In the sermon 'Lift Up Your Eyes' by Paul Carrington, the focus is on the Great Commission and the responsibility of Christians to evangelize and spread the gospel. Using John chapter 4 as a primary text, Carrington discusses Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, emphasizing the transformative power of the gospel and the call to make true worshipers who glorify God. He highlights the connection between worship and evangelism, suggesting that true worship naturally leads to sharing the gospel. Carrington also addresses the challenges of fear, isolation, and apathy in evangelism, urging believers to overcome these barriers and see themselves as ambassadors for Christ. He uses various biblical and historical examples to illustrate how God uses unlikely individuals to spread His message and calls on the congregation to be active participants in God's redemptive work, emphasizing the urgency and eternal significance of the missionary task.

Well, we just sang, There is a Redeemer, Jesus, God's own Son. I love that song just to think of the greatness of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And tonight we're going to be looking at the great commission, our responsibility as a people, as the people of God to do the work of God while we have breath, while we have life on this earth. We're gonna be looking at John chapter four. So if you have your Bibles, I'd ask that you'd open to it.

We're not going to go through the whole chapter but we're gonna read a few verses here and then we'll pray. So if you open up, I can't think just as you're opening up, I can't think of a better sermon to follow than the one that we were we're blessed to hear this afternoon, this morning, talking about the worship of God, the cross of Jesus Christ, and then what our pastor Mike was talking about when he read from Numbers 21 of that brazen serpent lifted up in the wilderness for us. And so we're gonna look at this here in John chapter 4. I'm not gonna go as I said through the whole chapter. Some of you may know the context that the Lord himself was almost chased out of Jerusalem when the Pharisees heard that he was baptizing more people than John the Baptist and so he decided that he was going to go up to Galilee and it says here he needed to go through Samaria and when he was at Samaria he met a woman sitting at the well.

When he was sitting there he was hungry, he was tired from his journey, and so his disciples went into the city and he had this long discourse with this woman, first of all, but a woman of Samaria. And they had discussion since he was at a well about living water, And it came to the point where she points distracted the Lord from what he was getting at which was to bring her To her sin and he asked her the question He says go and call your husband and and the woman we don't know what her disposition was But she says I I have no husband and the Lord at that point says you've told the truth. You rightly said you have no husband. In fact, you've had five and the one that you now have is not even your husband. And she perceived that he was a prophet and they went on this kind of interjection, interaction between them about where to worship and one of the things that the Lord brought to her was the fact that the Lord himself, God the Father, is seeking true worshippers.

He says in verse 22, he says, you worship what you do not know in other words you possess a religion but it's an empty religion as empty as the water pot you have on your shoulder but we know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews but the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father is seeking such to worship him." And it goes on as I said we're just gonna focus primarily on 27 to 37 for the bulk of this evening and what it says here She basically repented or she she was converted at that point. She decides what am I gonna do here? She leaves her water pot and she runs back into the town And at this point his disciples came and they marveled that he talked with a woman, yet no one said, what do you seek or why are you talking with her? The woman then left her water pot, went her way into the city and said to the men, come see a man who told me all things that I ever did could this be the Christ then they went out of the city and came to him in the meantime his disciples urged him saying rabbi eat but he said to them I have food to eat of which you do not know.

Therefore the disciples said to one another, has anyone brought him anything to eat? Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say there are still four months and then comes the harvest? Behold I say to you, lift up your eyes, and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest. And he who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.

For in this the saying is true, one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored, others have labored and you have entered into their labors. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you here this evening, Lord. We come with this great grand subject of the Great Commission.

Lord, who is sufficient for these things when we when we look at ourselves? Lord, we see ourselves so weak, so unable, but oh Lord we pray today that you would cause us to truly lift up our eyes. Lord, that we would see things differently, that we would see things with a fresh set of eyes. Lord, that We would understand that what Jesus said, those final words, all power has been given to me, both in heaven and in earth. Therefore go.

That Lord, you would stir our hearts like you've done for the people in days past, in the days of the book of Ezra and in so many times throughout history, Father, we pray that we would not leave here the same, but that you would move upon our hearts, oh God. Please help us, Father. Thank you for saving us. Thank you, Lord, for the grace that you've given to us Thank you that there is a Redeemer Oh Lord that we can come to a knowledge of you through through your son Jesus Christ we we do pray you would help us this evening Lord in the name of your son amen Amen So the context of this of this chapter in John chapter 4 is that God is making worshipers, true worshipers. And if you look at the entire plot line of the Bible from beginning to end, it's that God is out to make worshipers, people who will glorify his name because the primary focus of all of scripture, the primary focus of God himself is his own glory.

And so what we heard this morning was about worship, but the outflow of worship, when you go through the whole Bible, and you will see text after text after text, especially in the New Testament, that the outflow of worship, in this case with the woman at the well, or whether it was the man who was among the tombs in Mark chapter 5 or you go to any other text is you will see that the outflow of worship is evangelism. That people cannot hold the truth about the living God to themselves. You know, I was thinking about it earlier today that imagine, you know, those men that were going through from Jerusalem to Emmaus. You remember after the Lord Jesus had been crucified and there they were walking and the Lord comes in and walks alongside them as they're going down the road. And it's a seven mile walk, I mean it's not a short walk, it's like walking from here to maybe the NCFIC office.

It's a long walk and they talked about a lot of things. And at one point when they finally sat down, they said, you know, stay with us, the night is far spent. And there the Lord was and it says that he broke bread and then their eyes were opened and then he was taken out of their midst and then the next thing you you hear these two men saying to each other was did not our hearts burn within us as he talked with us in the way and he opened to us the scriptures. Now it would have been something if they had said well good night Cleopas, that was an awesome sermon. Let's turn in for the evening.

But you know what it says is that the night was far spent, But they made the journey back from Emmaus to Jerusalem because they couldn't contain the truths of what they had heard and keep them to themselves. And that is what you'll find all the way through. The reason why there's, you look at the book of Acts and it's like an explosion, is that people couldn't keep in for themselves what God had done for them in Jesus Christ. But these men went back seven miles. The night was far spent.

Those days were dangerous days to be out at night on the road, but it didn't matter because they had a treasure in earthen vessels. And what I want so much for us tonight to hear is that you have that exact same treasure in earthen vessels and I my one request tonight my one plea is that you wouldn't hear this as a as a lecture it's something to kind of take notes on and say, you know, yeah, I'll take it under advisement. But my hope and my prayer is that you would be moved, stirred by God to see that what we have in Jesus Christ is something that we cannot, we simply cannot keep to ourselves. And so I just want to impress that upon us because but what you see when I say it's the entire plot line from beginning to end is that is that you see that God's cause is the salvation of sinners Paul says that he says This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world. Why did he come into the world, Paul?

To save sinners of whom I am the chief. And my great prayer is not just for you, my great prayer for myself is that simply that his cause would be ours that his cause would be mine the reason that I'm living is to give glory and honor unto God and and JC Rao made this statement speaking of the church says happy indeed is that church whose members not only desire to reach heaven themselves but long to take others with them while the great door of salvation is still open. And so what we have to see in John chapter 4 is that God is in the business of making true worshipers. But he's not, it's not primarily about saving sinners. It's not primarily about, well, you know, these people are now at peace and at rest.

But what God ultimately, the primary focus of all of scripture, the primary focus of God, the grand design is that he would be worshiped, that he would be glorified. And so when we look at the two things together, right, we see God's grand design is his glory. The uppermost thing in his mind is his glory. But what brings God the greatest glory? It is the salvation of sinners.

And so we see these two things linked together, God's glory and what brings him the greatest glory is that when men and women Come and they come to a relationship with him and worship him and honor him and glorify him and so the Great Commission is at the heart of God himself and we have to see that and And the question is is that is it at our heart and if it's not Then we need to repent as a people. We need to see that it does no good to just pray prayers that we're not gonna actually act on, or to pray for people that we're not actually gonna speak to, but that the Great Commission is both a praying and then a going, in faith believing that God is going to help us because here's the reality is that God, man is at war with God. That's the sad reality. It's as though the moth is at war with the flame. What is the moth going to do to the flame?

It can't do anything but man has set himself in opposition to God and we as our individual people as well as as a church we have the privilege to be ambassadors for Jesus Christ and and this is not you know when Paul says you are ambassadors it's as if he's saying you remember in Matthew chapter 5 he says you are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth. You are a city set on a hill. It's not a matter of act like an ambassador. Try to be salt or try to shine your light.

No, you are by virtue of what Jesus Christ has done for you. You are by virtue of that now an ambassador of Jesus Christ. And ambassadors have a responsibility. They cause men to hear about the character with whom they have to do it. Ambassadors cause men to hear God's claim upon them and his terms of peace, his righteous demands, the way that he's made for them in Jesus Christ and also that there's an infinite, enormously infinite toll that will happen if you ignore what Jesus Christ has done for us.

And so what does the world do? The world says well your biggest problem is outside. You know you talk to anyone who's in the world and they will see racism as a problem or the economy as a problem or something else as a problem the way they're treated. And we come almost in an inescapable collision as Christians. And what do we say?

Your greatest problem is the cancer that is coursing through your veins called sin. And so right away, if we try to butter that up or try to make that nice, you're gonna end up in a situation where you compromise the most important message. And this message that we have, I want you to just consider for a minute. If you think about this for a second, At the two bookends of the Bible we have Genesis on one side and Revelation on the other side and when you look at the book of Genesis what do you see? In Genesis chapter 3 man is banished from the presence of God.

You could imagine Adam and Eve walking out of the gates of the Garden of Eden with their heads hung. Thankfully, God clothed them. God sets up Seraphim with fiery swords at the gate, and what happens? The curse begins to devour the earth. Man drinks down sin like it's water.

Genesis chapter four you see Cain killing his brother. Genesis chapter six and seven you see God having to flood the earth because of the wickedness of man. War after war, disease, famine. It gets to the point where it says in the Bible that there is none righteous, no not one. There's none that seeks after God.

They weren't even looking for their way back to God. And then how do we get from there, Genesis, and you go to Revelation chapter seven, and it says, and I saw a number which no man could number, of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue, before the throne of God, and it says that they were washed and made white with the righteousness, with the blood of the lamb. And my question to you is, how do you get from here to here? And the only answer for that is the gospel. The gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.

I mean, when we think of what is embedded in the message, that's why Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel. Why, Paul? Because it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek and he goes on in Romans chapter one to talk about how it saves us from the wrath of God and and you begin to think about this what could remedy such a deplorable state as we find ourselves in as men and women and is the gospel how does God get maximum glory when you read Revelation 7 and they're all there worshipping before the throne forever and ever it happened simply because God basically came into this world in the form of his son Jesus Christ and and look what he's done and so what we have to see is that we have a missionary God if Christ was slain before the foundation of the world we have a God ascending God that's all missionary means it's sending we have ascending God who sent his son and then his son sends his apostles and then Paul says this to Timothy that you you choose men who shall be other able to teach other men also and you see this cascading down throughout the ages to the point where we're in the ends of the earth right now in North Carolina and the gospel has reached here and we're sitting and understanding the beauties of God through Jesus Christ and and I just want us to see when God says I am found of them that sought me not That we have a seeking God who's going out to find and and I'm just asking us to consider that we also are called into this labor.

We're called into the labor. I don't know if you know this, but when you became a Christian, you were enlisted into the army of the Lamb. Did you know that? To emulate Him and to follow after Him, to do the things that He did, obviously and always entirely relying on him for results, but you were enlisted into the army of the Lamb. And sometimes as a church, as a people, we can be so comfortable seeking more and more comfort, more and more entertainment, not knowing that That's for the future.

I understand when I say comfort that we have a God of all comfort, but but let's not confuse The beauties and the peace and the glories of heaven with now which is a time of warfare and it's a time of struggle in our own problems with sin but also for the glory of God on the earth. And the stakes are immeasurably high. When you think of the people all around you, you know I look around sometimes and you see people so careless. It says that in Proverbs 1, that the careless ease of fools destroys them. And an analogy to think of is people are cascading, lying down on the bottom of a boat as it nears Niagara Falls.

And what is your role as a believer? It's to shout, to holler out, to do what you can, to say there is danger ahead. Repent, turn, or you will perish. And many people will cascade over into eternity, heedless, not understanding the stakes. But what about us who know?

When you think about this, I heard my wife sent me something the other day, you know, these grace gems, and one of the things that Thomas Watson said, he says, thinking about hell, you know what he says? He said that when a man has been in hell for five million years, that he is no sooner to a date of release than he was on the very first day. I mean, the idea of eternity, that you will never be released because you did not turn at my reproof is immeasurable. It's immeasurable. And you think about this, that every minute 108 people perish.

Every single day, 155, 000 people just fall off the edge, so to speak, and go into eternity. And our job as believers is to intervene to tell people, warn them, preach to them because of the stakes being so high. John Flavel said it this way He says some men have spent 40 or 50 years on this earth and have had scarce One hours communion with their own heart He says it is a difficult thing to bring a man and his heart together on such business, but it's hard. It's difficult It's uncomfortable to begin to talk to men about the most important thing Where do they stand with God and what about the sin in their lives? It's difficult and I understand that but we have something to say to people We are not to keep silent and on the other hand there's the judgment and then we have the great exchange that he who knew no sin he became sin for us so that we could become the righteousness of God in him and you think about all that God has for us the immeasurable joy that we experience even now think about it but it's nothing to Be compared to what's coming so on the one hand we have the judgment the fearful That's what Paul says therefore knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade men and on the other side We have the hope of glory.

I mean all I'm trying to impress on us tonight is that we don't just have a yeah it's interesting. You know it's a good message to think about but we have we have something that not no one else can even compare to in Jesus Christ. Will you keep it to yourself? Will you not be stirred and moved upon to consider what God has done for us? And so on 27 to 31, and at this point his disciples came And they marveled that he talked with them, with a woman.

Yet no one said, what do you seek? Or why are you talking with her? And so here we meet a woman. As I said, she's in possession of a religion as empty as the water pot that she brought. In fact, she leaves the water pot because she found something significantly greater.

Jesus said, I have, if you drink of this water you'll never thirst again and she drank of that water. And when we were going on, think about yourself and your sin and your folly, just like this woman, do you think she came that well to meet the Lord? No, but when we were going on in our sin and falling it's when Christ intervened and met us I didn't have any plans to turn my life around and you know turn over a new leaf so to speak That wasn't my plan but God came and he saved me and the reality is this that the woman at the well Who knows what kind of reputation she had you can only imagine But she was in no different a situation than the noble Pious Dr. Nicodemus that we met in John chapter 3 who needed to be born again religious but lost without any hope in the world and so it's important for us to think about these things that that God will often take pleasure in using the most unlikely instruments you and I could be a young girl giving a track to a woman at the mall or at the Walmart or something like that God can easily take these things.

He's done it all throughout history That's what Paul mentions in first Corinthians The basings of this world confounding The wise and he takes pleasure in that he uses a woman right here He spreads the knowledge of salvation through an entire town Through a debauched undone broken woman who had to come at lunchtime so she could avoid Everyone else in the heat of the day to the well And in verse 32 to 33 it says this and this is so important he said to them, I have food to eat of which you do not know. Therefore the disciples said to one another, has anyone brought him anything to eat? And the question is, is this, is that, remember at the beginning of John chapter four, if you recall, I know we didn't read it all, but it says, quote, he was wearied from his journey. But here we're seeing a man fully satisfied. They're offering him now food, and he's saying, I'm not even hungry.

I have food to eat that you don't even know about. He's refreshed, he's satisfied. It's as though he's saying something of which you're ignorant of has occurred, which has so delighted my soul, so that I have no appetite for natural food. Have you ever felt that, that when you've extended or drawn out your soul to the hungry that it's there's a satisfaction in your soul? No doubt if you've walked with the Lord for some time that has been your experience as well Maybe it's been few and far between but but that is how we often are is that when we we extend ourselves and draw ourselves out Not just to do a good deed, but to proclaim that the riches the unsearchable riches in Christ, that there's a satisfaction.

Not that I can say, what a good boy am I, but that you've spoken of things pertaining to eternal life to glorify your God, to glorify Jesus Christ. And he says these words to them here, he says in verse 34, my food, you know, you would ask the question, well, what is this food? And here he clarifies it. He says, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. And this is the thing, the King's food, this is what satisfies him.

And notice what it is, it's doing his will, the Father's will. You remember earlier up we said that the Father is seeking true worshipers? Well now the Lord Jesus has found a true worshiper and it's been his food. It's been his sustenance. It's what's kept him going and will keep him going to the very last and keeps him going even now as he sends men, as he sends women out and it's something to really think about that food if you think about food right what is food?

Food is something that we ingest and we ingest it, it assimilates into our body You know it helps us it it satisfies us it gives us energy and all of these things But here we find that as something goes out of him He's finding more nourishment than it than the food that he would naturally take into himself And that's where Jesus said he says it is better to give than to receive. It's more sustaining to do that. And I think a lot of times what we do as a people, we can be so great. It's almost like an all-you-can-eat buffet of eating and eating and Enjoying but there is a perishing world We know that but are we moved? Beyond the comforts of What we are experiencing to a dying world that is lit when you talk to people out there Some of us have had so many different experiences, but you talk to people out there and you begin to understand the ravages of sin and how it takes its toll.

I don't know, but you cannot help but be moved. And the only cure, It's not a psychiatrist, it's not some pill, the only cure is Jesus Christ. And we have that. Will you not dispense it? It's a question.

Will you not dispense it? Not just when the opportunity presents itself, but would you make it part of who you are? See, you are an ambassador of Jesus Christ. I don't know how else to say it, but that by virtue of that, you have a mission, and we have a mission to go into the world with all of the discomfort and all the Offense that comes with the gospel and to tell men The good news first oftentimes strip them down with the bad news so that they may see their great need for salvation. But there are not many people, I remember living 20 years, and when I first understood the gospel, I was 20 years old.

And you know the first words out of my mouth, sitting in my bedroom, having read the Sermon on the Mount, I said, how come nobody ever told me there was another way I was angry now I had no idea about the sovereignty of God I had nothing who knows I told me the day before I probably would have not listened God knows exactly but but I remember 20 years old 20 years on the earth not a Christian coming to me and saying, you need to repent of your sin, no one. Because, you know, it's not socially acceptable to go to people with the gospel. It never has been socially acceptable in any culture, at any time throughout history, to interrupt and intrude upon men to tell them of their sin and their need for a Savior But now it's time for us as a church to consider these things at the very heartbeat of the Son of God If we are joined to him would not the pulse of that heartbeat reach down to our limb wherever we are in that body and cause us to awaken, to revive, to consider the ways of God?

You see, oftentimes as Christians, and I just want to say this, I think it's important that we're so satisfied with the husks, and I too am guilty of it. We will talk about almost inane things, things that don't matter so often, even amongst ourselves. I used to joke back home in Canada, I don't know what it was like down here But but there was a point in time when green tea was the big thing I would joke that people are more zealous for the gospel of green tea and what green tea can do for you Then they are for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can be more zealous to get a man in office for four years than you are for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That's the reality.

We can be so taken up with things that do not matter. Not to say that that doesn't matter at all, But in relation to what we're talking about things of eternity We need to really consider these things to ask yourself. Well, what's my food? What's my food? When was the last time you sat at the King's table and eaten of the food of giving out the gospel to the stranger.

I'm not talking about you being an evangelist or anything, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about just being moved upon so that you you go out of your zone of comfort to talk to somebody because that's what Haggai says in Haggai chapter one where the people are saying well now is not the time it's inconvenient now is not the time to build the Lord's house while what were they doing they were building their own paneled houses what are you taking up with primarily think about that what are you taking up with primarily It's so easy to be distracted with things that are important. I'm not saying abandon our homes or leave your job. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying what consumes you?

What gives you joy? Is it when you get a new thing, a trinket, or something else that will fade? What is it that gets you excited? Ultimately, it's really worth thinking about. And so we need to love the Lord Jesus Christ so much that we can see our role as nothing more important than sharing him with people Who do not know and in verse 35 it says do you not say?

There are still four months and then comes the harvest behold. I say to you lift up your eyes Look at the fields for they are already white for the harvest. And if I had to say what this message would be entitled, that's what I would beg. And I would beg it of myself, can we lift up our eyes? Why would he tell his disciples to lift up our eyes because our eyes are so often where on the ends of the earth even as believers were on the ends of the earth yes praise God we worship God but so often the gravitational force of the things that this world come in and what do we do?

We forget the things of eternity. We don't live as though we will stand before him one day. We don't live as though that neighbor will spend eternity in one of two places forever and ever. We don't live as though we we've been invested with the greatest treasure you can ever think of, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And here he's speaking to Samaritan as the woman's gone, and he says, there are still four months.

Isn't that what you say? There's still four months. And then comes the Harvest. He says lift up your eyes. Can you hear the footsteps of the people?

The Samaritans were on their way to the town as he's speaking. And you get a chance here to see that something that had such a poor beginning, the Samaritan woman at castaway, she couldn't yield anything of her own, she was just a derelict, irresponsible woman, and now we see God using her as the first evangelist in the New Testament. Behold the power of the gospel to change sinners. If you have lived in this world, myself and my wife, I know some of us have grown up in the world, sometimes you've forgotten what it is like to be a slave of sin. In a good way, It's good to forget some of that, but it's also good.

Paul says, you know, when he talks about I'm the chief of sinners. It's so he never forgot totally what life was like before Christ. You see him in Acts three or four times. Every time he had the opportunity he would talk about his former life as a blasphemer. He was injurious, persecuting the church, but then Christ came.

You see, he never got too far away from where he was. He never got too far from the cross. He wasn't, it wasn't too sophisticated for him. And it's important to think about what do you see when I say lift up your eyes when you look around What do you see because what you see is gonna determine? It's gonna determine something it's gonna determine what you actually do when you look at a man downtown Raleigh or in Wake Forest or somewhere.

Does he look savable? Isn't that a question I've asked myself? Not verbally, but before I go up to a person I've asked that question. He looks kind of kind of rough. I don't think he's savable.

What an ignorant foolish thing to think in my mind. It hinders us. You know, is this going to be too messy? Is this something? You know, you've got to think about what do you see?

You see, as the disciples, they saw a repulsive Samaritan woman. Jesus says, I see a polished jewel for the crown. You see a woman who doesn't know her left hand from a right hand. I see a repentant sinner born anew. You see filth and a good for nothing.

I see a true worshiper, a daughter of the king. And what he does, he plays a glorious tune on a broken reed. That is our God. The power to save. And so I just, I impress upon us tonight to think about this that some of the most fervent Christians have been those that were ringleaders of iniquity before they were saved think of a man like John Bunyan a man that was totally he was doing all sorts of then God came and Saved him And we ought to think of the power of the gospel and what it can do.

Look what it's done in some of our lives. Will you not be moved upon to think about the people around us, all around us? And I want to challenge us on three impediments here to think about, there are three impediments that I can think of, there might be more, but I want us to think about this, that there's the first one, and I wouldn't even have to ask for a show of hands, but most hands would probably go up, and that is the crippling, that powerful snare of fear. We heard about that this morning, that the fear of man brings a snare And I remember the first time I can actually remember witnessing to somebody I was working for a company in Canada I was about 21 And I waited till the office was a little bit quiet and there was a person, we all had cubicles, and there was someone sitting behind me and I said I'm gonna tell her about the gospel. And I turned around in my chair and I had, I can't even remember the details, I can't imagine now looking back how absolutely awkward and terrible it was But I turned around and I began talking to her about her soul and about the gospel and part way through she stopped me She said are you are you cold?

I? Said what do you mean? It Michael says well, you're trembling your tremble your lips are quivered I was so afraid and so I'm telling you that listen, this is not you're never gonna wake up and say I Don't fear man. This is a mate. I don't feel it's not something that happens Just like you will never wake up one day and say, I absolutely love sinners.

Now I'm gonna go and talk to sinners about the gospel. Do not wait. And you know, I might say well you know, that was a close call and I overcame that, but you know I was thinking about this I was thinking about the message no I didn't overcome it then I remember seven years later I was in Kenya we were living over in Kenya and we were doing missionary work I was going hot to hot talking to people but there was a particular tribe where we were living and if you want a if you want a security guard to watch you at night, and most homes have security guards in these places at night, not just high wires with, you know, chain and broken glass, but they also have security guards. And if you want a security guard, you go for a particular tribe, because these guys are known to be fearless. When they get 13 years old, they have to go out and kill a lion to become a man.

And they don't use a rifle from 300 yards, they use a spear and they have this thing called Narungu, which is a big club that they, you know, finish the lion off with. And I remember at one day I was there in the village, my wife can probably remember, and I was watching two of these men passing by, and you see them passing by, and they walk, they have a sword on one side, no shirt, they wear this skirt, and they just look very imposing. I remember thinking to myself, these guys are too far gone and I never approached them. But you know the next day, these two men, they came to me and they said, we hear that you're here telling people about a man named Jesus And we'd like to hear can we hear what what what this whole message is about and you know what they did They gathered a group of their own tribesmen and we sat under a tree for, I don't know, four to five hours talking about the Gospel. Now I say that to say that it was a rebuke to me because here I was saying, you know what, that guy's a little too far gone.

Fear cripples and I'm sure even now when I stand up on a street corner or wherever it is and you begin to open your mouth there's a fear but yielding to the fear is one thing do you do you go through the fear plow through it some ways are so fearful that we never do anything. And I would just say, go through the fear. The other thing is isolation. Some of us have retreated so far into the warm subculture of Christianity that we don't even know any real non-christians, you know, kind of this crackling fire, pajamas, cocoa type of Christianity that's so comfortable. And it is.

We can be in this nice little almost setting and it's wonderful. But are we moved? See, that's the thing, we don't even know maybe how to even speak to someone who doesn't speak our language. Christianese or whatever you want to call it, because we've gone so far away. And then the worst kind, we've got fear, And you've got this isolation, but the worst one is indifference and apathy We have so much to say about God and eternity about heaven about hell But it doesn't translate when we see people in the streets every day.

Yeah, it's doctrinal, it's important, I believe it, but it doesn't translate to move me because I'm apathetic. I don't know what other cure there is for apathy than seeing Christ high and lifted up, that he came to save sinners and he can save and he will save and I want to I don't go in a little long here I hope you compare with me but I want to just say something here you remember there was a time when those four lepers were outside the gate of Samaria You remember that story in the Old Testament? They were sitting there four lepers. Obviously these lepers can't even go into the city. And they said, why do we sit here and die?

Why not go over to the camp of the Samaritans, the Syrians, that they kill us, they kill us. If we sit here, we die anyway. And they went over to the camp of the Syrians and what did they find that The camp was actually totally empty because the Lord had caused them to panic and run off and here they are And you can see it says in in in second King 7 that They were going from tent to tent, and what were they doing? Gathering gold in one hand, silver in another hand, getting food, and then they would go and hide it, and go to another tent, and then to another tent, from one Sunday to another Sunday, never sharing what they had until one of them said you know what One of them said we do not well This day is a day of good tidings and we hold our peace And they ended up going back to this city women eating their own babies and if you look at the relationship between this situation and That situation back then our day and their day It's really no different that the torment of men and women today and if we are Accumulating we thought it was all for us to sate ourselves on the word of God, is it possible that we are not doing well when we hoard it for ourselves?

We throw it up in the air, we talk about it, But do we ever come to a place where we say we do not well? Because there's people out here languishing while we're full and satisfied. I just want us to think about that particular thing. And he says, lift up your eyes, take your eyes off those paneled houses. Don't set your gaze so low.

And the beautiful thing about becoming an ambassador for Christ, or being an ambassador for Christ, is it shifts everything from being, I have to witness. Oh, fine. See, as I'm preparing this message, I'm thinking, man, is this gonna be that blunt instrument of guilt? You know just coming over people's head and they leave like depressed and feeling guilty or would it be that people would see? Not that I have to witness at least I'll find I'll sign up next week to go to the abortion mill or I'll go to the Old-age home or so no, but when you begin to understand your your role your calling I don't see it as I have to it's like how can I do how can I not tell people about the greatest thing?

I I get to witness. It's a privilege and that's how the mind shift should be. It's this wonderful thing that we're pointing men to the tree of life that we ourselves have eaten of and found good. It's this thing that once you lift up your eyes you're going to see things differently. You know Colossians talks about that, that this mystery hidden from the ages.

Now in Christ. And Paul Washer says this, he died for dead people. And it is the raising of that dead man that God demonstrates the greatest power ever demonstrated the conversion of a man is of greater is a greater revelation of the power of God than the creation of the entire universe. Think about that, that from the universe, from ex nihilo, from nothing, he created everything. But to take a mass of radically corrupt, depraved humanity and make something good out of it, like those worshippers before the throne in Revelation 7, that's an entirely different thing, and it redounds to God's glory more than the sunrise, more than anything else in this world that's why I think when it says in it talks about how the angels rejoice when a sinner repents because they understand the value of a soul and this is what John G.

Paton said he says this that in heathen him every true convert becomes at once a missionary and he was a missionary for those who don't know to the New Hebrides in the 1800s the changed life shining out amid the surrounding darkness is a gospel in largest capitals which all can read. A heathen has been all his days groping after peace of soul in dark superstition and degrading rites. He learns that God is love, that God has sent his son to die for him and that he is the heir of life eternal in and through Jesus Christ he passes into a third heaven of joy and he burns to tell everyone of the glad tidings Others see the change in his disposition in his character in his whole life and actions and amid such surroundings Every convert is a burning and shining light and I just I just want us to to see this Do you see the power of God to change a soul to change a life? Do you see that what God is doing? He's chasing after, he's pursuing.

Jesus says I leave the ninety and nine and go after the one. We need to see this. You know, I heard an account years ago of a woman who lived on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, which is South America. And she was very poor. She lived in a dirt poor house in a slum right outside the city.

But she had one great possession, and the great possession was that she had a very beautiful, beautiful daughter. And there she was and she knew the temptation and the draw that one day her daughter would leave the house and go to Rio to quote-unquote make a life. And she knew what would happen, what happens to young girls when they go there. And one day the mom came home from work and and she found a note on the table and it says I have gone to Rio to find a life. And the mom was poor, but she scrounged up all the money that she had.

And she got a bus, and she went down to the city downtown, and the very first thing that she did is she went into a photo booth. You know those photo booths? And she took picture after picture after picture of her own face and she spent weeks in Rio going to every nightclub every restaurant every discotheque everywhere she would go she would take her picture and she would put her picture up all over the place. And if you ran out of money and she had no option, so she had to go home. But months later, we don't know exactly the timing.

Her daughter was coming down the steps of a hotel and she had a man on her arm. She had become a prostitute. She was coming down the steps of a hotel and she had a man on her arm. She had become a prostitute. She was coming down the steps of the hotel and she was looking around.

She looks in the mirror. She sees that she's aged 15 years and she looks again and she sees a picture of her mother there and she takes that picture. She turns that picture over and this is what she reads, I do not care what you have done and I do not care what you have become, please come home." That is the gospel of Jesus Christ that we who tasted the the love God for sinners would be moved upon to go out to the highways, to the hedges, the girl with the purple hair, the drunk, the undone, because that was us. We're no different from that young lady. And the love of God should constrain us to think of what it is that God has given to us in his Son.

That's my appeal. He says this in verse 36. And he who reaps receives wages and gathers them, gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together for in this the same is true one sows and another reaps I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored. Others have labored and you've entered into those labors and I just want to implore implore us with this that he is the Lord of the harvest. We can't convert anybody but our job is simply to be faithful, to be faithful.

Think about men of old, like we're talking about Jeremiah right now in the book of Ezra. You know what happened at the end of Jeremiah's ministry? You know how many converts Jeremiah the prophet had? Two, his scribe Baruch and the Ethiopian man who pulled him out of the well. You know it took William Carey seven years before the first convert in India.

Adoniram Judson in Burma was six years, but when you go to Burma 30 years after his death, there are 63 churches, 163 missionaries, 7, 000 baptized. See, he's the Lord of the harvest. I deny him judgment, you get to see that. But God brought it to pass for his great glory. And here we are, all of power has been given to him in heaven and in earth, all power.

And Calvin says this, now the wall is pulled down and the Lord orders the ministers of the gospel to go far out to scatter the teaching of salvation throughout all the regions of the earth and and this is the work it's simply this to go it's to go to be to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ per chance. God would grant men and women repentance. That's all it is. And we need to think about these things. Not everyone, I wanna, you know, sometimes we can leave and feel guilty but I understand not everyone is an open-air preacher I'm not saying next week month let's all go out and try your your hand at open-air I'm not saying that not everyone is an evangelist but everyone every Christian is a Missionary in the sense that you have something to say to somebody else about God the God of heaven and the gospel of Jesus Christ Will you say it will you be silent when you should speak?

And and it's really this that If you think of the encumbrance is the worst thing is the encumbrance is to keep us from the work and we just want To get past those I just want to leave you with some encouragements It is the first step that really costs the effort You know when I turn around to that lady at work and you kind of jump into that water and once you're in you're in and you begin the discussion it's uncomfortable it might be you might talk to a person it might be the worst conversation you've ever had but what do you do after that you say I'm never doing that again or do you pray Lord please help me help me You have a choice at that point. And it's two things I want to just leave us with this. There are two things that are needful. Two things and it is not the gift of gab. A lot of people, I've said this myself and I've heard people say this, if I was only more like so-and-so I would be so much easier, but you're not But it doesn't matter because there's only two things that are needful the joy of God's salvation Like the woman we just met at the well number one and then a life of consistent godliness that you're living for God you're drinking from the fountain and honoring God those are the two things that are needful and if you have those two then what what hinders you from going don't wait for for favorable opportunities for the winds to blow in the right way.

Just consider the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ on that cross. Consider the pardon that you've obtained. That oftentimes drives me that I've obtained such pardon. I was, you know, if I say who is the chief of sinners you'll put up your hand I'll put up my hand because we we know of What we were like but let that be something that keeps you going forward that if God could save me Is it too hard to save her or him? No What's one dead mass of flesh to another?

There's no difference. Dead is dead. And so do you believe that there is nothing more important to a person than the destiny of their immortal soul? And if that is the case, if you believe that, then you will open your mouth and be awakened to a sense of your responsibility to go forward. Just leave us here with this, that William Carey on his deathbed, he breathed these words to the Scottish missionary Alexander Duff, when I am gone say nothing about Dr.

Carey. Speak about Dr. Carey's Savior and that should be all of our pleas not unto us O Lord, not unto us but unto your name. Give glory for your great mercy and for your great truth. Understand here on this earth, Hebrews 13-14 says we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.

Can we as a church seek that city, understanding that this life is just a vapor? What are we spending it for? Let's spend it for the glory of God and preach Jesus Christ. So will you pray with me? Father, we come before you.

Father, we ask you to grant us repentance as a people, that you would give us eyes to see and hearts to understand and That you would move upon us Lord that you'd stir us To see the the glories Jesus christ the riches the unsearchable riches in him. So please help us lord be prayed Help us be pray in Jesus name, amen.