[0:00] I didn't see y'all. There we go. Good to see you. All right. Well, you know, I picked out a passage today that I'm really familiar with because I've used it a lot over the years. But as I was studying this passage again, trying to reintroduce myself to the passage again, God shows me some new things and some interesting things that I really felt like he wanted me to share today.
[0:29] And so I'm going to be sharing from a very familiar passage before I share. Some of you may probably have a friend like I have. I have a friend that I've had ever since I was in first grade. And my friend was not athletic. He was he was definitely not the athlete. He was always the last one picked. He was always the last pick to be on the kickball team in school. And he really desired to be athletic and he really loved sports and things like that. And so he tried really hard. I mean, he joined the the T-ball teams and he joined the Little League teams. And no matter which team, I would get to be on his team, too, as we were growing up. But he was always on the bench and playing as little as possible when the coaches would put him out there. And he was always the ninth batter. And he always made up for it, though, because he decided he would learn all the sports statistics. He would know all about all the sports. He would do all these sports things. He really loved sports and things like that. And so as he got older, he became to admit that he was not athletic and he still loved sports and he still loved keeping track of sports. And when we were in high school, he knew every statistic for all the baseball players and all the other sports and things like that. And into college, he decided he would become a sports broadcaster. He loved sports so much, he decided he went to UT Martin and majored in broadcasting. And he was the sports broadcaster for UT Martin while he was there. He got to introduce all the sports and do all the interviews with the players and cover the games and do all that kind of stuff. And he was hoping that in life he would be a sports broadcaster later on and never made it into it. But he still, to this day, loves sports so much that if I was to ask my kids, what's the most important thing in Mr. Frank's life, they would probably say, sports. He has now that he's an adult, he's my age, we grew up since first grade together, he has season tickets to the Titans, he has season tickets to the Braves, season tickets to Vanderbilt football, and what? And the Predators, season tickets to the Predators. I almost left one out. And so maybe some of you don't have a friend that's quite that fanatical as I do, but if I ask my kids what's most important in his life, they might say sports. But I want to tell you too that when Frank was a senior at UT Martin, he gave his life to Jesus Christ and he became a follower of Jesus. And before he goes to the Titans games, he made sure his church had an early service so he could make sure he brought his family to church every Sunday. He made sure that he didn't miss a Sunday of church and things like that. So, well, I tell you all that to say that you might look at somebody and say, that person loves sports. That's the first thing in their life when, you know, we might not be able to tell ourselves what's really first in someone's life. And today, as we're talking about worship, I want to say,
[3:40] I've heard this phrase a lot. Whatever's first in your life is your God. Whatever's first in your life is what you worship. But I hope that we can together say, yeah, God, God saves sports fanatics and he uses them for his kingdom. He saves all sorts of people for his kingdom and they become worshipers. And he may not take the sports out of somebody. He may not take the other stuff out of somebody. He may use those things for his kingdom. And so as we look at this lesson today, I want you to turn in your Bibles to John chapter four. And before we, uh, before we do, uh, read this passage, I'm going to have Graham hold this board for me. I'm going to draw a little picture for y'all this morning. All right. Because as I said, this story is one that I've shared a lot. And one of the reasons is, is I, I love this story. And so the more I shared it, the more I asked God for ways to share this story. And so I've shared it this way for a long, long time now, but I wanted to share the story, uh, first. So Jesus, I'm going to draw him right here. I'm doing stick figures because, uh, well, yeah.
[4:47] All right. Now Jesus came to a well one day and he didn't have anything as hands to draw water out of the well with. I'm going to draw the well and the well was deep. Um, let's see, I'm going to knock the marker a little bit, try to get a little more ink out while I'm talking. And, uh, obviously he didn't have anything get out of the, get water out of the well with. Now, uh, the disciples he'd sent on into town to get food. He had sent them to get some of the harvest of the land. And so they were gone and Jesus was at the well. And about lunchtime, the Bible says that a woman came to the well. I'm going to draw her with a skirt. There we go. You want to go look for me another marker? Cause this one's going to run out. I can tell. Oh, sorry. You know where one is?
[5:36] Thank you. And this woman who can guess what she had in her hands. She had the bucket or the vessel, whatever it was they used in those days. She had what she needed to get water out of the well with. And Jesus saw that she had that. And he said, would you give me a drink? And she looks across the well and she sees that he's a Jewish guy. And she's thinking, how is it that you, a Jew are asking me a Samaritan for a drink? Cause they didn't talk to each other. And, and she says that. And Jesus says, well, you, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that's asking you for a drink, you would ask me and I would give you living water. Well, she says, sir, the well's deep and you don't have a bucket. How is it that you are going to get water out of this well? Are you greater than our father Jacob that dug this well and drank from it himself as well as his cattle and his livestock and his family? Uh, Jesus said, if you drink the water in this well, you'll be thirsty again. But if you drink the water I have to give you, I'm going to say, he's got some spiritual water right here that we're going to draw physically right there.
[6:36] You'll never be thirsty again. He says, if you'll drink this water I'm offering never thirsty again. Well, she says, sir, give me some of this water so I don't have to keep coming back to this well. And so thank you. And so, uh, he says, go get your husband and come back. And she says, I don't have a husband. He said, what you've just said is true. You've had five husbands you've married and the man you're living with now, you never married. Well, she's shocked because he knows everything about her and never met her before. And she says, sir, I see that you're a prophet, but you Jews say you have to go all the way to the temple. T E M P L E the temple building in Jerusalem to worship God. But we Samaritans say, no, no, no. We go up on this mountain. So they go up on this mountain right here. So they were obviously looking close to where the mountains were because she said, we go worship up there. And Jesus says, well, I tell you the truth. At times come where people neither worship on this mountain, scratch that idea, not right there, nor in the temple, scratch that idea. But true worshipers are worship the father in spirit and truth. And she says, well, I know the Messiah is coming. When he comes, he'll explain it to us. And he turns to her and says, I who speak to you am he. Well, she runs off without her water jug and goes to tell the whole town, come meet this man that told me everything I ever did. Couldn't he be the Messiah? And the whole town comes out to meet Jesus that day. And Jesus had to stay there for two extra days on their journey because so many people believed and were saved. You know, it's a wonderful story to remind us that
[8:12] God loves us so much. He wants to meet us where we are and he wants us to come to know him and to worship him. And we're going to look at this story a little closer today. Thank y'all for letting me share it that way. Thanks, Graham. Here you go. Take those with you. Thanks. And as we look at this story and as we go through the scripture together, focus your attention down in the very first part of chapter four. And I told you that story about my friend Frank because I want us all to think about what we really worship today and who we really worship and are we true worshipers. There's a couple of different lessons that I think that Jesus is teaching as he goes through this whole encounter with the woman at the well. And the first lesson is the lesson to the woman. And so that's the one we're going to look at first. And as we look at this, we see that as we get to now, I actually can't read the verse numbers anymore, unless I put my glasses on. So I'm trying to tell y'all which verse without looking at it. Let me put my glasses on so I can read the verse numbers. There we go.
[9:24] All right. As we get to this part where Jesus encounters this woman, we see in verse seven that a woman of Samaria came to draw water. Give me a drink, Jesus said to her, because his disciples had gone into town to buy food. And she says, how is it that you, a Jew, are asking me for a drink? A Samaritan woman.
[9:48] She asked him for Jews do not associate with Samaritans. First off, I want to show you that Jesus engages true worshipers. She's, she's not looking for someone to talk to. She's not looking for a conversation when she went to the well today in this day, but she is encountering Jesus. And Jesus engages true worshipers. She's maybe not realizing that's what she's heading towards this day. And she definitely doesn't realize it. But the Bible shows us clearly that Jesus chooses us. In John 15, 16, it says, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. And then it says, so that whatever you ask in my name, the Father will give you. In Matthew, Matthew 22, 14, it says, many are invited, but few are chosen. He chooses worshipers. John 6, 70, then Jesus replied, I have not chosen, have I not chosen you the 12, yet one of you is a devil. See, he chooses his disciples. Even when he knows one of his disciples is not going to be a real follower. He chooses the one that will betray him. But he chooses his worshipers. He chooses us.
[11:02] And the second thing is that she's not thinking about worship, of course. She's, she can't believe he's talking to him. And I wanted to kind of explain a little bit about this relationship between the Jews and the Samaritans. You probably know, and you've probably heard that the Jews and the Samaritans didn't get along because there are several different stories in the Bible that kind of point that out.
[11:21] I think we understand some of the reasons, but there are several reasons why the Jews and the Samaritans didn't get along. And one of the first reasons is, is that the Samaritans in Sychar had been conquered by the Syrians and had intermarried and they were thought by the Jews in Jerusalem not to be fully Jews. And so they really didn't like them for that reason. That's one of the most common reasons to be known. But there are several other reasons too. One other reason is, that these Samaritans only accepted the first five books of the Bible. That's all. They did not accept the Psalms. They did not accept any Jewish prophets. And that was a thing for the Samaritans.
[12:04] They had a thing. There's only one Jewish prophet and it's Moses. They don't accept any other Jewish prophets. Only Moses. And that's it. And so the Jews really are like, they don't even believe the scriptures. You know, when you talk about the Samaritans, you're talking about people rejecting your scriptures. They rejected all of Isaiah, all of Jeremiah, all of the prophets. And they said, there's no Jewish prophets, but Moses. One more really glaring reason that they didn't get along and that the Jews thought them very detestable is that when they built their synagogue, they decided to bury their members that died out around the grounds of the synagogue. And so for a Jew, that meant when they walked to church the way that they had set up their cemetery around the synagogue, when they walked to church, the Jew, in understanding the scriptures, would say, I can't even walk into the synagogue without becoming unclean because I'm walking on graves of people as I walk into the... So it was very detestable for the Jews. And so this is, these are some of the reasons why they really didn't get along. And so that's why when she says, how is it that you're talking to me because I'm a Samaritan woman. And so she's thinking about these things and Jesus is still choosing a worshiper. He wants her to become a worshiper. And so he's starting this conversation and he's helping her. And in verse 10, you'll see that Jesus answers her about this. And she has just said, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? And then in verse 10, it says,
[13:51] Jesus answered, if you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, give me a drink, you would ask him and he would give you living water. So I think this is the point in the conversation where Jesus is turning it from the physical to the spiritual. We've been talking about physical water, that Jesus is offering that spiritual water. He wants to give her that spiritual drink, that water that she needs to take in so that she can have everlasting life, so she can become a worshiper. And so here, here is this, he wants her to have this spiritual water. And in verse 11, you can see that even though he's tried to change the conversation towards the spiritual, that she's still thinking about the physical. She said, sir, you don't even have a bucket. She's still thinking about buckets when Jesus has offered her this spiritual water, life-giving, living water. And she says, you don't even have a bucket and the well is deep. She's looking at the bucket. She's thinking about the well and how deep it is. She's thinking about all the physical things. And her focus is definitely stuck on those physical things. And it's easy to think about those physical things. We can see them, we can touch them. And Jesus is getting her back instead on focusing on things of God. You know, in, in, in Sunday school, it's easy to focus on the physical things too. Sometimes we can talk about all the things that happened this week or about the game or about whatever has been going on. And we can easily take our focus off what Jesus wants us to have our focus on. And we can talk about those things and tend to move in that direction.
[15:46] But God wants to direct the focus of his true worshipers away from physical things onto spiritual things. And in verse 12 through 14, you see Jesus directing her attention back to that after she asks this question in verse 12. She says, you aren't greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself as did his sons and his livestock. And Jesus said, everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. So he's, he's helping her understand as he gets to this point, he's talking about this water, points to the physical and then says, but whoever drinks from the water I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life. Obviously this water is something Jesus wants to give her.
[16:44] He wants her to have eternal life. So let's think about this water for a second. Think about this water that Jesus is offering. Revelation 22, one says, then the angel showed me the river of the water of life as clear as crystal flowing from the throne of God and the lamb. So there's a picture in Revelation that this water, this living water flows right in heaven. It flows right from God and from the lamb, this living water. Um, revelation 22, 17 says the spirit and the bride say come and let the one who hears say come let the one who's thirsty come and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life. So he's also saying this, this water is the water of life in this passage. He's saying this is what gives real life. The clearest, um, one I want y'all to turn to. It's just a few pages over so y'all can just turn a couple pages to John chapter 7, 37 through 39, talking about this living water.
[18:00] All right. So this is, uh, as Jesus has been at the festival and in verse 37, it says on the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, as the scriptures has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him. He said this about the spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the spirit for the spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified. So as we think about it this way, uh, the scripture is pretty clear in John chapter 7, that this life giving water is the very spirit of God. Jesus is saying, I want to give you my spirit. I want my spirit to live in you so you can be a true worshiper. So true worshipers have, have the very spirit of the living God, the spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit living in them. Without him in us, we're dead and, and can't be true worshipers. So as we move into the story a little further, she asks for a drink.
[19:15] She says, sir, the woman said to him, this is verse 15, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and come here to draw water. Now she doesn't quite understand. We can tell by what she says, she's still thinking about physical things because if she has this water, she's thinking I'm not going to have to be coming back for this other water. So she's kind of thinking it's, uh, about the same thing that Jesus is offering her. And so she asked for this drink and her response shows something that shows that she is moving towards becoming a true worshiper on this day because when Jesus says, go call your husband, he's checking to see, is she going to confess her sin? Is she going to repent of her sin?
[20:11] Go call your husband and come back. And she says, I don't have a husband. She answered. And Jesus says, you've answered correctly. I don't have a husband for you've had five husbands and the man you now have is not your husband. What you've said is true. And this is where I say, uh, that she is showing that she's taken those steps to become a true worshiper because she says, sir, the woman replied, I see that you're a prophet. Now in this statement, uh, from a person of Samaria who says there's no Jewish prophets except for Moses. And we only accept the first five books of the Bible. She's saying what you've just said is from God. You know the truth. You know my sin and I'm not going to fight it. I'm not going to run away from it. I'm not, I'm just going to say, yes, you're right. You are a prophet. And what you've spoken is from God. So she's, she's coming to this point where she is having this moment of repentance. And she's like, yes, that's me. That's my life. That's why I probably came to the well in the middle of the day when it's hot instead of coming in the morning. That's why
[21:22] I'm here. She's just saying to Jesus, you are a prophet. But she still decides to try to make this a little hard on him because she's not going to say, yep, you're a prophet and tell me now what I need to know. Instead, she's like, but you Jews say you have to go to the temple and we Samaritans say we worship here. And here's where we get to that point where Jesus is like, this is what it was all about. I wanted you to be a worshiper. She's, she's talking about worship. She, she directs the conversation to worship. And so, uh, as we think about this though, this fact that she is repenting and she, she is saying, yep, that's my sin and I'm not proud of it. She's come to that point. Just remember that true worshipers repent of their sin. First John one, nine, if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Uh, she miss, she has a misunderstanding of worship still and what it is. She's focused on the place and the location as you see in this. And it's easy for us to do that too. Say, I, I'm going to worship on
[22:32] Sunday when I get to church or I'm going to worship on Wednesday night. And Jesus is trying to help her realize that place she's known all her life is not the place of worship. And he's trying to turn the view of worship and where it happens to right in here, right inside. And so as we get to this place in the story, he says, she says, I see that you're a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place of worship is in Jerusalem. And Jesus told her, believe me. Now this is important for worshipers. He wants all of us worshipers to believe him. Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the father, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
[23:21] You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know because salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth. Yes, the father wants such people to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. So Jesus lays out this, this map. He tells her to believe and says true worshipers, first off, believe Jesus, what he says, but it's not about that physical place. It's true worshipers. No. Did you catch that in that whole conversation? You don't know what you worship. You need to know what you worship. You need to know. And so this is one of the keys. We need to know him. We need to know God. We need to know Jesus. And we get to know him as we study his word, as we gather together as a church, as we do these things. We get to know who he really is. And this is, this is encouraging too because when you're seeking, the Bible promises you'll, you'll find, when you seek with all your heart, you'll find. He's not going to hold himself back. He wants us to know him. He wants us to know who he is. And so that the, the climax of the story comes to the point where Jesus reveals himself to her. He's, he's told her, you know, God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. In order to worship in spirit and truth, uh, we got to believe this. There's a lot of, uh, people and churches that just want to just worship in the spirit. Don't care about the truth. And that's not what Jesus says. He says, you got to have both. You got to worship in the spirit and in the truth. And so the woman said to him,
[25:20] I know the Messiah is coming. Who's called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us. And Jesus told her, I, the one speaking to you, am he. Jesus reveals himself to those that are ready to become true worshipers. Can you remember the day when he revealed himself to you? When you were looking, when you realized you were a sinner and you needed saving? Do you remember that day when Jesus came to you, said, I am the one you need? I am the one you're looking for. This lady had been looking for the Christ. She was still looking for the Christ. And she was saying all the questions will be answered when he comes. And Jesus says, here I am, here I am. I am the one. Uh, so as we think about this, this lessons that the woman of the well is learning, uh, remember we're chosen. Jesus chose, chooses us. I wrote them down right here. Jesus wants to talk to you and help you be a true worshiper.
[26:19] So he wanted to talk to this woman that day. Third, he, he turns our attention to the spiritual from physical things. Fourth, we need to keep our attention on the spiritual. She kept trying to dart over to the physical things, but he wants us to keep our attention on the spiritual things.
[26:36] True worshipers, let him teach them. You know, he, she could have said, you're, you're from Jew, you're from Jerusalem. You're from somewhere over there. You're a Jew. I'm not going to listen to you, but she wound up realizing that this, what he was sharing was from God. And he let her, he let him, she let him teach her. Uh, true worshipers repent of their sin. True worshipers understand that their body is the temple of God and worship happens everywhere, every day as we remain in the truth. And number eight, true worshipers let Jesus reveal himself to them. And they believe that's the lessons of becoming a true worshipers that I see. There's plenty of other lessons there.
[27:18] Those are the ones that I see as I read through it today. And that's just the first lesson that Jesus was teaching that day, because I, as I looked through it, this is the new thing that I realized as I was looking through it, I realized the disciples were learning something totally different.
[27:35] And so as we think about this again, I want you to hear the lessons that the disciples were learning that day. So think about this. They're not even in the picture at the very beginning, or are they? Let's see again. It says he, he had to travel through Samaria. Okay. Wait just a second.
[27:58] Here it is. Here it is. Verse 7. The woman of Samaria came to draw water and Jesus said, give me a drink. And Jesus said to her, because his disciples had gone into town to buy food. So we have that understanding that they were gone into town. But if you come over to the end of this story and you're looking, they, when, after they arrive, it tells what Jesus had told them to do.
[28:31] And it says here, as we get to verse 34, let's see where I am I? 33. It says, oh, I'm going to go ahead and read verse 37.
[28:49] Let me look at this again. I better put my glasses on so I can see the numbers. That's what's probably wrong. All right. I can't read them in my Bible, but I can read them on my paper where I wrote them down. All right. So in verse 27, the disciples arrived back on the scene. Just then his disciples arrived and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman. Yet no one said, what do you want? Or why are you talking with her? So they've come on the scene and they're kind of looking and going, what's going on?
[29:19] But in verse 31, they try to get him to eat. It says, in the meantime, the disciples kept urging him, rabbi, eat something. But he said, I have food to eat that you don't know about.
[29:35] The disciples said to one another, could someone have brought him something to eat? In verse 34, he says, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
[29:47] Jesus told them, don't you say there are still four months and then comes the harvest? Listen to what I'm telling you. Open your eyes and look at the fields because they are ready for harvest.
[30:00] The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life so that the sower and the reaper can rejoice together. For in this case, the saying is true, one sows and the other reaps.
[30:12] Now listen to this next verse. I sent you to reap what you didn't labor for. Others had labored and you have benefited from their labor.
[30:23] You see, Jesus had sent the disciples into town to get some of the harvest of the land. He didn't say I sent them for food. He said, I sent you to reap what you didn't labor for.
[30:34] He had sent them to get some of the harvest of the land. And so that's why the disciples weren't there at the beginning. And he was talking with the woman at the well. He had sent them to reap some of the harvest of the land. And when they come back, he wants them to learn about the harvest.
[30:50] He wants them to learn about the spiritual harvest. See, it's interesting that they have the same kind of ideas as the woman. They're trying to get him to eat physical food when they come back because they thought, well, he sent us to get the harvest, so he must be hungry.
[31:06] And so, come on, we brought your food. We brought what you asked us to go get. Come eat this stuff. And he's saying, I have food that you don't know about. And just like he was telling the woman at the beginning, I've got water you don't know about in a way he was saying that.
[31:20] I've got some water you don't know about. You need this kind of water. You need this. And what he's teaching the disciples here is that he wanted the harvest of that land, the spiritual harvest.
[31:34] And, you know, he had all these disciples, and he sent them into Sychar. He sent them into the city to get some of the harvest. And the woman winds up going back and bringing the harvest that he was looking for.
[31:46] The woman went back, and she told everybody, I think this is the Messiah. You've got to come out and meet him. And they all came out, and he had to stay there for two days, the Bible says, because so many people were saved.
[31:56] I want to look at that one more time. Because it says, now, many Samaritans, in verse 39, many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of what the woman said.
[32:08] When she testified, he told me everything I ever did. So when the Samaritans came out to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there for two days. Many more believed because of what he said.
[32:21] And then they told the woman, We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior of the world.
[32:34] See, that was the harvest Jesus was hungry for. We need to develop, as disciples of Christ, we need to develop that kind of hunger, to be hungry for the harvest, to see people come to him, to see people giving their lives to Jesus.
[32:52] And so, how many times did Jesus tell stories that you remember in the parables or whatever, where in the parable it was about fruit? They'll bear fruit.
[33:03] Some will bear 30, 60, 100-fold. Or how many other times can you think of when Jesus is saying something like, Apart from me, you can do nothing.
[33:16] Remain in me, and I in you, you'll bear much fruit. He's teaching the disciples this in a physical form that day, that his Father wants us to be part of the harvest.
[33:29] He wants you to be part of the harvest. He wants us to go out and reap, sowing the Word of God, sowing his love, sowing in the Word of God, and seeing the spiritual harvest that he desires.
[33:43] Today, I wonder, which parts of these lessons that Jesus taught did you need to learn today? Because maybe you haven't been a true worshiper, and you've been a churchgoer.
[33:59] The lesson this woman learned in this passage is a great lesson to learn. You need to know the one you worship. You don't want to just come to worship and just worship without knowing Jesus.
[34:10] You want to get to know him. Maybe the lesson you need to learn from this passage today is the one he was teaching the disciples, that you haven't really gotten to be part of the harvest, and you're just letting other people do that job, letting other people do what they can, and saying, oh, good.
[34:27] We'll just sit in church and let everybody else do that. But Jesus is saying, the Father desires worshipers, and he also desires his disciples to be part of the harvest.
[34:39] Think about that today, because God's calling you to do your part. He wants you to go forth from this place and let other people know, those that are sick and dying, those that are sin sick and dying in sin, to know the truth.
[34:56] Because guess what? He makes true worshipers out of adulterous people, out of sports fanatics, and out of whatever you were before you came to Christ.
[35:09] He makes worshipers out of us, and he wants to make worshipers out of everybody, everybody. He wants everybody to know and everybody to worship him. Let's pray. God, I want to thank you so much today for your love, and I pray that you help us to remember to be true worshipers, not to get in a habit and just come to a place and say, that's where I worship, but to worship you in our heart all the time, knowing how great you are, that you've given us the water of life, your very spirit inside of us, that we can be true worshipers and worshiping you all through the world, that others can see your greatness and your goodness, but also, Lord, help us to remember to be part of your harvest, to be fruit bearers, not to be empty, not to be dead in our faith, Lord, but to bear fruit that will last, that we remain in you and see much fruit and see much harvest.
[36:06] Lord, we thank you so much for what you've done for us and for your word. I pray that you'd teach us more today, even as we leave, as we look at your word, and if we think about your word as we go, help us to meditate on it and let it change us forever.
[36:18] In Jesus' powerful name, amen. We're going to have a time of invitation. If the Lord's speaking to your heart, let him do that work. Let him get to know him better.
[36:30] Make sure you know him. Make sure you follow him. Make sure you become part of his harvest. And if you need to come to the altar today, the altar's open. I'll be here if you need somebody to pray with you. Lord bless you. Amen. If everyone will please stand.
[36:53] We will hymn 288. You sure I know this one? I guess we're fixing to find out.
[37:05] We will send you, so I asked, so I asked, Amen.