I think you'd agree with me there are few places in Scripture where Jesus makes the first move. In fact, this is almost one of the very few places where Jesus makes the first move. Often through Scripture people are coming to Jesus. The chapter just before this is a very famous person, Nicodemus. Remember Nicodemus? He comes to Jesus by night and basically says, what do I have to do to get saved? And we have the most quoted verse of scripture, John 3, 16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Many people, probably even in this room, would be very happy to share the gospel if someone came to you and asked. I hope that's true, by the way. If you're here this morning and you're not comfortable with that, you need to get comfortable with that. I believe, by the way, the Bible says for him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin. And I would challenge you that the Great Commission, going to all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, was not a command to pastors. It was a command to the church. All of us are to be sharing the gospel. In fact, I'm gonna make this point later on. We all talk about what we love. You know what our problem is in most churches? We love God in a different way than we love everything else. Because I promise you, we all talk about what we love. So why aren't we talking about Jesus? And yet we come to church and why do we sing? Oh, how I love Jesus. Really? You never talk about him, that's a shock. And so why is this so instructive? Because most people are not coming to us and say, hey, can you tell me what I have to do to get saved? If you're here this morning and you're a Christian and you don't know how to do that, you need to learn. But I would hope in an established church that most of you in this room would say, hey, if my coworker, if my neighbor came and knocked on my door in a panic and said, I have got to know how to be saved, I hope everyone in this room would say, absolutely, let me get my Bible. I'm gonna walk you through what you have to do to become a Christian. But how many of you have ever had that happen? Very rare. Most of us are gonna have to do this, what Jesus does in John four. We're gonna have to find ways to share the gospel with lost people. And that's why I think this is so important. I would challenge you that most of the churches in our circles would not be a hyper-Calvinist. A hyper-Calvinist just says the elect are gonna get saved. It's just gonna happen somehow. And so we would not say that's what we believe. We're not hyper-Calvinists. It is end up how we practice. Somehow they're gonna get saved. I don't really know how. I'm not really involved in it, but somehow, Lord, it's gonna happen. In doctrine, that's not where we are, but in practice, it is. Does it matter whether I share the gospel or not? Keep your finger here, but go over to Romans chapter 10. Just back up a few books. Romans chapter 10, let's read verse 14. Romans 10, verse 14. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. And then skip to verse 17. So then faith cometh by what? Hearing, and hearing by what? the Word of God. If you've done any evangelism, if you've tried to witness to your co-workers, your neighbors, if you've tried that at all, all of us in this room would know not everyone we witness to gets saved. I wish that was true. But not everyone we witness to gets saved. But would you also agree with me this morning? That according to this passage of Scripture, 100% of people who never hear the Gospel will never get saved. Would you agree with that this morning? That's what the text says. If they don't hear the Word of God, then they're not gonna go to heaven. And as much as I don't even fully understand this, the Bible's very clear, there is an eternal hell. And God describes hell as a place of eternal torment, a place you never get out of. As you drive home today and as you pull into your driveway, think about the neighbors on either side of you. Are you okay with them going to hell? If you go to lunch today and you sit in that restaurant and look around and think, how many of these people know Christ as their savior? I don't know your town, but I would just say most places I go, if I said, how many of you think 50% of the town you live in, if it ended today, 50% would die and go to hell? Almost everywhere I've been, now I'm in the deep south, I would say probably you still have a lot of people who say that, but are they really saved? How many of you are convinced, 50%? I'm gonna just tell you, I was in Edmonton, 1.3 million people, less than 10%. Are you okay with those people dying and going to hell? You do realize that the whole reason Jesus came was to seek and to save those who are lost. This is remembering, we celebrate this at Christmastime when the angels come to the shepherds, glory to God in the highest on earth, peace, goodwill to man, for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a what? A savior, which is who? Christ the Lord. By the way, are you glad you're saved this morning? And you know, I could be hit by a bus tomorrow, I'm waking up in heaven. I've told my, everyone who knows me well knows that when I have a funeral, they're gonna put my body and they're gonna put a fork in my hand on my chest. And I want everyone to walk by and go, what is up with the fork? Have you ever been over to someone's house, you have a great meal, and at the end of the meal they say, save your fork? What does that mean? There's dessert. I don't know about your house, we only have dessert when we have guests over. So I love it when I'm at someone's house and you finish the meal and say, hey, save your fork. I'm like, right on. There's dessert. And I want people walking by my casket going, what's up with the fork? There's dessert, he's in heaven. I'm so thankful, when I die, I'm going to heaven, but you know what? I want everyone else to go to heaven with me. And so does Jesus. And I would challenge you, as I travel America, when I pastored for 18 years in the same church, I didn't know what was going on out there. And I have, your pastor has given me carte blanche. He's not given me any inside information. He's letting me preach whatever I want. I would just challenge you, but in many churches I'm at, they're not caring about lost people. New Christians do this intuitively. When someone gets saved, they want all their friends to get saved. They go home at Thanksgiving and think the whole family's gonna get saved. And if you did this, you know what happened after that, right? Your family thought you just joined a cult. In fact, I had one guy got saved, he went home and I literally told his family, you're not my family anymore, I have a church family. I'm like, oh, that's a wrong approach. That is not the right way to do that. That's high on the weirdo meter, all right? Let's not do that. But when's the last time you purposely engaged a lost person? Do you pray for an unsaved person every night to get saved? And by the way, I'm gonna at least challenge you to start there. You know that every single night, you should have someone you're working on that you say, I want Joe, Sally, my coworker, my family member, I want them to get saved, and I'm praying every night that they get saved. By the way, that's what the Bible tells you to do, pray the Lord of the harvest that sends forth labors in the field. And so though we would say we're not hyper-Calvinists, but often in many churches I'm at, they practice that way. And the Bible's very clear, 100%, if you agree 50% of your town is not going to heaven, the only chance they have is for you to speak up. Because if you say nothing, they're going to hell. And if I could paint the picture of hell for you this morning, it's worse than you could imagine. And by the way, you know who spoke the most about hell in the Bible? Jesus Christ. And if you come back to our text in John 4, why is he going through Samaria, do you think? It says in verse 4, he must needs go through Samaria. Jews didn't do that. Even if it was a shorter route, they would take great efforts to walk around. Would you agree with me that the main reason that seems to be why Jesus needed to go through Samaria is he knew there's a bunch of people that needed to be saved? I mean, from the text, when you know the whole story, you go, I think that's why Jesus needed to go through Samaria. He needed to meet the woman at the well, and a whole bunch of people are gonna get saved in this text. What's interesting is here, Jesus is pursuing lost people. He needed to go through Samaria, and I'm gonna walk you through just several lessons that we learned from this. Number one, be intentional. You see that in verse four, he needed to go through Samaria. Verse seven, to come at the woman of Samaria to draw water, Jesus saith unto her, give me to drink. Jesus starts the conversation. In this culture, a Samaritan woman would never talk to a Jew, and a Jew would never talk to a Samaritan. It would have been very easy for Jesus just to sit there. In fact, that would have been what was expected. And the fact that he opens the conversation with her and says, hey, give me the drink. By the way, do you think that was a leading question? I mean, you know from the text it was, right? He's going somewhere with this question. Did he ask the question because he's thirsty? How many of you think that was the case? No, he's asking the question because he wants to take her somewhere. And I would just challenge you, do you know how many Christians, we are so quiet about Christ, We go to the well, the coffee shop, we walk in our neighborhoods, we sit in an airplane, we go to work, we rake our yards, and we never talk about Christ. I travel a lot, and if you ever go in an elevator, the unwritten rule of every elevator is you don't make eye contact and you don't talk, right? You get in an elevator and someone starts talking, it freaks everyone out, so I like to do it on purpose, that's just how I'm wired. And we act that way about Christ. And we'll talk about everything except Christ. And here in this text, Jesus is asking a question because he wants to talk to her about salvation. He intentionally engaged the lost. He came to seek and to save those who are lost. Could I ask you this morning, what are you deliberately doing to engage lost people? In fact, one of the qualifications of a pastor is we're to be hospitable. Crazy rabbit. But especially to lost people. When's the last time you had a meal with a lost person? When's the last time you had an unsafe person in your home? We did this all the time up in Canada. I got to faith. We were in big trouble and just so swamped that for about a year and a half, I had not reached out to my neighbors. And one day, God just broke my heart and said, here, you're the president of a Christian college training people for ministry, and you've not given the gospel to either side of your neighbors. And I remember back in the day, you could walk up to people and say, hey, can I ask you a personal question? That doesn't work so well in our culture today, right? Our culture, they're very private, but they want connection. And back in the day, when you could say, hey, could I ask you a personal question? Oddly, back in the day, people would say, sure. And we'd say, hey, if you were to die right now, do you know for sure where you'd go? You know what, today, you're gonna have to build a relationship with people. If you walk up to a lost person you've never met, say, can I ask you a personal question? That'd be like me walking and say, hey, how's your kidney? You're like, I've never met you before. I'm not talking about my kidney. But if I'm your friend, if I have a relationship with you, and I go, hey, how's your kidney? Well, now you'll tell me. And so we gotta build a relationship with lost people. And so as God worked in our hearts, we decided to do two things. And this is one thing Dr. Allen and I do share. We go for walks. I don't know about you, but if you walk slowly through your neighborhood, people will come and talk to you. And we walked slowly through a neighborhood and my wife went on a walk and four houses down we have two lesbians who are there. And my wife engaged with them and told them, it's so easy for us. It's a spoiler. I mean, when everyone says, what do you do? Are you president of a Bible college? It's an easy end to talk about the gospel. And my wife came back and she said, hey, they said they're born again. I said, oh man, I can't wait to talk to these two. This is gonna be awesome. And so I was going on my slow walk and she was in the yard and she stopped me, she hadn't met me yet, she'd only met my wife, had a conversation with her, and she waved me down, stop. So I stopped and she came up to me and this is what she said, you're the big guy at faith, aren't you? And I said, are you talking about my weight? And she laughed and she said, no, you know what I mean. I said, you mean am I the president? I said, yeah, I'm the president. And this is what she said to me, you think I'm going to hell, don't you? And I said, why, because of your lifestyle? And she said, yeah. I said, no. That's not why anyone goes to hell. I said, in fact, my wife said that you were born again Christian. I said, I would love to hear your testimony. She said, oh, you don't have time for that. And then she just kind of walked away. But you know what, every time we're in our yard, she'll come up and talk to us now. We built relationships on either side. They consider us best friends. We've given the gospel, we have people coming out of an odd form of Mormonism and just secular on the right side of us. She was the valedictorian at Iowa State. She's a scientist, smart person. They go on vacation, they ask me to watch their cat, give me the keys to their house, I mean, and I'm allergic to cats, they don't know that though. And you go, why would you do that? Because I want them to get saved, does that make sense? and says I've built a relationship with them that they allow me to give the gospel and we're still friends. He just invited me, there was a big block party and this same neighbor said, hey, for March Madness, for the championship game, which I know where you land, I know where Pastor Brendan and I land, we were happy to see UConn win that. And he called me up and he said, Jim, you wanna go? I said, sure, I'd love to go. So I go there, I am the only non-drinker in the whole group, 20 guys. And of course, every guy comes up, hey, what do you do? Well, I'm the president of Faith Baptist Bible College. Oh, that's nice. But you know, as I just hung out and watched the game and had a good time, you know, the next morning, two of those guys texted me and said, hey, I'd like to get together with you. You know, unsaved people think we're weird because they never interact with us. And if you have no interaction with unsaved people, they're gonna get weird ideas of what happens in this building. And visitors, when they come in, they have no idea what's going on. Do you know how many churches I'm in and we're not friendly to the guests? I would just challenge you, that should never happen. Do you know how hard it is to walk into a church where you don't know anybody? I know this is a shock to everyone, but no one comes to church, a visitor does not come to church for good preaching. Lost people do not wake up on Sunday morning and go, hey, when's the last time you've heard a sermon? I just, let's go. I mean, I've never heard one. Let's go hear one. I know you have awesome music. Unsaved people do not wake up Sunday morning going, man, when's the last time you heard some good tunes? Let's go to church. I mean, I hear it's awesome. Let's go check that out. Lost people do not come to hear music. The number one reason a lost person comes to church is they want a friend. You know how many churches I'm in where the lost person comes in, a visitor comes in, and people in the pew in front of them and the pew behind them are engaged in conversation and they can't even say hi. In fact, no one says hi. And that person leaves. And you know what that person decides? Never going back. Why? That was the most unfriendly church I've ever been in. And folks, we've got to get intentional about sharing the gospel, Christ was. We had a, one of our college and career girls up in Canada worked at a coffee shop, and she built a relationship with this older couple. And we were having a special Sunday, and they came up to get coffee one day, and she said, hey, I really, you know, we've talked, but I'd really like to invite you to my church. And the guy said, what church is it? And she said, well, it's Meadowlands Baptist Church. And his wife looked at him and said, you promised. And what no one knew is that he grew up in a Baptist home. When he turned 18, he bolted, ran away from the Lord, went off into the oil patch, had nothing to do with church ever again. His wife went to a United Church. She begged him to go to church with her, and he said, honey, if I ever go to church, I'm only going to a Baptist church, because my mom was a Baptist. Well, our college and career girl didn't know that. And she just says, hey, could I invite you to church? What church is it? And the wife says, you promise. So he says, OK, I'll come. came that Sunday, he sat in the back row, we always had an invitation. I didn't have a come forward invitation, I just said, hey, if you're not sure you're saved and you'd like to have someone make an appointment to talk to you, just raise your hand. Up goes his hand. The favorite thing we love to hear in our church is when I said, I see that hand. And everyone in our church knew if I said, I see that hand, leave Pastor Jim alone. And so no one would bother me, and I would just purposely make sure I walked by that person. And I got by this couple, and he said, hey, I put my hand up. I said, hey, I saw that. I said, would you like to get together? He said, yeah, I would. Can we meet on Tuesday? And his wife says, good, he needs it. She says, I already know this stuff, but he needs it. I said, OK. So I went over there on Tuesday. By the way, he is 77 years old. I call this my big Bible. So I bring my big Bible over and I sit down with him on the couch. She's sitting in a rocking chair across the living room because she already knows all this. And I start going through the plan of salvation and I am so focused on him that I'm about halfway through and I look up and she's taken her rocking chair and literally moved it right in front of me and said, I've never heard this before either. And when I got done sharing the gospel, I said, is this something you guys would like to do? And they both started to tear up and they said, absolutely. and they bowed their heads and trusted Christ as their Savior that day. Do you think they would have ever come to church if a college and career girl had not had the courage to say, would you like to come? She didn't know all that backstory. You know, if you have unsaved people in your home, they're gonna do unsaved people things. I've had unsaved people in our home and they're like, hey, can we smoke? And I always say, not in the house. That's just kind of our rule. Need to smoke. But you know what? Lots of people have that rule. So they go out and smoke in our back deck. I don't let them sit out there alone. I go out and I talk with them while they're on the back deck and I come in. You know what? I'm gonna have to wash my clothes afterwards if you've been around a smoker. And they invite you over to their house. And you go over to their house and they start pouring drinks. And you know what I just say? No, thank you. You know when they want to pour you a drink, you don't have to go, ah! Back! I am a man of God. That's high on the weirdo meter again, right? But sometimes we've been around Christians so long, we don't know how to act around lost people. Would you agree with me, Jesus did not offend this lady in the text? Jesus was not offensive. But he is asking questions, he's going somewhere. I would just ask you this morning, how intentional are you in reaching out to lost people? When's the last time you invited someone to church? When's the last time you had an unsafe person in your home for dinner? When's the last time you did a random act of senseless kindness to a neighbor? I know you don't have a lot of snow down here, but up in Canada, snow's a big deal. And every snowfall, you have 24 hours to clear your sidewalk. And every good Canadian knows where the line in the sidewalk is, where their sidewalk ends and the neighbor's begins. And every good Canadian is not going to shovel one flake of snow that's not theirs. And I had new Christians get saved. I had one new Christian go out and buy a snowblower and did the entire subdivision. And he told me all that. I said, why'd you do this? He says, because pastor, someday I want someone to ask why I'm doing it. I just want to tell them I care about you, I love you, and I just, I want you to know the God that I know. and it's because God saved me that has changed my life and I just wanna do something to help the people in our neighborhood. There's all kinds of ways you and I can be intentional. Are you intentionally trying to engage lost people? Number two, have a God-aligned passion for lost people. Verse four, he needed to go through Samaria. We know in John 3, 16, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Do you care this morning? Do you care that half of this city would not go to heaven today? When you go to work tomorrow, do you care that most of the people at work are not going to heaven, unless you work in the Christian organization? I remember I was an assistant pastor, but I had to work a job and took a secular job, and my first day at work, I just always do this when I eat my food, I bowed my head and prayed. I was in a construction crew. I didn't pray out loud, I wasn't making a big deal, I just said this. I came up and every guy I was working with was staring at me. And they immediately nicknamed me Preach. My name's Jim. That was the last time I ever heard Jim at work. Hey, Preach, can you get this? Hey, Preach, can you get that? And it was sort of a put down at first. But over time, it was like, hey, Preach, can I talk to you? Yeah, I think things aren't going too good with my wife. My wife was a fantastic cook. We'd have all the single guys over. They would do anything. My wife wanted a piano one time. They all volunteered. I was like, why? Because they knew she'd feed them if they helped. Went to their softball games. Why? Because I cared about them. I care about my neighbors. Why will I watch a cat that I'm allergic to? I want my neighbors to go to heaven. Jesus, why did he go through Samaria? Something Jews don't do. because he cared about those people. In fact, often, it's a fascinating study through the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Read how many times you read this. Jesus was moved with compassion. Remember then, they started out the day and Jesus says, we need to take a break, guys. We've been going way too hard. Let's just go across and take a break. And the Bible says the people outwent them, remember this? And the people went out there and what do you read again? was moved with compassion. If that was me, I would say, guys, let's just roll back to the other side. They can't do that twice. Jesus gets out of the boat. Do you care about lost people this morning? And if you say yes, could you prove it in the last two months? If you say to yourself, you know, Dr. Jim, I do care about lost people, really. Could you prove it in the last two months? What have you been doing to show that you care about lost people? Number three, spend time with lost people. It seems pretty obvious in verses six and seven. Jesus goes to the well, a place that he knew lost people would be coming. He engages the woman, go down to verse 40. It's when the Samaritans were coming to him, they saw that he would tarry with them and he abode there two days. How often outside of work do you spend time with lost people? Who are you working on to get saved? Who are you praying for and intentionally spending time with? Do you at least greet visitors when they come? Do you at least do that? Do you at least say, man, if a visitor comes, I'm at least gonna, and I've had people say, well, I don't know what to say. I said, here, I'll help you. We can even practice this, it's not super hard. When you have a visitor, just walk up to them and say this, hi. And if you wanna get like super crazy, throw your name in there, right? Hi, I'm Jim. Thanks for coming to our church today. It's wonderful to have you here. You know, our church in Canada, as was mentioned, we started with 10 people, but our whole church grew with first-generation Christians. There was no transfer growth up in Canada. So when you get that large of a church and they're all first-generation Christians, man, we mobbed visitors when they came. Everyone was excited. Everyone was like, hey, it's so good to have you here. We had greeters as you did, as I came in this morning. There was a gentleman standing at the door, opening the door, greeting people. That's great. It does matter who you have at that door, though, right? Some of you aren't waking up till your fourth cup of coffee. You should not be the greeter at the front door. You want your happy people at the front door, right? That matters, and I would just encourage you, if you evaluated your life, are you spending any time with lost people? Next, take opportunities to share the gospel. We saw that all the way through verses eight to 27. If you're only a friend, a coach, a coworker, but you never give the gospel, you're like a salesman who never makes an ask. Be creative in steering the conversation to the gospel. Earn the right to be heard and then speak up, and this is exactly what Jesus does in this text. He walks her through, Can you give me a drink was the opening line to tell her, hey, I have water that you'll never thirst again. Really, I want that water. I'd love to have water. I don't have to come to the well. And then Jesus asked in verse 16, go call your husband. He's asking that on purpose so he can prove to her, I know everything about you. And could I say it this way? I know everything about you and I still love you. And this is shameful. And when she goes into town and says, come see a man that told me all that ever I did, you know there's a bunch of men in that town going, he told you everything? Uh-oh, that's not good. Lost people are more willing to talk than you think. I remember a guy came in, booked an appointment to come see me up in Canada. Walked in and we had a track rack in our church, and we had the bridge track. I don't know if you've ever seen that track. It's a well-done track of walking through the gospel. And he walked in, sat on the other side of my desk, and he said, Pastor Jim, I had to come see you today because I just wanted to let you know that I stole one of these tracks. He was so new, he didn't realize they are for free. We want you to give them out. He thought he stole it. And he said, but I want to tell you what happened. He said, I stole this tract because I saw it and I thought it was so good and I've been working on my neighbor and I just wanted my neighbor to get saved. We're both farmers. And one day there was a storm coming and my farmer's tractor broke down and he was trying to bale this hay. And he came over to me and said, hey, is there any way that I could borrow your tractor? I need to get this hay up before the rain comes and I just don't want to lose its value. And this guy said, I thought this is my opportunity. He said, better yet, I'll help you. He says, so I jumped in my tractor and we baled hay and we got all the hay baled before the rain came. And we, I mean, we went right to dark. And at dark, we finished and he says, okay, how much can I pay you? And this guy said, you can't pay me anything. He says, get out of here. He said, listen, we're neighbors. I have the money. It wasn't that I couldn't afford it, I just didn't have time to get my tractor fixed. And you've used your gas, you've worked all day, let me pay you. And he says, no, you can't pay me. He says, but one thing you can do, I want you to read this track, the bridge track. This guy said, get out of here. You spent all day and all you want me to do is read this little track? Are you serious? He says, I'm dead serious. He says, I'm not taking any money. And you don't have to read the track, but I'm just telling you that it would make me really happy if you just read this track. He's like, whatever, and he took the track. As most farmers, he had to have a second job, and that next week he went to an interview for a job, got the job, on his way home was hit in a car accident and killed. And this farmer who had stolen the bridge track said, I wonder if he ever read it. He said, honey, I gotta go talk to his wife. He said, I got in my truck, I drove up to their farm and I knocked on the door and she came to the door. And he said, as soon as she saw me, she said, you wait just a minute, you just wait right here. He said, she went in the back and she came back holding that bridge track. And she said, do you remember giving this to my husband last week? And he said, yeah. He said, he came home that night and he was so blown away that you wouldn't take any money and that all you wanted us to do was read this tract that he said, honey, I don't know why this is so important to him, but after what he did for me, after we're done eating supper tonight, let's read through this tract. And she said, we finished supper that night, and she said, we read through this tract. And we said, we got to that back part. And we got to that back part, we looked at it and he said, honey, I think we need to do this. And she said, I do too. And she said, we bowed our heads and we kept our eyes open, because we had to read all the things it tells us to do at the end. And she says to this farmer, does that mean he's in heaven now? And this farmer said, yes. Yes, he's in heaven. If you prayed that and you meant that, Then the Bible says he's in heaven. And she said she just hugged him, weeping. And now he's sitting on the other side of my desk saying, I need to tell you the story about me stealing your bridge track. Would we all agree in this room this morning that if he had not done that, that farmer would not be in heaven today? Does it matter if you share the gospel? You know what a lot of us think? I'm glad he did that. Boy, Dr. Jim, that is a good story. But you know what God wants you to think? When's the last time I did that? Do your coworkers know where you are today? Do they know you're in church? Does everyone at your work, they'd be stunned to find out you're a Christian? Or the people you work with go, yeah, we know he's a Christian. By the way, it matters what kind of a Christian you are too, right? Number one reason people won't visit church is because of what? The hypocrites they know. Don't be in that crowd. Next in our notes, don't be so busy doing ministry, you missed the point of ministry. Look at verses 30 to 33. Disciples went out of the city and came to him. In the meanwhile, his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. By the way, if you didn't know the story, we've already read the story, but if you didn't know the story, and I said, here's two groups of people that go into a town full of lost people, an absolute baby Christian, I mean, all she knows is she just got saved, that's all she knows, and trained disciples who have seen miracles, not Benny Hinn style, like the real thing. I mean, they like, I mean, if you just went back to John chapter three, the disciples have seen water turned to wine. I mean, they've seen Jesus doing miracles. They've seen Jesus heal people that have never walked. I mean, I could prove this if I had the time, but they've just seen this. They're just coming from this and they go to Samaria. And I said, here's your two groups, baby Christian and people that have seen Jesus doing miracles and spending time with Jesus himself, who brings the most people back to Christ? You know what I would tell you this morning? It's the same today. If I said, who's bringing the most people to Christ? The people that go to church every Sunday and have been in years and years of Sunday school and years and years under Dr. Allen's preaching and are those the people bringing the most people to church or is it the baby Christians? You know in most places who it is? It's the baby Christian. And the disciples, I mean, how did they go into town and go, can I have two loaves of bread, please? I mean, how did they not go, do you know he's at the well right now? He's here, the Messiah's here, you gotta come, you just gotta come, he's at the well right now, you gotta come. In fact, they come back and they see Jesus sitting, talking to the woman, and you know what they think? What's he doing talking to her? And this is Jesus' wake up moment to them in verse 32. But he said, I have meat to eat that you know not of. Therefore the disciples said to one another, has any man brought him out to eat? And Jesus said, my meat is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Say not ye there yet four months, and then cometh harvest. Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, guys. Look on the fields, they're white, all ready to harvest. Pay attention. Guys, you walked into a town full of lost people and you didn't bring anyone to me. The text will tell you many get saved because of the saying of the woman, but many more come to meet Jesus because of the woman. When's the last time you've impacted a lost person? And God's so clear, we all need to be a part of this. You know, we all talk about what we love. I love to hunt, and you say, man, I love to hunt too. I said, really, what gun do you have? I don't have a gun. Really, I said, have you ever been hunting? No, I've never been hunting. Well, do you watch it on TV? No, I never watch it on TV. You know what I'm gonna tell you? You don't love to hunt. Say, man, I love to golf. I said, really? What clubs do you have? I don't have any clubs. Really? I mean, have you ever been golfing? No, I've never been. Well, do you watch it on TV? No, I never watch. You know what I'm gonna tell you? You don't love to golf. We all talk about what we love. Every grandparent in this room, we talk about Our first grandchild, you'd have thought we were the ones that had the kids, you know what I'm talking about? We're buying the crib and the high chair, and I'm like, honey, why are we doing all this? You're only here for a week. Well, it's our grandkids. You get a hole-in-one in golf, are you never gonna talk about that? Man, I've shot in some trophy, I was a moose hunter, and you come to my home, I can strategically place you where you can see some mounts so that eventually you'll say, hey, what's up with that? I'm glad you asked. I'm a huge Minnesota Viking fan. I wear a lot of purple. I love Ford. You come into my driveway, there's two signs in our driveway, Ford parking only. I love it when people park way down thinking I was serious about that. You can't spend time with any one of us and people know who we love. And when everyone knows your favorite sports team, when everyone knows your favorite vehicle, but they have no idea you love Jesus, That's a big problem, Christians. Man, we'll talk to anyone about our sports team. We'll talk to anyone about our car. We'll talk to anyone about our kids, our grandkids. Are we telling people about Jesus? And I think the problem for many of us is we just love Jesus in a different way. Man, we don't read our Bibles every day, but we check ESPN every day. We don't read our Bibles every day, but we spend half an hour watching news every day. We don't read our Bible every day, but we check our stock portfolio every day. Christians, there's something wrong with that. What's the first and great commandment? Love God with how much of your heart? If you were honest this morning, would you say that's true of you? If I went into most churches and said, hey, can you tell me who's on fire for God? I've never been in a church where the answer was all of us. But it should be. All of us should be on fire for God. Easter wasn't that long ago, was it? Man, aren't you thankful you're not going to hell and you are going to heaven because of what Jesus Christ did for you and I on the cross? And that should make me wanna share. Why do I tell about my grandkids and my sports team? Because I love them. The same should be true of Christ. Don't be so busy doing ministry, you missed the point of ministry. That was the problem with the disciples. Two things happen in the text. A lot of people get saved and the disciples have a teaching moment. The reason people are not getting saved is not that the field is too hard. I hear that all the time. Well, the field is too hard. You'll never read that in scripture. You'll read this cover to cover. I read it every year. Not one verse in scripture will say, the reason people don't get saved is the field is too hard. You know what you will read? Pray, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, he sends forth laborers into the field. Why? Because there's not enough laborers. If there was enough labors, there'd be a difference. There's no rewards for sitting. You never get to heaven and God say, well done, thou good and faithful sitter. No one sat in church better than you did. Know what you want to hear? Well done, thou good and faithful what? Servant. Pray for faith. Pray for all the Christian colleges. Pray for your church. Pray that we'll impact young men and women to go out and make a difference. And lastly, as we close, be urgent in sharing the gospel. Verses 34 to 36. Fields are wide unto harvest, but the laborers are few. I think if you are a study of end times, I think I can make the case that North America has gone early in the tribulation period. If that's true, then I think people do get saved during the tribulation period, but I don't think many in North America because North America's gone. And I would just ask you this morning, are you doing what you can? We all have different gifts and different abilities. You don't have to be Dr. Allen. You don't have to be Bob Brenneman. You don't have to be Jim Tillotson. You have to just be you. Use your gifts. Use your abilities. I heard last night someone here loves board games and just says, hey, you're using board games to have guys come over and spend time. You found out how you're going to do it. But I personally believe it always starts with prayer. Pray, therefore, the Lord of the harvest. Would you at least walk out of today saying, God, if you have not been praying on purpose for someone to get saved, would you at least get alone with the Lord today and say, God, I'm sorry? God, I'm so thankful I'm saved, and I'm so sorry I've not cared about lost people. And God, I'm gonna start praying for my neighbor, my coworker, a family member, and I'm gonna look at ways I can engage with them. Don't get so used to being saved that you don't care about lost people. How will they hear without a preacher? And how will they hear without the word of God? God saved us to use us to make a difference in the lives of people. Do you care this morning? Let me close in prayer and I'll turn it over to Pastor. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the opportunity we've had to look in your word. And God, I pray that if you spoke to our hearts, God, if we sat here this morning and you brought to mind an unsaved coworker, an unsaved neighbor, if you brought something to our mind that reminded us, you know what, we haven't been witnessing, been trying to build a relationship with anyone that's not saved. If we sat here this morning and thought, man, all my friends are in this room. I don't have any unsaved friends. God, I pray that you'd work in our hearts. God, help us to have the heart that you had to seek and to save those who are lost, the heart that you had to reach out to this woman so that many others would come to know you as their savior. God, help us not to be saved so long that we stop caring about lost people. God, I pray that you'd work in us and through us for your glory. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.