Matthew chapter number 28, beginning in verse number 16 again. Then the 11 disciples went away into Galilee into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and, below, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Heavenly Father, tonight again, we come before you at this time asking for you to visit with us in a special way and add your blessing upon the reading of thy holy word tonight. Father, we're not here tonight to be entertained, and these people haven't come to listen to me speak. have come tonight to hear thy word, to hear from you. So Father, I ask tonight that if there be anything at all in my life that would hinder your Holy Spirit using me tonight, I ask that you would remove that, that you would make me clean and a vessel meet for your use tonight. Father, I just ask that your spirit would speak through me tonight and that the message that you have for This your people for this your time would be delivered clearly and specifically to the heart. Father, may your Holy Spirit deal with us each individually. May we focus upon my word as it goes forth tonight, and may we not think about anything else going on this week, but just be here living for this moment, for this time now. We praise you. We thank you so much for your wonderful message of salvation that we've received, and we are so thankful that there was someone that told us about Jesus Christ. And Father, we ask you to help us to do the same with others. Bless these missionaries and their families, even now, as they're on deputation and searching for and seeking support. Father, we ask that they would raise them quickly, that they may be quickly about your work and the field in which you've called them to. We love you so much tonight. We thank you. It's our desire that everything that's said and done tonight, in the name of Jesus, be uplifted, honored, and glorified, and that you be pleased with everything you see at Grace Baptist Church of North Ridgeville tonight. We love you, and we thank you, and we praise you, and we pray these things in the precious name of Jesus, our Savior. Amen. You can be seated. We, of course, as Pastor had mentioned a moment ago, we have been going through this portion of scripture, and we have looked at several things here over these past couple of nights, broken down into several categories. We looked, of course, the first night about the meaning of missions, and you all were clear on that. We looked about the mistake in missions, of course, that being the fact that we don't put it first on our list. We put it somewhere on the list of the church, when it really is the purpose for the church is reaching the lost. It ought to be the primary thing. It ought to be on top of our list. We looked last night, some at the message, and we said that message is clearly the Lord Jesus Christ and his saving grace, and we need to take the message of salvation to this lost and dying world. We looked at the method in which to deliver that message, and God was very clear on that method that we must go. It must be spoken verbally, it must be spirit-filled, and it must be scripture-filled. And so those are things that we need when we have the message as far as the method goes. I find it very interesting that sometimes in the Old Testament you can find things that relate clearly to the New Testament and they tie right in. I'm not just talking about pictures of Christ. I mean, we could stand up here for an hour and a half and just talk about those pictures of Jesus that were painted for us clearly in the Old Testament last night. We read from Isaiah chapter 53 and we looked at Jesus in Isaiah 53, 700 years before he even came to this earth. We saw him clearly in that portion of scripture. We could look at Melchizedek and read in the Old and New Testaments about that being an appearance of Christ. We could look at Abraham and Isaac and the sacrifice there and compare those things back and forth. But even in scripture, we find things that I think you can tie to and look at that would relate to missions or draw a correlation between missions today. I think about, in Genesis chapter 4, when you think about God expanding the sacrifice, if you will, in Genesis chapter number 4, when you think about after Adam and Eve fell into sin, by chapter 4 of Genesis, He had established for them what they needed to do in order to cover, and I say cover those sins because the blood of bulls and goats never did anything but cover sins. They never took them away. Read Hebrews. And so He had established there the order for them to have their sins covered, and of course, it was a lamb per man. Abel had to offer sacrifice himself. Cain had to offer his own sacrifice. Of course, Cain's was unacceptable because it involved no blood. Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission for sin. That never changed. And so Abel offered the sacrifice for himself, Cain for himself. By the time we get over into Exodus chapter number 12 or so, we would read there about the children of Israel coming out of the bondage of Egypt, and of course, the death angel passing through, and the blood of a lamb being placed on the doorpost, and that protecting the family within the house from the death angel coming. And we'd see there that God would set up that that should be remembered, and so that was the procedure that was used. There would be a lamb sacrificed by the priest. that would cover a family, so it was a lamb for a family. And if you look at that closely, it also covers for a neighbor, depending on the size of the family. So for a family and a neighbor, perhaps. And then by the time you get into Leviticus chapter probably around 16 or so, I believe it talks about the high priest's office there, and you find that the sacrifice at that point was a lamb being offered for the whole congregation of Israel. And you see the extension as we go through, right into John chapter 1, where John sees Jesus coming and proclaims the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the And so we have this progression, even looking in the Old Testament, we see the progression in the message, if you will, or in the method of doing things. And then we look at the map. And of course, we looked at that last night and we saw how that the map has expanded over time and it's fallen under the responsibility of the church to deliver out and carry out the orders of taking it throughout that map. And Brother White had some very good points last night. I was thinking when you were mentioning that preacher and the things he had to say, Need to get ahold of him next year to do your missions. I don't know He was he was dead on that was some good stuff that you threw out there at the end of that last night But but it's it you can even go back to the Old Testament and look at some of that. I I was reminded of Daniel I believe it's in chapter 5 where King Belshazzar is having his party there and he's got all those all of those there with him and they're Celebrating and all of a sudden you remember the hand of comes out and it writes on the wall. That was the And if you study that portion of scripture, you'll find that it says interestingly that it was over and against the candlestick, which I thought very, very interesting. Can you imagine having put yourself in that position? Would you really care what it was over and against? I mean, all you're focusing on is there's a hand writing on the wall. Here's some letters appearing. Where do you, why do you care what's below that writing? But it says it was over and against the candlestick. And when you go into revelation and you study there, you'll find that the, the seven, the seven, the seven, the seven Candlesticks represented the seven churches. When you look at the scripture, the candlestick represents the church. And I found it interesting that the writings of God, the word of God, the writings of God, and his judgments were placed over the church or over the candlestick. And then it says, and against the candlestick, over, against, against. It's yours and mine. We're going to be held accountable for what we do with the word. And then you remember the king there, he called in his soothsayers and his wise men and his sorcerers, and he called them all in together to try to interpret what that writing was, and none of them could do it. And I thought it was very interesting when you look at that and you say, well, God was writing that as a message to them and yet he wrote it in a way that they couldn't understand it. Like God didn't know how to write it in their language, right? I mean, God knew how to write it. He wrote it the way he wrote it that they couldn't understand it because it fell under his man to come in and to give them the gospel, to give them the truth, to talk about the pending judgment and let them know what it was. And it's yours and my job because the lost world doesn't understand the writings of God. So it's our job to take it and to preach it and to teach it. And so even in the Old Testament, we even find those things to line up with what we've been looking at. Then, of course, we talked about the money versus the material last night, and that brought us down to the last point I want to make tonight. And that's really what it's all about. I want to talk tonight about the man. Now, when you go back and you look about the meaning, you can find that the meaning is about, of course, taking it and going with missions. We talked about the meaning for missions. It's all about Jesus. The mistake we make is that we don't preach and teach and take Jesus to the lost world. The message is all about the dying Savior. It's all about Jesus. The method that was used is as Jesus taught the method. We'll look at that tonight. The map was ordained and established by Jesus. Everything that we talk about, we talk about the money given, it all is a matter of remembering that it all belongs to Him anyways, it's not ours. Everything about this whole week, this whole three nights that we're together is all about one man, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we look at missions and we look at how to do these things, we need to look at, if I had a title for this tonight, it would be The Method of the Man of the Message of Missions. The Method of the Man of the Message of Missions. This is all about Jesus. Now, you've got to remember that since everything is about him, since he is the message, since he is the creator of mankind, and yes, it was Jesus, by the way, that was involved in creation, was there from the beginning, no matter what these other translations of the Bible want to teach you. Those rascals want you to believe that he didn't come on the scene until he was born and laid in a manger, but he's always been. He's always been. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, the same as the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made, according to John. So we know that He's always been there. Everything is about Him. And since it is about Him, who better to have us be taught by than Himself? And He certainly, if we read Scripture, was a soul-winning God, a soul-winning King, a soul-winning Savior. And so I want to take a few minutes tonight, if I can, to look at His method, because His method is the best method. It doesn't matter so much what you and I do. We've got to follow His way of doing things. I think sometimes we fail in our soul-winning Ventures if you will those that even go forth to do it because we try to do it our way And anytime you or I try to do something our way, it's going to fail This is why our homes and our divorce rates are so high in this country is because we try to do things our way instead of God's way So I want you to go with me, if you would, John chapter number four to a very familiar portion of scripture there. And we'll take a look at the account of Jesus Christ doing some soul winning here or bringing someone to himself and to his father in chapter four of the book of John. And again, you'll recognize this. I'm sure as you're even turning there, you probably already know where we're going. It says there in chapter number four, and I will do quite a bit of reading here, so just bear with me, it says, 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. Can you imagine even that verse there alone? We talk about the other last night about the message and the baptism is not part of salvation. Jesus said, I have come to seek and to save that which was lost. But other than his disciples here, it says he didn't baptize. Well, he didn't do much saving, did he, if it's about baptism? It says, he left Judea and departed again into Galilee, and he must needs go through Samaria. for many, many verses preached on that, many messages rather, preached on that particular verse of scripture, and they've all been good. But it is an important thing to understand that he had established that there is a need there. It says, 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. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, how is it that thou, being a Jew, asketh drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealing with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that sayeth to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. For whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, thou hast well said, I have no husband. For thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. In that saidst thou truly. The woman saith unto him, sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what. Ye know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith unto him, I know that the Messiah is cometh, which is called Christ. When he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. And upon this came his disciples, and marveled that he talked with the woman. Yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? The woman then left her water pot and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come see a man which told me all things that I ever did. Is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city and came unto him. In the meanwhile, his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, hath any man brought him ought to eat? Jesus saith unto them, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work. Say not ye, there are yet four months and then cometh harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto eternal life that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And 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 labors. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman which testified, He told me all things that I ever did. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them, and he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his own word. said unto the woman now we believe not because of thy saying for we have heard him ourselves and know that this in is indeed the Christ the Savior of the world what an interesting account of witnessing here by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and there's so many things here that we can look at that I think I think are very important and we'll look at this in light of that we've talked about missionary work and that the missionaries will be taking this message that we discuss and taking it to to others and that it's important for us here to understand that we have a mission field as well and that one field is not more important than another field that that all of them when he said going to the uttermost part of the world he was talking about everywhere so this portion of the world would be included we've got to understand first of all I think church that we all were saved because of missionaries You understand that when Jesus Christ gave this commandment he gave it unto his disciples He it was the Jews that received this message. The Bible tells us in the book of Romans I believe it's chapter 3 in verse 2 that they are the keepers of the oracles of God That's the the writings of the sayings of God. That would be the Word of God It was given unto the Jewish people had they disobeyed his Great Commission as we said clearly is a biblical defined term if they had disobeyed that you and I would not be sitting in this church tonight You see, it's because of missionaries, it's because they took the gospel message into all the world, if you will. They spread it, they didn't keep it to themselves, and that was a very difficult thing for the Jewish people, I can imagine, because if you look back in the time that even Jesus was alive, and he seemed to almost endorse their philosophy for a while, they didn't have a very good view of anybody that wasn't Jewish. And Jesus told them to go into all the world. I gotta think that they thought back about those times, like in Matthew, I believe, chapter number 10, when he sent them out, and he said not to go unto the Gentiles, but to go only to the house of Israel. You remember that? In Matthew chapter 10. I think in Matthew chapter 15, let's go over there for just a second. Matthew chapter number 15. It's a very interesting account there, and of course, I'm sure that you've probably even preached messages on it before. But in Matthew chapter 15, we even have a lady coming to Christ, and the way he handles her, Boy, you look at it sometimes and you think that it's kind of mean even. In Matthew chapter number 15 and verse number 21, Now listen to Jesus' words, But he answered and said, I am not sent, but onto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, it is not meat to take the children's bread and to cast it to the dogs. And she said, truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. Now imagine being one of the apostles and sitting there. You've had Jesus send you out already and tell you not to go to the Gentiles, to the Greeks, if you will, but to go only to the house of Israel. And then you hear him make comments like this to this lady. I can imagine that when he told them to go into all the world, they probably thought about those times. Because they didn't have good feelings about the outside world. They didn't have good feelings about those that weren't Jewish. And so it was probably a very difficult thing for them. And I think one of the reasons we talk often about the terminology here that I must needs go through Samaria, we often say this, and you've heard preachers preach on this before, that he went through Samaria for one woman. That his whole purpose was for that woman that he met there in Samaria. But that's not really true. It wasn't just one woman that got saved in Samaria. It was a woman and then some that she brought and got saved and then some that got saved because they came out and heard him. He had a revival there in Samaria, if you will. I mean, there was a great deal of spiritual activity taking place there in Samaria at that time. But I think part of the reason he might have even done that was for the sake of the disciples. I want you to think for just a second about the fact that certainly he had a ministry in Jerusalem. They certainly had a ministry there, doing works and talking to people about him and about his father. And even in Judea, which you know he was born in Judea. And we know that he was raised around Judea. But it says in one of the portions of Scripture where it talks about the widow woman whose son died and Jesus resurrected him. You remember that? It says that the rumor was spread throughout Judea. He did things in Judea as well. Now, he went to Samaria, I think, because he had covered Judea, he had covered Jerusalem, and he's giving them a command in chapter 28 that we read, or in Mark chapter 16 that we read the other night, to go into where? Jerusalem. Judea, Samaria. And that's going to be a hard thing for them to swallow. You already read in here what their feelings were about the Samaritans. And the Samaritans knew full well what they felt about them. But you see, the apostles, when they look back at that commandment, no matter how much they didn't like it, they could not say, well, Jesus never did it. They had to say, well, you remember Jesus did it already. And he's gonna go to the uttermost part of the world as he hangs there on the cross dying for everybody and stretches out his hands and says father forgive them He was talking about all of our sins. Not just those remember that he had become sin for us Jesus Christ was sinned Jesus Christ said the full weight of that sin all of the sin not just committed beforehand or going on at that time But since that you and I have committed and will commit the future He died for all of them became all of them and he said father forgive them So he covered all those fields See, Jesus took care of it all. The apostles had no excuse to not do what he was telling them to do. Their master had done exactly that. And we have no excuse not to take the gospel everywhere because he did. He said, lo, I will be with thee always. Isn't that interesting? We've got somebody with us all the time that knows exactly what it's like to do it because that's what he did. I love the portion of scripture where it talks about him being tempted at all points like as we are and yet was without sin. He did all that according to scripture to secure us or to strengthen us, to be there in our time of need. He went through what you and I go through so that he could know how to help. Isn't it wonderful? What a savior we serve. He didn't have to do any of that, but he did. And so, by example, he leads us here. Must, needs, go. I want you to understand and see his mindset in this. He did, first of all, go, but it says that he must go. You see, we've got to understand that we must go. We must. The emphasis, as I talked about the other night, so much on the word go. We know we're going to be moving from one place to another, but he says we must go. And he's going to tell us where, but we must go. It's not a matter of whether you want to or not. I love what you said last night about the fact that if you're doing everything else, but you're just not doing that, you're not right. You can do everything else he said, but you've got to be doing this. This was his commandment, to go. And we must go. If we're going to be right with God, then we must. We have no choice. These missionaries that are sitting here must needs go to their fields. They must. Why? He must needs. We must because there's a need. You see, Jesus' mindset was he knew that he must go because he saw the need of the people. That's why we must go, because there is a need. They need Jesus Christ. We all needed Jesus Christ. Still need him today. Even after receiving him, we still need him in our life every single moment of every single day. We need him and they need him. The whole world needs him. The Chinese need him as bad as the Americans need him. And the, the, the Romanians need him and the, the, the English need him and the Irish need him. We go on and on and on. They need him. We've got to see that need folks. You pick up the newspaper and we read about hideous crimes and, and things being committed and, and things that are just even against it, just to think it's gets nature, even some of the hideous things that you read. Think to yourself about those. And we read the papers and we say, wow, that is a horrible person. And I hope they get everything they deserve. Don't have that vision of the need. We just want to see justice served. We didn't want that with ourselves. Did we? Aren't you glad that justice isn't going to be served on you? I'm glad it's not on me. You see, we don't see the need. We ought to see people that are in sin, that drug dealer and that lady of ill repute and all these other things. We ought to look at those things and we ought to see a need. That's what we ought to see. There's a need here. Jesus saw the need. He left heaven because he saw the need. We need to see the need. So the mindset of Jesus was first that he saw the need and he realized he must go. But then I want you to notice that he spoke to her when he didn't feel like it. Look at verse number six. Now, Jacob's well was there, Jesus therefore being wearied. In verse number seven, he said, give me to drink. Jesus was tired. He was weary. You know, Jesus walked all, he didn't pop in his car, turn his air conditioning on and drive from spot to spot. Jesus walked everywhere he went. And Jesus physically, in his body, was wearied, tired. You know, that tells me that when we get up on Saturday and it's our only day off, because we've been working all week long, but there's church visitation, and we stay at home because, Pastor, it's the only day I've got and I've had a long day or a long week of work. Sometimes at our church, we've got some couples that'll come in and one will be there and one's not. And I'll look at the one and I'll say, well, where so-and-so died? And he or she will say, oh, they just had such a rough day at work, wearied. Be not weary in well-doing, the scripture tells us. And yet we use that weariness often as an excuse not to do what we're supposed to be doing for the Lord. Look, He is our example. Jesus was wearied. I want you to think about the, that's just the physical aspect of the journeying that Jesus did. But I want you to think about the spiritual attacks that He came under. I mentioned preaching six times and for some of you think big deal. So you got up there and you got to talk for a while. Any preacher will tell you that when you step into the pulpit, you are under spiritual warfare. Listen, I'm not one of those preachers that will tell you that every Monday morning I want to retire. You know, you're preaching. I love preaching the gospel. I, I feel blessed that God has used me to do anything in his work at all. The preach the gospel is a blessing. I love the fact that God's used me. I don't understand why, but woe unto me if I preach not. It's a wonderful thing. But yet, it's a struggle sometimes. And when you stand up and you begin to talk to people about the Lord and you begin to talk about Scripture and you begin to talk about Jesus and about growing closer to Him, the devil doesn't like that and he's gonna have his demons battling with you and there's gonna be spiritual warfare anytime it goes on. Anytime you witness, you can count on there being spiritual warfare taking place. You and I have no idea. We talk about being tempted by the devil. You have probably never in your life ever been tempted by the devil and neither have I. His demons. But not him. According to Matthew chapter 4 and Luke chapter 4, Jesus went head to head with Satan, the devil, the top dog, if you will. See, he didn't send one of his little demons down to take care. He wanted to try to tempt Jesus himself. Jesus knew what it was like to go through those battles physically, spiritually. Can you imagine with the few things we do for God and the little battles that you and I go through spiritually? Can you imagine how his attack must have been every day? Sometimes we think it was, well, it just happened there in Matthew 4. No, Jesus was under constant attack. You can bet the devil was constantly there battling with Christ. If he was tempted in all manner like you and I are, then he had to have been there tempting him all the time, right? Because aren't you tempted almost all the time? Listen, so we understand that Jesus was weary, and yet it didn't stop him from doing what he needed to do. We're going to be weary sometimes. Missionaries, I can't even imagine what you guys are going to be going into. I can't imagine what it's going to be like in your fields. I've never been to any of those countries you guys are going to. I can't imagine with the thought of going and meeting in an apartment because you can't just openly meet in a building like this. We don't even thank God for what we've got. But that kind of stuff convicts me when a missionary comes in and says something like that. I just was talking to a missionary from Africa earlier this week. He's a national there, and he's come here to do some training in scripture training, and he's going back, but he said, I love it in America because there's so much freedom here. And I thought to myself, when was the last time I heard Americans say that? We're so busy complaining about everything right now that we've forgotten what God's blessed us with and don't thank Him for what we have. You know, if I was God, I'd take it away from us anyway because we don't thank Him for what we have anyhow. Think our freedoms come because of anything other than God? It's only been Him. Well, it's our military might. No, it's not. Take a look at that little teeny spot on the map of the Middle East called Israel, and take a look at the surrounding areas of their enemies, huge surrounding them, and all they want to do is wipe them out. Listen to me, it's not because their military is so mighty, it's because the hand of God is over them. It's a protection that comes from God. Nothing to do with us. Listen, we don't take advantage of that freedom, but I have no idea what it's gonna be like for you. I guarantee you, you men and you ladies are gonna face some weariness. I know a pastor in America faces weariness. I talk to preachers all the time in churches that are wearied. It's difficult, it's hard. Anytime you're in the ministry, it's tough. You get a lot of rejection. You get a lot of people against you. Things that you would never imagine. All he does is get up and preach three times a week. No, listen. You have no idea how much study goes into one message. You have no idea how much prayer goes into each service. You have no idea what your pastor does day in and day out. The weeping and the crying for those that have left the church, or for those who have fallen away, or those who have gotten in sin, or those that are in the hospital. The prayer time that he spends and the mourning that he goes through. Somebody leaves the church and you say, where's Sister So-and-so been? Not the preacher. No, it's not just some simple question. He looks out over his congregation and he sees a sheet missing that usually sits over here. And it breaks his heart. Because they put everything they've got into this. These ladies and these men are going to a foreign country, and they're going to do what our pastors do here as far as looking over a flock and then trying to turn them over to a national to try to build churches and to do the work that a preacher does here, plus adding on to it the many things they don't have the luxury of, some of the freedoms that they don't have. Just imagine. They need our prayers. Men are going to get weary and you ladies are going to get weary. And listen, ladies, I'm going to tell you, man, I see it over and over again in our churches and our preachers, the devil's going to attack you. And if he's going to come to that home and attack many times, he's going to come right after you. I can't, I cannot say guys, how fortunate you are blessed. You are, if you will, how blessed you are and how you'll be thanking God every day on your knees for a woman who will follow you into the ministry at all, let alone a ministry in another country. You bless God for that. You thank him for that every day. Don't let it slip away. And ladies, don't let your husbands down. Because you really don't let them down, you let down God. Dealing with a couple in our church the other day, it's going through some marital problems, and I said to the dear lady, I says, listen, his problem isn't with you, it's with God. Don't take anything personally, because it's all about your relationship with God. I think sometimes we have this arrogancy about us. Christian men had this arrogancy about them. It bothers me when I hear preachers say things like, well, she better listen to me. Bless God. Let me tell you something. Anytime that lady wants, she can make the wrong decision and go against what Lord would have her to do. It's by her will that she chooses to follow you because she's following him. You need to be thankful for that. But you're going to get weary. Ladies, you're going to get weary. You've got your kids and you're going to think of things that they're missing back here in the States. You're going to hear from friends you left here that are going to write you letters and say, we did this and we did that. And the kids are going to come and ask questions about, well, I'd like to do that. And you're going to think at times, boy, they're missing so much, but no, they're not. Listen to me. The things that they're going to remember eternally are those things that you did for God. And when they get to glory, they'll be thanking you for everything you did and obeying him. Get weary. Jesus went, even though he was wearied, he was thirsty, he was hungry. And I want you to notice something else he did. He didn't care who or what she was, did he? Verse number nine, we find that she was of a different culture. You know, sometimes I think about our thought process here in America with all the influx of Muslims that we have. And you know, there's people in our churches that are very shall I say, almost in fear over this thing. And I'm going to tell you that any of them can be dangerous. You've got to understand that. Forget about this extremist and not extremist stuff. All right? They all follow the same book. They all follow the Koran. That's their Bible. All right? So any of them have the potential of becoming an extremist like that. The ones that are extremists are the ones that really follow their book because their book teaches exactly what those extremists are doing. So if they grow closer to Allah, they will become more like those terrorists are. See, we're the same way, aren't we? Most of our churches are what we call mainstream Christians. We don't have many extremist Christians. Those that are the extreme Christians are the ones who follow the book. The difference in us and them is that our book tells us to love. You'll know when you got an extreme Christian because they love. We're not out killing each other. So we got to understand that it is something that's here, but we shouldn't fear that. God didn't give us the spirit of fear. You know what we need to look at that as? We're in a mission field. You know, I'm glad. We ought to be trying to reach them and win them for Christ. I'm glad I don't have to go over there to find them. They're here. They're here. Look at them as a witnessing opportunity. We're all moved over this whole sodomy situation in this country today, and it ought to stir us up against sin. But we also ought to remember that those folks are lost and on their way to hell and need Christ. It's a mission field. It shouldn't matter what their culture or what their thought process in those things. Notice that she was not just of a different culture, but she was of different beliefs. Look, Jesus knew and saw the need, and the need was with those that had cultures that were outside of cultures that taught about God and taught about Christ. He understood that He was to reach those whose religions were not lined up with what the Bible teaches. Listen to me, my friend. There are so many opportunities for us, and the need is so great because there are so many different cultures and different belief systems. We need to line ourselves up, and we need to try to get them and reach them for Christ. We need to have His mindset. Notice that his mindset not caring about who or what she was, in verse 18, says, for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. Jesus didn't care that she was a sinner, both past and present. Look, I don't know why we have such a tough time with this. I could never witness to them. I could never tell them about Jesus. I mean, they're a little scary. Do you know what they do with their life? Do you know how they live? Have you seen the things going over their house? I couldn't tell them about Jesus Well bless God start making a list of those things and I think maybe open your eyes and say that's why I need To go over to them and witness to them those ought to be a motivation to get over there and tell them about it And we need to always remember. That's exactly what you were and I was This morning I was at a preacher's conference in or a preacher's breakfast in one the pastor said I thought was a wonderful statement and I think sometimes that we as Christians that have grown up in Christian homes, and some of you probably have, you grew up in Christian homes, in Christian situations, some of your dads might have been preachers or been involved in ministry somewhere, and you've never, at least early on, maybe you didn't get this, but you never really got a hold of the fact That you were forgiven for that much because you never did smoke and you never did drink and you never did Uh, you know do some of the things that the world does I was never on drugs I I never stole, you know going out and was a thief all the time. I never did these things You almost feel like I didn't get saved from that much You have the wrong attitude, don't we? He who much is forgiven Listen when we realize how much he forgave us for and from We just got to get we got to get grasp of this that he didn't care that she was a sinner that of her pastor or president We need to let go of those things. He didn't he didn't care what others might think You see he didn't care what his political circle might think You know in verse number nine. It said the woman Samaria said on him How's now being a Jew ask his drink of me which I'm a woman of Samaria for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans He said you're your circle your group. They don't have anything to do with me. I We can't let those kind of things influence who we talk to who we take the gospel to They're in need just like you were in need. Everybody needs Christ. The mission field is wide open You can't take the gospel to the wrong person Everybody needs it Take it to a Christian they praise the Lord the draw witnessing and maybe they'll follow convict little conviction because they haven't taken it out to anybody in a while Take it somebody who's lost they need it You can't deliver it at the wrong address. So it's interesting here that he doesn't care about that. He doesn't care about what others might think. He doesn't care what his friends might think. In verse 27, when the apostles came back and they had their ideas about and wanted to ask him, but it says they didn't ask, did they really need to? Jesus knew what they were thinking. He knew exactly what they were thinking. I kind of wondered when I read that whether they had just, at this point, maybe had, you know, seen enough that they thought, maybe we better not. You know, I'm surprised Peter didn't say something, aren't you? Peter always had something to say. Just a miracle he didn't say anything. But Jesus knew exactly what they were thinking. He didn't care. You can't care what people think about it. You need to be doing your living your life and doing things that God cares about because he cares about what you do. And our decisions need to be rallied and made around that particular point that what does God want me to do? And I hated those. What would Jesus do bands? You remember them things when they were out? Look, it's not a bad, it's not a bad thought process. It's just that people were wearing them while they're sitting in the bar. People were wearing it while they're riding down the road, cussing somebody out next to him. It's a good thought. What would Jesus do? What would please God in my life? What would God have me to do? Don't worry about what people might think. Listen, sometimes we're afraid that we're gonna offend somebody if we witness to them. And we don't wanna get anybody offended, Brooke Peacock. I mean, that'd be horrible. But you know what you need to do? Just think about judgment day. What are they gonna think about you then? What, I live next door to you and you never told me this? You never told me about this? Well, I didn't wanna offend you. Think about it. Don't worry about what people have to say. So Jesus had this mindset. Let me just give this to you quickly. I know we're running late. He had a method. Look, I want you to notice here that he didn't start off by saying, ma'am, you're on your way to hell. He started a conversation with her, didn't he? And I want you to notice how he started. You ever think about this? Look at verse seven again. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, give me to drink. What is the first thing Jesus did? He showed himself needy. When we go out and we take the gospel to the lost and dying world, we need to present ourselves as being just as much in need as they are. I'm saved, Brother Chris. I still need Jesus. I still need Christ. I'm a needy individual. Look, I'm not afraid to tell you, I can't make it. I can't make it through the rest of the night. I can't make it through tomorrow without him. I can't do it. He's everything. He's my life. I must have him. He's everything to me. I'm needy. Sometimes we go out and almost present a sense of arrogance. People turn away. You ever heard this statement before? You just think you're better than I am. You ever heard somebody say that? That's the way they look at us. Because how we carry ourselves, how we present ourselves. He opened up with letting her see that he was needy at that time with some water. We know spiritually that he wasn't needy of anything. But he also broke down the barriers in verse 10. People always want to throw out barriers, but he says, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked him, and he would have given thee to drink. She said in verse 9, she brings up the question, why are you dealing with me? Your kind doesn't have anything to do with my kind. That's a wall she's thrown up. That happens a lot, doesn't it, when you're out witnessing somebody. They want to change the subject, or they want to put something up there that's going to distract you from what the main purpose is. Jesus doesn't have anything to do with it. You don't even see him address it, really, do you? She says, why are you talking to me? He doesn't even really address it. He goes on talking about the gift of God, speaking of himself as the living water. Don't get caught off. When people try to distract you, keep the topic on the topic. Every topic that comes up can come back to him. You know, listen, we live in a world where every other word out of most people's mouths is using the Lord's name in vain. You know, how many people run around saying, God, just give me an opportunity to witness this person. I'll tell him about you. And you stand there and three times in a conversation, they use the Lord's name in vain. What better opportunity do you need? They just brought him up. Time to talk about him. I mean, what's wrong with just looking around going, where? I know he's coming, but do you see him? I mean, what? I love him. You love him too? How easy is it? You know, we're not really looking for ways in. We're looking for ways out. There are so many. God gives us opportunity after opportunity. And Jesus seizes everyone and doesn't let any walls come in between him and what he's trying to do. He breaks down the barriers. And I want you to know he turned this into a spiritual opportunity. It started out as something physical, didn't it? Drink of water. He turns it into a spiritual opportunity. He begins to talk about the living water. See, you can turn everything into being about him. Let me ask you a question. Is he everything to you? He's everything, isn't he? Then why doesn't everything come back to him? Everything is about him. He's in everything. He's everything to us. Why can't we come up with conversations about him? He turned this earthly conversation. How about a football game? Boy, did you see the Browns the other night? Did you watch the Browns lose? Did you watch the Browns lose? You say, well, I didn't have time. You know, I was in the middle of prayer because it's between services on Sunday, and I was praying for the services that night. I mean, how hard is this stuff, folks, really? I mean, everything can be turned back into a conversation about him. Jesus stayed on track with things. He didn't allow himself to become sidetracked. He turned a physical conversation into a spiritual opportunity. He told her exactly what she needed to be saved. And I love how he handles this here. He gives her a chance to answer. He doesn't come at her and say, you're an adulterous woman. No, he asks her a question. He says to her, go get your husband. He gives her a chance to confess her sin. And she kind of halfway. She doesn't flat-out lie to him. Listen, he says, thou spoken well. I mean, this is a woman who had five husbands, and now the one she's with isn't even her husband? I mean, how do we feel about that? Man, that's a horrible person. Jesus says, no, she just needs me. She just needs me. That woman caught in adultery? She was caught in adultery, folks. I mean, there's no debating that. Jesus didn't say, oh, no, I know they're lying about you. How'd he handle that? These people don't need us in their face. They need to see the love of Jesus. They need compassion, because that's what this world doesn't give. There's no compassion out there in this world anymore. Everything is about violence. She uses, and he steers clear of the distraction of religion. She tells him about what they believe in, verses 20 through 24, and he just kind of steers clear of that and brings her back to the reality and to the truth of the situation. You ever go out knocking on doors and somebody says, well, I'm a Catholic. And you go, well, okay. As long as you got a church, you're going to, we'll see you. Thanks. Look, you just turn it. It's so great. You know, I love it when somebody tells me they're of another denomination. I just say, well, I'm glad you go to church somewhere. Then you heard about Jesus before, right? I mean, I go to a Baptist church, but that really doesn't mean anything, any difference. Not because I'm Baptist that I have a relationship with Christ. I really, I mean, I don't care where you go to church. I just want to tell you about Jesus. Certainly in your church, Catholic or whatever they're in, certainly in the Catholic church, you know about Jesus, right? We were talking about the saints, talking about the saints on the wall. Remember that testimony he gave last night? Or was it last night? Yeah, nights were running together. And last night, he talked about the saints being on the wall. And I says, you know what I say, what do I do with all these saints? Well, what you do with them is you realize that they all came to the Jesus that we're trying to tell you about. They followed him. I said, we can't let religion get in the way, but we can certainly use religion as a way to get to them. And what religion mainstream religion, you know, that doesn't use a Bible. Okay. They all use a Bible. They may not wait to say version, but they all use a Bible. Yeah. Well, let's, let's not say a real Bible, a commentary of the Bible NIV and all those aren't Bibles or commentaries, but they think they're a Bible. So if you discuss or say something about the Bible, they're not going to turn you if they're religious at all, they're not going to turn you away. Because then they look really bad, like their religion doesn't believe in the Bible. They believe their Bible's the right one, so they don't have any problem talking about the Bible. They don't have any problem talking about Jesus. What mainstream religion doesn't talk about Jesus? Think about it. It's not hard. He doesn't let the religion become a distraction. He keeps the facts the facts, keeps everything together. And he closes by doing one thing, and that's pointing her to himself. Look, that's what it always has to be, even if they're not going to accept. You've got to bring them back to what was important. You've got to leave them with what was important. It's Jesus. It's all, everything. When are we going to get that, Christian? He's everything. Alpha, the Omega. I thought that was interesting. Am I wrong? But if it was the Omega Baptist Church, it's the last Baptist Church, and in America, everything's the first Baptist Church. I don't know why I said that. It's kind of funny. We've got how many first Baptist churches in America? It's got to be one of the biggest names, right? And they've got the last Baptist Church. I thought it was interesting anyway. But anyway, I know it's off the topic. Listen, folks, everything has to be about him. And in our lives, everything is about missions. Everything. Because it's all about reaching the lost. And that's what missions is all about. All about reaching the lost. And I told you guys the other night, I cannot, I just cannot tell you how much I Spiritually, scripturally, in a good sense, I admire these guys. These guys and gals, these families, I admire them for what they're doing. I just, sometimes I can't get a grasp on it myself. I mean, I believe that if God called me to a mission field, I'd go, but like I told you the other night, I'm glad he hasn't. I just don't know. I mean, growing up in this country, and you're just gonna pack it in, and really, you're gonna take your kids and go? I mean, you were just going to run off like that. You're going to take your kids and go over to the, I mean, come on, really? I mean, to the human mind, that doesn't even make any sense. Why would you want to leave this? Yeah, we got some issues and problems here, but man, you got so much freedom here. The economic structure. If you want to do something, you can do it. I mean, any man can work in this country. I mean, there's help wanted signs all over the place. Don't kid yourself. You want to leave this land of opportunity? You really want to take your kids somewhere else? I mean, really? Do you grasp what they're doing? I mean, I don't know that we let it sink in. I mean, that friend I told you, I support a guy in Zambia and he took his wife and kids over to Zambia. I mean, he's called at three in the morning to talk about his boat breaking down and he's out in the middle of the, the whatever canal or river or whatever they got over there. I mean, the snake's big enough that when he runs over with his Jeep, they give him a flat tire. That's where he's got his wife and kids. They've got a time window where they have electric every day, like a two hours period. And they got to do the cooking stuff, get it done with electrics on. And you left this to go over there. Really? Do you want to go? Anybody here volunteering to go? Oh, if God's called, you'll go, but you volunteer to go. I'm not throwing my hand up to go unless he calls. I can tell you that I am not on my knees every day for saying, God, please send me to Africa. And how can we not take care of these folks? Because as pastor said last night, it's not just our responsibility here. That command was to all of us. And if we can't go, then we have to make sure we're sending others to go because it's all part of the same thing. We can't be right with God if we're not. There should not be a member of this church or any New Testament Baptist church in this country that's not supporting. Every member of this church ought to be supporting missions. And yet, I guarantee you, every one of our churches have people sitting in their pews that do not support missions. And I will agree with what he said last night. You're not right with God if you don't, because it's part of that commission. You've got to be supporting them. And if you're supporting them now, and you've already been supporting, he'd be looking for somebody else to support some more. Has God been good to you in your life? Because he's blessed me wonderfully. I mean, he doesn't take care of my need. He takes well above and beyond all of that. I got so much stuff. You got stuff sitting around the house you never use? You get 50 bucks for something you could turn around and help out a missionary. Stuff is just sitting there doing nothing. We could all have a garage sale. You send a missionary a couple hundred buck love offering sometime. I guarantee they're going to be rejoicing. Hey, brother, I could get a check for a couple hundred bucks, right? He says, you can send them my way. Go see if he's got a card. They can fight over it up there. They'll arm wrestle for it. Listen, we've got to get serious about this stuff, really. And we're not. We're not. Thank God that you've got a pastor that's concerned about mission. I was talking, I've got to get clothes. I know, I'm done. I was talking to one of the preachers today or yesterday, and they had mentioned something, and we were talking about missions and money. I think it was today, because I had mentioned last night's message about money. And we were discussing how there's a lot of missionaries coming back to the states because they've lost so much support because the economy is so bad. Churches have stopped supporting them. This is how warped we really are. We'll sit in an air-conditioned church. Now, hear me. We'll sit in an air-conditioned church, and pay a high electric bill so we can be comfortable sitting in the church and cut missionary support. You don't see a problem with that? And yet if we said, the pastor got up and says, we're going to stop running the air conditioning through August because we don't have the money to pay our missionaries and we're going to cut back on that electric bill a little bit, how many of your people would leave? Are we messed up? We need to get serious. And we need to ask his forgiveness. because we're failing on this great commission.