The Urgency of Eternal Salvation

they take your seat. In this gathering. My name is Lonell Dawson Williams. I'm the executive pastor here at twenty eight nineteen Church. Thank you God, be with glory. Grateful to be in the room today as we continue in this amazing series. just believing that God has something special for us on today. I really want to just jump right into the worord. I don't want to waste any time. I believe the first gathering We saw and experience the fruit of the work. and so I just I don't want to belabor the point. I want God to be God. And so if you can and I want you to open up your Bibles to the book of John, the book of John, the book of John. We're gonna go to chapter number four We're gonna shout out Pastor Philip, Miss Lina while we turn our lead pastors here in this house. Oh man He and I were texting early this morning as he was traveling and you know just He just I'm praying for you. I know God's gonna to do an amazing thing. And my response to him was him, we proclaim. That's it. And we just believe God has something special to all of our digital disciples online in the chat, we thank you, we appreciate you. You are a part of our family. You may be in different parts of the world, but you are still a part of this house and so for that We celebrate you on this morning and to those who are in the room who do not believe yet I said yet, not at all, but yet. We are of the belief that you can belong before you believe. you can be in this room and learn. And when the Lord pricks your heart and you are ready to take that walk, we are here with you. John chapter four, we're going to actually walk through the majority of the entire chapter, but for the purposes of this reading, we are going to actually start with verse number twenty nine and verse thirty, verse twenty nine and verse thirty. And it reads Come see a man who told me all that I ever did canan this Be the Christ They went out of the town And we're coming to him O more time Come see a man who told me all that I ever did Can this be? The Christ If I could pin a title upon this message, I would call it runun and tell that Run and tell that. When I was a child, it was often that I would find myself into all types of wonderful things. I loveved building Legos as a child. I remember reading goosebump books as a child. How many people remember goosebumps I'm that old. my goodness. All right. Goosebumps, I remembember something called a tamagotchi. Anbody remember tamagotchi? My son is ten, he got a tamagotchi for Christmas. I said, I remember this.. My tamagotchi always died for some reason, but nevertheless. But for me, one of the most exciting things we would do was when we would have to go to the store to go shopp. I told the story earlier in the first gathering about when I take my children shopping, but when my mama used to take me shopping, she would say the same thing that I say to my children when I go shopping. We would pull up to the store no matter where it was. and she would always turn around and she would look over her shoulder and she would say these words and maybe your mama said it to you, I don't know about you, but my mama said it to me, when we get up in this store Don't ask for nothing D matter fact, don't even touch nothing, right? Don't touch a thing. So we would get into the store and we would walk down the aisles and I always found a way, found a way to make my way to the toy section. and I would be excited about all the new Legos that I would see and all the new toys and all the big spider Mans and jokers that were out there. And I remember very vividly going into these aisles and when I would find something that I would love, I would go back and run to my mother. and I would say, Mama, mama, mama, you gott to come see, come see what I found. come see what I found. and I would drag her along with me to make it to the aisle to point to the thing that I loved most the thing that I wanted her to buy and she would look at it and say, Ohh, that's nice, but we're not buying that today because I told you when we came in here, don't touch nothing. this zeal that I had as a child, this excitement that I had as a child. It was everything that I loved be mound and found in that one moment. And then something happened I got older Bill started coming Life started lifeening Somewhere between being a kid You could not wait to show my mother what it was that I wanted her to buy. beinging a grown up too bothered to look Something died on the inside You see, the child had a burden to show And the grown up enemy developed a preference And see, this is the thing About the Wd of God Many of us have lost the desire that we once had when we first came into the faith See, most of us didn't even notice that it was dying We didn't wake up one morning and say, Oh my God, it's gone. No, what happened was we didn't even lose our voice. We lost our urgency Nobody had to teach you how to share the good news They had to teach you how to sit on it All right, that's okay You see, we just we get busy We get sophisticated. we got careful, we got respectable. We didn't decide to stop caring. We just stopped getting interrupted. See, lostess stopped being an emergency and became a category And this, my brothers and sisters is what we have learned. We've learned to keep our faith private and we've called it wisdom. We've learned how to be moved by the worship and muted in our witness. We call it being private and heaven calls it being quiet. A faith that only moves you in the room but never moves you towards the loss has just gotten too comfortable We have traded a burden for the loss, for the preference of being comfortable. A burden makes you move. preference makes you comfortable Check which one you've got I'll show it in your week. I'll show it in how you spend your time. I'll show it the way in which you gauge and worship. I'll show you based on your life, what matters more Your preference O Jesus There was a season in our hearts when we would burn for the losts. That moment when we first came into the faith and everything was about Jesus and we had the Jesus bump our sticker and we carried our Bible everywhere and we spread the gospel to anybody who would listen, but over Time That birdie. Burning heart Kind of fizzle out And now the only time when our hearts burn is when we show up late to the gathering and we have to sit in overflow. Yep O hearts used to burn for the losts, but now they burn when we realize how long the line is. and so we turn back around and say, I can watch it on YouTube. Our hearts used to burn when we were online watching because we aren't close, but we knew that we had to be tuned into the proclamation. But now it burns when you see the pastor Philip is no longer preaching in this season. Well, you know, passes on sabbatical, so I'm gonna be on Sabbatical too, you know, you know See, that is the problem We have lost burden There was a day when we were excited to be saved and the question is not just now are you saved? The question is, who did your salvation send you to And this story, I believe will help us to really understand the power of the words comeome see. Now listen to me, you do not have to be perfect to win the loss. but somebody stays lost if you stay quiet You get nothing else from the message. That is the thesis. And John makes that point by putting the message in unlikely hands Not a pastor not a scholar, not a theologian, not somebody that is polished, not someone who has platformed or prepared, a woman with a complicated story carrying a fresh encounter running back to the very people who knew all about her shame saying Come see a man So before we get to Sameria, my prayer is that by the end of this message, your heart has been pricked to seek after the loss telling the truth of who you really are See, faith that still runs when it finds something good is great. But love that cannot watch people say thirsty while you know where the water is John in the book of John, he is the son of Zeepede. He is the one in which Jesus loved. and He was a fisherman in one season. And he is the one who wrote in the gospel about the Christological nature of who Christ is. It is one of the few and only times where Jesus actually calls himself the Messiah, He's referenced in the text as such. And so this is a very peculiar message that we are getting ready to read. Watch what happens in verse number three. If you open up your Bibles, it says And he left Judea and departed again for Galilee And he had to pass. through some area You see, that's a very interesting component because you know John was very intentional in his writing That was not the only way to get From Judea to Galilee. You see, Judea is here. Samaria is here, Galilee is here. and the Jordan River along the right side of the territories. The problem is that the Jews and the Samarians, they had an issue. There was conflict. there was historical conflict. The Jews were actually taught to despise those of Samaria. And so this tension was very unique. And so it is very peculiar that Jesus Godad to walk through. You see, he didn't really have to. He could have taken an alternative route but he chose To do it The Saranans were not just strangers. They were people the Jews hated And this is thing. When you read, he had to, I don't want you to think of it as a shortcut He did not have to pass through Samaria to get to Galilee, but he did have to pass through Samaria to get to her He didn't have to stumble onto her. He didn't bump into her. He arranged his steps around the fact that she needed him more than he needed her You see, the text does not say Jesus chose to It says he had to He's had to does everything When heaven puts a had to on the name of Jesus, you got to be glad. Because if he had to, that means he didn't have to try to. that means he didn't have to think about it, He had to. And when Jesus decides that he has to do something, things have got to move Shame has to move. When Jesus says He has to, isolation has to move. When Jesus says He has to labels have to move. When Jesus says he has to, your self esteem has to move. when Jesus says He has to place. no longer hide you. Be mercy H an appointment Jesus took the road everybody avoided He entered the region that everybody despised and setat at a well to wait And here it is a woman at the well who thought she was coming for water And Jesus knew that she was coming for salvation See, she came to the well for water But heaven knew The sheep was thirsty for a rescue Could it be that the place people avoid may be the very place that Jesus appoints? You see, your shame may now where to find you But so does Jesus See, some of us thought that the place of our shame was proof God had left us Yeah, can I ask you something? What if the place we thought disqualified us was the place that Jesus chose for the meeting All right, that's okay, That's okay. Not the cleaned up version of our lives The messter version, the one we don't like to tell people about. the one that we write in our journal and lock away and hope nobody reads, the one that we put in the closet and lock the door, The real us The triflin us, the cussin us Oh, okay, so yall don't cast. Allright, let's find another The wh The place shame used as evidence against her And Jesus turned and evidence into the moment of his pursuit. So let's look at the text. Let's look at the text The text says this It says in the sixth My goodness In the sixth hour. That's new That's twel o'lock. That's not a normal hour to draw water If you dw water either in the beginning of the day when it's cool, or in the evening when it's cool, because at twelve o'clock you would be there by yourself Normally, women gather together in the morning and in the evening. You take up the water from the well, you carry it back to your home, you drink it, and then by the end of the day, you go back and you get the rest This is the thing Why would she go to the wh at twelve o'clock The woman potentially was organizing her entire day to avoid people Yeah. see, when you have been hurt long enough, you build a life around isolation You move at the safest hour You take the quietest route. You late, but you leave out early. See, near people without ever being known by people. See you can be surrounded by people and still be hiding Shame does not always look like rebellion. Sometimes shame looks like scheduling Avoidance is what people call wisdom when it has not been healed yet And see, avoidance may protect you from people, but it also can imprison you from your purpose All right. And some of us have learned how to do church the same way. You arrive just late enough so nobody can talk to you You get out early just enough so nobody can touch you. Avoiding the chat online. you go to overflow on purpose so you don't have to be in the room. You take a safe distance. you say stuff like, I live twenty minutes away. so you know, it's raining so I'm gonna just watch it online I live in Union City and I'm a digital disciple. No, youre just at home Now you'll drive an hour and a half to get to a football game, but you refuse Okay, that's not y'all. Praise God for you being in the room. But for y'all, online, Now you live up the street. You right across the street from Greenbar, talkking about, I can't make it. Come on I watch this, I'm not minimizing what happened to her. But watchays shame does not just wound you. shame starts managing you When you leave the house, to avoid Which room should I go into? Which conversation should I try to avoid? Which invitation should I accept? Which version of yourself should show up in the conversation? That is why she came in noon. See, noon is not just the time of the day. Noon is what happens when pain becomes a pattern So Jesus does not just come to forgive her past, He comes to interrupt the system her past created. And we're not just asking God to heal what happened. We need God to confront what we built because of what happened See, see see, see, you can be in the room and still be at the well All right You can be known and you can know where the water is and still arrange your life around hiding. See, the wellle is her hiding place Now watch that hiding place, become her sending place Whatould you look at the text verse number seven. So a woman from Samaria came down to draw water and Jesus said to her, Give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city for food. And the Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, a Jew? remember they did not like each other, asked for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans And Jesus said in verse number ten, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him. And he would have given you living water. Oah. The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw the water with and the well is deep Where do you get living water from? Now watch this. She is being literal The well is one hundred feet deep, no rope, no bucket. And she's like, well, how are you gonna get water out? Because she is thinking about the well, but he is talking about a spring She is thinking, can you make this need to get water daily better? Jesus is saying, I came to deal with why you keep having to come back to the world in the first place See, there's a difference between relief and rescue. Relief helps you survive the cycle. Rescue break you. Yeah A refresh a well refreshes you for a moment, a spring sustains you for within The well makes you draw, you carry, you run out, you go back to the well, you try to get more water. The water Jesus gives what's inside of you He says a spring of water Welling up his eternal life He does not offer a deeper bucket. He offers himself And that is the danger. of an untreated heart See, when you're thirsty If the source is wrong, the cycle will continue When I was in college, we used to use the term, I know I'm old, but we used to say that people are thirsty. If they consistently ran after somebody they didn't want them anymore. Y say he used be like, yeah, you thirsty dog. You know I remember one time my home boy he was so thirsty. I got a bottle of water. I put on the table. I said, you good 'cause Doc, you're thirsty. Lit did know they was talking about me, but nevermind. I'll just play it. All right. listen, listen, listen.. So here's the thing, she was offering a drink to the only one God who could end all of her thirst he first sends you back to what disappointed you I'm gonna say that again. Thirst will send you back to the thing that disappointed you See, thirst has a memory. And if Jesus does not heal it, it will keep driving you backwards Back to what damaged you. sameame past, same pattern, same relationship, same bed, same vice, same challenges, same bucket, same disappointment. We have all been lowering our buckets Somewhere and would keep pulling up empty And some of us are not tired because life is hard We're tired because the source is wrong And Jesus did not come to decorate your well. He came to become the spring from within Look at what the Bible says in verse number thirteen says Jesus said to her, Eone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give to him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of living water welling up from eternal life. And the woman said to himim, Sir Give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw more water. Look at verse number sixteen. And Jesus said to her, Go call your husbands and come here. Wait a minute now, wait a minute Wait a second, bro. Well that jumps real fast, all right. See, if I'm hard, me person, me personally, if I'm hurard, I like Jesus better when we was talking about water I like the blessing of Jesus, you know, Rin down man. I like that version of Jesus. Give me that Jesus who loves to give gifts and makes promises and is like a geniie that I can rub on and I can get anything I want. Give me that Jesus, but we love the blessing Jesus until Jesus becomes a surgeon Jesus Everybody wants the gift until he puts his finger in the wound Everybody wants living water until he says, go call your husband Yeah see, grace will hold you, but grace will never lie to you. Jesus loves you too much to hydrate a lote So she reaches for water and he reaches for the truth. He's not asking because he lacks information. He is cognizant enough to know that she actually has had more husbands than that. He's seeking out her honesty. He already knew the five husbands that she had had. He already knew that the man she was with right now. This is not an interrogation. It was an invitation. Living water brings the hidden places out to light And some of us on Jesus to fill our bucket Well, we keep editing the story See, we want the gift But we don't want the truth You want the release But we don't want the honesty. Jesus loves you too much to bless the edited version of your life See, some of us Don't want to tell the truth and shame the devil, as my grandma used to say We don't want to tell who we really are What we've really done who we have really been around But the truth I'll set you free. Look at verse number seventeen, the woman answered to him, I have no husband. She said, Wait a minute. So he brings her to the one sentence she can finally tell the truth about. I have no husband And watch the mercy. He does not crush her with the truth. He meets her in it. He says, you're right. You know One honest sentence in the presence of Jesus can become the doorway to a new life Look what he says, He says, for you have five husbands And the one you with now is not even your husband What you have said is very true Now slow down. Wait a second now. I've been reading this text my whole life And I'm like, wait a minute. Five husbands See, naturally we assume based on our own cultural context that that means she had five affairs The text never says that The text gives us no permission to turn her into a punching bag. nor to scandalize her story What if five husbands meant five funerals What if five husbands meant five moments of abandonment Because in that time a woman couldnot leave a man and the man had to leave the woman Five times somebody walked away See, the town counted her husbands and Jesus counted her wounds See, we know enough to know her life was broken, but not enough to pretend like we knew her And isn't it like people to know just enough about your story to judge you, but not enough to understand what happened to you And that's why you can't judge people's praise use you don't know the hell it took to even walk into these doors. You don't know what they've been through, what their week look like, The arguments that they had, the depression that they have to fight, the moments of suicide The baby daddies and baby mamas, husbands and wives and cousins, money challenges, life challenges, the fact that they are in the room Got a tear coming down their eyes. It's enough people often know people often know your facts but do not understand your fractures. Say a fracture,'s a very small, small breke Oftentimes people with fractures don't even have to wear a cast That does not mean it doesn't hurt That's another sermon for another do. But Jesus does. And that's the point The town knew enough to whisper about her. Jesus knew enough to heal her See, they knew her reputation, but Jesus knew her wound and they labeled her Jesus loved her. They tried to avoid her, but Jesus sat and waited on her. Everybody who had something to say about her story was hiding one of their own See, that's why you never throw rocks at a glasshouse And that is how gossip works. It spins your secrets to cover its own Now watch this. twwice in three verses Jesus proclaims and professes that she's telling the truth. He says, you're right. What you have said is true He named the worst parts of her story And he attached shame to none of them See, he can know all of it and still not leave you. He can touch the deepest wounds and not crush you. Tell the truth, Still be full of grace So so she does what we do when Jesus gets too close She reaches for religious debates. Look at the verse in nineteen, The woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet, ourur fathers. we worshiped on the mountains, But you say Jerusalem is the place. In other words, yeah, can we talk about worship and not my wounds I mean, can we talk about anything else about what my life and my past has been Before you judge her We do the same thing We would rather debate worship than surrender to the wound It iss called intellectual deflection. What about them? Well, what about her Well did you see what they did? Well, at least I'm not that. At least I didn't do this At least my children don't act like that. Anything that keeps Jesus from touching the place, We have learned to protect But she does not run She leans in to see and watch what happens in verse number twenty five. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming. The Messiah is coming. He who is called Christ, when he comes, he will tell me all things. And then Jesus says to her, I who speak to you am he That is the clearest revelation of Jesus professing that He is the Messiah He tells this to the person with the messiest resume You see, Anaell in Sameria, a place he's not supposed to be. to a woman with five husbands and no name in the text Not because she's qualified, but because he chose her And Jesus is still choosing the unqualified The unlikely, still sitting in the heat for the one everybody keeps writing off He did not expose her to shame her. He exposed her to sin her. See, exposure in the hand of Jesus is not punishment is preparation You see, a good doctor does not show you the skin on your body to humiliate you He shows you the scan because he found the thing that he can treat Five husbands was not a verdict. It was a diagnosis. And the patient who walks out healed becomes the loudest voice in the waiting room. Y'all missed it. That's okay. That's okay. So watch this, verse number twenty eight twenty nine. So the woman left her water jar and went away in the town and said to the people, comeome see a man who told me all that I ever did, Can this be the grist? This is all amazing Did you see what she says? She left her water jar. The jar was the whole reason for her to be there at noon Her routine proof that she came empty. And John says that she left it, but why did she leave it? says she came carrying a jar, but she left carrying a witness See, the jar stayed because the thirst changed Somehing things only have power because you still thirsty The woman changed. She came with a container and left with a calling. She came with shame and she left with a shout. She came alone and went back to be a witness. Isn't that how salvation works? See, you came in this church one way But you left out another way. You came in with carrying sin and now you walk out professing and proclaiming that he died on the cross for your sins. She didn't drop the jar because she forgot it She dropped the jar because she outgrew it See, when and if you have an authentic encounter with Jesus There are some things. You just gota drop them And watch this, watch where she runs The woman who came to avoid the town now runs right back into it I mean, this is interesting. Listen to what she says. Come see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? Come see. Not a sermon Not an argument See, evangelism is not making yourself impressive, it's making Jesus visible. Not a doctrine She had down cold, an invitation built on the one life she had It became a door And it was not a debate And look at what she leades with, not the miracle Not his teaching. the very thing she came at noon to hide, He told me everything I ever did She points people to him using the thing that she was hiding She did not wait for a new life to witness I'm coming down your street. just wait one second. I'm coming, I'm coming. She witnessed from the old one Some of us have been waiting for a testimony that sounds cleaner But God may want to use the one that still has smoke on it The thing you're trying to hide may be the very thing God wants to turn into a doorway for somebody else See see, see, you used to be toe up from the floor Now you saved You used to be pretentious and now you're reserved. You used to cuss up a storm and now you pray down heavens. She did not get a new platform. She redirected the on she already had And look at how it is Can this be the Christ a question, not a statement She still didn't have the right answer She had an encounter Not a sermon, not a story person to point to And that was enough for an open door She dropped the jar that carried her shain, and some of us are still carrying ours, hoping that Jesus would touch you but not send you. Fel you but not make you visible. But what if the thing he healed in private is the very thing he wants to use in public Yeah, ye, yeah, yeah. And herear, me, you have been doing this longer than you can think. You are not deciding whether to witness, you are deciding what to witness for See, silence is still a sermon. It just preaches something. Ese the matter's more Soee you cannot receive the spring as still cling to the jar. That is like walking out of a prison but refusing to take off the prison uniform. See, freedom will feel strange when bonded is the only outfit you know Say it again Freedom will feel strange when bondage is the only outfit you know The door is open. The sentence is over the blood on Calvary covered the cost and the record has been covered, but you are still dressed like the place Jesus delivered you from She left the jar because she was no longer dressed by her shame. And when your thirst change, grip has to change too At some point The thing that fills you has to cost you the thing that you were hiding You see, she dropped her cover She went right back into town. Can I ask you something? What are you still holding on to that keeps you quiet She ran into town like a woman on fire And I don't want you to rush past the cost. They received an invitation from a person they reduce to her reputation And here is the miracle of verse number thirty. Look what it says They went out of town and we're coming to him. A whole town got up and followed a woman used they used to whisper about N because of her theological prowess, because she was different And they could not explain it See, the change in her was the argument And this is the beauty of it all. You see this, in verse number thirty one, thirty one, Wash, I'm job, I job on job I on job. I want to this. I want you to go to verse number thirty nine. Go to verse number thirty nine He says, many Samaritans from the town believed in him Because of the woman's testimony You don't miss that The same town They judged her are now saved because of her Jesus saidior for two days, and many more believe because of hisis word. And we have heard ourselves. and they said, we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world By the time Jesus was done, the whole town was saved And the text names the exact line that did it The embarrassing one. He told me all that I ever did They all knew her story And that is what makes the testimony dangerous. She's not speaking to strangers to impress them with a polish version. She's speaking to people who know too much They know the names and the whispers and the patterns and the noon walks and they knew all about her. and they said to themselves I know a man becausecause she said, come see So when she says, He knows everything about me, they knew exactly what the cost was Her scandal became the door that everybody in town walked through Her worst chapter in her life became the town's first chapter Now you just watched the most unlikely town in the Bible get saved Now I want you to hear what it actually did I'm gonna free you. We think if we open our mouths, we have to carry the whole miracle We have to be able to debate every objection to faith. We have to debate every doctrinal concern, that every wound and every hypocrisy and every unbelief, it all has to surrender to one conversation No wonder we say quiet, we gave ourselves a job that Jesus never assigned. You think the win is the conversation. It's not. Nobody asked you to close the deal. They asked you to open the door. Stop trying to save them. He saves you point You are the cup. You were never meant to be the cure. Your job is to carry the water to the thirsty. It was never your job to be the water You ain't gotta be impressive. You don't have to be brilliant. You don't have to know the Nice Ced. You don't have to know the apostles Ced. You don't need to know schatology or numerology. The only thing you have to do ay, come see a man. Just carry what you have received. See, cups do not heal anyone Cuffs make the water available So here's the thing, you bring the invitation and Jesus does the work. Open your mouth, He opens their heart. You point to the well and he makes the spring. And evangelism is not just you doing God's job, it is you joining with what the Spirit is already doing You gotta get that weight off your back. Now he came looking and she was mat. And they did it for themselves. You do not find him in a vacuum. You yourselves were changed because somebody said to you, come see A grandmother, a mother, a friend, a cousin, you saw something on social media, maybe on YouTube or Instagram. and immediately your heart was pricked And you said, I want to see for myself What it is that God is doing Can I be honest with y'all about something Me personally, I'd like to eat. Thank you. I do, I like to eat. But I also love to cook. If you've ever had my double crusted slap your mom own peach cobbler, you would understand why I say that. Yes, I'm serious. It's amazing I can't do that. Somebody got my phone number. I said, What in the world? How do you get my number? Anyway? But this is the thing Recently, I was on TikTok and a young lady, she was online and she talked about a restaurant that was near the office. And so I was like, okay, cool. And she opened up the plate. she was like, o, look at this. This is the turkey wings and the ribs. And I was like, o, this looks good. And by the end of the video, she like, you know, you have the plastic fork. It was like bitin. L she beat into the fork. I that's how I'm serious and I'm gonna put the video up on my social media. Y'all gonna to see if yourself. I was like, oh my gosh, like that looks good. And I was like, I'm gonna share this with the team. So I sharered it with a few of the staff members. and I was like, you know what? And they only open like when Thursday through Sundays and I was like, oh yeah, we' gonna go there. Thursday. I'm going to today. so I went for myself and I ordered the food and it was crazy because the food looked exactly like the video. You know what I'm saying? You know like sometimes you see commercials and the burger don't look like the burger when you get it I don't know what I'm talking about but the ribs look like the ribs, right? And they taste so I mean, they it was so good. and got the peach cobbler. It wasn't good as my peach cobbler. but it was I got the peach cobbler. I know, ' if you go and it's nasty, I don't want what you calling me. But I got the mac and cheese, I got the collard greens. I saw somebody get rib tips, somebody got the turkey wes, got Every, it was so good. And the minute it was done and I got on so meet I was like, y'all gotta try this food is so good in that place So quickly just got an unpaid missionary Nobody asked me But it was so good that I picked up my phone. And I said, you gott to come check this place out Yep. See, when you love something, the embarrassment evaporates Yep. becausecause you are not shy. You witness all day long. You spend the confidence that you have on restaurants and on vacations and on opinions, and then you get silent at your own desk The problem was never your confidence. The problem was the priority We are not careful. we are not quiet. We are curated. We are not afraid to recommend what we love We are afraid to reveal who we love Let somebody take you to a brunch spot that's good you'll be in the group chat immediately. Let there be a sales of Banana Republic or J crerew. You'll be the first one or Tar, wherever you want to go, whatever your speed is. You be the first one to say you got they got twenty five percent off today But you won't say come to church So I'm gonna make a plane for you This is the thing that we have to recognize The way that you live your life is a testimony. Where you go What you do how you show up What you post? See, we're the type of people where we would sit there and we would take a picture or have someone take a picture for us, excuse me. And we'd be like, oh, you gott to get right. So they'll take thirty pictures,ero point five, one percent, up top, down low, horizontal, vertical, go ahead and then you get it in the app and you got to retouch it to make sure that it's perfect, and then we'll post it. We'll think about the captions. we'll think about the lighting, we'll think about the hashtags. We'll think about the emojis. We'll think about all of that but refuse to post about God What if the person at two AM who's contemplating suicide comes across your feed T your words Be the words to change their life What about when you're rolling down the street Rlling down the street at my six phone. Nope. See, I'm for confence, that's all good. Pisten What are you listening to H What are you listening to I know some of' be hless in a sexy raid, but that's okay Now come on, don't sit here and play me like you don't know You still be working out with fear and trembling. I know your salvation iss still being worked out. It's okay Now you'd be rolling down the street, music loud as God knows what I'm old. I'd be like tin that music now, you know, you don don't nobody need to hear what you got going on up in there But why aren't you bumping worship music? Why aren't you when you ride drive down the street and your windows are down and people look over confused because you're in a full bone brace. You're sing it for Christ alone Why are you not listening to music that saturates your soul See, that's a witness. How about when you show up to work on Tuesday See, this is the thing. Your coworkers believe the Tuesday you more than the Sunday you Let me break it down for you. See, how you show up on Tuesday is really what they're looking at. I don't care if the Bible is on your cubicle desk But see, if Suzie or Sally comeing your way and you cs her out, that right there is proof that God is still working on you. But your witness I We were out of town recently for my son's birthday. We went overseas for his birthday. and we were inside of the hotel. We had to get an extra suitcase to get some stuff. and we were moving things around and putting clothes away because you know we had to get it under a certain amount of weight. And all of a sudden, as I went out to go get the taxi so that we could can get to the airport because we were late, these two girls came up to my wife and they saw a shirt and a hoodie and they said, Ecuse me Do you go to twenty eight, nineteen Now mind you, we are literally thirteen hours away She said, I'm an Ethiopian. He bragged youew She said, I watch twenty eight nineteen and it's changed my life We went to another church in this foreign country A woman comes up to me. She says, Oh my God twenty eight nineteen. I watch you guys after this gathering. My life is changing. I even bought the book. My life is changing because of the work of what you guys are doing In a foreign land See what you wear, how you move, how you think, how you talk, how you show up, it matters Digital disciples, how you respond in the chat It matters How'd you serve the community It Matters Serving twenty five is in September, I believe. July, than you. In July, theyre good of tunoner It matters. You don't need a platform to tell people about Jesus You just need to open your mouth Your life It is the loudest testimony one could ever have I want you to realize something I'm not here to continue I'm here to wake you up When you look at the loss Does it do anything to move you Cooworker Cousin. The person spots you at the gym The mail lady who drops off your mail The neighbor who invites you over for the barbecue during the summer person at the pool Lady at the cash register What is stopping you fromr saying, come see. Is it our pride? Is it our intellect? Is it our insecurities But what if Jesus chose not to save you because he was insecure Where would we be So what will move you? What is stopping you from closing your mouth Your embarrassment is not bigger It's someone else's forever See, this is the thing When I was growing up, used to hear these stories about hell and hell is real and you better get right. And I used to be so scared So my initial encounter with Christ for salvation was the fear of actually going to hell It was not based on the love that I have for him and what he did for me, rightight So in theological language, there was this almost shift in culture where we went from hell and damnation to prosperity So now Jesus is going pay my rent. He's gonna give me everything I want. Just reach up and grab it But then we forgot that when this life is over There is another part to this story The Bible is real The Revelation is real The Bible says that the dead in Christ arise, and those who are behind H as he rides on his horse willll come back and there will be a new heaven and a new earth and that those who do not believe will be thrown into the lake of fire for eternal damnation I know you care about the person with your last name. Do you care about the person walking down the street Does your heart break person. doesn' even realize that they're lost Am it truly Does your heart break for them Or is it just I made it Ss all that matters Why aren't you inviting in the church I mean you come Some of you have room in your car and refuse to pick up the phone There is literally somebody's name in your phone right now That's going to hell Nowot fact to your phone now Pull it out Now if you don't want to, you' have to a pill G to your contacts I'm praying for all the green bubbles, but u Go to your contacts real quick, go to your contacts And just scroll through your contacts. I see a name, just just one name You begin to count how many of them that you know for a fact don't know Jesus You're willing to carry them around in your pocket but refused to introduce them to the king Ten twenty Thirty homeomegirls and homeboys, cousins and friends, parents You have them literally And your phone And you won't even say see Come see a man that changed And maybe this isn't maybe everybody in your phone is saved, right? Maybe your whole iPhone or Android phone is just anointed with God's anointed grace There are billions of people in the world who don't know Jesus. And if you don't believe me Watch this Do you believe in Jesus Christ money Jes? I know he I cut it a long time ago. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Are you recording right now? Yeah, I'm going around asking people if they believe in Jesus I gotta tell you if you stop recording. Okay. Do you believe in Jesus Christ So I used to be a big church person. justust recently, I don't know anymore. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know what to believe lot to say. Do You guys believe in Jesus? It's a very complicated question. I don't plan on answering for. Do you guys believe in Jesus O ne yes. Do you believe in Jesus Do you believe in Jesus Christ Do you believe in Jesus Christ Do you guys believe in Jesus Christ? No No Do you guys believe in Jesus? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? No. Do you guys believe in Jesus Christ? Oh you answer the that question. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? No Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Do you guys believe in Jesus? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? I actually do not.. Excuse me. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Do you guys believe in Jesus Christ? Yes, I know. D you? He's my Savior. No. We celebrate the end We failed to count twenty people who said no. Young and old Sit no We just saw a video of twenty people that will go to hell See I'm not gonna sugar coat. I'm not trying to sanitize it with just fluffy language. We just saw all those people who said no who are on their way to hell And on phones, we could just, Ohh, that's crazy. Oh yeah, we just go to keep going, but that guy's page is filled Hundreds of people You don't believe But you do You're the door You are the door I don't know how to push this any harder. You are the door to somebody's life changing It is malpractice to hold on to Jesus. give him to others Who ined your neighborhood needs to hear about Christ. Who on your job needs to hear about Christ? Who at the gym needs to hear about Christ And maybe you're like, I'm too embarrassed. Come see I don't know what to say. Come see What' you doing today? Come to church maail lady in our office complex every time I see her. I said, you come to church today. I'm coming, I'm gonna be there and I'll be there one day Every time, She thinks I'm just being funny, but she doesn't realize that the lower plac her on my heart. Because I don't want her to deliver the mail to me And then death delivered to the hands of Satan And maybe there's somebody in this room in this moment, you don't even realize it, but somebody said, C see. and you are now in this room having this conversation And your heart has been pricked by the simple fact that someone who brought you, you see their life chang and here you are, your life changing in real time. And maybe you didn't even realize it, but Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart. And the voice in your ear is not Satan telling you don't do it. It is Jesus saying, come All you who are weary G have you laated? you R You have been running from Jesus for far too long You have been fighting an uphill battle of doing life your way. And Jesus has brought you in here to give you from a well that will never run dry, to give you what He says is eternal life Do not miss the opportunity to be in this presence. You do not have to be perfect. If we got nothing from this story Nothing about you has to be perfect. Nothing about you has to be absolutely right. 'acause I promise you just because you say yes does not mean all of a sudden you're gonna be holy It's called sanctification. It is a continual process. It is going before the Lord. It is repenting daily. It is saying, Lord, how must I be? and how can I be? It is having clean hands and a pure heart. Who can have sin, the Lord But it starts Yes It started with someone saying Come see See, we're not preaching this message for this series, the Fuit that Remains, just so that we can have people in church during the summer We're okay. Because even though We may count how many people come into the room Heaven doesn't count Having text names Because the Bible says that your name shall be written in the Lamb's book of life And when that day comes, I want your name Be next to mine And next to theirs. and next to theirs. So everybody in the room. If you feel like the Lord brought you in here and set you up for a holy encounter too experience His grace and His mercy andis love for you to say and recognize that he died on the cross for your sins, that He has come and that He will return and that you no longer want to have this lack of assurance, but you want blessed with assurance that Jesus assures. If you know for a fact that you are a sinner that is saved by grace, still being worked out, still being perfected But you say, Lord, I no longer want to run. I want to follow you. If I'm talking to you, raise your hand right now I see you, I see you, I see. I see you, I see you. I see you. God bless you. I see you, I see you. I see you. God bless you. Halleljah. The Bible says that just some one, the angels rejoice So we had more than one, so heaven is rejoicing and so should you Listen, Ian to give you some clear instructions and I want to make sure we do this. A every single gathering, if you have just been pricked by your heart to say, I wantna know more, there's a tent right outside of this door. It's a black tent. you can go right up to it, you'll get a Bible, you'll get a bag with instructions and directions on what to do next. The goal is for you to keep coming back Six months, That's all it takes. You give Jesus six months and I promise you, your life will change. It will not be perfect, but it will be better. You walk out that tent, you go right to that black tent, you get the information that you need. and from there, I want to see you next Sunday. I want this whole church to be filled from room to room, peew to pew seat to seat, not because we want butts in the seat, but because we want people in If you've been blessed by the word, put your hands together