a tsunami wave. What do I do? Where do I start? In Charlotte, when we had the 38 people to start Christ's covenant, one of them was a very sweet young lady who was a vivacious and contagious Christian, but her husband was not. He was a non-practicing Jew with affection for his Jewish religion. He didn't mind her being a Christian. That was all right. She had become a Christian after they were married. He didn't mind that. He would even come every once in a while. And we would begin to pray for him. We put him in our focus prayer group and we just reached out to him. And one night I got a phone call. I think it was a Friday night. I'm sorry, it was a Thursday night. Pastor, guess what? My husband wants to become a Christian. He said, he's coming home and he wants to talk to you. She said, you've got to get over here tonight. I said, oh, this is awesome, but I can't. There's somebody else that wants to become a Christian, and I've had this time set up to meet with them tonight. I've got to go." She said, no, no, no, no. We've been praying for him. I said, well, we've been praying for him too. No, no, you got to come here now, now, now. I said, I can't. She said, we can't lose this. I said, hold it, wait, I'm not being a fatalist, but listen, if this is the work of the Holy Spirit, he'll still be there tomorrow morning. So I set up the time to meet with him the next morning. It was a Saturday morning, I'm sorry. And he gave his life to Christ. We prayed together. And then I gave him what I always do. I said, would you read the opening chapters of John, first three chapters, and let's get together next week and talk. Would you memorize John 3, 16? And then the third thing, would you go tell three people that you've become a Christian? And I will never forget what he said. Sure, they don't have to be Christians, do they? I said, oh no, preferably not. Reflexively, intentionally, bring him to them that we might bring them to him. Harry, what do we do suffocated and surrounded the cultural elite calling darkness, light, light, darkness. What do we do? Share the gospel. Do your testimony even. With the next person you meet tomorrow. That's what we'll do. That's not all we'll do. But that's the most important thing for us to do. They're helpless. and hopeless, drinking from a well of emptiness. Give them living water. Let's pray. Just let the Holy Spirit speak to your heart now, if you just take a few moments. Have him work in your heart. If you want to pray with someone today, about your commitment to Christ or about a commitment to Christ, there will be those up here. Just come up afterwards. There'll be right here, pastors and elders here to privately and confidentially pray with you. Or if you've got something you want to pray with someone, just come up here. But right now. Let's do business with the Lord.