Well, good morning, church. It's good to be with you today. I appreciate the opportunity to come and stand before you here at Underwood.
As it was in the bulletin, I've got four children. My oldest is at UNA right now and finishing up an education degree and serving as an intern here in town as well at one of our local churches, one of your local churches.
And I'm a little hot up here. I get loud, too, so just be ready. If y'all are ready to sleep, you're in the wrong place, all right? What a great time of worship. Thank you, choir and musicians. It's a good time.
And I have 41 churches in Limestone County. A lot of them do a lot of things different ways. So I'm just going to tell you, you're blessed and highly favored to have the team you have to do what you do. And so please be kind to them. Show them love and respect. And pray for them as they lead you here at Underwood.
I'm getting a lot of feedback still, man. My ADHD and my OCD are going to have a spell, and we're going to be here until 3 o'clock. All right, there we go. That's good. I really can project, and I'm just having a conversation right now.
So we're going to be in John chapter 4. Go ahead and turn your Bibles to John chapter 4. I don't know what's happening in your county, but I know in Limestone County, we're the fastest growing place in Alabama. Okay? Cotton fields and corn fields are turned over everywhere, and now they're being planted with families and houses.
We used to call Athens Mayberry. Well, Mayberry is gone. I'm just telling you. And oftentimes in my churches, I walk into the bemoaning of the growth of our county. And I know that things are changing, and it's not like it used to be. And was it Leonard Skinner said, "Tuesday's gone"? You know? And so thank you. Things are changing all the time.
All right? You're going to see a lot of things change in your time. In fact, if you've been around a little while, there's a lot of stuff changed. Most of our kids don't know what a pay phone is or a roll-down window in a car. Right? And so things are changing all the time.
And in that conversation with our folks, we get a lot of pushback about the influx of folks from places like California, Colorado, and Connecticut. They're all coming from everywhere. I think there's a California dude in the house I heard. Praise the Lord. I love you, man. I'm glad you're here. I'm a Florida boy, so I'm not even from here either. But I've been here so long that when I go home, they ask me where I've been. Because I get a little, now I've got more twang than I had growing up. Because Florida is the Yankee capital of the South, just so you know.
But we've got this influx of folks from all over. They drive different. They honk at you more than folks used to in Mayberry. And there's a lot going on over there. But what you have to look at it as, yes, there is development going on. But what it is is opportunities.
Because there's only two things in this world that are going to last forever: the Word of God and the souls of men and women and boys and girls. And for some reason in Limestone County, and I hope in Lauderdale County as well, in Colbert County, whatever, I'm not sure where you land that over here in all this area, but I pray that you'll understand that for some reason God is trusting us with all these people from all over the world.
And I don't know why he's doing that. I don't know why our geographical area there in Huntsville is exploding at a rapid rate and people from all over the world are finding us. I'm in that place now to be called home. And here we are sitting there. Instead of complaining about what used to be and, well, the longer lines at the grocery store or the gas pumps, maybe I should take the opportunity to think what it's got up to.
Because I know I've read this book, and I know that, you know, sometimes we can look around and go, it's getting pretty bad. It's getting rough. Listen, it's always been bad. It's going to be bad until the big finish. And so be ready for that.
And so here we are. So here we have this opportunity to engage people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Can you imagine standing in a line somewhere fussing about the traffic and the person in front of you just moved here, and then you want to talk to them about Jesus and they're like, "Man, you don't even want me to be here"?
It also means we've got to think differently about our churches sometimes because we have a very Christian southern culture in our churches. In fact, I had this illustrated very well the other day with one of my senior adult friends. Ms. Gladys just had her 90th birthday. She had her 90th birthday last week. She's a cool lady. I told her, your senior adult guy, one day when I grow up, I'm going to be a senior adult minister. I think that's the coolest job in the world, man. I'd do it now if they'd pay me to do it. I love it.
Even as a student minister, my senior adults are always my best friends. They also pay to rent, just so you know. So it was really fun. I enjoyed getting kids to go to camp. And she was telling me about talking to one of her neighbors and inviting them to church. And she said, "I've been taking this family food, cookies, and been at birthday parties and Christmas. And I finally, Brother Kev, just got to the point where I was ready to talk to her, invite her to something that was going on at our church."
And they've had this, again, you've got to understand, multiple investment points. Lots of time and energy placed in this relationship. And she said, "Brother Kev, I went over to talk to her. She just calls me Kevin. She said, I asked her, I said, will you come to church with me Sunday? I'd love for you and your family to come."
And they moved here from out of state. And all of a sudden, her demeanor changed. She said this, "Ms. Gladys, if we want to go to church, we'll let you know."
Now, the difference between what that woman said and what you would say before you came to Christ, when somebody invited you to church, when I was a pastor, this is what I'd hear. I'd knock on someone's door and they'd say, "Brother Kev, thank you for coming by. One day I'm going to surprise you and I'm going to show up at church."
That's a lie. They said the same thing the other person said, just in a different way. What they were really saying was, "If I want to go to church, I'll let you know." But I, she asked me, she says, "What do I do?" And she was broken because she cares about these, this family and these children.
I said, "Ms. Gladys, nothing should change about the way you invest in this family. Now you know how to pray. And you keep showing up with cookies and you keep showing up at birthday parties. You keep showing up, you keep loving on them. You may not, and you know what, you need to invite them again. Because if it's what we think it is, if we believe that Jesus Christ is the answer to sin, if we believe that he, eternity separated from him is a list that you spent in a real place called hell. If we believe those things, if we believe that, then how can we know what we know and live like we don't?
For some reason, I don't know how it is. We can come into a place like this and experience the worship we just experienced. And you're going to go to your Bible study class or you've been to one somewhere this week. And hopefully we'll have a great time together in this service. And then we leave this place and run into people and we forget, we forget that their souls are going to live forever.
My wife was a waitress for a long time in high school and college. And they could rarely get anybody to work on Sunday. Did you know that? Sunday. They said the worst folks were the church folks. God help us.
I don't know where you're going to go eat after you get done. But be kind. We're going to dive into the word and I'm going to show you why these things matter today.
In John chapter 4, it's a very familiar passage if you've read much in the Gospels of John. The Gospel of John. I love talking to people about talking about Jesus to others. And there's no better example than that that Christ gives us in his conversation with the woman at the well in Samaria.
In John chapter 4, we're just going to begin in verse 1. I'm going to go ahead and read this text to verse 26. And then we'll come back and jump in a few spots, have some fun. And hopefully God will stir our hearts today.
It says this in the Gospel of John chapter 4, verse 1. Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself did not baptize but his disciples, he left Judea and departed again to Galilee. But he needed to go through Samaria.
I always mark that needed to go through. Jesus was intentional with his life. You know that, right? And there wasn't a step that he took that didn't matter. And sometimes in the chaos and the inconveniences of our life, Jesus is actually putting us in providential places to meet people that are looking for him. Just remember that.
So he came, verse 5, to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Joseph's well was there, and Jesus, therefore, being wearied from his journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
And when Samaria came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
Verse 9. Then the woman of Samaria said to him, "How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink of me, from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans."
Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."
The woman said to him, verse 11, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank it up? And he drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock."
And 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, but the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water, springing up into everlasting life."
And the woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw."
And Jesus said to her, "Go call your husband to come here."
And the woman answered and said, "I have no husband."
And Jesus said to her, "You have well said, I have no husband. For you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband, in that you spoke truly."
The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet." I just wonder how that was actually said. What emoji would she have put behind that?
"Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship."
And Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews."
Verse 23. "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth."
The one said to him, "I know, listen closely now, I know that Messiah is coming who is called Christ, and when He comes, He will tell us all things."
And Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He."
Let's pray before we continue.
Father God, I pray you will bless the reading of your word, as it has been prayed earlier, God, that you would plow our hearts, that you would open our minds, and most of all, God, that we'd leave different than how we came into this, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
I believe last week, y'all had a conversation about the Great Commission. And the Great Commission, and the "go ye therefore" is kind of like the little sentence we used to say when we were in elementary school, "See, Spot, run." Go ye therefore. It's not like it's hard to comprehend or understand.
But for some reason, in the Baptist, it's not just a Baptist problem, but it's a Christendom problem, for some reason, over 90% of us never, listen now, never share our faith with anyone. Ever.
I ask this question often, and I used to ask it to my church members. I mean, I'd ask them, "Who was the person in your life that was most influential in your spiritual development?" And they'd go through, they'd talk about their mom, or their dad, or a pastor, or a Sunday school teacher.
And then I would ask them the next question, which is, if I was to ask that of anyone, would they say your name? Would they say your name?
And so here we see this encounter with Jesus and this woman. And I just want to share with you that she has the same problems that the disciples have. Jesus trying to have a spiritual conversation and connecting it to something that she understands, and yet she's trying to live in the physical world.
Oftentimes, Jesus talks about tearing down a temple and building it back in three days, and they're like, "That can't happen." He talks about feeding people, and he's like, "Ain't no way you're taking these fishes and loaves and feeding this crowd. Jesus, we in trouble."
He talks here about water, and he's talking about living water. And she's saying, "Can you give me a, give me a, give me two words set so I don't have to draw anymore."
So she's trying to live in the physical and trying to have a spiritual conversation. And listen, this is the patience that we have to give with folks when we engage in gospel conversations.
It used to be a time when you would talk to folks and had some, at least some biblical knowledge or information to base the conversation. I want to tell you, we live in the most unbiblical time in our country's history. Folks don't have a Bible with their name on it. The Gideons can't give Bibles out at school in most places. I mean, they're just not happy.
I can't tell you how many adults, even 10, 15 years ago I met, that did not have a Bible in their possession. In the South. In the buckle of the Bible belt.
And so I'm telling you, we assume so much. Most people are getting their theological development from a TikTok reel more so from the Word of God. I'm not saying it's necessary. There are some good things up there, but there's a lot of it that's kind of sideways.
And so we see this woman. Who is this woman that Jesus is speaking with? Well, we see her. Let's just make some observations. We've seen her alone. She's coming in the middle of the day. And I don't know about you, but I know that ladies like to do things together. Y'all like to go eat together. Y'all like to go shop together. Like to go visit people together.
I mean, I don't know about you, but y'all just tell me the truth. If I tell you and some of the brethren here that this Sunday we're going to get done with church, we're going to go eat and we're going to go to Kohl's together. Y'all going to be like, "Brother, what are you doing?" And most of y'all ain't going to go with me.
Fellas, are you telling me? Y'all might go hiking, but you ain't going shopping together. Can I get a whip?
She's alone. So in first observation, there is some kind of isolation. There's some situation that's caused her to be alone. I don't know about you, but it's been hot last week. Y'all know it was hot? It was hot. Worked all week at West Limestone High School doing what we call a Serve 256 project that's trying to invest in our community. We tried to finish before noon every day. It was hot.
Yesterday there was a heat advisory in our area. I don't know if it was over here. Y'all ain't that far away. It was hot. And so here it is in the middle of the day. She's out here by herself. So we notice that first off. We see it's the midday.
Then we see this conversation begin and we notice some things about the way she responds. In verse 7, it says, "The woman of Samaria came to draw water and Jesus said to her, 'Give me a drink.'" The disciples had gone away to buy food.
Then the woman of Samaria said to him, listen to what she says. "How is it that you being a Jew ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans."
So first in verse 9, we see a social and a racial issue going on here. She's basing this either on his personal, his physical appearance or both his physical appearance and the way he's speaking.
Now, there should never be a time when we withhold the gospel of Jesus Christ to anyone based on what they look like or how they sound. Because I'm just going to tell you if you don't have a gospel for everybody, you don't have a gospel for anybody. That's not original. I don't know who said it first, but I like it. Because it's the truth.
And so this conversation kicks up and she begins to state the obvious. Kind of like when you're on the side of the road with a flat tire and somebody pulls by and says, "You having trouble?" He's like, "You're a Jew, I'm a Samaritan, come on now."
And she was a woman and he was a man and it wouldn't have been typical at that time to be a lot of social engagement anyways. And so all kinds of issues are being blown up in this conversation here at this well.
And Jesus answered her and said, "If you knew the gift of God who says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
Now, verse 10 reminds me of a lot of things. I'm going to just share this with you. This is free. Whatever you like to do, God likes to do too as long as it's holy. You like four-wheel drive trucks? God likes four-wheel drive trucks.
I'm fixing to set some man free today. Honey, I told you I've been wanting to buy that truck. Some of y'all like old cars. You like hiking? God likes hiking. You like fishing? God likes fishing. You like shopping? God likes shopping.
Why does God like those things? Well, not necessarily the thing, but it gets you around people. And sometimes God can use the things that you enjoy and are about to get you with people that would not otherwise be in your presence.
And here we see this happening around a watering hole. And the woman said to him, verse 11, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with. The well is deep. Where do you get that living water?"
So what do we see here? What I told you earlier, he's having a spiritual conversation and she doesn't know it yet. She's looking for a bucket, something to draw with. And he's talking about something that happens on the inside.
See, we live in a world that thinks you transform things, that you change things from the outside in. You can change all the parts you want to, but what you came with is who you are.
In the same token, I want to tell you that the gospel teaches that it works from the inside out. That it infiltrates and takes hostage our heart and our life and takes us captive and moves us to surrender our life and our ambition to the one that loved us first and loves us the most.
This is why I struggle sometimes with the modern church in our time because after 20 years of living in North Alabama, only two times has somebody ever asked me about the gospel of Jesus Christ because I guess walking around, I just look like a guy that's got it together. My wife would beg to differ. I got four kids, y'all. I never have it together. We just fall forward. That's what we do. We fall forward.
There's some folks in the house that feel my pain. Broke and fall forward. That's what we do. It's all good. And twice, out of the three times, twice it was the same guy. I'm like, "Dude, you talked to me last week."
What we've done is we assume the gospel in our area. Everybody's all right. Everybody's good. You like the same team I like. You go to the same places I go, and I'm telling you guys if we would just understand.
Listen, you should not be offended if somebody, if someone asked you about Jesus in your life. It ought to stir you to good works. It ought to cause you to glorify your God in heaven. It ought to introduce you to another brother and sister in Christ.
How dare you ask me if I know Jesus or not? Well, they might have just watched you walk in the store. Or they might have followed you on the road. Or they might have served you at lunch last week after church. And they just wonder, has anything really happened?
Because see, the gospel works inside out, not outside in. It's a well of living water that flows up from the inside.
And so this conversation continues in verse 12. She doesn't know who she's talking to yet, and she's challenging. She's kind of giving Jesus the business here in verse 12. She says, "Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us this well and drank from it himself as well as his sons and his livestock?"
And Jesus answered to her in verse 13, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst, but the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."
He continues to drill down in this spiritual conversation, but she has not yet caught onto what's going on. And can I tell you that sometimes these conversations go on for years?
We get in a hurry sometimes and believe that they all, listen, God's called you to obedience, not to change your life. Change in people's lives. He does all that. Your job is to obey. He's told you to cast seed, love people, love the Lord your God with your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.
He told you to do those things. The results are up to God. Listen, if your church increases, it's God. And if your church decreases, sometimes it's God too. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. And the only person that can add to the house is the Lord himself.
And so this conversation continues, and he's talking spiritual and she's thinking physical. And it just takes a minute sometimes to get through all the stuff that somebody's got in the back of their mind before you can get down to the brass tacks of what's really going on in their soul.
It takes a minute. It's kind of hard to go in fast. I always like this. The great theologian Kenny Rogers once said, "You've got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them, and when to walk away."
And discernment in spiritual conversations is important. It's so important. But repetitiveness is good too. Sometimes you get on the elevator with somebody you're never going to see again. But sometimes, there's folks you see every week at the same gas pump, the same grocery stores, and the same restaurants.
I want the same waitress so I can keep praying for her. I want the same guy at the checkout mark so I can keep talking to him. And I can't tell you how many times God's done some crazy stuff.
I'll tell you about the coolest one that ever happened to me happened at the Sonic Drive-In. I hate to tell you all food-related to these conversations, but it is. And I remember Jessica. And I pulled in the drive-in. And sometimes, they've got kind of a hybrid place. You can drive around or you can pull in. Well, I like to pull in. I want to stay a minute.
And so I pulled in. She came to my car. I just happened to ask a question that my second oldest son asks all the time. He reminds me, he says, "How can I pray for you?" And she said, "Man, my brother's been in trouble. Can you pray for my brother?" I can't remember her brother's name.
I happen to have a card in my pocket. I said, "Let's pray for him right now." So we did that right then. That's a great way to begin a conversation. Most folks will not have ever turned me down for prayer. You know that? Because they're reaching for anything.
And it gives me a few more moments to talk about the Lord Jesus. It gives me a couple of moments to grow in depth relationship to them. And when you follow up with them over and over and over again, it's amazing what God does with that.
I gave her a card. And I don't remember seeing her again at that point. Six months later, my phone rings. And guess who it is? It's Jessica. And she says this, "Mr. Kevin, you don't remember me. My name's Jessica. I work at the Sonic Drive."
And I said, "I know who you are." Because as soon as she started speaking, what's God do? He reminds you in your heart. I prayed for your brother. She said, "Yep, because I'm in some trouble. I've made some poor decisions. And for some reason this morning when I pulled open the drawer in my kitchen, your card was sitting right there."
And what she needed was to go to a rehab center. She needed to get a fresh start in her life. She had made some poor decisions that she didn't want to make. It got her in a place she didn't need to be in.
And I just said, "Lord, thank you for putting me at the Sonic Drive-In. Ask a girl about her brother that one day you would take that moment and use it and leverage it for something else that mattered in eternity."
She said, "You just don't ever know what God's up to."
I don't even believe, I believe this encounter was right on time with Jesus and this woman. In fact, look what happens next. It starts getting real personal and uncomfortable, verse 16.
And I just want to tell you, eventually you've got to have the hard conversation. Eventually you've got to have it. You've got to say what needs to be said. It's hard to go in hard and fast at the beginning, but once you create a relationship with somebody, learn their name, learn more about them, you're able to ask questions that are hard to hear.
In verse 16, Jesus said to her, "Go call your husband and come here." And the woman answered and said to him, "I have no husband." And Jesus said to her, "You have well said, I have no husband."
I bet she's thinking, "I wish she'd stop right here." And again, what did Kenny Rogers say? You've got to know when to hold them. And sometimes, you need to be sensitive to someone's response to the questions you have. Just check it.
Listen. Now, he's Jesus. He can say what he wants to say. He knows the rest of it. He says this, "For you have had five husbands and the one who you're now with is not your husband and that you spoke truly."
Now, before we get all crazy and trying to influx our culture into this situation, we kind of think, "Man, this lady's been all over the place." Listen, ladies, y'all are blessed and highly favored to live in the United States of America. I'm just telling you because this particular time in history, she couldn't own property. They weren't driving anything. Couldn't own anything.
So we don't know the back story to why she's at five plus one. Now, if they all died mysterious deaths, an investigation needs to be launched. Maybe one of those Dateline series or something like that. True crime, whatever. But we don't know why she's where she's at. And does it really matter? Does it matter?
Does God somehow litmus test where you've been to somehow dictate what he can do? I've never seen that in the gospel of Jesus Christ. That you're somehow limited to the grace of Jesus because of the story and the life you've lived. That's the beauty of Jesus. The vilest offender who truly believes.
Can you imagine if we were like that? Can you imagine if Jesus was like that? Because the difference between the woman at the well and you and me is her story's in print. And yours is here. To God be the glory. Amen?
So you've got to remember where you've come from. You've got to remember that we've all got a back story. And I love, sometimes people will do this, Brother Larry, they'll start giving me the story of why I shouldn't be talking to them. And they start telling me all the bad things they've done.
Listen, I ain't a pope or a priest. Listen, I used to, when people come into my, I used to come to my office upset about something, I'd sing them my favorite verse. Tell it to Jesus. Because I don't need to know all of it. I can pray with you through it. But you can go direct to the Lord. Aren't you proud of that today? Isn't that good?
You can talk to the Lord today, straight to Him. And cast your cares upon the Lord for He cares for you. And so he says this and she says, he gives her the five husband deal. And the woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet."
I love that verse. I just wonder how she said it. Like I said, how many emojis were behind it? What was the context of that? Did she say it with any kind of thrust? Because she backs it up with a religious response.
And you get this a lot when you talk to me about Jesus. They're going to throw some religious statement. Oh, here's my favorite one. "Judge not that you be judged." That's a good one, isn't it? You ain't no judge.
Oh, I ain't the judge. But King Jesus is. He's coming on a white horse. It's going to be real. And I'd rather you meet him now than meet him there. Meet him now? That's a great meeting. You meet him there, it's bad news bears.
Let's get it on this side. And so she begins to push back. This response is an aggravated response. It's not one of hope or peace. She's agitated because he's asked her a personal question. Expect it.
We can't take everything personal when someone responds to us in a negative way. We can't. This is our fathers worshiped on this mountain and you Jews. That wasn't, that was kind of said like the same way it started with how are you talking to me?
Say that Jerusalem is a place for one ought to worship. He begins to go through a conversation about where worship is and salvation is of the Jews and the hour is coming when the Lord is seeking those who would worship him in spirit and in truth.
And at the end of the longest discourse there in chapter four, something happens. Something changes in the dynamic of this conversation. I believe in those couple of verses there that the Holy Spirit of God settles in and she begins to realize, oh my goodness, he could be the guy.
Because what does she say? Now you remember this would have been a Samaritan would have had a Jew parent of some kind or grandparent. She would have had some heritage, some religious heritage in her life.
And listen to what she says in verse 25. The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming." Whoa, whoa, whoa. Where did that come from? I think the woman at the well must have come to Vacation Bible School at the Underwood Baptist Church one time. She must have come.
How many of you in this place for more than five years have served in some capacity with children? I'm talking about nursery, Sunday school, Vacation Bible School. Raise your hand high. In some kind of capacity, put your hand down.
Sometimes you think those kids ain't listening to nothing you're saying. But sometimes five husbands and a live-in boyfriend later, they remember what you taught them in first grade Vacation Bible School.
Because that seed you're planting isn't a temporary one, it's eternal. What did I tell you the two things that last forever? The word of God and the souls of men and women, boys and girls.
And I don't know why it is in our life when all of a sudden we get in trouble or a difficulty that a song comes to mind we ain't thought about in a long time or a verse boils up inside of us when we need it the most.
But someone somewhere invested time and information in this woman's life and all of a sudden now it's coming to fruition. It's moving from information to transformation. Something miraculous is happening here that only Jesus can get credit for.
And it says this, listen to what she says on the back side of this. The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming who is called Christ, and when he comes he will tell us all things."
And then Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he." I don't know about you, but that would have been some kind of moment. To sit there and go from gathering information about what might be to all of a sudden realize that he has come.
And I ask that of you today. Have you moved from information to transformation? I remember being a 15-year-old boy sitting in a, I've been in church like most people, like some people, not all, not now for sure for a long time.
And I remember thinking about I would sit in Sunday school and I would learn things about Jesus and my son's teacher every week, David Smith, would sit there and he'd say, "Lord, I just pray for the young men in my class that one day they'll come to faith in you."
I'm looking around my room saying, "Man, we all know Jesus. We all hear, we hear every week. We even talk a little bit once in a while." Y'all love middle school Sunday school, the boys, it's great, it's the best. They love talking, they're real assertive, they smell great.
I was Jesus on a parade float one time before I knew Jesus. He looked odd to be 12 years old with a beard, but here he was. And then one day God got a hold of my life. It went from knowing he was coming, knowing he was there. And it changed my life forever.
And I don't want to assume the gospel in this place and think, "Well, you know, you've been in Underwood for 25, 35, 40 years. If you're a third-generation member, I don't even know any of you guys. I'm just throwing this out there if it lands, hello."
But you've never really come to faith and trust in Christ. You know why you haven't? Because you've never told anybody else about who he is. You've never had a burden for any other soul on this side of heaven.
And what you've got is a form of godliness, but the truth is not in you. Because I'm telling you when Jesus Christ comes into your life and wrecks everything, it can't help but find its way out of your life. Can't help it.
How do you know that, Kev? I can show you. It's right here in the text. This story keeps on going. We can go into verse 27 about the white harvest and the disciples come back. It says there's a man in verse 28 that the woman then left her water pot and went her way into the city and then said to the men, listen to what she said to the men of her town, "Come see a man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?"
Verse 30, then they went out of the city and came to him. And in the meantime, the disciples urged him saying, "Rabbi, eat." And they go this whole conversation about you should be hungry and you should be thirsty.
You ever worked so much you forgot to eat? I've been there and too busy to stop me to stop to eat when God's moving in your life. Everything else kind of fades away, doesn't really matter. Time doesn't matter. It's not about the clock or the temperature of the room. You just go and you're just glad to be a part of what God's doing.
And then verse 39 hits. Listen to what happens here, verse 39. "And many of the Samaritans of the city believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified, 'He told me all that I ever did.'"
So when the Samaritans had come to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his own word.
Do you know how awkward and backwards it would have been for a woman who's had five husbands and the one she's with is not her husband to walk into her city and to be so transformed and consumed with the moment that had just happened on the hill to walk in there and just to make them believe that they should even come and hear what she has to say?
How convincing must she have been? How intense must that moment have been for them? And then verse 42 is my favorite verse in the Bible apart from Jesus declaring his own sufficiency as our savior. It says, "Then they said to the woman, 'Now we believe not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.'"
I hope and pray that John 4:42 lives in your heart. I hope you're not here because mommy drug you to church or daddy was here and he's a leader and you're supposed to be here. You're supposed to be at church. No, just to be in Christ's church is just the revelation, the fullness of Christ's work in our hearts.
This isn't it. This is not it. She became a witness and she hadn't even been to a class yet. She hadn't learned the four spiritual laws of the Romans road. All she knew that Jesus was the Christ and he was working in her life.
You say, "Well, brother, I don't know what to say when I talk to people." Well, if you hadn't met Jesus, you ain't got nothing to say. Hello, that may be the issue.
I don't want to mess you up, but I'm just saying if you don't have any burden for lost people, if you don't have any burden for men and women, boys and girls, if a church won't move heaven and earth for the children of their community, there's a problem. There's a problem.
We are not here for us. We exist for those that have not yet joined us. You understand? For his glory and for the good of man.
So think about this. Let's reflect on this woman. She came in isolation. She left in a transformation. She came with prejudice and she left with a purpose. She came with religion and she left with the gospel.
I think also she came with broken relationships and she left with a relationship with Jesus. How about insecurity? And she left with forgiveness. I think about her empty pot and then her leaving with a full heart burden for her community and her neighbors.
She realized it wasn't for her. It was supposed to flow through her. And all that conversation about living water, all of a sudden it never meant to stop with you.
You're saying, "Well, brother Kev, that's just not a part. That's not what I, that's just not me. I just don't, I don't find it easy to talk to people." Well, you have to be intentional about your evangelism.
Let me just help you out. If you don't purposely set your heart to talk to people about Jesus, you never will. I meet people all the time that say, "Well, brother Kev, I'll talk to anyone, anywhere, any day, any time," until it's somebody, somewhere, sometime. It never happens.
You're sitting on go waiting on somebody to talk to you. I'm not sure that's what he told us to do. I think he told us to go and compel them to come. Go ye therefore, see Spot run.
So what do we need to start gospel conversations? I'm going to bring this to a close right here. First of all, you need Jesus. We work with God, not necessarily for God. We are co-laborers with Christ.
You need truth. You need to know what you believe in, believe. If you don't believe that people that die without Christ have been eternally in a real place called hell, then you'll have no ambition for the souls of other people. If you don't believe that, it changes your perspective of others.
Compassion. You've got to love people before you serve them. And I just want to say this right there. Social media is messing us up. You know why? Because we used to have a lot of fun at Thanksgiving and Christmas and birthday parties, but now we know everything about everybody and it makes us real weird.
Knew Uncle John was odd. He's real odd. He keeps posting cat pictures all the time. I don't know what's going on. I don't know what's going on.
And so we get our political leanings, all that stuff just creates issues in our life. Listen, the only thing, the only difference between people in your neighborhood and folks in the next county over is you don't know their business.
And the question is, who's exercising the greater love? The one that knows your junk and loves you anyways or the one that doesn't know anything about you?
I don't know how many convicted felons or whatever else you want to fill in the blank that I've talked to in other parts of the world that also live in my community that need Jesus just as much as anybody else.
And I want to tell you heaven celebrates their salvation as much as any child in your church. It does.
We need to pray. We need God to stir our hearts and break strongholds in people's lives. We need providential encounters. You need to identify your mission field.
I know for us that over 65 to 70% of Limestone County is lost for the most part without Jesus. Did you hear me? 70% of our community, and that's just based on church attendance. And you ain't got to go to be can come and still not know accountability.
You need somebody in your life to ask you tough questions, to ask you when's the last time you talked to somebody about Jesus. I remember sitting in a deacon's meeting, Brother Larry, and I asked this. I started talking about Jessica. I talked about Christopher at Lowe's. I talked about Judy down at the Waffle House. Two of them got into the groceries. There was a lady at the Cracker Barrel too. I think her name was Linda, but I'm just, I'm not sure about that.
And my deacon said this to me, and guys, if you're in leadership, I'm fixing to help you out here just a little bit. "Well, brother Kev, you don't know what all we're doing. We're not here. You don't know who all we're talking to."
I said, "That's great, but I gave you my name so I could hear from you about your names." They got mad at me. Can you imagine that? And they kind of bowed up at me. How dare you ask us about whether or not we're sharing Jesus with people?
Listen, you only do that if you're not. Same ones that complained when we had 25 consecutive Sundays of baptism in our church and the water bill went up. I didn't know the next Sunday that four more were coming and number 23 didn't want to walk through the same water that number one walked through, complained about the water bill.
We had 25 Sundays in a row, but God, I mean it was crazy. Our people started engaging folks and people were, when it gets good is when you start showing up with people that you've won to the Lord and your preacher don't even know about it.
They just keep coming up. I'm like, "Who are you? Who'd you come?" I came with Mr. Garland. Who are you? I came with Brother John. Who are you? I met Mr. Larry down at the Mexican restaurant. He'd been talking to me for months.
When that starts happening, I'm telling you it gets right. And that's what was happening. And it wasn't all of them. It was about 20 folk that got a hold of it and it radically changed our church and our community.
You got to be accountable and you got to be intentional. When your feet hit the floor, man, you got to tell yourself, put it on a post-it note, make yourself have a message every day on your phone that says, "Talk to somebody about Jesus today."
At the least, you do pray for people and watch God do something only he can get credit for. I don't know about you, but I, in the world we live in and the crisis that's going on and relationships and in people's lives, I pray that the story of the woman at the well will echo in your heart and will move you to compassion and sharing.
You're sitting here and you're saying, "Well, brother Kev, you don't know my story. I'm just not that guy. I'm not that gal." I'm going to share something with you and we'll close right here.
A long time ago, I heard a guy say this. I was pretty good. Some of you are sitting here and you're saying you can't do what God wants you to do because of things that are in your mind, things that you're thinking about right now.
Did you know that Jesus took a crown of thorns on his head for all the things in your head that you can't stand? All the things you think about that you wish would go away. You, and then there's somebody else and you say, "Well, I've turned my back on God. There was a time in my life where I was hotter for God than I am right now."
Well, you know what today is? It's a great day to return. And before Jesus went to the cross, they ripped his back to shreds for all the times you would turn your back on him, broke it open.
Well, then you say, and you meet somebody, maybe you'll meet somebody this afternoon. They'll say, "Well, friend, you don't even know where I've been. My feet have taken me places I should never have been."
Did you know that he took nails in his feet for all the places you go that you shouldn't go? And then there's someone else. "Well, you don't know what I've done with my hands. There's things I've touched that I should have never touched."
And I want to tell you that he took nails in his hands for all the things you touch that you shouldn't touch. And then there's somebody else talking about the things that are inside of them.
And I'm just going to tell you that sometimes we deal with a lot of crazy. I wish I could tell you about my mom and how God's done a work in her life. My grandmother's been married like four times, twice to the same guy. You don't mind putting the funk in dysfunctional, we did it.
And my mom's the only one that got out of nine kids. And I wish I had time to tell you about it, but for all the things inside of you that you can't stand, Jesus took a spear in his side for all that stuff in you makes you sick about who you are and even embarrassed at times to talk to God.
Things you've seen that blood from his brow went over his eyes for all the things you've seen that you shouldn't see. And we live in a time where people are seeing things they shouldn't see.
So you're sitting here today in this place at Underwood Baptist Church and you're telling God all the reasons why you can't be the man of God, the woman of God that he has saved you to be. And I'm telling you that your crucified Savior stands before you saying, "I've covered it all."
And not only that, he rose from the dead. There's not a woman at a well, a waiter at a restaurant, someone lost in whatever kind of situation they're in that is too far for God not to do a work in their life.
And I just have to believe that. I've just chosen my life to nominate everybody and let God handle the electing. I'm just going to do that, just nominate them all and watch God do what only God can do.
So this morning you're here and maybe there's a couple things in your heart. Number one, if you need Jesus Christ to come into your life and you're worried about your back story, man, if you've got a better back story than her, go for it. He's able. He loves you anyways. He'll go out his way to meet you even today.
Maybe you're here and you're like me and when I read this passage every time it fires me up about sharing Jesus with people, it just reminds me to believe not in my ability to be smooth with my words but in the finished work of Jesus. That's where it's at.
And this morning maybe you just need to talk to God and say, "Lord, I surrender my day and my times and my opportunities to you. I need to re-surrender myself to evangelism and engage in people in gospel conversations."
Maybe you've got names on your mind. I think about my aunts and uncles that live in Florida and I'm praying that somebody in Tampa, Florida is as hot for God as some of you are here and that people will continue to encounter them and talk to them because they know God, they know about God, but they don't know Jesus.
I can't be where they are all the time, but I pray that someone somewhere will engage them in a gospel conversation that loves them and cares about them.
And today you're sitting here and you've got names of people on your heart and you've never brought them to the altar. You've never laid before the Lord and said, "God, I'm pleading on behalf of this person for their salvation, for you to do a work in their life."
I don't know what it is today. Maybe you need to join me in this fellowship. Y'all got a pretty good crowd here. I'm not sure what's going to happen in the next service, but you're here now. It's a good church, amen? I think it's a good church. Felt like a good place to be today.
Whatever you need to do today, don't leave here with any unfinished business with God. He's able to do more in a moment than we can do in a lifetime.
So right now, let's trust him for salvation, for a fresh fire for souls to burden us with those that need him.
I want you to stand to your feet, close your eyes. I'm going to pray and you come as the Lord leads.
Father God, I thank you for this place and this moment you've given us to gather together on this piece of dirt. And as providential as you were at the well with this woman, I believe you're providential today in this place.
There are some here that need to surrender this area of their life. They know they've never really talked to anybody about Jesus and they're asking you to fix this area of their life, to help them be bold witnesses for you.
So I pray you'll do that today for those that need you, need to be saved, need to be transformed by the power of your gospel. God, would this be the day?
And for all of us, God, let's be burdened so hard with souls of men and women, boys and girls. We'd learn their names, that we'd pray for them, that we would engage them and we'd tell them about the name above all names, the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
God, work in this place for our good and for your glory. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You come as the Lord leads right now.
on Jun 30, 2024
