Sermon Transcript

My Bible is open to John chapter 4. Where’s your Bible open to? It is not. You’re on your way there, though, aren’t you? John chapter 4. A couple of weeks ago we launched our theme for the year, which is…? Lift Up Your Eyes. That was weak; you want another run at that? What’s our theme for the year? Lift up your eyes!

We took that phrase from Psalm 121, verses 1 and 2. These are verses we’ve got to get deep within our soul, cause you’re going to need to recall them throughout the year. Every time you’re tempted to get your eyes on your circumstances or your problems or your conflicts or political parties or hurricanes or earthquakes…and the list could go on and on and on and on! Lift up your eyes!

“I lift my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?” He answers his own question: “My help comes from the Lord…” not from my money, not from my mother, not from my President; it comes from the Lord – “who made heaven and earth.” In case you’re wondering how much power He actually has to change your circumstance…He made your circumstance! He made heaven and earth! So lift up your eyes, vertically. Get your eyes on the One who can help you in that situation.

Now, this morning, we’re going to turn the direction of our eyes just a bit. And I want you to see it here, from John chapter 4, in verse 35. Now we’ve got our eyes on our Bibles. Verse 35 says this (the words of Jesus; Jesus says): “Do you not say, ‘There are four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.” I remember, probably the second core group meeting that we ever had when we were trying to launch this church – just trying to scrape together a few people that could believe that God would want to start a church that one day would have two campuses and three services, and about 1600 or 1700 people showing up on Sunday. That was all just vision.

And this was the verse that God put on my heart to try to rally just a few people to kind of believe in that. So there was about fifty people that showed up, I remember, at the second core group meeting, and I opened this passage, and I—we’re about four months away from launching—and so I was like, “Well, it says it right there: ‘Yet there are four months, then comes Harvest!’” So, can we believe God has a future for us? And it says right there, “Lift up your eyes. See…the fields are white for harvest.” And they still are! Those are the words of Jesus.

Now, as we think about lifting up our eyes, notice the two different places we can get our eyes on. First of all, we get our eyes on the Lord; that’s where our help comes—very vertical. But I want you to notice this: Jesus says there’s another place that our eyes should be. It should be on the fields; it should be on the harvest. Here’s what we’re learning this morning:

 

Vertical eyes open missional eyes.

 

Vertical eyes open missional eyes. Last week we tried to get a proper perspective of the enormity of God! And yet, today, we need to get a perspective on the enormity of God’s work in the world. It is not enough just to go lay on your driveway and stare up in the middle of the night, and see the stars—and think about how wonderful God is as a Creator—and that He created me. He’s big and I’m small. And I’m so dependent on Him. All of those things are true. But, once you get a proper vertical vision of God, you will get a proper missional vision for the work that He wants accomplished in the world. Contemplating the enormity of God should lead us to contemplate the enormity of the task that we have—as His people—to be on mission with Him.

Being on mission with God means we understand that God has not only worked for us…How many of you believe God has worked for us? Are you glad about that? Are you glad that we get together and remind each other, “Look at all the stuff that God has done for us! We don’t deserve any of it!” And that He’s also working on us! How many of you still have a little work to be done on you, and God’s working on you? Hey, that’s great, too. We need to talk about that.

But God works for us and on us so that God can work through us—spending our lives for the purpose for which we were created in the world. Everybody is missional about something. You spent your time, your energy, your calories, your money on something this week. The question is, did you lift up your eyes and see the mission that God had for you this morning? And so, that’s what we’re going to understand today: once we get helped, once we get comforted, once we’re encouraged, once we’re strengthened, now we get sent into the world. So we gather on Sundays so that we can scatter through the week to do the work of the mission. Vertical eyes open missional eyes.

How many of you understand we’re a vertical church? You understand that? Do you know what that means? That means that we have our eyes constantly on the Lord. We don’t get together and talk about our felt needs, and it’s not about us getting happy. It is about us getting a proper perspective of God and the glory of God as He descends among us. It’s all about the Lord—it’s not about us. That’s a vertical church. But a vertical church is a missional church. It understands that we have work to do.

For those of you that have been around long enough, have you noticed we have four pillars that kind of outline our core values as a church? The first pillar: unapologetic preaching. Very vertical. Number two, it is unashamed worship; that’s what we just did. “Great are You, Lord. It’s about You! We’re singing songs about You.” We’re not singing the latest Katie Perry (and certainly not!) the latest Taylor Swift song. We’re singing about Jesus! Forever and always, it is only about Jesus! Unashamed worship. Unceasing prayer.

All of those three pillars are very vertical, but finally we get to the fourth pillar, which is an unafraid witness. Listen, if we never get to the fourth pillar, our job is not complete. If we never get to the fourth pillar of an unashamed witness—do you understand—this church will die a slow death and the generation of Christians in this room will be the last generations of Christians in Michiana—if we never get to the fourth pillar. A vertical church is a missional church, and if we don’t get the gospel outside the walls of this church, we will die a slow death. Understand, adorning the gospel is not a substitute for sharing the gospel.

We love to talk about the gospel; we love to articulate the gospel; we sing the gospel. We remind each other of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross in our place as a substitute for our sin. And God is holy, and man is sinful, and Christ is a Savior—and we must repent and believe. We love to take notes about that; we love to write songs about that. But that is not enough! We have to share the good news of Jesus outside the walls of this church. If we don’t do that, then we are failing to be missional.

Some of you need to adorn the gospel more, because what I just said is “new” news to you. You need to wrap your life around that. You need to see the beauty of the gospel. It’s not just some peripheral part of my life; it’s the very center of my life! You need to preach the gospel to yourself every day. You need to move outside the crowd of the church—the window shoppers, those of you that are just kind of window-shopping; you like to gaze in what’s going on in there, just kind of peek in about every seven days or maybe even every month and just kind of see the gospel, but you’ve never come all the way on the inside to become a part of the core—you need to adorn the gospel more, you need to come on in.

But, listen, if you have come all the way in, if you are at the core of our church, if the gospel is the core of your life, you need to move back out into the crowd to share the gospel! It’s not enough just to come and hunker down. There are no “no-huddle” offenses in church. (Sorry, I’m really wrapped up into football, and I have a thousand football illustrations. Have you noticed that college football teams no longer huddle? This is sinful! This is sinful!) In the huddle we make sure everybody knows the assignment. We understand where we’re all going and the play we’re going to run.

We must huddle up as a church. We do that about every six days; we come together, we have the huddle. But it is sinful if you never break the huddle! You’ve got to break and go run the play. The only play we’ve got is sharing the gospel. And adorning the gospel is not enough. It is not a substitute for sharing the gospel. We must get the gospel right, then get the gospel out.

There’s a lot of churches that are committed to getting the gospel out. There’s parachurch ministries and media empires and publishing companies that are committed to getting the gospel out, but so often we don’t get the gospel right! We shave off the rough edges of repentance, we shave off the rough edges of obedience—and the sexual ethic that’s attached to it—and bringing in and aligning our lives under the authority of God’s Word. All of those are essential to the gospel. But once we get the gospel right, we have to get the gospel outside the walls of our church!

Earlier this year, I gathered together our staff and our elders and I shared with them what God had put on my heart for the goals that I wanted us to accomplish as a church. The number one thing that God put on my heart was this—this is what I shared with our staff—our number one goal for 2017-2018 as a church (by this we will measure our self): Are we reducing the pagan population of Michiana? How many of you would like to reduce the pagan population?

Well listen, there is something to be said about population. As a church, we are doing our job at—actually—increasing the population of Michiana. There were three babies born yesterday to the worship team, okay? And apparently there’s another one on the way—did you notice? Okay? So, this church is really good about increasing population! But are we increasing the population of those that are sold out, given to the citizenship of heaven – Jesus Christ is Savior? And if we get that right, we reduce the pagan population. That is the only reason God has left us on the planet! Do you understand that?

I mean, if all there was to the Christian life was being saved and going to heaven, then once you make a profession of faith, repent of sin—put your faith in Jesus Christ—we should baptize you, take out a shotgun and send you to heaven! The only reason we won’t do that is because God has work for us to do, and that is to share the good news of Jesus Christ! Are you getting my concept, here? Lift up your eyes; the fields are white to harvest!

And we’re going to see four things, this morning, that we have to get right—if we’re going to be on mission with God. The first of those is this:

 

1. Increase your appetite. (v. 8, 27, 31-34)

 

Now this passage that I read; I read verse 35 there, it’s right in the middle of John chapter 4. John chapter 4’s one of the best chapters in the whole Bible! The first part of John chapter 4 has been preached in this pulpit twice in the last twelve months. It was preached by Tyler Holder, and it was preached by Joel Anderson.

John chapter 4 tells that very familiar story about Jesus—who had to go through Samaria—and he met the Samaritan woman, the woman at the well. Are you familiar with this story? Some of you are. And so, Jesus begins a one-on-one conversation with this woman. And because they were at the well, at the hottest part of the day, it was really obvious why they were there: they were both thirsty, and they needed a drink from the well.

Jesus takes the opportunity and uses the physical thirst of a woman to illustrate she had a much deeper thirst—a spiritual thirst. And so, Jesus says to the woman, “If you knew who I was, you would ask Me for a drink, and I would give you living water and you’d never thirst again.” She said, “That sounds like a bargain! Give me that drink!” Jesus immediately changes the subject and says, “Go, call your husband…”—out of the blue.

What does that have to do with anything? Jesus put His finger on the artificial substitute she was using to try to quench her spiritual thirst. She said, “I don’t…I, don’t have…I, I, I don’t have…I don’t have a husband.” He said, “You’re right…“[You’ve] had five husbands, and the one you [have now] is not your husband.” She says, “I perceive…[you’re] a prophet.” Well, understatement of the year, right?

Yeah, so what was Jesus saying? “You have been bouncing from relationship to relationship to relationship (“cup” after cup after cup) to try to quench a spiritual thirst in your life. Well, here’s the good news. God didn’t design any human relationship to quench a spiritual thirst. You need a spiritual drink—living water!” She changes the subject, and she says—she starts talking about worship styles. Jesus says it’s not about how you worship, it’s about who you worship, and once you worship the true and the living God, then your spiritual thirst will be satisfied.

Now, listen—this is a one-off here. Some of you have been bouncing from relationship to relationship to relationship—or idol to idol to idol—functional savior after functional savior (you could put a thousand things in there – it’s movie, it’s entertainment, it’s parents, it’s money) and you are looking for something to satisfy a spiritual hunger in you. None of it will satisfy. This morning, you need to embrace Jesus Christ as the Only One that can satisfy the thirst of your soul! And if you will do that, you will never be thirsty for those things again! If you’ve never done that, I beg you!—Come to Jesus Christ! Increase your appetite; quench your spiritual thirst!

Now, for those of us that have had that thirst quenched, it is our job to offer a drink to every thirsty soul around us. And so that’s the message that Jesus was getting to this woman. That was a one-on-one conversation. Finally, we get down to John chapter 4, and I want you to look here in verse 25: “The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.’ [And] Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am he.’” And she got it! And her thirst was quenched!

Now, that whole conversation takes place—you know—one-on-one conversation. But the question I had as I was reading this: where were the twelve disciples when all this was going on? Jesus always hung out with these twelve guys; they were always going around together. And it actually tells us in a parenthetical statement where these guys were, back up in verse 8.

I want you to look at it. It says, while this whole conversation was taking place, “His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.” Twelve guys going to “Five Guys” to get some food! Now, this is incredible! That is not an accidental statement, in this passage. While Jesus is talking to a woman about spiritual thirst and spiritual water, these twelve guys go after physical food because they had a physical hunger.

And then, the next time we read about these guys, they come back into the conversation at verse 27. Look at what it says: “Just then his disciples came back. [And] they marveled that he was talking with [the] woman, but no one said, ‘What do you seek?’ or, ‘Why are you talking with her?’” Verse 31: “Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, ‘Rabbi, eat.’”

            I mean, can you see these guys coming back with these hamburgers? And they just got wrappers and French fries, a little ketchup on their…like, “Jesus, we brought You some food; don’t You want to eat? Here! We know you’re hungry!” Just like a bunch of guys—you’d imagine these guys. And then, verse 32, “But [Jesus] said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’” What food is that? Verse 33: “So the disciples said to one another, ‘Has anyone [been giving] him something to eat?’” “He’s not hungry for the food…what?” These guys are so enamored with their food! It’s hard to believe. I know it’s hard for you to imagine guys with food. They’re so focused on their food they have missed out on spiritually what’s going on between Jesus and this woman.

Then, in verse 33: “So the disciples said to one another, ‘Has anyone brought him something to eat?’ Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.’” So, now, Jesus uses the physical food to teach them a lesson about spiritual food. In the same way that He used the woman’s physical thirst to teach her a lesson about spiritual thirst, He’s still using analogies.

So, what is Jesus saying? “My food is to do the will of him who sent me.” First of all, I want you to notice: Jesus didn’t just go places. Jesus went places because he was sent places. You don’t go to work—you are sent to work – on mission with God to do the will and the work of God at your workplace! You won’t, you don’t just go to algebra class; you are sent to algebra class. (And all the parents said…Amen! But it’s not just by your parents. You are sent by God on mission to do more than the work of algebra! You don’t just go to the mall; you are sent into the mall.

Everywhere Jesus went, He was sent by the Father on mission with God, and He had an appetite for something more than physical food. He had an appetite for people, for souls; for people that needed to come into relationship with Christ, that needed forgiveness, that needed purpose, that needed satisfaction beyond anything this world could give. And Jesus said, “I am replenished—I am nourished—by the food of the will and the work of God!”

Can I ask you a question? What replenishes you? Netflix? Sports? A day at the beach? What should replenish you is the same thing that replenishes Jesus. Did you notice the two questions that they didn’t ask there? It says nobody was asking Him, ““What do you seek?” They should have been asking Him that. You should be asking Jesus that: “God, here is my life. I am a created being that You put on earth at this time and this place. What do you seek from my life? What is my mission? What is my purpose?” And you should hear Him say, “I am still seeking the same thing today that I was seeking in the context of John chapter 4.” What do you seek? He was seeking a harvest; He was seeking spiritual life. What do you seek?

And then, the second question that nobody asked Him, ““Why are you talking with her?” Why was Jesus talking with her? Maybe the better question that Jesus would have for you today is this: “Why aren’t you talking to her?” I don’t know who “her” is in your life, but everybody has someone they should be talking to about their spiritual thirst. Jesus said, “My food is to do the will…[and the]…work…” of God. What is your food? What are you hungry for? Some of you need to change your diet to the diet that Jesus had – to be nourished, to be replenished by the mission—the will and the work of God—to seek those things that God is seeking.

Here’s the second thing:

 

2. Open your eyes. (v. 35)

 

He says in verse 35, “Lift up your eyes, the fields are white [they’re ripe] for harvest.”

            Now, interestingly about these Samaritans, this Samaritan woman there—they were in a Samaritan territory there—when the Samaritans went to worship, they put on ceremonial garments that were white. And we see back up in verse 29, this woman left that well, she went into the city—and this is what she says in verse 29, “’Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?’ [And] they went out [from] the town and were coming to him.”

            So when Jesus told the twelve guys to lift up their eyes (off of their hamburgers) and get their eyes up, do you know what they saw? That’s what they saw. They saw the Samaritans coming out of the town dressed in white, coming. And Jesus said, “Fellas, that’s your mission! They’re hungry, they’re thirsty, they don’t have a right perspective on God. They are darkened; they don’t understand their need!”

If we would lift up our eyes this morning and see what Jesus sees out there (and for some of you in here), do you know what you would see? You would see people that are enslaved to sin! They have appetites for things that are actually suicidal! They’re self-destructive! Do you feel the weight of our responsibility to tell them there is a better way? His Name is Jesus. “There’s good news! You don’t have to live this way.” If we could see what Jesus sees, we would see people that are darkened in their understanding; they’re upside-down in their thinking. They call what is wrong “right,” and call what is right “wrong”—because they can’t see it! They’ve been blinded to the reality of the gospel because the god of this world has darkened their sight, spiritually. They’re lost, they’re running around, they’re bumping into things, they’re scraping themselves in the obstacles of this world. We have the light; we are the light—to shine into the places of darkness.

And if you could see what Jesus sees, you would see people that are taking their next step toward an eternity separated from God, in a place called hell, in a place that Jesus described as fire and brimstone—where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. In Revelation, it’s called the lake of fire, where people that have ignored God and rejected His offer of salvation by faith, by grace through faith in Jesus Christ—where they will experience the just judgment of the wrath of God.

Do you see the people that are the objects of the wrath of God—until or unless someone delivers the message of the gospel and God awakens them to the reality of their sin, and they turn from their sin, because they’ve been granted faith and been given the gift and had their hearts enlightened to the gospel, and they turn and they serve Jesus Christ? That is not only their condition, that was the condition of every person in this room prior to God doing that for us. How selfish would it be for us to keep that message to ourselves, while others are taking their next step toward hell. Do you see what Jesus sees? Lift up your eyes! Get on mission! Get the gospel right, and then get the gospel out. Let’s reduce the pagan population of Michiana!

You say, “But that’s not popular! I mean, people will just…don’t…isn’t there a law…don’t they arrest Christians now for like mentioning the name of Jesus? Isn’t it just against the law to talk about Jesus outside of church? I’ve heard that! My professor at school told me that.” There’s a college freshman in our church that told me recently, he was taking classes at the local community college here. . .and one of the questions was, “Just write an essay on what motivates you.” And he was, “Well, the greatest motivation I have is the fact that God is the center of my life!” Professor said, “You cannot put that on a paper! That’s against the law! You can’t bring up God in that context.” And it’s like, “Really?” “Really!” “Really?” So he calls the compliance department at the college, and they said, “No, the professor’s actually the one that’s wrong in that situation.” We’ve been duped into believing that we can’t be on mission with God.

And we’ve been duped into believing that no one will hear us. My friend, Ed Stetzer, is a researcher. He’s done a lot of research on like what’s happening missionally in the culture, and what’s happening in the conversations around God. It might surprise you to know how responsive people would be to a conversation around God.

Some questions were given, some research was done. Those who were “somewhat” or “strongly agree” with this statement were in these categories: “God, a Higher or Supreme Being actually exists.” Do you know that 81% of people still in their twenties still believe that? And they get hardened after thirty. Only 73% of people believe that. People that would believe—that would agree—with this statement: “There exists only one God, the God described in the Bible.” 57% of people still in their twenties still believe that! Why aren’t we talking to them; why aren’t we giving them the good news?

How about this: “Do you agree with this statement: ‘Jesus died and came back to life?’” Two out of three people in their twenties believe that! And almost of half, and more than half of people over the age of thirty believe that. Why aren’t we talking about the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ—and the powerful implications of that on their life? Part of it is because of the way that they view us.

So, some of the questions related to what they look at in church. How about, “Do you strongly agree with this statement: “The church is full of hypocrites, people who criticize others for doing the same thing they do themselves.” Well, two-thirds of the people think that the church is full of hypocrites. Apparently they haven’t been introduced to the rest of us, because we’re all hypocrites! I, it’s just like, “Yeah, just come on in and join us! We’re a great group of hypocrites. Forgiven hypocrites. We’re not trying to be hypocrites…but we’re not perfect. And if you’re looking for a church that doesn’t have hypocrites in it, please don’t join that one. Because you’ll mess it up – cause you’re one, too.” It’s like, as far as hypocrites go, Harvest, I think has some of the better ones...that we’re trying to not be, right? We’re trying to address this problem in our lives.

Other people would say, “Well I think Christianity today is more about organized religion than loving God and loving people.” It’s like, well, that’s a problem, but, I’m like, “You’re not into organized religion? You’re into disorganized religion? We’re trying to organize ourselves around loving God and loving people!” That’s just kind of critical, that we all kind of lock arms together and we do this, and we have different assignments and everybody’s using their different gifts, and we kind of have some leadership and mission and goals about that. That’s good organization. That’s called a church!

Other people would say, “Do you agree with this statement: ‘Christians get on my nerves!’?” Again, they haven’t met all of us yet! And when they do, we’ll, at some point, get on their nerves! And so, these can be obstacles here. But how open would somebody be to you actually talking to them about the gospel? Notice this: “If someone wanted to tell me what he or she believed about Christianity, I would be willing to listen.” Almost 90% of people in their twenties, three-quarters of the people older than that, would be willing to listen to a hypocrite like you tell them about Jesus! Why aren’t you doing that? What do you seek? “Why aren’t you talking to her?”

“I would be willing to study the Bible if a friend asked me to.” Now, first of all you have to be a friend, and then you ask. And they would be open to you talking to them about the Bible. How about this: “I would be willing to join a small group of people to learn more about what…about the Bible and Jesus.” Notice how open people would be if we would simply lift up our eyes and see, it’s the only purpose God has us here!

Here’s the third point:

 

3. Do your part. (v. 36-38)

 

Look here at verse 36: “Already the one who reaps is receiving wages…” Now, Jesus is still using this illustration of harvest. Now, we live in Indiana; we know something about harvest, right? It says, “The one who reaps is receiving wages…” That means that there’s eternal benefit for the one who actually gets involved in the mission of God. “…And gathering fruit for eternal life, so that [the] sower and reaper may rejoice together.” Notice, there’s joy in the work!

Then verse 37: “For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows another reaps.’ I sent you to reap [for that] which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” Notice, one sows, another reaps. One plants, another picks. And you never know if you’re going to be the planter or the picker. The good news is you don’t necessarily have to do both. You just have to do your part!

My wife, Andrea…we love blueberries around here and we’re close to those blueberry farms, you know. And, how many of you have ever gone to one of those places—like a U-Pick fruit stand or something like that? And the great thing about going to this U-Pick thing is it gives you the illusion that you’ve actually worked for it! Okay? All you’re doing is actually harvesting something that somebody else has sown. And you save a little money. My wife has been known to bring home pounds of blueberries. (Some of you that have shown up at the U-Pick place after my wife has been there have been disappointed! Because there’s no blueberries left!) And so, the great thing is this: in the kingdom of God, you don’t have to do all the planting, and you don’t have to do all the picking. You just have to do your part!

The average Christian can identify seventeen different people that played a role in them hearing the gospel before they received it. You never know if you’re going to be #17, or #10 or #1, but we must do our part! There are times that people come into our church, and they surrender their lives to Christ; they make a public profession of faith and we see them baptized. And when we hear their story, they tell us about, boy, they you know, they heard the gospel from a grandmother…or, man, they went to this church over there…and then they got in the army and there was a faithful chaplain over there…there was a church across town they went to for a while, that planted some seeds of the gospel—but then we got to pick it!

There’s other times that people come here, and we’re sowing seed, we’re scattering it—and finally, after years—they might end up over at GCC or Fulkerson Park Baptist Church in Niles, and they come to Christ there. Woohoo! Just do your part! Be a part of the kingdom! What part did you do in the last six months—planting or picking—the harvest? If you can’t identify any one at any time—you planted the seeds of the gospel or even were bold enough to say, “Would you, in this moment, repent of your sin and place your faith in Jesus Christ? Is there anything right now keeping you from doing that?” And some of you have never had the privilege of actually seeing someone, in the moment of conversion, put faith in Christ. If you’ve never had that joy, lift up your eyes! Be a part of the process!

A couple of days ago my wife got a text from a dear lady that used to be in our church; her name is Raji Turner. Anybody remember Raji? Remember Raji and Elliott? They were great small group leaders around here, serving the youth group. They were just wonderful growing, faithful young couple of Christians. Well, the reason they don’t go to our church anymore is because they got smart and they moved to Phoenix, and – and joined the nice warm weather out there.

And so, Andrea and I actually got to be a part of a FamilyLife Weekend to Remember marriage getaway, that we do from time to time. We actually did that back in June in Phoenix. And we shared our story, I shared the gospel. I shared that I’m a pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel,  and there’s like three Harvest Bible Chapels here in the Phoenix area, and if you don’t have a Bible-preaching church, you ought to get into a Harvest Church.

Well, this lady goes online and she Googles, and finds a Harvest Bible Chapel in Phoenix. This is the text that Andrea got from Raji yesterday. It says, “I wanted to text you because your name came up the other day when we met a new couple for the first time that will be joining our small group. They came to your Weekend to Remember when you guys were here. Because you guys mentioned that you were part of Harvest, and they looked up the local Harvest, and they found us here. They had been church-hopping for about a year and really praying about finding a good, solid, Bible-preaching church. So they now have been committing, in our church, in such a great way. And what a coincidence that they are now placed in our small group!” I got to plant, and now they’re getting to fertilize and getting the harvest. What part are you doing?

And for those of you who are sitting on the sideline, waiting for everybody else to plant and to pick, lift up your eyes! We have need for small group teachers, we have need for youth workers, we have need for children’s ministry people. You saw the testimony of the Kretchmers. They are seeing the fields are white unto harvest, not just inside the walls of the church, but outside!

And that’s why we have to understand this. More research was done and we saw this: it says, “I have a personal responsibility to share my religious beliefs about Jesus Christ with non-Christians.” So the question was asked, “Do you strongly agree or disagree with that statement?” Over half of the people said, “Yeah, I strongly agree.” Well-done, 55%! The other 45% still do not understand the mission that God has them on! And so, if you don’t understand—it is not only your personal responsibility, it is a weighty responsibility, it’s the only reason you’re still here—you need to get on mission.

Here’s another statement (“Do you agree or disagree?”): “I feel comfortable that I can share my belief in Christ with someone else effectively.” Not as strong in that, but still, almost three-quarters of the people said, “I could probably stumble my way through a presentation of the gospel and tell people that I know Jesus died on a cross, in my place—as a substitute for my sin. God is holy, Christ is Savior, man is sinful, repent and believe! By the way, I just gave you the outline of the gospel. If you don’t know that, you got to get it down so that you’re in the “strongly agree” category: “I could share my faith with somebody and tell my story.”

But then, notice this: Agree or disagree: “In the last six months I have invited an unchurched person to attend a church service or some other program at my church.” Half of those people had not invited a single individual to hear the gospel in the context of a local church. That’s just the baby step, to gulp hard enough, and even to let them know, “There’s a church in town that might be able to help you with your thing,” much less go beyond that and share your faith, and share your story.

We’ve got to:

 

4. Tell our story. (v. 28-30, 41-42)

 

Look down here at verse 39: “Many Samaritans from [the] town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me all that I ever did.’”  Notice what her story was: she shared the most shameful parts of her life, as part of her story. It means she had told them all that she had done in rebellion to God. And then, do you know what she did? She told them all that Jesus had done to cover all that she had ever done. That’s our story! We tell our story; we tell His story.

And notice the result, verse 40: “So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word [His story]. [And] 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.’”

Listen! He didn’t come to be a personal life-coach. He didn’t come to be a financial counselor. He didn’t come to be a marriage counselor. He came to be a Savior! He didn’t come to give you good advice; He gave good news—that His work on the cross was sufficient to save those that were destined to an eternity in hell. Tell your story. Lift up your eyes.

And let me invite you to do this: would you just stand with me right now? Heads bowed, eyes closed, nobody looking around. My prayer is that God would bring to mind faces and names of people in your circle of influence—in the traffic patterns of your life. Lift up your eyes. Do you see? Do you see their faces? Maybe some of those people actually live in your homes; they’re immediate family members. Parents need to go to children, share the gospel. For some of you it’s extended family. For some of you it’s classmates or teammates, work associates. For some of you it’s people in the neighborhood. Do you see them? Lift up your eyes! What part are you playing in reducing the pagan population of Michiana? It’s not enough to adorn the gospel. We have to share the gospel.

Father, I pray for each person here that’s thinking of other people that are not here. God, would You put on our hearts the responsibility, the weighty responsibility, of being on mission with You? And God, it’s hard work! We need help! So we lift up our eyes, vertically first, and then missionally—for the help that we need. Remind us of the truth of the gospel. Refresh that in us each day, we pray in Jesus’ Name. Amen.