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You may take your seat in this gathering. My name is Lanell Dawson Williams. I'm the executive pastor here at 2819 Church. Thank you. To God be the glory. Grateful to be in the room today as we continue in this amazing series. Just believing that God has something special for us on today. I really want to just jump right into the word. I don't want to waste any time. I believe the first gathering we saw and experienced the fruit of the work. And so I just. I don't want to belabor the point. I want God to be God. And so if you can and will, I want you to open up your bibles to the book of John. The book of John. The book of John. We're going to go to chapter number four. We're going to shout out Pastor Philip, Ms. Lena while we turn our lead pastors here in this house.
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Amen.
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Amen. He and I were texting early this morning as he was traveling and, you know, just. He was just, I'm praying for you. I know God's going to do an amazing thing. And my response to him was him. We proclaim, that's it. And we just believe God has something special. And to all of our digital disciples online in the chat, we thank you. We appreciate you. You are a part of our family. You may be in different parts of the world, but you are still a part of this house. And so for that, we celebrate you on this morning. And to those who are in the room who do not believe. Yet. I said yet. Not at all, but yet. We are of the belief that you can belong before you believe you can be in this room and learn. And when the Lord pricks your heart and you are ready to take that walk, we are here with you. John, chapter four. We're going to actually walk through the majority of the entire chapter, but for the purposes of this reading, we are going to actually start with verse number 29 and verse 30. Verse 29 and verse 30. And it reads, come see a man who told me all that I ever did can this be the Christ? They went out of the town and were coming to him one more time. Come see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? If I could pin a title upon this message, I would call it run and Tell that. Run and tell that. When I was a child, it was often that I would find myself into all types of wonderful things. I loved building legos as a child. I remember reading Goosebump books. Books as a child. How many people remember Goosebumps I'm that old. My goodness. All right. Goosebumps. I even remember something called a Tamagotchi. Anybody remember Tamagotchis? My son is 10. He got a Tamagotchi for Christmas. I said, I remember this. You know, my Tamagotchi always died for some reason. But nevertheless. But for me, one of the most exciting things that we would do is when we would have to go to the store to go shopping. I told the story earlier in the first gathering about when I take my children shopping. But when my mama used to take me shopping, she would say the same thing that I say to my. My children when I go shopping. We would pull up to the store, no matter where it was, and she would always turn around and she would look over her shoulder and she would say these words. And maybe your mama said it to you. I don't know about you, but my mama said it to me. When we get up in this store, don't ask for nothing. Matter of fact, don't even touch nothing, Right? Don't even touch a thing. So we would get into the store and we would walk down the aisles and I always found a way, found a way to make my way to the toy section. And I would be excited about all the new Legos and I would. And all the new toys and all the new Spidermans and Batmans and Jokers that were out there. And I remember very vividly going into these aisles. And when I would find something that I would love, I would go back and run to my mother and I would say, mama, Mama, Mama, you gotta come see. Come see what I found. Come come see what I found. And I would drag her along with me to make it to the aisle, to point to the thing that I loved the most, the thing that I wanted her to buy. And she would look at it and say, oh, that's nice, but we not buying that today. Cause I told you when we came here, don't touch nothing. This, this zeal that I had as a child, this excitement that I had as a child, it was everything that I loved could be moaned and found in that one moment. And then something happened. I got older, bills started coming. Life started lifein'. Somewhere between being a kid who could not wait to show my mother what it was that I wanted her to buy. Being a grown up too bothered to look, something died on the inside. You see, the child had a burden to show. And the grown up enemy developed a preference. And see, this is the thing about the word of God. Many of us have lost the Desire that we once had when we first came into the faith. See, most of us didn't even notice that it was dying. We. We didn't wake up one morning and say, oh, my God, it's gone. No. What happened was we didn't even lose our voice. We lost our urgency. Nobody had to teach you how to share the good news. They had to teach you how to sit on it. All right, that's okay. You see, we just. We get busy. We get sophisticated. We got careful. We got respectable. We didn't decide to stop caring. We just stopped getting interrupted. See, lostness stopped being an emergency and became a category. And this, my brothers and sisters, is what we have learned. We've learned to keep our faith private, and we've called it wisdom. We've learned how to be moved by the worship and muted in our witness. We call it being private, and heaven calls it being quiet. A faith that only moves you in the room but never moves you towards the loss has just gotten too comfortable. We have traded a burden for the loss, for the preference of being comfortable. A burden makes you move, but a preference makes you comfortable. Check which one you've got. I'll show it in your week. I'll show it in how you spend your time. I'll show it the way in which you gauge in worship. I'll show you based on your life, what matters more, your preference or Jesus? There was a season in our hearts when we would burn for the lost. That moment when we first came into the faith and everything was about Jesus and we had the Jesus bumper sticker, and we carried our Bible everywhere, and we spread the gospel to anybody who would listen. But over time, that burden, that burning heart kind of fizzled out. And now the only time when our hearts burn is when we show up late to the gathering and we have to sit in overflow. Yep, Our hearts used to burn for the loss, but. But now they. They burn when. When we realize how long the line is, and so we turn back around and say, I can watch it on YouTube. Our hearts used to burn when we were online watching because we aren't close, but we knew that we had to be tuned into the proclamation. But now it burns when you see that Pastor Philip is no longer preaching in this season. Well, you know, pastor's on sabbatical, so I'm gonna be on sabbatical, too, you know? You know, See, that is the problem. We have lost our burden. There was a day when we were excited to be saved. And the question is not just now. Are you Saved. The question is why? Who did your salvation send you to? And this story, I believe, will help us to really understand the power of the words. Come see. Now listen to me. You do not have to be perfect to win the loss, but somebody stays lost. If you stay quiet, you get nothing else from the message. That is the thesis. And John makes that point by putting the message in unlikely hands. Not a pastor, not a scholar, not a theologian, not somebody that is polished, not someone who has platformed or prepared. A woman with a complicated story carrying a fresh encounter, running back to the very people who knew all about her shame, saying, come see a man. So before we get to Samaria, my prayer is that by the end of this message, your heart has been pricked to seek after the loss by telling the truth of who you really are. See, faith that still runs when it finds something good is great. But love that cannot. Watch people stay thirsty while you know where the water is. John, in the book of John, he is the son of Zebedee. He is the one in which Jesus loved, and he was a fisherman in one season. And he is the one who wrote in the Gospel about the Christological nature of who Christ is. It is one of the few and only times where Jesus actually calls himself the Messiah. He's referenced in the text as such. And so this is a very peculiar message that we are getting ready to read. Watch what happens in verse number three. If you open up your Bibles, it says, and he left Judea and departed again for Galilee, and he had to pass through Samaria. You see, that's a very interesting component because, you know, John was very intentional in his writing. That was not the only way to get from Judea to Galilee. You see, Judea is here, Samaria is here, Galilee is here, and the Jordan river along the right side of the territories. The problem is that the Jews and the Sumerians, they had an issue. There was conflict. There was historical conflict. The Jews were actually taught to despise those of Samaria. And so this. This tension was very unique. And so it is very peculiar that Jesus had to walk through. You see, he didn't really have to. He could have taken an alternative route, but he chose to do it. The Samaritans were not just strangers, they were people the Jews hated. And this is the thing when you read, he had to. I don't want you to think of it as a shortcut. He did not have to pass through Samaria to get to Galilee, but he did have to pass through Samaria to get to Her. He didn't have to stumble onto her. He didn't bump into her. He arranged his steps around the fact that she. She needed him more than he needed her. You see, the text does not say Jesus chose to. It says he had to. His had to does everything. When Heaven puts a had to on the name of Jesus, you gotta be glad. Because if he had to, that means he didn't have to try to. That means he didn't have to think about it. He had to. And when Jesus decides that he has to do something, something. Things have got to move. Shame has to move when Jesus says he has to. Isolation has to move when. When Jesus says he has to. Labels have to move when Jesus says he has to. Your self esteem has to move when Jesus says he has to. Your hiding place can no longer hide you because Mercy has an appointment. Jesus took the road everybody avoided. He entered the region that everybody despised and sat at a well to wait. And here it is. A woman at the well who thought she was coming for water. Jesus knew that she was coming for salvation. See, she came to the well for water, but heaven knew that she was thirsty for a rescue. Could it be that the place people avoid may be the very place that Jesus appoints? You see, your shame may know where to find you, but so does Jesus. See, some of us thought that the place of our shame was proof God had left us. Yeah. Can I ask you something? What if the place we thought disqualified us was the place that Jesus chose for the meeting? All right. That's okay. That's okay. Not the cleaned up version of our lives, the messed up version. The one we don't like to tell people about. The one that we write in our journal and lock away and hope nobody reads. The one that we put in the closet and lock the door. The real us, the trifling us, the cussing us. Oh, okay. So y' all don't cuss. All right, that's fine. The well, the place Shame used as evidence against her. And Jesus turned that evidence into the moment of his pursuit. So let's look at the text. Let's look at the text. The text says this. It says in the sixth hour. My goodness, in the sixth hour. That's noon. That's 12 o'. Clock. That's not a normal hour to draw water. You drew water either in the beginning of the day when it's cool, or in the evening when it's cool. Because at 12 o' clock, you would be there by yourself. Normally, women gather together in the morning and the Evening, you take up the water from the well, you carry it back to your home, you drink it, and then by the end of the day, you go back and you get the rest. This is the thing. Why would she go to the well at 12 o'? Clock? The woman, potentially, was organizing her entire day to avoid people. Yeah. See, when you have been hurt long enough, you build a life around isolation. You move at the safest hour. You take the quietest route. You late, but you leave out early, see near people without ever being known by people. See, you can be surrounded by people and still be hiding. Shame does not always look like rebellion. Sometimes shame looks like scheduling. Avoidance is what people call wisdom when it has not been healed yet. And see, avoidance may protect you from people, but it also can imprison you from your purpose. All right? And some of us have learned how to do church the same way you're. You arrive just late enough so nobody can talk to you. You get out early just enough so nobody can touch you. Avoiding the chat online, you. You go to overflow on purpose so you don't have to be in the room. You take a safe distance. You say stuff like, I live 20 minutes away, so it's raining, so I'mma just watch it online. I live in Union City and I'm a digital disciple. No, you just at home. Now. You'll drive an hour and a half to get to a football game, but you refuse. Oh, okay, that's not y'. All. Praise God for you being in the room, but for y' all online, you know, now you live up the street. You right across the street from Greenbrier talking about, I can't make it. Come on. Watch this. I'm not minimizing what happened to her, but watch. The shame does not just wound you. Shame starts managing you when you leave the house. Who to avoid? Which room should I go into? Which conversation should I try to avoid? Which invitation should I accept? Which version of yourself should show up in the conversation? That is why she came at noon. See, noon is not just the time of the day. Noon is what happens when pain becomes a pattern. So, so, so, so Jesus does not just come to forgive her past. He comes to interrupt the system her past created. And we're not just asking God to heal what happened. We need God to confront what we built because of what happened. See, see, see, see? You can be in the room and still be at the well. All right? You can be known and you can know where the water is and still arrange your life around hiding. See, the well is her hiding place. Now watch that hiding place become her sending place. Want you to look at the text. Verse number seven says, a woman from Samaria came down to draw water. And Jesus said to her, give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city for food. And the Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, Remember, they did not like each other, asked for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria. For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. And Jesus said In verse number 10, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. The woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw the water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get living water from? Now, watch this. She is being literal. The well is 100ft deep. No rope, no bucket. And she's like, well, how are you gonna get water out? Because she is thinking about the well, but he is talking about a spring. She is thinking, can you make this need to get water daily better? Jesus is saying, I came to deal with why you keep having to come back to the well in the first place. See, there's a difference between relief and rescue. Relief helps you survive the cycle. Rescue break you a well, refreshment, a well refreshes you for a moment. A spring sustains you. For within the well, makes you draw, you carry, you run out. You go back to the well, you try to get more water. The water Jesus gives is what's inside of you. He says, a spring of water welling up is eternal life. He does not offer a deeper bucket. He offers himself. And that is the danger of an untreated heart. See, when you're thirsty, if the source is wrong, the cycle will continue. When I was in college, we used to use the term. I know I'm old, but we used to say that people are thirsty if they consistently ran after somebody, they didn't want them anymore. Yes. They used to be like, yeah, you thirsty, dog? You know, I. I remember one time, my homeboy, he was so thirsty, I got a bottle of water I put on the table. I said, you good? Good. Cause, dog, you thirsty? No, they was talking about me, but never mind. I'll just play it. All right, listen, listen, listen. So here's the thing. She was offering a drink to the only one God who could end all of her thirst. See, thirst sends you back to what disappointed you. I'm gonna say that again. Thirst will Send you back to the thing that disappointed you. See, thirst has a memory. And if Jesus does not heal it, it will keep driving you backwards back to what damaged you. Same path, same pattern. Same relationship. Same bed, same vice. Same challenges. Same bucket, same disappointment. We have all been lowering our buckets somewhere, and we keep pulling up empty. And some of us are not tired because life is hard. We're tired because the source is wrong. And Jesus did not come to decorate your well. He came to become the spring from within. Look at what the Bible says in verse number 13. Says Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give to him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of living water welling up from eternal life. And the woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw more water. Look at verse number 16. And Jesus said to her, go call your husbands and come here. Wait a minute now. Wait a minute. Wait a second, bruh. Well, that jumped real fast. All right. See, if I'm her. Me personally. Me personally, if I'm her, I like Jesus better when we was talking about water. I like the blessing of Jesus, you know, rain down. I don't know, man, like, I like that version of Jesus. Give me that Jesus, who loves to give gifts and makes promises, and it's like a genie that I can rub on and I can get anything I want. Give me that Jesus. But. But we love the blessing Jesus. Until Jesus becomes the surgeon Jesus. Everybody wants the gift until he puts his finger in the wound. Everybody wants living water until he says, go call your husband. Yeah. Yeah. See, grace will hold you, but grace will never lie to you. Jesus loves you too much to hydrate a lie. So she reaches for water, and he reaches for the truth. He's not asking because he lacks information. He is cognizant enough to know that she actually has had more husbands than that. He's seeking out her honesty. He already knew the five husbands that she had had. He already knew that the man she was with right now. This is not an interrogation. It was an invitation. Living water brings the hidden places out to light. And some of us want Jesus to fill our bucket while we keep editing the story. See, we want the gift, but we don't want the truth. We want the relief, but we don't want the honesty. Jesus loves you too much to bless the edited version of your life. See, some of us don't want to tell the truth and shame the devil. As my grandmama used to say. We don't want to tell who we really are, what we've really done, who we have really been around. But the truth shall set you free. Look at verse number 17. The woman answered him, I have no husband. She said, wait a minute. So he. So he brings her to the one sentence she can finally tell the truth about. I have no husband. And watch the mercy. He does not crush her with the truth. He meets her in it. He says, you're right, you don't. One honest sentence in the presence of Jesus can become the doorway to a new life. Look at what he says. He says, for you have five husbands, and the one you with now is not even your husband. What you have said is very true. Now slow down. Wait a second now. I've been reading this text my whole life, and I'm like, wait a minute. Five husbands. See, naturally, we assume, based on our own cultural context, that that means she had five affairs. The text never says that. The text gives us no permission to turn her into a punching bag, nor to scandalize her story. What if five husbands meant five funerals? What if five husbands meant five moments of abandonment? Because in that time, a woman could not leave a man. The man had to leave the woman. Five times somebody walked away. See, the town counted her husbands and Jesus counted her wounds. See, we know enough to know her life was broken, but not enough to pretend like we knew her. And isn't it like people to know just enough about your story to judge you, but not enough to understand what happened to you? And that's why you can't judge people's praise, because you don't know the hell it took to even walk into these doors. You don't know what they've been through, what their week looked like, the arguments that they had, the depression that they have to fight, the moments of suicide, the baby daddies and baby mamas, husbands and wives and cousins, money challenges, life challenges, the fact that they are in the room, got a tear coming down their eyes. It's enough. See, people often know you. People often know your facts, but do not understand your fractures. See, a fracture is a very small, small break. Oftentimes, people with fractures don't even have to wear a cast. But that does not mean it doesn't hurt. That's another sermon for another time. But Jesus does, and that's the point. The town knew enough to whisper about her, and Jesus knew enough to heal her. See, they knew her reputation. But Jesus knew her wound, and they labeled her. But Jesus loved her. They tried to avoid her, but Jesus sat and waited on her. Everybody who had something to say about her story was hiding one of their own. See, that's why you never throw rocks at a glass house. And that is how gossip works. It spins your secrets to cover its own. Now watch this. Twice in three verses, Jesus proclaims and professes that she's telling the truth. He says, you're right. What you have said is true. He named the worst parts of her story, and he attached shame to none of them. See, he. He can know all of it and still not leave you. He can touch the deepest wounds, then not crush you. Tell the truth, still be full of grace. So she does what we do. When Jesus gets too close, she reaches for religious debates. Look at the verse in 19. The woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers, we worshiped on the mountains, but you say Jerusalem is the place. In other words. Yeah. Can we talk about worship and not my wounds? I mean, can we talk about anything else? About what my life and my past has been? Before you judge her, we do the same thing. We would rather debate worship than surrender to the wound. It's called intellectual deflection. What about them? Well, what about her? Well, did you see what they did? Well, at least I'm not that. At least I didn't do this. At least my children don't act like that. Anything that keeps Jesus from touching the place, we have learned to protect. But she does not run. She leans in to see and watch what happens. In verse number 25, the woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming. The Messiah is coming. He who is called Christ. When he comes, he will tell me all things. And then Jesus says to her, I who speak to you am He. That is the clearest revelation of Jesus. Professing that he is the Messiah, he tells this to the person with the messiest resume you see at a well in Samaria, a place he's not supposed to be, to a woman with five husbands and no name in the text, not because she's qualified, but because he chose her. And Jesus is still choosing the unqualified, the unlikely, still sitting in the heat for the one everybody keeps writing off. He did not expose her to shame her. He exposed her to sin her. See, exposure in the hand of Jesus is not punishment, is preparation. You see, a good doctor does not show you the scan on your body to humiliate you. He shows you the scan because he found the thing that he can treat. Five husbands was not a verdict. It was a diagnosis. And the patient who walks out healed becomes the loudest voice in the waiting room. Y' all missed it. That's okay. That's okay. So watch this verse number 28 and 29. So the woman left her water jar and went away in the town and said to the people, come see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? This is. This is so amazing. Did you see what she says? She left her water jar. The jar was the whole reason for her to be there at noon. Her routine, proof that she came empty. And John says that she left it. But why did she leave it? Because she came carrying a jar. But she left carrying a witness. See, the jar stayed because the thirst changed. Some things only have power because you still thirsty. The woman changed. She came with a container and left with a calling. She came with shame and she left with a shout. She came alone and went back to be a witness. Isn't that how salvation works? See, you came in this church one way, but you left out another way. You came in with carrying sin, and now you walk out professing and proclaiming that he died on the cross for your sins. She didn't drop the jar because she forgot it. She dropped the jar because she outgrew it. See, when and if you have an authentic encounter with Jesus, there are some things you just gotta drop them. And watch this. Watch where she runs. The woman who came to avoid the town now runs right back into it. I mean, this is. This is interesting. Listen to what she says. Come see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ come see? Not a sermon, not an argument. See, evangelism is not making yourself impressive. It's making Jesus visible. Not a doctrine she had down cold. An invitation built on the one life she had. It became a door, and it was not a debate. And look at what she leads with. Not the miracle, not his teaching. The very thing she came at noon to hide. He told me everything I ever did. She points people to him using the thing that she was hiding. She did not wait for a new life to witness. I'm coming down your street. Just, just. Just wait one second. I'm coming, I'm coming. She witnessed from the old one. Some of us have been waiting for a testimony that sounds cleaner, but God may want to use the one that still has smoke on it. The thing you're trying to hide may be the very thing God Wants to turn into a doorway to for somebody else. See, see, see, you used to be toe up from the flow up. Now you saved you. You used to be pretentious and now you're reserved. You used to cuss up a storm and now you pray down heaven. See, she did not get a new platform. She redirected the one she already had. And look at how it ends. Can this be the Christ? A question, not a statement. She still didn't have the right answer. She had an encounter. Not a sermon, not a story, a person to point to. And that was enough for an open door. She dropped the jar that carried her shame. And some of us are still carrying ours, hoping that Jesus would touch you but not send you. Feel you, but not make you visible. But what if the thing he healed in private is the very thing he wants to use in public? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And hear me. You have been doing this longer than you can think. You are not deciding whether to witness. You are deciding what to witness for. See, silence is still a sermon. It just preaches something that matters more. See, you cannot receive the spring and still cling to the jar. That is like walking out of a prison but refusing to take off the prison uniform. Yeah, see, freedom will feel strange when bondage is the only outfit you know. Say it again. Freedom will feel strange when bondage is the only outfit you know. The door is open, the sentence is over. The blood on Calvary covered the cost and the record has been covered. But you are still dressed like the place Jesus delivered you from. She left the jar because she was no longer dressed by her shame. And when your thirst change, grip has to change too. At some point, the thing that fills you has to cost you the thing that you were hiding. You see, she dropped her cover. She went right back into town. Can I ask you something? What are you still holding onto that keeps you quiet? She ran into town like a woman on fire. And I don't want you to rush past the cost. They received an invitation from a person they reduced to her reputation. And here is the miracle of verse number 30. Look what it says. They went out of town and were coming to him. A whole town got up and followed a woman they used to whisper about. Not because of her theological prowess, because she was different. And they could not explain it. See, the change in her was the argument. And this is the beauty of it all. You see this in verse number 31. 31. Well, actually. I'm a jump. I'm a jump. I'm going to jump. I'm going to jump. I want to go to this. I want you to go to verse number 39. Go to verse number 39. It says this. Many Samaritans from the town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. Did y' all miss that? The same town that judged her are now saved because of her. Jesus sat there for two days and many more believe because of his word. And we have heard ourselves. And they said, we have heard for ourselves. And we know that this is indeed the savior of the world. By the time Jesus was done, the whole town was saved. And the text names the exact line that did it. The embarrassing one. He told me all that I ever did. They all knew her story. And that is what makes the testimony dangerous. She's not speaking to strangers to impress them with a polished version. She's speaking to people who know too much. They know the names and the whispers and the patterns and the noon walks. And they knew all about her. And they said to themselves, I know a man because she said, come see. So when she says, he knows everything about me, they knew exactly what the cost was. Her scandal became the door that everybody in town walked through. Her worst chapter in her life became the town's first chapter. Now, you just watched the most unlikely town in the Bible get saved. Now I want you to hear what it actually did. I'm gonna free you. We think if we open our mouths, we have to carry the whole miracle. We have to be able to debate every objection to faith. We have to debate every doctrinal concern that every wound and every hypocrisy and every unbelief. It all has to surrender to one conversation. No wonder we stay quiet. We gave ourselves a job that Jesus never assigned. You think the win is the conversation? It's not. Nobody asked you to close the deal. They asked you to open the door. Stop trying to save them. He saves you. Point. You are the cup. You were never meant to be the cure. Your job is to carry the water to the thirsty. It was never your job to be the water. You ain't got to be impressive. You don't have to be brilliant. You don't have to know the Nicene Creed. You don't have to know the Apostles Creed. You don't need to know eschatology or numerology. The only thing you have to do is say, come see a man. Just carry what you have received. See, cups do not heal anyone, but cups make the water available. See, here's the thing. You bring the invitation, and Jesus does the work Open your mouth. He opens their heart. You point to the well, and he makes the spring. And evangelism is not just you doing God's job. It is you joining with what the spirit is already doing. You gotta get that weight off your back. Now. He came looking, and she was met, and they did it for themselves. You do not find him in a vacuum. You yourselves were changed because somebody said to you, come see a grandmother, a mother, a friend, a cousin. You saw something on social media, maybe on YouTube or Instagram, and immediately your heart was pricked. And you said, I want to see for myself what it is that God is doing. Can I be honest with y' all about something? Me, personally, I like to eat. Thank you. I do. I like to eat, but I also love to cook. If you've ever had my double crusted slap your mama peach cobbler, you would understand why I say that. Yes. I'm serious. It's amazing. I can't give you that. Somebody got my phone number. I said, what in the world? How you get my number? Anyway, but this is the thing. Recently, I was on TikTok, and a young lady, she was online, and she talked about a restaurant that was near my. Near the office. And so I was like, okay, cool. And she. She opened up the plate. She was like, oh, look at this. This is the turkey wings and the ribs. And I was like, yo, this is. This looks good. And by the end of the video, she like, you know, you had the plastic fork. It was like, bit like she bit into the fork. I mean, that's how. I'm serious, like. And I'm gonna put the video up on my social media. Y' all gonna see it for yourself. I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, that looks good. And I was like, I'm gonna share this with the team. So I shared it with a few of the staff members, and I was like, you know what? And they only open, like, Thursday through Sunday. So I was like, oh, yeah, we gonna go there.
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It's Thursday.
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I'm going today. So I went for myself and I ordered the food. And it was crazy because the food looked exactly like the video. You know what I'm saying? You know, like, sometimes you see commercials and the burger don't look like the burger when you get it. Y' all know what I'm talking about. But. But the ribs look like the ribs, right? And they taste so good.
- [42:18]
B
Good.
- [42:19]
A
I mean, they were so good. And I got the peach cobbler. It wasn't as good as my peach cobbler, but it Was, I got the peach cobbler. I know, because if you go and it's nasty, I don't want you calling me. But, but, but I got the Mac and cheese. I got the collard greens. I saw somebody get rib tips. Somebody got the turkey wings. Man, we got everything. It was so good. And the minute we was done, man, I got on social media. I was like, y' all gotta try this food. It's so good. And that place so quickly just got an unpaid missionary. Nobody asked me, but it was so good that I picked up my phone and I said, you gotta come check this place out. Yep. See, when you love something, the embarrassment evaporates. Yep. Because you are not shy. You witness all day long. You spend the confidence that you have on restaurants and on vacations and on opinions, and the. You get silent at your own desk. The problem was never your confidence. The problem was the priority. We are not careful.
- [43:26]
B
We are.
- [43:26]
A
We are not quiet. We are curated. We are not afraid to recommend what we love. We are afraid to reveal who we love. Let somebody take you to a brunch spot. That's good. You be in the group chat immediately. Let there be a sales at Banana Republic or J. Crew. You'll be the first one. Or Tarjay, wherever you want to go, whatever your speed is. You'll be the first one to say, you got. They got 25% off today, but you won't say, come to church. So I'm gonna make it plain for you. This is the thing that we have to recognize. The way that you live your life is a testimony where you go, what you do, how you show up, what you post. See, we're the type of people where we would sit there and we would take a picture or have someone take a picture for us. Excuse me. And we'd be like, oh, you gotta get right. So they'll take 30 pictures, 0.51% up top, down low, horizontal, vertical. Go ahead. Then you get it in the app. You got to retouch it to make sure that it's perfect. And then we'll post it. We'll think about the captions. We'll think about the lighting. We'll think about the hashtags. We'll think about the emojis. We'll think about all of that, but refuse to post about God. What if the person at 2am who's contemplating suicide comes across your feed? Could your words be the words that change their life? What about when you're rolling down the street? Rolling down the street at my six fold. Nope. See, I'm from Compton, so that's all good. Listen. What are you listening to? Huh? What are you listening to? I know some of y' all be in here listening to Sexy Red, but that's okay. Now come on, don't sit here and play me like you don't know. You still be working out with fear and trembling. I know your salvation's still being worked out. It's okay. Now you be rolling down the street music loud as God knows what. I'm old. I'd be like, turn that music down. You know, you don't need that. Don't nobody need to hear what you got going on up in there. But why aren't you bumping worship music? Why aren't you when you drive down the street and your windows are down and people look over confused because you're in a full blown place, you're singing for Christ alone. Why are you not listening to music that's. That saturates your soul? See, that's a witness. How about when you show up to work on Tuesday? See, this is the thing your co workers believe. The Tuesday you more than the Sunday you. Let me break it down for you. See, how you show up on Tuesday is really what they're looking at. I don't care if the Bible is on your cubicle desk. But see if Susie or Sally coming your way and you cuss her out, that right there is proof that God is still working on you. But your witness is what matters. I was. We were out of town recently for my son's birthday. We went overseas for his birthday and we were, we were inside of the hotel. We had to get an extra suitcase to get some stuff. And we were moving things around and putting clothes away because, you know, we had to get it under a certain amount of weight. And all of a sudden as I went out to go get the taxi so that we can get to the airport, cause we were late. These two girls came up to my wife and they saw a shirt and a hoodie and they said, excuse me, do you go to 2819 now mind you, we are literally 13 hours away. She said, I'm an Ethiopian. He bribed you? She said, I watched 2819 and it's changing my life. We went to another church in this foreign country. A woman comes up to me, she says, oh my God, 2819. I watch you guys after this gathering. My life is changing. I even bought the book. My life is changing because of the work of what you guys are doing in a foreign land. See what you wear, how you move, how you think, how you talk, how you show up. It matters. Digital disciples. How you respond in the chat. It matters. How you serve the community. It matters. Serve in 25 is in September, I believe. July. Thank you. In July. Good, good. Sooner. It matters. You don't need a platform to tell people about Jesus. You just need to open your mouth. Your life. It is the loudest testimony one could ever have. I want you to realize something. I'm not here to condemn you. I'm here to wake you up. When you look at the loss, does it do anything to move you? The co worker, the cousin? The person that spots you at the gym? The male lady who drops off your mail? The neighbor who invites you over for the barbecue during the summer? The person at the pool? Lady at the cash register. What is stopping you from saying, come see? Is it our pride? Is it our intellect? Is it our insecurities? But what if Jesus chose not to save you because he was insecure? Where would we be? So what will move you? What is stopping you from closing your mouth? Your embarrassment is not bigger than someone else's forever. See, this is the thing. When I was growing up, used to hear these stories about hell, and hell is real, and you better get right. And you and I used to be so scared. So my initial encounter with Christ for salvation was the fear of actually going to hell. It was not based on the love that I have for him and what he did for me. Right. Right. So. So in theological language, there was this almost shift in culture where we went from hell and damnation to prosperity. So now Jesus is gonna pay my rent, ain't gonna give me everything I want, just reach up and grab it. But then we forgot that when this life is over, there is another part to this story, that the Bible is real. The Revelation is real. The Bible says the dead in Christ shall rise, and those who are behind him as he rides on his horse will come back and there will be a new heaven and a new earth. And that those who do not believe will throw in, be thrown into the lake of fire for eternal damnation. I know you care about the person with your last name, but do you care about the person walking down the street? Does your heart break? The person who doesn't even realize that they're lost? I mean, truly, does your heart break for them? Or is it just, I made it, that's all that matters? Why aren't you inviting them to church? I mean, you come, some of you have room in your car and refused to pick up the phone. There is literally somebody's name in your phone right now. That's going to hell. Matter of fact, pull your phone out. Pull it out now. If you don't want to, you don't have to, but pull it out. Go to your contacts. I'm praying for all the green bubbles, but go to your contacts real quick. Go to your contacts and just scroll through your contacts. I see a name, just. Just one name. And begin to count how many of them that you know for a fact don't know Jesus. You're willing to carry them around in your pocket but refuse to introduce them to the king. 10, 20, 30 homegirls and homeboys, cousins and friends, parents. You have them literally in your phone and you won't even say, come see, come see. A man that changed my life. And maybe, maybe this isn't maybe, maybe everybody in your phone is saved, right? Maybe your whole iPhone or Android phone is just anointed with God's anointed grace. But there are billions of people in the world who don't know Jesus. And if you don't believe me, watch this.
- [53:28]
B
Do you believe in Jesus Christ by any chance?
- [53:31]
A
Nope. He and I cut it a long time ago.
- [53:33]
B
Do you believe in Jesus Christ?
- [53:34]
A
Are you recording right now?
- [53:35]
B
Yeah, I'm going around asking people if they believe in Jesus. Okay. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? So I used to be a big church person just recently.
- [53:47]
A
I. I don't know anymore. I don't know. Yeah, I just. I don't know what to believe, honestly.
- [53:53]
B
Do you guys believe in Jesus?
- [53:55]
A
It's a very complicated question I don't plan on answering.
- [53:57]
B
You guys believe in Jesus?
- [54:00]
A
Oddly enough, yes.
- [54:01]
B
Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Do you guys believe in Jesus Christ?
- [54:11]
A
No. No.
- [54:13]
B
Jesus guys believe in Jesus. Do you believe in Jesus Christ?
- [54:17]
A
No.
- [54:17]
B
Do you guys believe in Jesus Christ?
- [54:19]
A
Oh, well, you're answering that question.
- [54:21]
B
Do you believe in Jesus Christ? No. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Do you guys believe in Jesus? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? No. Do you guys believe in Jesus Christ?
- [54:30]
A
I actually do not. No.
- [54:32]
B
Excuse me. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Do you guys believe in Jesus Christ?
- [54:36]
A
Yes, I do.
- [54:37]
B
You do?
- [54:37]
A
He's my savior. Amen. We celebrate the end, but we fail to count 20 people who said no. Young and old said no. We just saw a video of 20 people that will go to hell. See, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I'm not going to try to sanitize it with just Fluffy language. We just saw all those people who said no who are on their way to hell. And on phones we could just, oh, that's crazy. Oh, yeah, we're just going to keep going. But that guy's page is filled. Hundreds of people who don't believe, But you do. You're the door. You are the door. I don't know how to push this any harder. You are the door to somebody's life changing. It is malpractice to hold on to Jesus, and I give him to others. Who in your neighborhood needs to hear about Christ? Who on your job needs to hear about Christ? Who at the gym needs to hear about Christ? And maybe you're like, I'm too embarrassed. Come see. I don't know what to say. Come see. What you doing today? Come to church. Male lady in my. In our. In our office complex. Every time I see her, I said, you come to church today. I'm coming. I'm gonna be there. I'll be there one day. Every time she thinks I'm just being funny, but she doesn't realize that the Lord placed her on my heart because I don't want her to deliver the mail to me. And then death deliver into the hands of Satan. And maybe there's somebody in this room in this moment. You don't even realize it, but somebody said, come see. And you are now in this room having this conversation. And your heart has been pricked by the simple fact that someone who brought you. You see their life changed. And here you are, your life changing in real time. And maybe you didn't even realize this, but Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart. And the voice in your ear is not Satan telling you, don't do it. It is Jesus saying, come all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. You have been running from Jesus for far too long. Wrong. You have been fighting an uphill battle of doing life your way. And Jesus has brought you in here to give you a a a a from a well that will never run dry to give you what he says is eternal life. Do not miss the opportunity to be in his presence. You do not have to be perfect if we got nothing from this story. Nothing about you has to be perfect. Nothing about you has to be absolutely right. Because I promise you, just because you say yes does not mean all of a sudden you're going to be holy. It's called sanctification. It is a continual process. It is going before the Lord. It is repenting daily. It is saying, lord, how must I be and how can I be? It is having clean hands and a pure heart who can ascend the Lord. But it starts with, yes. It started with someone saying, come see. See, we're not preaching this message for this series. The fruit that remains. Just so that we can have people in church during the summer. We're okay. Because even though we may count how many people come into the room, heaven doesn't count. Heaven takes names. Because the Bible says that your name shall be written in the Lamb's book of life. And when that day comes, I want your name to be next to mine and next to theirs and next to theirs. So everybody in the room, if you feel like the Lord brought you in here and set you up for a holy encounter, to experience his grace and his mercy and his love, for you to say and recognize that he died on the cross for your sins, that he has come and that he will return, and that you do no longer want to have this. This lack of assurance, but you want blessed assurance that Jesus is yours. If you know for a fact that you are a sinner that is saved by grace, still being worked out, still being perfected. But you say, lord, I no longer want to run. I want to follow you. If I'm talking to you, raise your hand right now. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. I see you. God bless you. I see you. I see you. I see you. God bless you. Hallelujah. The Bible says that just in one, the angels rejoice. So we had more than one. So heaven is rejoicing, and so should you. Listen, I want to give you some clear instructions, and I want to make sure we do this after every single gathering. If you have just been pricked by your heart to say, I want to know more. There's a. A tent right outside of this door. It's a black tent. You can go right up to it. You'll get a Bible. You'll get a bag with instructions and directions on what to do next. The goal is for you to keep coming back. Six months. That's all it takes. You give Jesus six months, and I promise you, your life will change. It will not be perfect, but it will be better. You walk out that tent, you go right to that black tent, you get the information that you need, and from there, I want to see you next Sunday. I want this whole church to be filled from room to room, pew to pew, seat to seat. The. Not because we want butts in the sea, but because we want people in heaven. If you've been blessed by the Word, put your hands together.