Lift Up Your Eyes To The Fields: Part 1

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Lift Up Your Eyes to The Fields: Part 2

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Well, we return back to the gospel of John as we go through this wonderful gospel.
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This gospel is all about the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's so rich.
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I'd like to speak to you today, beginning at a part one session here on this particular text that we're looking at from chapter 4, verse 27 to 38.
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This will be an overview. We're going to touch a lot of scriptures.
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It will not be exhaustive, of course, but we'd like to revisit it and break it down a little bit more.
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But speaking of that, I'd like for us to see this text, not necessarily from a microscope view, microscopic view.
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I think we can get so caught up in those details sometimes and miss the big picture.
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I'd like to take it, so to speak, looking at and through a telescope.
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Why do I say that? I say that because God has a big picture.
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And the big picture, the panoramic view, is as we just sung.
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It's all about the glory of Christ. That's the end of all of it, when
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He does make all things new. And He will. As we read that in Revelation 22, that will come to pass in God's good time.
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And the consummation of all things, and there's a new heavens and new earth. But until then, there's a battle that's raging on this earth.
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And it's a battle for souls. I honestly believe, and I speak and I want to search my own heart here, that the church has failed in this area.
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Tremendously. And I say her intentions has not been wrong necessarily, but the way we have gone about it.
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We've got other things ahead before us, so to speak, the cart before the horse, or have,
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I should say, as what David did using a new cart, that was adopted from the
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Philistines, and transported the Ark of the
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Covenant. His intentions were sincere, his intentions was good, and our intentions could be good and sincere, but they can be wrong.
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What corrects us? Well beloved, you know the answer to that, and that's the word of the living
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God. But we must search our hearts, because a lot of times we can have it all here in our head, and not in our hearts.
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You know there's the old adage to parents, that there are things that are better caught than taught.
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And that is true in evangelism. It is better caught than taught, and what
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I mean by that is, it's more than just knowing it in our head. That's important.
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God does not desire us to be ignorant, does He? Paul says to the Corinthian believers, I desire that you not be ignorant.
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And my people perish because of lack of knowledge, from the Old Testament. I believe it's very important that we have our heart in tune, as Brother Ben mentioned this morning in Sunday School, quoting
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Tozer, that we all have the same tune, that we're all in harmony together, in this great commission, this great cause that Jesus Christ has commanded.
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Folks, I'm telling you, this is what we lack, and it should start here, behind the pulpit, to the pews, but I pray it should overflow, praise
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God, but this should be going on in all churches, that we have a burden of the
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Lord, and that we be broken over souls.
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Yes, broken, but first, yes, we must make things right with ourselves, before God, before our evangelism can be effective, and the
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Holy Spirit can deal with us in that. I titled this,
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Lift Up Your Eyes. Your eyes, the eyes of your faith, and look at the fields.
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Look at the fields. They're white and ready to harvest, as our Lord says. So, if you're not already there, let's look at John chapter 4, and I'm going to read the text first, verse 27, beginning with verse 27, and go to verse 38.
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Hear the word of God. And at this point,
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His disciples came and they marveled that He talked with a woman, yet no one said,
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What do you seek? Why are you talking with her? The woman then left her water pot, went her way into the city, and said to the men,
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Come, see a man, who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the
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Christ? Then they went out of the city and came to Him.
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And in the meantime, His disciples urged Him, saying, Rabbi, eat. But He said to them,
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I have food to eat, of which you do not know. Therefore, the disciples said to one another,
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Has anyone brought Him anything to eat? Jesus said to them,
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My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish
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His work. Do you not say, There are still four months and then comes the harvest?
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Behold, I say to you, Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest.
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And he who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
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For in this the saying is true, One sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored, and others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.
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Let's stop right there and please bow with me in prayer as we seek the Lord within this hour of worship.
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Our Father and our God, Lord, our prayer is a simple prayer, but Lord, we look to You for the answer.
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And by Your blessed Holy Spirit, we pray, O God, today open the eyes of our hearts and our understanding that we would see the
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Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and second to that of beholding
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His beauty. May we look, Lord, lift up our eyes and look at the harvest field.
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O God, we need to be broken here. We need to have eyes of faith to see a lost and broken world.
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God, start with me, I pray. I pray, O God, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to Your sight.
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O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer, for Your honor and glory, in Jesus' name
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I pray, amen. No doubt the key verse,
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I've mentioned this before, of this glorious gospel is found in John chapter 20, verse 31.
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Least we forget, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is
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Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.
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This is the goal and the purpose for which the Apostle John wrote this book inspired by the blessed
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Holy Spirit, that you may believe.
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Believe this gospel. And belief always, always leads to obedience.
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Never anything else. And obedience is always active. It's active faith and action.
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So as we study this particular section in John 4, I'd like to say a few things here in the introduction.
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This study is three -fold. As we look at the introduction and overview today, first, as we go through this section and book, we will learn more and more about our
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Lord Jesus Christ and His beauty and His loveliness. To see
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His loveliness. And that we would never get over it. And if we truly see
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Jesus, folks, we'll know what it is to look at a lost and dying world. We will get to know
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Christ better, more intimately. And our faith and trust in Him will grow deeper.
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I pray. That's the first thing. The second is, as we go through this study together, we will better know and understand the life that only
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Jesus can give. That is eternal life. Life eternal. His life.
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God's life. It's abundant and full. Scripture speaks of it as joy unspeakable and full of glory.
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Do you have that joy this morning? Do you have the peace of God that passes all understanding?
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Joy unspeakable and full of glory. And we also will discover through His Word how we can know for certain that we will be citizens of heaven.
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Assurance and faith will be strengthened. And we learn how to live in righteousness here on this earth in the present as we are the church militant until we get to heaven.
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And, you know, people say, you know, church should not be boring. A lot of people say, how can
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I suffer through a whole hour or two hours of worship service? And if they groan and moan about that, how can they expect to live with God for all eternity?
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I've heard complaints within my own family. Not my immediate family, but my extended family.
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People murmuring about that. It appalls me how someone can hear
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God's Word and say it was boring. They need to check their own heart. The third thing is we're not only knowing and growing together in these things.
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As we go through this study, I pray that it shakes us and wakes us.
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I pray that it disturbs us but encourages us. I pray that it convicts us but builds us up.
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I pray that this will help us and equip us to be better soldiers of the
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Lord Jesus Christ into the lost and dying world. I don't know about you, but when
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I come to worship with God's people, I need building up.
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I need to be encouraged. Yes, convicted. I need all the graces I can get in this world because there's so much that's against the child of God in this world.
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Have you noticed that this world's not a friend of grace? Enemies of grace.
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Because these poor lost and dying souls are naturally dead and trespasses in their sins and they're like walking zombies.
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But we love the creation of God. We look beyond all the hate.
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We look beyond all the unforgiveness and the filth and the depravity.
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Even though it hurts us, but we see the image of God that's marred.
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We love what God loves, but we hate exactly the sin that has marred the image of God.
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So, as we look into this, beloved, we actually exist to glorify
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God. That's why we are here on this earth. That's why we're born. And especially as a child of God, we exist to glorify
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God and to enjoy Him forever. But we also exist, that's ultimately number one.
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The next thing we exist is through making disciples. Who can make disciples and make disciples?
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And reproduce. This is what Jesus meant in Matthew 28.
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This is how our Lord builds His church. And this is accomplished through a balanced commitment, folks, to seeking the lost.
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And reaching out to the lost and dying. And building up believers. And equipping the worker of God.
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That we will be prepared to do the work of the ministry. God's way.
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If the flesh gets in the way, we need to have the flesh crucified. Because the flesh avails nothing.
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The flesh is weak. And the flesh will always fail. The arm of flesh will always fail us, but not the arm of God.
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So we need to lean hard on God. Now, in this overview, let me begin.
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The first thing we see in the text is, when God's word is accepted, it quenches our thirst.
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It quenches our thirst. When God's word is accepted, it quenches our thirst.
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Look at verse 28 and 29. Let me back up. Verse 27.
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To get the context. And at this point, His disciples came and they marveled.
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They were surprised. That's another translation. That He talked with a woman.
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Yet no one said, What do you seek? Or why are you talking with her?
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You know, in this verse 27, at this point, Jesus' disciples come and they were surprised that even that Jesus was talking to this
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Samaritan woman. As they returned from Saqar, they found Jesus talking with this woman and that He would even speak to her.
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We know that Jesus broke boundaries, right? For she was a Samaritan. She was a mixed breed.
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And the Jews despised the Samaritans and they were surprised that Jesus would even take the time to talk to her.
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But He did. He reached out to her. Also, they could possibly discern that she was a sinful woman here.
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They probably knew that. Yet, of course, as the text reads, no one asked the Lord what
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He was seeking from the woman or why He was talking to her. John MacArthur comments here and says, and I love his comment, had the disciples arrived earlier, they would have interrupted and destroyed the conversation.
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And if they had arrived any later, she would have gone and they would have not heard
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His declaration of Messiahship. This feature subtly reveals that Jesus' divine control over the situation that was occurring at the time.
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And you know what that tells us? That Christ is in control, sovereignly, over the whole situation.
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Now, this should encourage us when we evangelize and even we stumble and we make mistakes.
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We're not perfect by and large. Don't even come close to the Lord Jesus Christ in our evangelism.
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But the Lord is in control. Isn't that encouraging? We stumble, we make mistakes, and we pray under our breath and say,
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Lord, take my stumbling lips and take Your Word to the heart. And that Your Word may fall on good ground, not on hard ground, but good ground that it may take root and bear fruit unto eternal life.
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But the Spirit of God has to do that. But God can do it. Christ is in control here and He's sovereign over all the affairs of evangelism.
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Isn't that encouraging? Even through our weakness. And by the way,
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God takes our weaknesses. And then when we're weak, we're strong.
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Look at the Apostle Paul. You see weakness in him constantly. It doesn't mean that he was a weak man.
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No, he was very strong in the Lord. And actually, he says in Ephesians 6, Be strong in the
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Lord in the power of His might. There's a difference between being a weak person and bringing weaknesses to the
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Lord. As we bring our weaknesses to the
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Lord and we say, Lord, be our strength and be our power and be everything to us.
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He makes us strong in Him. That's the key. It's not in us.
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It's not in our abilities. It's not in our intellect. It's not how smart we are. It's in Christ.
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And it's in our weaknesses. Verse 28. The woman then left her water pot.
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Let me stop right there. Doesn't that say volumes? She left her water pot.
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Why did she do that? It symbolized the various things in life which she had used in an effort to satisfy her deepest longings.
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She longed for something deeper than anything in this world. And that's the way people are in this world.
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They long for something and they don't even know what they're longing for. But the one that was standing right before her and she found this out.
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It was Jesus. Living water. Amen. Amen.
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The living water that never runs dry. And they had all these other things that she was seeking failed her and they will fail you.
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Now that she had found the Lord Jesus Christ, or should I say he found her. Because really she wasn't seeking the
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Lord. The Lord came seeking after her. But there was peace and joy in Jesus.
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And abundant life. And she had no more need for the things of this old filthy worn out world.
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Because they did not satisfy her anymore. It's almost like you see the picture in Luke 15 when the prodigal takes his fill and he gets all of it once he spends his money.
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And then he goes to the deepest of the pit with the pigsty and to a
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Jew that did not get any lower. And he's eating slop with the hogs.
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And the Bible says after he came to the bottom of wit's end he came to himself.
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See sometimes God allows in his providence a person to come to wit's end.
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Amen? Have you been there? Have you visited wit's end? Wit's end.
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And that's what happens. And he came to himself and he says I will arise and go to my father. And he made a choice to repent.
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Repentance took place. And the father was running after him when he came home with great love.
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Well, this Samaritan woman tried broken cisterns. There's a wonderful poem that goes like this.
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I tried the broken cisterns, O Lord, but all the waters felled. Even as I stooped to drink, they fled and mocked me as I wailed.
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Now none but Christ can satisfy none other name for me.
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There's love and life and lasting joy. Lord Jesus found only in thee.
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Praise his name. She not only left her water pot but she went her way into the city.
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Don't you love this? Folks, when God makes a change in your life it's evident.
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People know there's a difference in your life. You become a new creation.
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Your affections are new. You have holy affections. You love the Lord and people look at you and say
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He is a fanatic. But you're actually born into the kingdom of God and let them say what they want to say.
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Because they actually are starving themselves. Oh, she left the water pot.
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She went into the city. And again, when a person is saved he or she immediately begins to think of what?
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Others, not themselves. They think and they live for others, folks. This is the child of God.
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He no longer lives for himself. She no longer lives for herself. She lives unto Jesus because they can say, as Paul said in Galatians 2.
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I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
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I, but Christ lives in me. And the faith that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the
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Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Folks, that's the
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Christian. They don't live unto themselves. They see that they're on a journey and the journey is short from the cradle to the grave.
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And they say, my life is thine, oh Lord. Use me, break me, do whatever you can, but use me for your glory.
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Go to the missionary. This is a true missionary. She was a great missionary, folks.
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Let's read it. Notice what she says, what they say. She came to the city and said to the men, come see a man who told me all things that I ever did.
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Could this be the Christ? Notice what she's doing. She's pointing people to Christ.
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Not to herself, just not about her experience. They notice a radical change in her life.
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Missionary to China, Hudson Taylor said this. Some are jealous to be successors of the apostles.
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I would rather be a successor of the Samaritan woman who while they went for food, forgot her water pot and her zeal for souls.
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Folks, can we be like this Samaritan woman? She went back and that whole town was changed because of her witness.
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But her witness was Christ, not just her testimony.
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There's nothing in the text that necessarily says she glorifies her testimony. She does say that he's done great things.
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Yes, but her witness was to Christ. Come see a man.
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Notice that. Come see a man who told me all things that I ever did.
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Could this be the Christ? Then they went out of the city and came to him.
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Listen to this. They went out of the city and they came to Jesus. In her mind, there could be little doubt because he had already announced himself to her as the
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Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah. But she raised the question in their mind so that they might go to see
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Jesus and find out for themselves. Isn't that wonderful? Oh beloved, this is true evangelism at its best.
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Right here. They want to see themselves.
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Who God is. For themselves.
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Not what the other says. I want to know myself. The Lord is my shepherd. He's my shepherd.
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I shall not want. That's the personal testimony there.
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Beloved, this is true evangelism. The witness always leads a soul to go to Jesus for themselves.
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Taste and see that the Lord is good. It never draws attention to themselves, does it?
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As a matter of fact, if it does draw attention to themselves, it's not of God. How do we know this?
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Jesus said himself when the Holy Spirit comes, he will glorify me. That's what
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Christ said. If it glorifies Christ, you can say it's of God. If it doesn't glorify
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Christ, throw it out. It's that simple. And to add to that,
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I like what J .C. Rowell says. Anytime where there's holy living, there's the
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Holy Spirit. But anytime there's no holy living, there's no Holy Spirit. That's searching, isn't it?
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Well, doubtless to say this woman was well -known in the village for her sin and shame.
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How startling it must have been for the people to see her now standing in the public places in the town bearing witness of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. The testimony of the woman was effective, folks.
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She pointed people to Jesus, and that should be what we should be doing. Point people to Jesus.
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Point people to Christ. That should be branded on our hearts. The people of the village left their homes, their workplaces, began to go out to find
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Jesus, and they went to Christ. That's how real revival takes place.
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This was a revival. How do we know it's a revival? It changed the whole community.
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It started with her. Then she went out into the highways and byways into her town and told everyone about Christ.
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She was now like on fire. God give us a little bit of her fire.
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We have so much more truth than what she had. We should be blazing, turning the world upside down.
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Well, it changed the whole community. When God's word is accepted, it quenches your thirst. It quenched her thirst.
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We read that, didn't we, in chapter 4 in the previous verses?
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Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.
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But the water that I give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life, a satisfaction in God that the world cannot give.
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Praise His name. Well, not only is the word of God accepted, it quenches our thirst.
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Also, when God's word is applied, it satisfies our hunger.
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It satisfies our hunger. Look at verse 31 to verse 34. In the meantime,
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His disciples urged Him in saying, Rabbi, eat. But He said to them,
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I have food to eat of which you do not know. Therefore the disciples said to one another,
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Has anyone brought Him anything to eat? And Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of Him, the will of God, who sent me, the will of the
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Father, and to finish His work. Listen to that.
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It makes me think of Deuteronomy 8 .3. Jesus quoted this, by the way, in Matthew chapter 4 when
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He was tempted by the tempter Satan in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights.
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And He was hungered. And the tempter came to Him and tempted
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Him to turn stones into bread. And Jesus gave Him the word of God in obedience. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
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Job 23 .12 says, I have not departed from the commandments of His lips.
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I have treasured the words of His mouth more than the portions of my food.
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That's convicting. Have you done this at times? I mean, have you done away with food and say,
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You know, it's more important to me to reach out to do the will of God? It's not that eating food is sinful.
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He's not saying that here. But what is our priority? That's the thing. This is what's soul searching.
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What is your priority? You think of this. How the disciples were back now with food and the groceries and now they encouraged the
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Lord to eat. Now I want you to listen to me here. Apparently they were oblivious to the momentous event that was taking place in the revival that was right before their eyes.
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At this historic moment, when God was doing a work in this town and people were coming to Jesus Christ and when a
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Samaritan city was being introduced to the Lord of glory Himself and that the thoughts of the disciples can rise no higher than their appetite.
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Food for their bodies. Food for the belly. Folks were too fat.
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We've got too much. Is that an amen or an ouch?
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I'm telling you that is an ouch, isn't it? We're too prosperous. And it's hurt us.
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There needs to be a time that we pull back from this and be more concerned for people's eternal souls.
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Now again, if the sin is not in the eating, we can do that in moderation. When it becomes sin is when we become gluttonous.
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And Paul talks about that. Their belly is their God. And there's a lot of folks in that category and we need to search our own hearts there.
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But Jesus definitely withdrew from the food and He was rejoicing at the soul that came and the souls that were coming to Himself.
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Verse 32, Jesus says, I have food to eat of which you do not know.
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So I don't have time to exposit this completely, but let's look at it a little bit. The Lord found food and support and winning worshippers to His Father.
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And He was doing His Father's business. Compared to this joy, folks, can
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I tell you this? Physical nourishment was of little importance to Him. He found a satisfaction and a joy seeing people repent and come to Himself.
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Beloved, we get what we go after in life. How do we know this?
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Can you support that with Scripture? Absolutely. Look at it, the text. The disciples were interested in food.
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What did they do? They went to the village, they went to the town, they bought groceries. All along while they were buying groceries,
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Jesus was witnessing, spending His time, every moment that counted, by the way, redeeming the time, witnessing to this depraved
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Samaritan woman that needed Him. And they were more concerned about lunch.
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Well, they went into the village to get their food. They came back with the food. The Lord Jesus was interested in souls.
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He was interested in saving the souls of men and women from their sin and giving them living water, springing up into eternal life, and they were just interested in the groceries.
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And He too, Jesus, found what He went after.
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That's a sealant. He too went after something. He went after her soul.
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How are you spending your time today? Are you spending your time on your face before God?
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Yes, we have to labor, we have to work, but do you do it all unto the Lord in joy? And do you do it as a witness unto
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Him and then people see the joy and the peace that's overflowing in your life and they come up to you and say, you know, you've got something in you
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I don't have. John Calvin, 16th century
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Swiss reformer, said this, When duty given to Jesus by the Father is so urgent, listen to this, so urgent, that He has to drop everything else,
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He does not worry about eating. Calvin goes on and says,
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Indeed, it would have been wrong for Christ to show less zeal than the woman did, leaving her jar behind while she runs to invite people.
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And Jesus found greater satisfaction in doing the work of the
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Father than any earthly substance could ever offer. So this beckons the question here.
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Do we, and I'm putting we there because it's me too. Do we make the
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Father's work our number one priority? Do we make the
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Father's will the number one thing in our life?
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Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these other things will be added unto you.
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And what he's talking about things is the simple things like food and clothing. Don't worry, you don't have to worry about them.
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God's going to take care of us. We need to be concerned for doing God's will and he that doeth the will of God abides forever.
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Jesus says, Who is those that do the will of God? And he looked at the crowd and he wasn't just actually his mother and brother and actually in context there his mother and brother came to him and he said,
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Who is he that does, who is my mother and my brother, my sister? And Jesus looked at those that did the will of God.
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These are my mother and brother and sister. The family of God.
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So do we make the Father's work our number one priority? Our number one priority? Can you honestly say that completing his work his business is more important than your next meal?
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Whether you be at home whether you be out on the highways and byways among people whether you are a carpenter, whether you're a milkman or working on a computer or whatever your job may be is still, even though we must do those things but is the number one priority in our life is it the
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Lord Jesus Christ? Is it doing his will? Well, you know something?
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Here's another question. Are you tempted to think that no one wants to hear about Jesus and heavenly things?
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Are you tempted about that sometimes? A little voice may come to our head and say you know, no one cares to hear from you.
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You know, it's the voice of the enemy. Cast that voice down or should
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I say the voice of the flesh. God forbid this entire world is hungry for God and they don't even know that they're hungry for God.
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The reverse effect might be closer in reality. J .B. Phillips put it this way in his classic book
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Your God is Too Small. He says this, a vast amount of fiction presents life as though they were no
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God at all and men and women had no religious side of their personalities whatsoever and actual life as many a person's worth as salt knows ordinary people, ordinary people do at times consider
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God and spiritual issues. End quote. And you know something, if you think of it even though the hardness of man has become very depraved and hardened and not seeking
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God and that's true you will always find someone speaking about spiritual things.
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You know what I'm saying? Even though it may not be the truth in the word of God and we have the truth as God's people.
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We were talking about Jehovah Witnesses this morning. I remember many times a Jehovah Witness came to my door and God forbid you don't let them in, right?
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Brother Ben talked about that this morning and I remember they opened up their mouth and started telling me
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I got something to tell you. And they were speaking to me thinking that I'm a lost person and they had no idea.
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But by the grace of God I am what I am. And they said, you know we have spiritual things to talk to you about.
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I said, spiritual things, really? So I stepped out of my house and went outside in the garage and next thing you know we were talking about hell and trinity and the whole nine yards.
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Once I got on the trinity they hit a trail. They didn't want to hear it.
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All because they said, well we can't figure that God out. And I said, well you've got another
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God because the God of the Bible can't be figured out. They don't even think you can try to figure
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Him out because He can't be figured out because if you could figure Him out He would not be God. He is God.
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And I said, by the way He's in three persons Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And they basically looked at me and called me a heretic.
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I said, well guess what? Shoes on your foot. So we agreed to disagree and they went their way and I went inside back of my house and just was grieved.
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People is in darkness, aren't they folks? It takes the spirit of the living God. But what
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I'm trying to say is people will talk about spiritual things. Take those things in which they talk about that are false and lead them to the true
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Christ. Open up the word of God and just start reading scripture because God's word does not return void.
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Amen? It accomplishes exactly what God has sent it to do. It has the power to create new life.
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And if they don't accept it right then don't think your work is in vain because God's word has gone forth and if you do it in love and unto the
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Lord God will bless it. And even though it depends, read the parable of the soils.
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The word of God does fall on different soils, doesn't it? But you know something? We can sleep at night because God is sovereign.
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He just commands us to do what he said. We have nothing to do with the results, folks.
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God does the results. God is in charge of the results and we can rest in God on that.
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Well, let me go to the next point. When God's word is accepted it quenches your thirst.
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When God's word is applied it satisfies your hunger. Last, when God's word is announced it brings forth a harvest.
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Now this is where it really gets deep, folks. And this is why I broke this message up and I'm just trying to do a quick overview but look at verse 35.
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Jesus says, Do you not say there are still four months and then comes harvest?
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That's a question that he speaks to them and he answers it. He says, Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields for they are already white for harvest.
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Lift up your eyes. Can we lift up our eyes? Can we look at the fields?
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Can we have the burden of the Lord and say, Oh God, move upon my heart because people are dying and going to hell.
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That's reality. But the Christian is a realist because God is a reality and judgment is a reality.
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Folks, as we spend time in prayer at the feet of Jesus contemplating the great needs of this lost and dying world the
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Lord will lay on your hearts and my heart a burden for souls. I'm telling you.
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You cannot escape this. When we're at the feet of Jesus Jesus will give you his burden.
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That's what he said. Isn't it great? He said his burden is light.
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It's not heavy. You know what's heavy? Sin. Sin will weigh you down and sin will take you to hell, folks.
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But the burden of Jesus is light and he gives you rest for your souls. Praise his name.
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Be yoked up with him. Jesus says, Come unto me. This is what he says.
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All you heavy laden and burdened. He was talking to those that was burdened underneath the law.
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At that time the Pharisees and Sadducees the religious people were just weighing them down and saying you broke
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God's law by stepping too much here and by this and do's and don'ts as Brother Keith mentioned. Folks, it's not that.
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You got to look at it. The burden of the Lord is light. It's joy unspeakable.
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People say, well living the Christian life is too hard. Oh, hey. It's the greatest, the most glorious thing, folks.
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You just got to be freed from this filthy world and Jesus says, I'll save you from sin and all the weight of the sin and even the weight that presses us down and slows us up.
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Jesus is burdens light. But he wants us to have his burden. Why?
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Because about us, this is not about us. This is about Christ bearing his burden, knowing his heart and taking it to a world that he desires to hear.
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Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, Jesus said. Then we'll go forth as the church militant, as a strong and mighty army seeking to bring in the lost and bringing in the sheaves that are ripe for grain.
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Our Lord's call to his disciples was to do the work of evangelism and contains promises of rewards and I don't have time to get into all this, like I said, but Jesus teaches his disciples here that there's a great urgency, folks, and this is,
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I believe, where we have failed as a church. We have lost that urgency. You want to read urgency?
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Read the book of Acts. They had urgency. The Bible says, everywhere they went, they spoke about Jesus.
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Everywhere. And they turned the world upside down for Jesus. Don't you want to see that?
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Don't you desire that? I do. Jesus spoke of great urgency about reaching the lost, which the harvest symbolizes.
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Folks, we need to be broken about this. I don't think we are because we don't see the immediate need like we should, and we don't see, and we're not compelled by the love of Christ as we should be.
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The question our Lord gives to disciples again, He answers it. There's other times
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Jesus speaks of this. In Matthew chapter 9. Very quickly, you can turn there with me.
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Matthew 9. I want you to see this. Look at verse 35 to the end of the chapter to verse 38.
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Then Jesus went about the cities and villages. Let's look at the Lord Jesus Christ.
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He's the Lord of the harvest, isn't He? Teaching in their synagogues. He was teaching in the synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
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The King has come. The kingdom has come with Him. And notice what it says in verse 36.
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And when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them. Folks, Jesus was broken because they were weary and scattered like a sheep having no shepherd.
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Can we be moved like this? And then He said to His disciples.
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He spoke to His disciples. They never forgot this. The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
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Therefore, what does He say to do? Pray. Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
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You can never go wrong to pray. And may we be one of those laborers. Amen? Go with me to Luke chapter 10.
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Look at this as well. Jesus speaks pretty much the same words in a different way, in a different context, different crowd, but some of the same disciples.
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What does He say? Chapter 10. Look at verse 1 to 3. After these things, the
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Lord appointed 70 others, also sent them two by two. He sent them out two by two.
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I think that needs to be re -evaluated today in our evangelism.
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Before His face and to every city. Notice that. Every city and place where He Himself was about to go.
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And then He said to them. Notice the same words. The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few.
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Again, the same thing. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
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Go your way. Behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. That's it.
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It's great. When here you see that the
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Samaritans were coming to Him. I think this was indicating the whiteness.
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Maybe their heads, the whiteness for the harvest. Lift up your eyes.
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The white clothing maybe of the Samaritans were not for sure what He meant by it. But may have looked like white grain.
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White heads on the stalks. An indication of the readiness for the harvest. Until the great end harvest, folks.
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And this is what I want to lead us to. To the application we need to see. This is a call to urgency.
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But what can give us the divine urgency? That's the question. What compels us? Well, the love of Christ compels us.
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But what gives us the divine urgency? And can I tell you one thing that really will get the divine urgency going and the machinery going inside of us?
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Is recognizing that our time is short. Number one. And that Jesus is soon to come back.
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For the grand harvest of all when He returns back as King of kings and Lord of lords.
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Folks, this should get us going. As we look that the Lord is coming back soon and just look around you today.
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Time is so short. And we need to redeem the time. The second coming of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. There are benefits in reaping what is sown.
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Go with me to 1 Corinthians 3. I'd like for you to see this from Scripture.
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And this is in context to pretty much what Jesus is saying. But it's a different situation.
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Church of Corinth was mentioned by Brother Keith this morning. In Sunday school, it was a very carnal church.
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Very worldly church. And yet the Apostle Paul comes to them and notice in chapter 3.
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He says, And I, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual people but as carnal as to babes in Christ.
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I fed you with milk and not with solid food. They probably couldn't handle it. That's what he says. For until now you were not able to receive it.
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And even now you're still not able. And keep this in mind. I really believe that this church of Corinth as worldly as they were in that day is much more spiritual than many churches in America.
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And then he says you're still carnal. You're still fleshly. You're still worldly. Why? He tells them.
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For where there's our envy and there's strife and there's divisions. That's carnality. Pettiness.
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These sins have crept in. Little Levin, Levin's the lump. He says, And among you are you not carnal?
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Are you not fleshly and behaving like mere men? And then he tells,
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What are they doing? Listen to this. They were in competition. They were raising up one and putting down the other and they were lifted up men and listen to this.
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For one says, I am a Paul. And another says, I'm of Apollos. Are you not carnal?
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Stay with me now. Who then is Paul? This is the
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Apostle Paul, folks. He says,
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Who then is Paul? Who is Apollos? But ministers through whom you believed.
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Servants. That's all. As the Lord gave to each one.
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I planted. Apollos watered.
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But God gave the increase. Folks, this is what we need to come back to. These are servants of the
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Lord. God needs to be glorified. This is why this woman, this
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Samaritan woman turned that city upside down because she said, This is Jesus. Christ.
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Paul says, I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase. So then neither.
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No, that's what he says. For neither he who plants is anything or he who waters.
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But God who gives the increase. You know what he's saying? He's saying, I am nothing. Apollos is nothing.
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All we are is servants to do what he has commanded us to do. God is the one is to be glorified.
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God is everything. That's what he's saying. Verse 8. Now he who plants and he who waters are one.
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Even though they're nothing, but they're one. They're together. They're not in competition to this person, this person.
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Ha, I'm better than you. I won 10 ,000 souls to Christ. Ah, you didn't even win one.
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That's an exaggeration, but that's actually what these people were thinking in the church of Corinth.
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Competition. This one's better than the other one. Ha, he speaks better than him. He delivered more of a powerful message.
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They're nothing. It's God. It's God.
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He who plants and he who waters are one. And each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
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What he's saying is, at the judgment, it is the Lord Jesus Christ that will dish out the rewards.
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Verse 9. For we are God's fellow workers. Isn't that wonderful?
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He doesn't need us. He's all sufficient, but he chooses to use us. Now how humbling is that?
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I remember a missionary. Excuse me if I get emotional here. He came to me when
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I was in the Christian Missionary Alliance. I was struggling. He said, beloved, look to God's call in your life.
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This man was on the missionary for 60 years, and I looked up to him, and he was just, nobody didn't know who he was, and he came to me, and I was pouring my heart out to him, and you know what he told me?
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He said, look, I'm right along with you. I'm a ditch digger just like you.
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And this man was on the mission field for 60 years? How'd you think that made me feel?
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I got nothing to whine about. Boy, it puts a fire in me.
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But boy, it was such an encouragement to me, hearing that missionary said, I'm just a fellow ditch digger.
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I'll see him in heaven. He was about 80 years old. This was about 20 something years ago. Glory be to God.
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We are God's fellow workers. You are God's field. You are
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God's building. Oh, what God can do through you and me, when the
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Holy Spirit is possessing us, and filling us according to the grace of God.
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There it is. It's not nothing of us. It's not something we earn. It's not how good we are.
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God forbid. I like what Moody says. He said, I'm so glad that we're saved by the grace of God, because I don't want to hear people sit down for all eternity and brag about themselves, how they got there.
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Amen? Jesus paid it all. Jesus paid it all, folks.
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According to the grace of God, which was given to me, Paul says, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation.
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Another one builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. You know what he's saying?
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Take heed. This is the Lord's church. Verse 11, no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is
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Jesus Christ. He is the head cornerstone. It's His church.
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He's building it. We're just ditch diggers. And folks, don't you think that's small?
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God can use you for His glory, and you'll be part of something great.
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Oh, hallelujah. Now, if anyone builds on this foundation, listen to this. With gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will be clear for the day.
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What's he talking about? The day of judgment. Now, listen to this. We'll declare it because it will be revealed by fire.
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And the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is.
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And if anyone's work which has been built on it endures, he will receive a reward.
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If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss, for he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
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Let me stop right there. I heard Ravenhill say this about this text. He says the church of Corinth understood exactly what the apostle was speaking about a fire because they experienced a great fire that leveled that city at one time.
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And when fire hits wood, hay, and straw, what happens?
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I burned some straw and leaves yesterday. What happens? You got a heap of ashes. It's just up in smoke.
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Ashes. When the fire hits and tests,
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I should say, gold, silver, and precious stones, what happens? It just melts and it still remains and has all of its value.
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Now keep in mind, and I like what Ravenhill says, the wood, hay, and stubble, the straw, is everything that is seen above ground with the naked eye.
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But the gold and the silver and precious stone is below the ground where no one can see it, folks.
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Those are the things that God says it's of value. You know what he's talking about?
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Your private devotion. Your private life and your intimacy with Jesus.
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That's what's going to count. And then it's an overflow from that that you tell people about Jesus. It has weight to it.
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It has value to it. And then on the day of judgment when we stand before him whose eyes is like a flame of fire and that fire goes forth and tests our works, what kind of value is it going to have?
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Are you going to be a knee deep of ashes? Or if you're going to have gold, silver, and precious stones, something of value, something that counts for Jesus.
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Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the
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Spirit of God dwells in you? That's the question. See, that's the key right there. Do you not know that the
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Spirit of the living God dwells within you? Folks, that's the fire.
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That's the presence of God. That's why we're different from the world.
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That's why we do the will of God. It's because the Spirit of the living God, it's
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Christ in you, the hope of glory. Folks, we must keep our eyes upon Jesus in divine urgency, seizing every opportunity that He presents to us in our time and not waste any time because our time is like a shadow, like a mist.
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It's here and then it's gone, then there's eternity, no more evangelism. There will be a judgment.
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I like again, I want to say Ravenhill, there's one thing that will really curve your living. It's the fear of God in the light of the judgment seat.
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I amen that all the way. I need to preach that to myself. The only hope of salvation that people have is
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Jesus Christ. Let's be urgent about it and charge them with love and command them because God says
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He commands all men to repent everywhere. Repent and believe the gospel for the fields are white to harvest.
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Meaning the right time of salvation into God's kingdom is right now. Always the present, always the now, not tomorrow, now.
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Now. Today is the day of salvation. Praise His name.
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Let's pray. Oh God our
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Father, help us I pray. Forgive us
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Lord of our laziness, our lack of urgency. Cleanse us and wash us oh
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Lord and be the fuel, flame of fire within us.
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If we're true believers in Christ, we have your spirit living and abiding within us and Lord with joy unspeakable, full of glory,
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Christ in us the hope of glory. Lord we have something to tell the world. It's the glorious good news of the gospel that Jesus paid it all to save souls from hell
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Lord, even brands from the plucking. Oh God you can save to the uttermost but take us oh
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Lord and use us, break us and mold us but in the end Lord you receive the glory.
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May it be so with us Lord. May it be so. So we can see in our generation
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Lord to turn this world upside down for the Lord Jesus Christ and for your honor and glory. We pray this in your name.