Think Like A Reaper

0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:02.840 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. 0:00:02.840 --> 0:00:05.840 I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:07.760 I wanted to thank you for joining us today. 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:10.960 Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope 0:00:11.000 --> 0:00:13.000 it gives your perspective to see God is moving in 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:18.480 your life. Enjoy the message. Just put in the chat 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:18.840 right now. 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:20.680 If you're joining us on our EVAAN, one thing that 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:22.759 you thank God for today, and while you're at it, 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:24.800 tell your neighbor here at Valentine one thing you thank 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:27.720 God for. University City, one thing you thank God for. 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:30.400 And if you need a little prompt tell them I 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:34.040 thank God for you. You are the greatest person I 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:35.720 sat next to in church. 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:44.720 Ah week, I thank God for you. Well. Elevation Nights 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:47.800 is coming soon. Everybody clap your hands and thank God. 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:54.040 I haven't been announcing this like I should. 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:56.800 I keep forgetting. It's weird because I get up here 0:00:56.840 --> 0:00:59.080 so excited to preach. I don't even look at the announcements. 0:00:59.440 --> 0:00:59.959 But we will. 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:02.680 It will be September twenty fourth, God willing through October 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:10.360 third in Seattle, Washington, Vancouver, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Anaheim, Boise, Idaho, 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:15.200 Salt Lake City, Utah and Denver, Colorado. Go to Elevation 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:18.319 Nights dot com for more information. We want to meet 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:20.679 with you. We want to praise God with you. I 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:22.920 want to preach to you. We want to celebrate the 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:25.399 awesome things God has done and believe with you for 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:27.200 all of the things that He is going to do. 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:30.720 Is going to be an amazing time. Speaking of an 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:35.080 amazing time, many of our E group leaders are expecting 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:36.720 you to come over to their house this week. 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:38.840 This is E Group connect weekend. 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:42.959 They're getting ready all the We should actually have a 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:47.039 criteria for eGroups. If they have only healthy food, there 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:49.400 should be a disclaimer at that group. 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:52.040 I don't look at that as a benefit. I look 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:56.480 at that like a hazard. But I'm sure you can. 0:01:56.320 --> 0:01:59.120 Find an E group that will really speak to your 0:01:59.120 --> 0:01:59.840 stage of life. 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:01.280 I would love for you to do. 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:04.040 That that way, that when you finish here in the 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:06.640 sermon this week, you can take it like they said 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:09.520 earlier and really apply it to your life and have 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:13.200 help doing that. Tell your neighbor you need some help sometimes. 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:16.720 I don't mean to offend you, but you do sometimes 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:22.120 Sometimes sometimes the enemy comes to snatch the word of 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:24.960 God and you need somebody else to help you keep 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:28.600 it planted and to stay stable. So we've got people 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:31.240 to help you. Let's thank God for all our eager leaders. 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:34.040 If you're leading the group, Hey, Holly, and I want 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:36.880 to thank you. Thank you for your partnership in the gospel. 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:42.000 I hope you will avail yourself to that. 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:50.240 And now it's time preach the word of God. Your 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:56.160 excitement level is amazing. I'm gonna come back out again. 0:02:56.880 --> 0:02:58.320 I'm gonna sit the reset button. 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:05.720 Now it's time to preach the word of God. 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:09.519 I'm excited to be sharing with you today from John 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:12.760 chapter four, verse twenty seven through thirty nine. 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:15.880 Please give your attention to this scripture is very powerful, 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:17.440 the Bible says. 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:21.640 Just then his disciples returned and we're surprised to find 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:26.000 him talking with a woman. But no one asked what 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:29.119 do you want or why are you talking with her? 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:35.240 Then leaving her water jar, the woman went back to 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:39.280 the town and said to the people, come see a 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:42.920 man who told me everything I ever did? 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:48.040 Could this be the Messiah? Look at your neighbors, say, 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:48.840 this could be the one. 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:51.560 This could be the one. I'm not sure yet, but 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:54.800 I'm curious. This could be the one. I'm not completely 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:57.800 solid on it yet, but I'm suspicious this could. 0:03:57.640 --> 0:03:58.120 Be the one. 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:02.720 And they verse came out of the town and made 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:09.440 their way toward him, towards Jesus. Now, meanwhile, his disciples 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:15.080 urged him, Rabbi, eat something, but he said to them. 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:18.240 I have food to eat that you know nothing about. 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:23.400 There's a fine line sometimes in the scripture. I can't 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:27.600 tell whether Jesus is training his disciples or trolling his disciples, 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:30.040 because that's kind. 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:33.360 Of you know, on the nose. Would you like to eat? 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:34.200 We brought some food. 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:35.839 He said, I have food to eat that you know 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:37.760 nothing about. But then listen what he says next. This 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:41.080 is a lesson all in itself. My food, said Jesus, 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:44.560 is to do the will of him who sent me 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:49.520 and to finish his work. My food is to do 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:51.960 the will of him who sent me, and to finish 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:58.000 his work. So the question becomes, what's your fuel? What 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:01.040 fuels you to do what God has called. 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:01.200 You to do? 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:07.400 Is your fuel comparison because that's bad fuel. Is your 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:11.599 fuel validation from others because that's bad fuel. Is your 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:15.360 fuel feelings because that's unreliable fuel. 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:17.920 Jesus said, my food my fuel. 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:22.400 See, most of us eat food for fuel. Jesus was fueled, 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:27.240 and that was his food. But he was fueled by 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:29.119 an agenda that was set by his father. 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:34.560 Are you am I? My food is to do the 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:35.599 will of him who. 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:38.880 Sent me, and to finish his work. Now pay attention. 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:41.640 We're getting close to our main point for today. 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:46.400 Don't you have a saying? Is still four months until harvest? 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:50.599 I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields. 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:55.920 Look at the fields. They're full, they are ripe for harvest. 0:05:56.720 --> 0:06:00.600 Even now. The one who reaps draws away and harvest 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:04.960 the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:09.520 the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying one 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:15.479 sows and another reaps is true. I sent you to 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:19.200 reap what you have not worked for. Others have done 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:22.520 the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:26.000 their labor. And many of the Samaritans from that town 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:31.680 believed in him Jesus because of that woman's testimony. He 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:37.280 told me everything I ever did. You know, your testimony 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:41.159 is a tool. You got to put it back in 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:44.760 God's hand. Don't let the devil have your past. Your 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:47.359 testimony is a tool that God wants to use in 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:51.120 your future. That's where your ministry is going to come from, 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:52.640 from your misery. 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:56.279 That's where your ability to help put other people back. 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:58.440 Together again is going to come from, from the broken 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:00.120 pieces that you feel inside of you. 0:06:59.880 --> 0:07:00.120 You. 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:03.640 So today I want to give you an important lesson 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:05.919 one of the things that God is teaching me. I 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:08.120 think this can be so powerful if you will think 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:10.880 with me. Think with me now now I want you 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:13.400 to feel the presence of God today. But today I 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:15.760 want you to think with me as well about this story, 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:18.840 about your life, about what God is saying. Think with me, 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:21.120 and I want you to think a very specific way, 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:23.040 and this is the title of the message. I want 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:31.480 you to think like a reaper. Think like a reaper. 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:35.040 In this season of your life. It is important that 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:42.520 you mature to the point that you think like a reaper, 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:47.680 not just an eater. Not just where's my next meal? 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:51.400 Not just is it convenient right now? But tell your 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:56.680 neighbor it's time to think like a reaper. 0:07:57.240 --> 0:07:58.280 Not the grim reaper. 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:02.080 I want to clarify you might begin in Spook it's 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:03.320 not October. 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:07.040 But think like a reaper. 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:09.600 Father, I praise you for what you said to me, 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:11.560 Help me to say it so clear that it can't 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:14.640 be missed, and give us the courage to obey. Speak Lord, 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:27.840 we're listening in Jesus' name. Amen, you may be seated. 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:35.240 I like you to write this down somewhere. Feelings come, 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:40.559 Let's write that down. 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:43.160 I like to start somewhere that nobody can argue with. 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:44.080 You. 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:45.280 Start my sermons saying. 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:47.880 You know, Jesus is the only true way to God, 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:49.199 and he is the Son of God, and he died 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:50.400 for your sins and he rose again. 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:51.400 You know, you may or. 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:53.480 May not believe that. And I believe that, but you 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:55.680 may not believe that. So let me buil a little bridge. Okay, 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:57.679 this is what John four is about, that Jesus is 0:08:57.679 --> 0:08:59.640 the Messiah. But let me start with something that we 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:05.240 all can agree with. Feelings come. And one of the 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:07.360 things that happens in worship a lot of times when 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:11.600 we come to church is that we will come to 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:14.360 church not even wanting to come, and then when we 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:17.080 get in the atmosphere of God's presence, we are glad 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:20.560 we came, and we're so glad that we didn't obey 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:23.160 the way that we felt and let it keep us 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:26.480 from what we were supposed to receive. And I feel 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:29.280 this way every time that I do a physical workout, 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:31.600 you know, like a weightlifting thing or something like that. 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:34.880 I never work out because of how I want to 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:38.920 feel in that workout. I meet psychopaths who do CrossFit. 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:42.600 I'm not wired like that. They say they enjoy the 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:45.560 actual workout, and I am getting more to that point. 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:48.680 But actually what puts me in a workout is the 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:53.480 way I want to feel after the workout, and that 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:57.080 became a powerful journaling exercise for me. I call it 0:09:57.120 --> 0:10:01.480 reverse journaling. It's where before instead after your day, you 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:05.320 usually go like, ah, well, you know, I did this 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:06.760 and I shouldn't have, and I ate this and I 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:08.439 shouldn't have and I went there and I shouldn't have 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:09.600 and I said that and I shouldn't have it. And 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:11.760 I do plenty of that, trust me. But if you 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:14.880 can reverse journal sometimes it's just a really good spiritual practice. 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:18.360 It's like asking the question, how do I want to 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:21.960 feel when this day is finished, and you ask it 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:25.480 in the morning, and then you kind of like try 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:28.400 to work toward that with your actions, because if you 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:32.080 just wake up and let the feelings just. 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:32.800 Come they'll come. 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:35.720 And sometimes the feelings come and they catch you before 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:39.760 you've even had your coffee. And this is a whole 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:41.840 room of people who have not had their coffee today. 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:45.600 I could tell they put niquill in the communion cups 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:48.480 out there in the lobby here today. But what I'm 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:52.160 trying to say is, feelings come. Watch this, but they 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:59.199 don't come first. Now, that might be one of the 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:02.360 most powerful things that I ever learned, and I'd like 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:04.439 to break it down with you a little while today. 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:09.760 Say Feelings come, but they don't come first. Say it again, 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:14.240 Feelings come. Write it in the chat. Feelings come, but 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:18.720 they don't come first. And so the feeling of being 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:23.120 tempted is never a sin. It is when the temptation 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:27.520 takes the throne in your life and leads you to 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:30.280 a place that you have no business being, that the 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:34.680 sin is committed. Feelings of sadness do not negate the 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:38.160 joy of the Lord. But it's when I allow the 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:43.200 feeling of sadness to become the primary soil in which 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:48.160 my life is grown that it becomes a problem. Feelings come, 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:54.120 but they don't come first. And what I mean by 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:56.800 that is, first of all, sometimes you have to do 0:11:56.840 --> 0:12:00.000 the thing and the feeling follows. 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:02.400 Sometimes you have to. 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:06.079 Lift your hands and the burden is lifted as your 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:09.640 hands are. But if you wait for the burden to lift, 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:12.600 for your hands to follow, you may keep them in 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:15.800 your pockets. You may never feel the freedom that you 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:21.359 could have felt, because feelings come, but they don't come first. 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:24.760 All I'm trying to get you to see today is 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:29.480 that God is very aware of the hard places in 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:30.160 your life. 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:33.280 And the very clear. 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:35.160 Thing that I heard God saying to me today to 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:39.440 preach to you, was he will help you in the 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:44.080 hard place. Just encourage your neighbor. They need to hear it. 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:48.280 God will help you in the hard place. Say it 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:49.920 to your neighbor, even if you don't believe it's true 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:51.720 for you. God will help you in the hard place. 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:56.560 And see when you said that to her. You don't 0:12:56.600 --> 0:12:57.520 know what her hard. 0:12:57.320 --> 0:13:00.280 Place is, but you can be sure she has a 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:00.720 hard place. 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:02.920 No, she doesn't. She has plenty of money, then she 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:05.880 has plenty of taxes. God will help you in the 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:10.000 hard place. You know well, they have kids. They're not 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:16.360 struggling with infertility. Fertility has its own set of problems. 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:17.400 You never hear him. 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:20.720 I say that I'm struggling with fertility. But the truth 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:23.480 of the matter is whether you're struggling with something that 0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:25.240 you can't have or something that you do have. 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:26.920 The pressure is real for all of us. 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:29.960 And the assuring word of the Lord is that God 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:32.559 will help you in your hard place. 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:36.679 God will help you in your hard place. 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:39.960 The text that we read, I'm not sure if the 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:44.360 section that I read got the point across that Jesus 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:49.360 and his disciples were traveling through a hard place. We 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:52.640 know that because verse thirty nine says many of the 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:56.560 Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the 0:13:56.559 --> 0:13:59.840 woman's testimony, and two things in this text I want 0:13:59.880 --> 0:14:03.040 to give you before we really get practical here, is 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:07.280 that Samaria was a place that was very hostile to 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:11.320 the Jews, and the woman had lived a very hard 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:15.280 life and had been through several men. In fact, she'd 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:19.240 been through five men, and she was currently in a 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:26.560 situation with number six. Into the complexity of this situation. 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:28.400 Cleaning it up and making it, King. 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:38.760 James, there comes the presence of purity, the presence of purpose, 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:45.640 the presence of potential in the dirt of a place 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:49.200 that they didn't want to be. Samaria was a place 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:52.840 that was racially tense. Samaria was a place that was 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:58.800 religiously polytheistic. Not that they didn't each think they were right, 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:01.920 they just worshiped in different places in different ways. And 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:07.440 so everything is against the Disciples and Jesus in this text. 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:10.760 And I think that's worth its own sermon, really, I do, 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:14.200 because some of the things that God teaches us that 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:17.960 go the deepest happen in the places that we did 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:19.200 not choose to be. 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:22.239 You don't really. 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:24.680 Get to sign up for a class to learn the 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:27.040 things that Christ wants to teach you. 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:29.520 And I'll prove it to you right from the text. 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:34.600 The disciples were look at verse twenty seven, surprise to 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:36.080 see Jesus. 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:37.160 Talking to a woman. 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:41.280 Now that lets me know if they were surprised that 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:45.120 they did not get a syllabus. I got a son 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:48.800 going back to college this week. What's up, my boy. 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:51.400 Some of the stuff that gets taught is not on 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:56.200 the syllabus. And when we read discipleship, we think class 0:15:56.400 --> 0:16:00.960 because that is our modern Western interpretation of learning. But 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:05.560 God's version of learning usually looks like this. I am 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:10.720 going to show you how strategic I was after you 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:17.200 survived the surprise. So then what happens is life catches 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:19.480 you off guard. Oh whoa, hey, no they didn't even 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:22.360 see that coming. Oh well no, I didn't even see 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:25.760 them coming. I definitely would have duped. I definitely wouldn't 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:27.360 have answered if I knew that's what they wanted to 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:28.120 talk to me about. 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:30.000 You know, people who bait you. 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:33.000 With the text like hey, and that's all it says. 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:38.840 I never responded that I'm gonna need more information that 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:45.200 is inconclusive data to give me. Surprise, he's talking to 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:50.080 a woman. Surprise, he's sitting down having a chat. Surprise. 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:52.720 She's somebody you don't like. She's a Samaritan. 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:55.880 Surprise. See, they thought we went. 0:16:55.800 --> 0:17:01.000 Through Samaria because it was shorter geographically. The Bible says 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:03.640 that Jesus took them through Samaria. 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:08.160 Well, most Jews walked around Samaria so that they didn't 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:10.159 have to deal with those people. 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:15.000 And now Jesus is talking to one of those people, 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:20.920 and not even one of those people, a woman, which 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:25.960 was not very good pr strategy for a rabbi. 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:30.080 And yet I have learned in my life. Now you 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:31.720 can get this lesson. At age thirteen. 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:33.280 You can get it at age thirty one, or you 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:36.080 can die not getting this lesson. But you'll find out 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:40.719 one day that God is often most strategic when you 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:46.679 are most surprised. And that means that God will allow 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:50.239 things to come into my life, even my day or 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:53.119 even my feelings. 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:54.399 That I did not expect. 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:56.520 And what I have to learn how to do in 0:17:56.560 --> 0:18:00.000 those moments is what Galatians six ' nine says, Please 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:00.800 give me this verse. 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:03.680 Galician six ' nine says, let us not. 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:08.720 Become weary in doing good or at the proper time, 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:15.200 or one version says, in due season, in due season, 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:21.360 at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:26.400 we do not give up. But if your feelings come first, 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:32.520 you give up while it's growing. If your feelings come first, 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:37.000 if you cannot separate the feeling, you will never experience 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:41.400 your due season d u E season. 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:44.400 But this the tricky thing. 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:49.960 How do you do d O in a season what 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:55.679 is due d ue in another season when the feelings 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:58.840 don't come to support you and you say to me, 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:01.000 this has nothing to do with you, Jesus and the Samaritan. 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:04.440 It has everything to do with Jesus and the Samaritan. 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:07.360 It has everything to do with you and your kid. 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:10.159 It has everything to do with the fear that you 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:13.520 feel about your business. Because I think this passage speaks 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:16.520 to every one of our fears, every one of our frustration, 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:19.800 and it speaks to something else that we should talk about, 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:23.760 the fatigue that we feel. 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:26.399 While we do. 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:33.480 What we do and what is due doesn't come. What 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:39.040 do you do when what is due doesn't come? And 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:41.639 the Lord might have sent me to preach this message 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:45.320 for myself. And if that's the case, I invite you 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:49.760 to listen in because too many times in my life 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:54.080 I have thought only about what I am sewing in 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:58.439 this moment, and I lose consciousness of the harvest that 0:19:58.480 --> 0:19:59.160 awaits me. 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:05.159 If I don't give up. And so it looks like this, 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:10.880 do not be deceived. Actually good verse good to verse eight. 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:13.440 I think that'd be good to Galatians chapter six, verse eight, 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:19.440 where the Bible says Galician six eight, Please, whoever sows 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:22.320 to please their flesh from the flesh will reap destruction. 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:24.680 That's another way of saying, just doing what you feel. 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:27.960 So to the flesh. 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:30.920 Whoever sows to please the spirit from the spirit will 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:35.679 reap eternal life. And that's how we're trying to think. Now, 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:39.400 we're trying to think about the lasting thing. We're trying 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:42.480 to think about the eternal thing. We're trying to think 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:45.479 about the long term thing. And we don't want to 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:51.240 be so into our feelings that we only sew into 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:52.600 what we feel like. 0:20:55.400 --> 0:20:58.520 I'm coming. I'm coming. It's gonna take a minute, but 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:01.040 we're gonna get there. So it looks like this. 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:05.520 I may want to eat the ice cream at ten pm, 0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:11.600 I don't want to feel the ice cream at three am, 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:20.040 I don't want to see the ice cream. But if 0:21:20.119 --> 0:21:25.400 I am so into what I feel, then my feelings 0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:30.400 come first, because rather than thinking like a reefer and thinking. 0:21:30.200 --> 0:21:33.040 Well, if I eat the ice cream just tonight, that's fine, 0:21:33.440 --> 0:21:36.199 But if I eat the ice cream every night, I 0:21:36.240 --> 0:21:37.400 mean every night. 0:21:38.240 --> 0:21:41.280 Then I go back for a fourth scoop because I 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:42.920 had a very stressful. 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:44.280 Day, and don't judge me about it. 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:47.199 I won't like what I see, but I will like 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:53.080 what I feel. And so I need you to start okay, 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:56.760 growing into a place in God. When when you go. 0:21:56.840 --> 0:22:01.120 To speak an unkind word, you can think this, if 0:22:01.160 --> 0:22:04.439 I sew this unkind word, what will I reap in 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:08.760 this relationship later, because I'm gonna tell you the truth. 0:22:08.920 --> 0:22:11.920 It's gonna feel good to say it right now. It's 0:22:11.960 --> 0:22:14.760 gonna feel good to go off right now. As a 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:16.440 matter of fact, when the woman in the text was 0:22:16.480 --> 0:22:18.560 talking with Jesus the part I didn't read you, she 0:22:18.800 --> 0:22:21.880 was so in her feelings she went off on Jesus. 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:25.160 Jesus said, give me a drink. She said, you don't 0:22:25.200 --> 0:22:29.800 have a bucket. And why are you talking to me anyway. 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:33.240 I'm a woman, you're a Rabbi, I'm a Samaritan, you're 0:22:33.280 --> 0:22:33.720 a Jew. 0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:35.439 You don't have anything to do with me. No, I 0:22:35.440 --> 0:22:36.600 have everything to do with you. 0:22:38.000 --> 0:22:41.800 And what you do in this moment where you feel offended, 0:22:42.480 --> 0:22:45.400 what you do in this moment where you feel weary, 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:49.840 will determine what you do in this moment will determine 0:22:49.840 --> 0:22:52.879 whether your due season is going to be full of 0:22:52.880 --> 0:22:58.800 thorns and thistles or fruit in favor. I am not saying, 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:03.440 by the way, that God's love is on the basis 0:23:03.600 --> 0:23:07.439 of our behavior. I am saying that the consequences are 0:23:07.440 --> 0:23:12.480 built into the system of humanity. So to think like 0:23:12.520 --> 0:23:14.640 a reaper is to watch this fancy term I came 0:23:14.720 --> 0:23:16.720 up with this week to become. 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:20.600 I almost forgot it. See that's what happens when you 0:23:20.600 --> 0:23:22.639 try to show off with big words. 0:23:23.800 --> 0:23:32.359 Conscious of the consequence, right, conscious of the consequence pattern recognition. 0:23:32.840 --> 0:23:35.119 Every time I go down this road, every time, I 0:23:35.240 --> 0:23:37.640 just like respond out of what I feel. Every time, 0:23:37.680 --> 0:23:41.840 I just continue to rehearse this thing that happened. 0:23:41.520 --> 0:23:44.119 Three weeks ago. Every time I just let myself go 0:23:44.240 --> 0:23:44.880 there in my mind. 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:48.359 Every time I indulge in it, I hate where it 0:23:48.400 --> 0:23:48.800 takes me. 0:23:49.640 --> 0:23:50.920 And that's my conflict. 0:23:50.960 --> 0:23:53.800 Conflict because some of the things in my life, I 0:23:53.960 --> 0:23:56.960 love what they bring me, but I hate where they 0:23:57.000 --> 0:23:57.359 take me. 0:23:58.960 --> 0:24:00.320 And if you'll be honest with it. 0:24:00.440 --> 0:24:06.760 There are certain vices, certain things, certain actions, certain states, 0:24:06.800 --> 0:24:08.040 certain relationships. 0:24:08.080 --> 0:24:11.080 Oh, don't let me preach a relationship seminar. I'll preach 0:24:11.119 --> 0:24:12.080 about the certain. 0:24:11.880 --> 0:24:14.920 Things that make you feel a certain way, but they 0:24:15.000 --> 0:24:15.879 take you a place. 0:24:16.280 --> 0:24:18.160 And what do you do when you love how they 0:24:18.200 --> 0:24:21.120 make you feel, but you hate where they make you go. 0:24:27.040 --> 0:24:33.520 Jesus is going somewhere, He's going through some area, he's 0:24:33.880 --> 0:24:37.040 working on something. And just remind your neighbor in case 0:24:37.080 --> 0:24:40.080 they haven't felt God's presence lately, or in case they're 0:24:40.160 --> 0:24:43.240 unclear about what God is doing in their life, just 0:24:43.280 --> 0:24:45.520 tell them he's working on something. Right now, he's working 0:24:47.160 --> 0:24:49.040 You need to be more convincing than that. Don't be 0:24:49.119 --> 0:24:49.960 mumbling that at them. 0:24:50.000 --> 0:24:55.199 Say Jesus is working on something. Come on, put it 0:24:55.200 --> 0:24:59.040 in the chat. Jesus is working on something. Jesus is 0:24:59.080 --> 0:24:59.960 working on something. 0:25:00.840 --> 0:25:06.160 That's why the disciples were surprised, isn't it? Because when 0:25:06.160 --> 0:25:10.680 they left him, he was sitting on a well alone. 0:25:10.880 --> 0:25:14.240 They went to get food, and Jesus started talking to 0:25:14.280 --> 0:25:17.879 a woman. We call her the woman at the well. 0:25:18.560 --> 0:25:20.840 She's much more than that, as I will show you 0:25:20.880 --> 0:25:24.080 in a moment, and so are you, because where she 0:25:24.440 --> 0:25:28.760 was is not indicative of who she was, and what 0:25:28.960 --> 0:25:32.480 she had done was not indicative of who she could become. 0:25:33.720 --> 0:25:36.640 And when they left Jesus he was sitting down. 0:25:36.720 --> 0:25:41.720 The Bible actually says he was resting because he was tired. 0:25:42.880 --> 0:25:46.800 He was resting because he was tired, and then so 0:25:47.240 --> 0:25:50.639 tired becomes the camouflage that he uses to fulfill the 0:25:50.640 --> 0:25:54.119 purpose he came for. Because when they left to get food, 0:25:54.400 --> 0:25:57.639 a woman came to get water. And when the woman 0:25:57.720 --> 0:26:01.000 came to get water, oh, I love it. Jesus started 0:26:01.040 --> 0:26:05.119 working on her. He started asking her questions, can I 0:26:05.119 --> 0:26:07.600 get a drink? And she said, you don't have a bucket, 0:26:07.720 --> 0:26:09.600 and I'm not a Jew and I'm not a man. 0:26:09.840 --> 0:26:11.480 And he said, well, if you knew who was talking 0:26:11.520 --> 0:26:13.600 to you, you'd ask and I'd give you the drink. 0:26:14.240 --> 0:26:16.639 And she said, well, are you greater than our father Jacob, 0:26:16.680 --> 0:26:19.200 who gave us this? Well, and Jesus is thinking, actually, 0:26:19.880 --> 0:26:23.200 I really am, well Jacob, I made him, But let's 0:26:23.200 --> 0:26:28.200 don't get to that right now. And they started to argue, 0:26:28.400 --> 0:26:32.239 we worship here, you worship there, You're like this, and 0:26:32.400 --> 0:26:35.040 I'm like that, And all of a sudden, Jesus cuts 0:26:35.080 --> 0:26:37.880 through all of that because because he. 0:26:38.080 --> 0:26:40.720 Was thinking like a reaper. 0:26:42.240 --> 0:26:46.000 Now, this is difficult for us, because as we go 0:26:46.040 --> 0:26:51.360 through life, we only see seeds, and the seed looks. 0:26:51.119 --> 0:26:53.040 Nothing like what it's going to be. 0:26:54.640 --> 0:26:57.520 So what the disciples would have seen if they had 0:26:57.560 --> 0:27:00.920 been in this scene would have been the woman who 0:27:00.960 --> 0:27:04.720 had had five different husbands, the woman who was not 0:27:05.040 --> 0:27:09.480 worth Jesus's time, the woman who had made so many 0:27:09.560 --> 0:27:13.000 mistakes or had been through so many relationships, whether her 0:27:13.040 --> 0:27:15.679 fault or the other, that her broken heart would make 0:27:15.720 --> 0:27:18.480 a horrible place for a new beginning. 0:27:18.840 --> 0:27:21.800 But Jesus thinks. 0:27:22.280 --> 0:27:28.560 Like a reaper, and a reaper begins with the end 0:27:29.240 --> 0:27:36.080 in mind. How many of you have had somebody in 0:27:36.119 --> 0:27:38.400 your life at some point who saw something in you 0:27:38.400 --> 0:27:40.600 you didn't see in yourself, and you're grateful that they 0:27:40.600 --> 0:27:48.720 invested in you. How many people wish you could be 0:27:49.560 --> 0:27:54.520 that person that the person who believed in you saw 0:27:55.440 --> 0:27:57.679 I told a buddy the other day, sometimes I'm sad 0:27:58.600 --> 0:28:03.320 because I'm grieving the me that I thought I would 0:28:03.359 --> 0:28:05.000 be by now. 0:28:08.000 --> 0:28:10.800 I am grieving the absence of the patience that I 0:28:10.840 --> 0:28:11.960 thought I would have by now. 0:28:13.200 --> 0:28:16.240 I am grieving the let it go that I thought 0:28:16.240 --> 0:28:20.600 I would be able to access in stressful situations. And 0:28:20.640 --> 0:28:25.159 this woman is not necessarily looking for an encounter with 0:28:25.240 --> 0:28:27.680 the living God, but she gets one. 0:28:27.520 --> 0:28:32.679 Because Jesus sees what she can be. There was a 0:28:32.720 --> 0:28:33.639 man that I met. You know. 0:28:33.680 --> 0:28:36.000 God brings different people along in our life in different seasons. 0:28:36.000 --> 0:28:38.680 By the way, don't ever think that just because people 0:28:38.720 --> 0:28:42.240 were seasonal in your life that it makes them insignificant. 0:28:44.800 --> 0:28:46.680 One of the reasons is so hard for us to 0:28:47.000 --> 0:28:50.960 resolve relationships when they end or when they change is 0:28:51.000 --> 0:28:53.880 because we assumed that the one who sewed into our 0:28:53.920 --> 0:28:55.800 life would be there when the reaping came. 0:28:56.160 --> 0:28:59.160 It's not always like that. I tell you an example. 0:29:00.120 --> 0:29:04.000 When I was sixteen, of course, I had been in church. 0:29:05.280 --> 0:29:07.760 What they say, the old preacher say, I had a 0:29:07.840 --> 0:29:11.040 drug problem. My mom drugged me to church every Sunday morning, 0:29:11.080 --> 0:29:12.560 every Sunday night, every Wednesday night. 0:29:13.880 --> 0:29:14.880 Y'all heard that one before. 0:29:17.200 --> 0:29:20.080 But there was an older pastor and I've talked about 0:29:20.120 --> 0:29:24.560 him many times in this pulpit, and I call him older, 0:29:24.560 --> 0:29:26.000 but I guess the time I met him, he wasn't 0:29:26.000 --> 0:29:28.440 that much older than I am now. So it's kind 0:29:28.440 --> 0:29:32.280 of getting weird. But he is old now, but you know, 0:29:32.400 --> 0:29:37.000 old is just where I haven't been yet. So he 0:29:37.080 --> 0:29:39.320 saw something in me and he let me be the 0:29:39.680 --> 0:29:42.640 FCA director of Fellowship of Christian Athletes and also his 0:29:42.680 --> 0:29:43.200 youth pastor. 0:29:43.200 --> 0:29:45.480 His name is Mickey White, Pastor Mickey White. 0:29:45.840 --> 0:29:48.800 Mickey White ran an autoparts store in Monks Corner, South Carolina. 0:29:48.840 --> 0:29:50.360 He would disciple me on Tuesdays. 0:29:50.400 --> 0:29:52.560 And when I say he would disciple me, I'm not 0:29:52.600 --> 0:29:55.720 saying that he was like Jesus, but he helped me 0:29:55.800 --> 0:30:00.240 through my hard places. And one of the things about 0:30:00.240 --> 0:30:02.800 mentoring a sixteen or seventeen year old or whatever I 0:30:02.880 --> 0:30:05.040 was at the time, is that he had explained to 0:30:05.080 --> 0:30:08.680 me things that I should just know. And by hiring 0:30:08.720 --> 0:30:11.400 somebody that was seventeen to be a youth pastor. I 0:30:11.440 --> 0:30:14.320 remember we were doing one FCA banquet. This thought just 0:30:14.360 --> 0:30:16.240 came back to me for the first time in years. 0:30:16.360 --> 0:30:20.320 While I was preparing, I went around. He took me 0:30:20.360 --> 0:30:23.040 around to all of his friends who were businessmen in 0:30:23.280 --> 0:30:26.360 Monk's Corner. And I was wanting to raise money so 0:30:26.400 --> 0:30:28.360 we could bring in really good speakers to preach the 0:30:28.400 --> 0:30:32.040 gospel at our FCA events, and so I would go 0:30:32.080 --> 0:30:34.440 around to his friends. The first guy I sat down with, 0:30:35.440 --> 0:30:37.120 I said, I want to raise some money and this 0:30:37.160 --> 0:30:38.800 is my vision. And he pulled out his check book 0:30:38.840 --> 0:30:42.000 and started writing the check while I was talking because 0:30:42.000 --> 0:30:42.800 he was going to do it. 0:30:42.760 --> 0:30:44.400 For Mickey anyway, he wasn't doing it for me. He's 0:30:44.440 --> 0:30:45.160 doing it for Mickey. 0:30:45.600 --> 0:30:47.680 And so he's writing a check and I keep talking 0:30:47.760 --> 0:30:49.760 and I'm like, and we could do this, and we 0:30:49.800 --> 0:30:52.200 can do that. And I felt a hand on my 0:30:52.320 --> 0:30:54.840 leg kind of squeezed my thigh and it was Pastor Mickey, 0:30:56.360 --> 0:30:58.200 and so I just let him write the check and 0:30:58.200 --> 0:30:59.719 I thanked him. I said, hey, why you squeeze my leg? 0:30:59.720 --> 0:31:04.280 He said, when you've made the sales, shut up. He 0:31:04.400 --> 0:31:07.800 was writing a check. It could only get worse from there. 0:31:07.920 --> 0:31:13.240 It can only stop writing, So stop talking, good little thing. 0:31:13.240 --> 0:31:17.120 I always remember him saying that, well, we were having 0:31:17.120 --> 0:31:19.040 our first one of those big nights that I had 0:31:19.080 --> 0:31:22.960 raised the money for. And long story short, I know 0:31:23.000 --> 0:31:25.400 you want every detail, but just out of consideration for 0:31:25.440 --> 0:31:30.560 others who have lunch appointments, I didn't get the doors 0:31:30.640 --> 0:31:31.200 unlocked in. 0:31:31.160 --> 0:31:33.560 Time, and so that the event was a complete disaster. 0:31:35.080 --> 0:31:39.400 Because I had another thing and I had asked somebody 0:31:39.440 --> 0:31:40.600 else to unlock the doors. 0:31:41.000 --> 0:31:42.640 So at the end of the night, he pulls me aside. 0:31:42.640 --> 0:31:44.360 He doesn't grab my leg, but it looks like you're 0:31:44.360 --> 0:31:46.840 about to grab my throat, and he. 0:31:46.800 --> 0:31:52.080 Goes, what happened? What happened? You are the SCA president. 0:31:52.440 --> 0:31:53.080 What happened? 0:31:53.680 --> 0:31:56.480 And I mentioned the name of the person who was 0:31:56.480 --> 0:31:58.240 supposed to unlock the door that didn't do it. 0:31:59.080 --> 0:32:02.320 He didn't even let me finish my sentence when I said, 0:32:02.320 --> 0:32:04.840 their name is cann Stop. You're the leader. 0:32:06.560 --> 0:32:09.480 The leader's job is to do it or get it done, 0:32:09.640 --> 0:32:10.600 and you didn't do either. 0:32:12.840 --> 0:32:16.200 Never forgot that up until that point in my life. 0:32:16.280 --> 0:32:19.960 I had just thought like a teenager, and a teenager 0:32:20.000 --> 0:32:24.200 doesn't even do it if it's a task. He was 0:32:24.240 --> 0:32:27.000 trying to skip me all the way from teenager to leader, 0:32:27.960 --> 0:32:30.240 try and tell me not only is it just do 0:32:30.320 --> 0:32:33.440 the task, just check it off, but it is actually 0:32:33.520 --> 0:32:35.440 making sure that the outcome happens. 0:32:36.080 --> 0:32:38.360 Because he was trying to get me to think like 0:32:40.160 --> 0:32:45.400 a reaper. A reaper. A leader thinks like a reaper. 0:32:47.240 --> 0:32:49.280 See if you just go through life and you go, oh, 0:32:49.360 --> 0:32:52.800 well I did that. I tried that, I said that 0:32:53.600 --> 0:32:56.440 I did it. You're still only a sewer. 0:32:59.080 --> 0:33:02.560 But to grow up is to say, not only am 0:33:02.640 --> 0:33:06.920 I responsible for the task, but I am going to 0:33:07.000 --> 0:33:11.840 be responsible for the outcome. Now, the good news about 0:33:11.880 --> 0:33:15.400 it is this, tell somebody think like a reaper. The 0:33:15.440 --> 0:33:20.440 good news is this, everywhere God sends you, He's already 0:33:20.440 --> 0:33:21.040 been there. 0:33:23.000 --> 0:33:23.560 Everywhere. 0:33:23.640 --> 0:33:26.800 Somebody needs to hear that because you're going into a 0:33:26.880 --> 0:33:30.920 situation that's like a Samaria to you. You're going into 0:33:30.960 --> 0:33:35.160 a situation that's a hard place for you, that's a 0:33:35.320 --> 0:33:38.600 hazardous place for you, that might even be a hostile 0:33:38.760 --> 0:33:39.560 environment for you. 0:33:40.160 --> 0:33:41.160 But notice when. 0:33:41.040 --> 0:33:45.480 The disciples got back, Jesus was already talking to the woman. 0:33:46.240 --> 0:33:49.560 And in fact, by the time they got back to Jesus, 0:33:49.920 --> 0:33:52.120 she was already on her way back to the town. 0:33:53.160 --> 0:33:55.960 And she didn't even get the water that she came for. 0:33:56.960 --> 0:34:00.560 She left her jar and went to town. Now, let's 0:34:00.600 --> 0:34:04.400 contrast the two. You've got a woman who Jesus wasn't 0:34:04.400 --> 0:34:05.440 even technically. 0:34:05.000 --> 0:34:06.080 Supposed to be talking to. 0:34:06.680 --> 0:34:09.840 You've got a woman who has had a salacious past. 0:34:10.440 --> 0:34:14.080 You have a woman who is only known and identified 0:34:14.120 --> 0:34:15.280 by what she's been through. 0:34:15.760 --> 0:34:19.040 And then you have the disciples, the ones. 0:34:18.760 --> 0:34:22.239 That Jesus is using, his leaders, who are going to 0:34:22.320 --> 0:34:25.160 take the church and really move it forward and all 0:34:25.200 --> 0:34:28.240 this wonderful stuff that they're going to do as leaders. 0:34:28.560 --> 0:34:32.280 And the woman she goes back to town and starts 0:34:32.360 --> 0:34:36.640 telling men about a man that she met. The disciples 0:34:36.640 --> 0:34:39.400 come to the man that she just met and say, hey, 0:34:39.520 --> 0:34:39.960 you want. 0:34:39.840 --> 0:34:42.600 To eat something, And this is what got me. 0:34:43.600 --> 0:34:48.040 While they were thinking about a meal, she was already 0:34:48.080 --> 0:34:57.120 thinking about a harvest. It didn't take long for her 0:34:57.160 --> 0:35:01.080 mentality to shift, and all of a sudden she saw 0:35:01.120 --> 0:35:05.839 herself differently, and all of a sudden, I imagine in 0:35:05.880 --> 0:35:09.640 that flash she thought, wait a minute, I'm talking to 0:35:09.719 --> 0:35:14.480 the Messiah. I am talking to possibly the one who 0:35:14.520 --> 0:35:17.759 can save me. And the first thing she thought about it, 0:35:17.800 --> 0:35:20.600 the first thing she thought about it was I've got 0:35:20.640 --> 0:35:23.880 to go back to town and get the men and 0:35:23.960 --> 0:35:27.279 bring them to this man. The disciples come back, the 0:35:27.280 --> 0:35:31.080 first thing they think is we got to eat. And 0:35:31.120 --> 0:35:34.960 it makes me wonder who's the real disciple in this passage. 0:35:36.440 --> 0:35:39.440 It makes me wonder did the ones who had been 0:35:39.480 --> 0:35:42.480 with him so much take him for granted, but the 0:35:42.480 --> 0:35:44.760 one that had just met him saw. 0:35:44.560 --> 0:35:46.160 The potential of what he could do. 0:35:47.000 --> 0:35:50.799 Because it's amazing that they're just thinking about eating and 0:35:50.880 --> 0:35:54.719 she's thinking about reaping. You say, the Bible doesn't say that, 0:35:55.440 --> 0:35:59.720 it implies it. When she came back from the town 0:36:00.120 --> 0:36:03.560 with the men, Jesus started preaching. He said, open your 0:36:03.600 --> 0:36:09.480 eyes and look, the fields are already white onto harvest. 0:36:10.239 --> 0:36:11.640 And then he goes into a saying. 0:36:11.680 --> 0:36:15.480 Now this saying isn't something we say, but it's something 0:36:15.480 --> 0:36:22.920 that they said. He said, that's the saying one sows 0:36:24.440 --> 0:36:31.680 and another reaps. It's true, like Pastor Mickey said, it's 0:36:31.680 --> 0:36:33.399 a leader's job to do it or get it done. 0:36:33.440 --> 0:36:35.920 I never forgot that say it. Certain things that my 0:36:36.000 --> 0:36:38.440 family used to say when I was growing up, they 0:36:38.560 --> 0:36:41.719 terrified me once I understood what they meant. My dad 0:36:41.800 --> 0:36:43.759 used to always see somebody that he thought was kind 0:36:43.760 --> 0:36:45.960 of snobby and he would say, I wish I could 0:36:45.960 --> 0:36:47.560 buy them for what they're worth and sell them for 0:36:47.600 --> 0:36:51.000 what they think they're worth. And as a little boy, 0:36:51.040 --> 0:36:53.839 I always heard him say that, and one day, when 0:36:53.840 --> 0:36:56.319 I hit puberty, I realized what he was saying. I 0:36:56.320 --> 0:36:59.439 was like, dang, that is crazy what he just said. 0:36:59.480 --> 0:37:02.040 I wish I could buy them for what they're worth 0:37:02.120 --> 0:37:04.759 and sell them for what they think they were. My 0:37:04.880 --> 0:37:06.279 dad was such a menace, and I didn't even know 0:37:06.320 --> 0:37:09.080 it at the time. And then some of this stuff 0:37:09.160 --> 0:37:11.799 is just cuter little sayings that we get right, little 0:37:11.840 --> 0:37:14.080 things that we say, little things that wor can weave 0:37:14.120 --> 0:37:17.080 their way into our vocabulary, as Southerners have all kinds 0:37:17.080 --> 0:37:17.879 of sayings, right. 0:37:18.360 --> 0:37:19.479 I met a guy one time. 0:37:19.760 --> 0:37:23.280 He was so Southern even I didn't know his sayings. 0:37:23.560 --> 0:37:25.279 And that takes a lot, because I've heard a lot 0:37:25.280 --> 0:37:27.520 of Southern sayings through the years, and I feel like 0:37:27.560 --> 0:37:30.600 I'm a pretty good interpreter of my own language. But 0:37:31.480 --> 0:37:33.680 I remember this guy named Brian that I met one 0:37:33.680 --> 0:37:36.279 time from Louisiana, and when we were getting ready to 0:37:36.280 --> 0:37:38.120 go somewhere, he used to say, if you're waiting on me, 0:37:38.160 --> 0:37:44.359 you're backing up. And I said, say that again, and 0:37:44.440 --> 0:37:47.839 so he would just say it's slower. But even after 0:37:47.880 --> 0:37:50.799 he said it slower, I still didn't know what that meant. 0:37:51.440 --> 0:37:57.200 You know what I'm saying, It takes one to know one. 0:37:57.239 --> 0:37:59.279 It's just a saying, right right. 0:38:02.360 --> 0:38:03.799 This was a saying that they had. 0:38:03.840 --> 0:38:05.759 Put it back up verse thirty seven because this really 0:38:05.760 --> 0:38:09.680 got my attention. Jesus is talking to this woman. He's 0:38:09.760 --> 0:38:13.320 working in her heart. She has had a hard life 0:38:14.239 --> 0:38:17.879 and this is a hard place, and Jesus is trying 0:38:17.920 --> 0:38:19.200 to show us disciples something. 0:38:19.239 --> 0:38:22.040 I believe he's trying to show us. Thus, the saying 0:38:22.680 --> 0:38:26.160 one sows and another reaps is true. 0:38:26.280 --> 0:38:28.880 It was a saying they had and Jesus said, is 0:38:28.920 --> 0:38:34.200 true that sometimes life isn't fair. Think about it, one 0:38:34.280 --> 0:38:39.200 sows and another reaps, Like sometimes you do all the 0:38:39.239 --> 0:38:45.000 work and they get all the credit. Sometimes you build 0:38:45.040 --> 0:38:49.560 it and you don't even get to enjoy it. Sometimes 0:38:49.600 --> 0:38:53.000 you put all the love into the relationship and then 0:38:53.040 --> 0:38:57.320 they end up with somebody else. Sometimes you put all 0:38:57.480 --> 0:39:01.600 the investment into making the thing good, and then you 0:39:01.640 --> 0:39:04.640 feel like when it finally starts hitting, you get shut 0:39:04.640 --> 0:39:08.640 out of it. One sows and another reaps. Be honest, 0:39:08.640 --> 0:39:12.040 have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt 0:39:12.120 --> 0:39:15.400 like you put more in than you got out? Have 0:39:15.520 --> 0:39:19.239 you ever felt like you were the only one who 0:39:19.280 --> 0:39:21.160 seemed to care about it because you're the only one 0:39:21.160 --> 0:39:26.319 who did it, but everybody else enjoyed the benefits of 0:39:26.400 --> 0:39:29.439 what you did. Now, I'm not saying I've ever felt 0:39:29.440 --> 0:39:33.759 this way about y'all, But even as a preacher, you 0:39:33.800 --> 0:39:36.560 see how easy it could be to have a resentment 0:39:37.200 --> 0:39:41.359 about Oh my goodness, I worked so hard on this 0:39:41.440 --> 0:39:45.799 message and I don't even know if they care. So 0:39:45.960 --> 0:39:48.920 what I could think about that is watch this. Well, 0:39:48.960 --> 0:39:50.920 I guess I'm the only one who loves God's word. 0:39:53.000 --> 0:39:55.440 Because the enemy would love to say that to me. 0:39:57.239 --> 0:39:59.560 Just like if you were a volunteer, there will be 0:39:59.560 --> 0:40:02.440 eager for in this church that will sign up to 0:40:02.520 --> 0:40:05.920 lead an e group, and the one will come and 0:40:05.960 --> 0:40:07.960 it will be easy for them to think, well, I 0:40:08.120 --> 0:40:11.120 was willing, I was trying. I gave it all I 0:40:11.160 --> 0:40:15.080 had and it didn't work. There will be people in 0:40:15.120 --> 0:40:19.640 this room today who will really give all of yourself 0:40:19.680 --> 0:40:22.960 to something, only to find that the people who you 0:40:23.040 --> 0:40:26.120 did it for don't even say thank you. Wonder if 0:40:26.120 --> 0:40:28.239 God ever feels that way about us. By the way, 0:40:29.400 --> 0:40:29.879 I'm just. 0:40:29.920 --> 0:40:32.759 Asking don Jesus, you have a. 0:40:32.760 --> 0:40:36.000 Sand one sows in another reaps, and at this point 0:40:36.080 --> 0:40:38.000 the disciples are probably feeling. 0:40:37.719 --> 0:40:42.120 Like, Yeah, that's us. We're the sewers, We're the disciples, We're. 0:40:41.840 --> 0:40:44.400 The ones working hard, We're the ones out here in 0:40:44.440 --> 0:40:46.320 Samaria following you, Jesus. 0:40:46.360 --> 0:40:49.200 But isn't the irony in the fact. 0:40:49.840 --> 0:40:53.680 That the woman was the one reaping and they were 0:40:53.719 --> 0:40:59.200 just eating. Isn't the irony in the fact that the 0:40:59.239 --> 0:41:03.200 ones who should have been reaping were only focused on 0:41:03.280 --> 0:41:06.600 their next meal, and the one that Jesus shouldn't have 0:41:06.719 --> 0:41:10.080 even been talking to was going back to the town 0:41:10.200 --> 0:41:11.480 to share her testimony. 0:41:12.200 --> 0:41:14.120 And here's what I'm saying to you. 0:41:14.120 --> 0:41:17.719 You might be surprised who God uses, You might be 0:41:17.800 --> 0:41:18.880 surprised how. 0:41:18.680 --> 0:41:20.280 He uses you. 0:41:20.280 --> 0:41:23.440 You might be surprised what He uses in your life, 0:41:23.640 --> 0:41:26.000 because the fact of the matter is, when God is 0:41:26.080 --> 0:41:27.719 using you, you don't always feel it. 0:41:28.920 --> 0:41:29.360 You don't. 0:41:29.600 --> 0:41:34.799 The feeling comes, but it doesn't come first. You have 0:41:34.920 --> 0:41:38.680 to obey Jesus when you see no evidence that your 0:41:38.760 --> 0:41:47.680 obedience is yielding anything. You have to instill in your 0:41:47.760 --> 0:41:50.719 kids certain values that you can only hope you are 0:41:50.760 --> 0:41:56.040 going to envision later in their life. But the disciples 0:41:56.960 --> 0:42:02.439 are the sowers right now, Jesus said, And this blew 0:42:02.480 --> 0:42:03.839 my mind, Holly, this blew my mind. 0:42:04.239 --> 0:42:07.720 He said. The saying is true. One sows and another reaps. 0:42:07.800 --> 0:42:09.759 That's how it works, right. She's like, yeah, that's how 0:42:09.760 --> 0:42:10.160 it works. 0:42:10.320 --> 0:42:12.239 One, so's another reap. Look at verse thirty eight. He 0:42:12.239 --> 0:42:13.000 gives it a twist. 0:42:13.920 --> 0:42:17.879 I sent you to read what you haven't worked for. 0:42:20.560 --> 0:42:23.840 Wait a minute, No, no, no, Jesus, we're the sowers. 0:42:25.120 --> 0:42:28.120 They're the reapers, Jesus says, not really. 0:42:29.920 --> 0:42:33.760 You always see yourself as a sewer, but you never 0:42:34.080 --> 0:42:36.640 even realize how much you're already reaping. 0:42:38.600 --> 0:42:42.279 Put it back up. I sent you to read. Come on, 0:42:42.400 --> 0:42:43.960 what you have not worked for? 0:42:44.880 --> 0:42:49.520 Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped 0:42:49.560 --> 0:42:54.239 the benefits of their labor. Which makes me think that 0:42:54.400 --> 0:42:57.239 maybe you've been reaping and you don't even realize it. 0:42:58.880 --> 0:43:03.000 Maybe you've been reaping and you know. The enemy has 0:43:03.040 --> 0:43:03.440 got you. 0:43:03.480 --> 0:43:09.359 So focused on how hard it is to sew, how 0:43:09.400 --> 0:43:11.960 hard it is to show up, how hard it is 0:43:12.040 --> 0:43:14.200 to dig in, how hard it is to be you. 0:43:14.239 --> 0:43:16.040 Wave at me if it's hard to be you. Yeah, 0:43:16.200 --> 0:43:18.480 it's hard to be you. How hard it is to 0:43:18.520 --> 0:43:18.879 be you. 0:43:20.880 --> 0:43:23.080 But if the enemy can only get you to focus 0:43:23.120 --> 0:43:26.759 on how hard it is, or here's another one, if 0:43:26.760 --> 0:43:30.120 he can get you to focus on how hurt you are, y'all, 0:43:30.360 --> 0:43:33.320 I am sick and tired of people only talking about 0:43:33.400 --> 0:43:37.879 church hurt because it's a ridiculous distinction to. 0:43:37.800 --> 0:43:40.760 Call it church hurt. It's human hurt. 0:43:42.440 --> 0:43:47.480 People hurt, people hurt people. If you quit going to church, 0:43:47.600 --> 0:43:51.200 it wasn't because church hurt you. It's because you allowed 0:43:51.239 --> 0:43:53.800 the hurt to become greater than the harvest. 0:43:54.640 --> 0:43:57.160 This is what I want to preach. This is what 0:43:57.200 --> 0:43:58.160 I want to preach. 0:43:59.080 --> 0:44:01.040 I've been preaching so much many verses to get to 0:44:01.120 --> 0:44:03.719 this one. Tell somebody said next to you. 0:44:03.719 --> 0:44:08.879 Say, oh, you've been reaping. You just haven't realized it yet. 0:44:09.880 --> 0:44:13.799 Tell them, Oh, God's been good to you. You just 0:44:13.880 --> 0:44:18.839 haven't realized it yet. Now look at him and say, oh, 0:44:18.920 --> 0:44:21.439 you have help, you just. 0:44:21.360 --> 0:44:23.120 Haven't called for it yet. 0:44:24.120 --> 0:44:26.920 Now take about thirteen seconds if you know Jesus is 0:44:27.000 --> 0:44:27.440 my help. 0:44:30.280 --> 0:44:34.600 I'm not letting this go. You might sit on me all. 0:44:34.560 --> 0:44:36.880 Day, but I'm not going down without a fight today 0:44:38.080 --> 0:44:42.440 because God sent me on assignment to tell somebody that 0:44:42.560 --> 0:44:46.279 you have been so focused on how hard it is, 0:44:47.080 --> 0:44:50.560 so focused on how hurt you are, that you have 0:44:50.680 --> 0:44:56.759 become blind to how much help you actually have. That's 0:44:56.800 --> 0:44:58.800 why the Bible says, praise the Lord. 0:44:58.600 --> 0:45:00.719 On my soul and all all. 0:45:00.520 --> 0:45:03.040 That is within me, bless his holy name. 0:45:03.480 --> 0:45:04.880 Praise the Lord o my soul. 0:45:05.000 --> 0:45:07.680 And Chris referenced it when he was leading worship, and 0:45:07.719 --> 0:45:09.759 I took it as a confirmation when he said it. 0:45:09.920 --> 0:45:15.120 And forget not all his benefits. Let me give you 0:45:15.200 --> 0:45:17.480 a list who forgives. 0:45:17.160 --> 0:45:18.120 All your sins. 0:45:18.520 --> 0:45:21.799 You didn't earn that you reap that I said, you 0:45:21.840 --> 0:45:26.200 didn't earn that you reap that I couldn't earn forgiveness. 0:45:26.400 --> 0:45:29.240 The chasm was too wide, the gap was too great, 0:45:29.560 --> 0:45:32.800 My sin was too bleek, my shame was too great. 0:45:33.320 --> 0:45:42.479 But Jesus was Greater who heals all your diseases. Yeah, 0:45:42.480 --> 0:45:47.000 I feel it now. I feel it now. Why is 0:45:47.080 --> 0:45:49.760 the only time that we thank God for our health 0:45:49.800 --> 0:45:55.000 when we need to be healed? Why am I not 0:45:55.120 --> 0:45:57.760 thanking God for the stuff that feels good right now? 0:45:58.920 --> 0:46:00.279 Look at that? Look what I do. 0:46:01.920 --> 0:46:05.880 That's a big deal, you say, pastor, did you have 0:46:05.920 --> 0:46:08.120 a shoulder surgery that you came through and now you're 0:46:08.120 --> 0:46:11.040 really grateful you No, I'm praising them for the surgery 0:46:11.080 --> 0:46:12.239 that I didn't have to have. 0:46:15.000 --> 0:46:17.760 What I thought? 0:46:17.840 --> 0:46:23.200 Somebody say, the harvest is here, the harvest. Come on this, son, 0:46:23.280 --> 0:46:25.359 don't feel left off. You can get in on this too. 0:46:25.800 --> 0:46:30.120 The harvest, it's already here. 0:46:33.320 --> 0:46:37.600 So the disciples are thinking about food and they mean well, 0:46:37.840 --> 0:46:40.360 but they are missing the mission over a meal. 0:46:41.880 --> 0:46:44.640 I said, they're missing the mission over a meal. 0:46:45.719 --> 0:46:48.640 Don't let what you didn't get keep you from praising 0:46:48.680 --> 0:46:59.239 God for what you have and wherever He is sending you, 0:46:59.680 --> 0:47:02.120 please believe he's already been there. 0:47:03.840 --> 0:47:07.240 Because he's the sower. I'm the reaper. 0:47:08.880 --> 0:47:12.759 He gave his life so I could live mine. He 0:47:12.960 --> 0:47:17.320 is the breath, I am the sales. He is the vine. 0:47:17.680 --> 0:47:21.200 I am the branch. I'm trying to get you to 0:47:21.239 --> 0:47:27.120 say out loud, I'm reaping this. 0:47:27.120 --> 0:47:30.560 This life that I have is a gift. This opportunity 0:47:30.600 --> 0:47:33.359 that I have is a gift. This moment that I 0:47:33.440 --> 0:47:34.560 have is a gift. 0:47:34.800 --> 0:47:35.920 This breath that I have. 0:47:36.360 --> 0:47:49.759 Is a gift. Breed out his praise. And if you. 0:47:49.800 --> 0:47:52.239 Were the devil. I'm not saying you are. I'm sure 0:47:52.239 --> 0:47:54.799 you're an angel, But if you were the devil. If 0:47:54.840 --> 0:47:56.799 you were, if you were, tell your neighbor if you were, 0:47:58.440 --> 0:47:59.279 wouldn't you want to. 0:47:59.320 --> 0:48:09.920 Keep you from reaping? Because you've already cried. You've already cried, You've. 0:48:09.719 --> 0:48:13.520 Already shed tears over it, You've already been through the 0:48:13.560 --> 0:48:14.160 pain of it. 0:48:15.320 --> 0:48:16.120 Why would you? 0:48:16.400 --> 0:48:20.080 Why would you cry over the seed and then not 0:48:20.239 --> 0:48:21.680 reap the harvest when it came. 0:48:30.200 --> 0:48:31.319 It's I went twenty six. 0:48:31.400 --> 0:48:34.799 One of my favorite things that Thesauma said was that 0:48:34.880 --> 0:48:36.880 they that sow. 0:48:38.560 --> 0:48:41.839 In tears will what. 0:48:43.400 --> 0:48:50.919 Read with songs of joy? Are you so in your 0:48:51.040 --> 0:48:56.000 tears that you cannot even reap what you cried for? 0:48:57.239 --> 0:49:00.919 And it's here the herv this is always here. 0:49:01.920 --> 0:49:03.640 I was talking to my mom about some things she 0:49:03.680 --> 0:49:05.319 went through in her past, and I was ministering this 0:49:05.360 --> 0:49:07.279 message to her because she couldn't be here today. Now, 0:49:07.280 --> 0:49:08.520 I can't do that for everybody, but I can do 0:49:08.600 --> 0:49:10.160 it for my mom. When she's not in church, I'll 0:49:10.280 --> 0:49:13.239 call her and give it to her personal. And she 0:49:13.360 --> 0:49:17.520 said that when I told her, I know it's hard 0:49:18.080 --> 0:49:19.600 because of some of the things she's been through in 0:49:19.640 --> 0:49:22.600 her past, and I know it hurts, and it didn't 0:49:22.640 --> 0:49:26.760 stop hurting. But God is with you in your hard place, 0:49:29.040 --> 0:49:34.399 and you have more help than you have hurt. She said, 0:49:34.440 --> 0:49:37.240 thank you for telling me that, because I get bitter 0:49:37.320 --> 0:49:41.320 sometimes because I start thinking, well, where was my help 0:49:43.120 --> 0:49:45.120 when I went through the abuse? Where was my help? 0:49:46.160 --> 0:49:48.800 When my husband was dying of als? Where was my help? 0:49:50.080 --> 0:49:53.080 But I realized that the answer is always John four 0:49:53.239 --> 0:49:53.799 thirty six. 0:49:55.000 --> 0:50:02.120 Open your eyes and look, the harvest is here. I 0:50:02.120 --> 0:50:05.360 believe this thirty five. I messed that up. That's a 0:50:05.360 --> 0:50:12.320 good moment too, and I really ruined it. Open your 0:50:12.920 --> 0:50:19.520 eyes and look at the fields. Wait a minute, the fields. Jesus. 0:50:19.520 --> 0:50:22.880 We're trying to get you to eat a meal. Eat Jesus. 0:50:22.920 --> 0:50:26.000 Eat this Samaritan woman. We'll deal with her. 0:50:26.120 --> 0:50:29.520 No, no, no, I've already dealt with her. She's bringing 0:50:29.560 --> 0:50:33.560 me a harvest. Now watch this. This is mind blowing. 0:50:33.960 --> 0:50:36.840 I love the Bible, y'all. Can I preach the Bible 0:50:36.840 --> 0:50:40.279 to y'all for like the next fifty years? I mean, 0:50:40.320 --> 0:50:42.160 I'm just want to stand on this thing. 0:50:43.719 --> 0:50:47.840 Because the tears in the passage belonged to the woman 0:50:48.160 --> 0:50:51.040 who had been through so much, and the. 0:50:50.920 --> 0:50:53.120 Opportunity belongs to the disciples. 0:50:53.719 --> 0:50:56.600 And Jesus said, open your eyes, Verse, please, and look 0:50:56.680 --> 0:51:02.840 to the fields. They are ripe for harvest. Yeah, Jesus, 0:51:02.840 --> 0:51:07.399 but we're not ready for the harvest. Just because you're 0:51:07.400 --> 0:51:09.080 not ready doesn't mean it's not ripe. 0:51:10.120 --> 0:51:11.480 And if you will open. 0:51:11.400 --> 0:51:17.799 Your eyes, your eyes, that's the first tool you need, 0:51:17.920 --> 0:51:22.040 is your eyes. The moment that they opened their eyes, 0:51:22.120 --> 0:51:24.680 let's pretend to be the disciples. They open their eyes, 0:51:24.800 --> 0:51:27.640 Jesus is talking about a harvest and coming their way 0:51:27.680 --> 0:51:31.520 are the Samaritans that they hated. What do you do 0:51:31.960 --> 0:51:34.680 when your harvest comes looking like something that you hate? 0:51:37.960 --> 0:51:41.960 This will this will be the test in this season 0:51:42.040 --> 0:51:46.279 of your life? Will you think like a reaper to 0:51:46.360 --> 0:51:50.000 say that even the regret We all have regrets. This 0:51:50.120 --> 0:51:53.880 woman had regrets. I'm sure she regretted every manda she 0:51:54.000 --> 0:51:56.960 said yes to that had left her. But through the 0:51:57.080 --> 0:52:00.920 power of faith, you can reach into a regard and 0:52:01.000 --> 0:52:01.760 reap a lesson. 0:52:04.520 --> 0:52:05.839 So I'm harvesting this. 0:52:07.520 --> 0:52:10.799 It's hard for me right now, but I'm harvesting this 0:52:11.320 --> 0:52:14.720 because those who sow with tears will reap with joy. 0:52:15.640 --> 0:52:19.600 And I came to call somebody today who the devil 0:52:19.640 --> 0:52:22.560 has been reminding you of every reason that you have 0:52:22.640 --> 0:52:26.000 to feel bad about yourself, every reason that you have 0:52:26.040 --> 0:52:29.200 to feel resentful about your life, every reason that you 0:52:29.320 --> 0:52:31.279 have to give up and throw in the towel and 0:52:31.360 --> 0:52:34.120 quit and duck and hide under the covers and not 0:52:34.200 --> 0:52:37.680 call anybody back till next Thursday, and delete your hope 0:52:37.680 --> 0:52:38.360 for the future. 0:52:38.680 --> 0:52:41.760 But God said to remind you you have a reason 0:52:41.880 --> 0:52:47.080 to rejoice, because those who sow in tears you got it, 0:52:48.080 --> 0:52:53.280 you got it, will read with joy. 0:52:55.280 --> 0:53:03.800 And you, my friend, are one thought away from joy. 0:53:04.719 --> 0:53:10.359 And many in that town believed in Jesus because of. 0:53:10.320 --> 0:53:14.000 What that woman went through. I wonder what God wants 0:53:14.040 --> 0:53:22.319 to do through what you went through. I'm gonna blow 0:53:22.360 --> 0:53:24.280 your mind. I'm gonna blow your mind. God blew my mind. 0:53:24.400 --> 0:53:27.040 If he had sent the disciples into the town, the 0:53:27.080 --> 0:53:30.919 men wouldn't have come back with them. 0:53:31.640 --> 0:53:34.880 She had to have been with men in order to 0:53:34.920 --> 0:53:35.399 bring men. 0:53:36.160 --> 0:53:38.200 I'm not telling you to go live a sinful life 0:53:38.239 --> 0:53:40.680 so you can build a bigger testimony. 0:53:41.520 --> 0:53:44.640 But i am saying watch this. Nothing will be wasted. 0:53:44.880 --> 0:53:45.920 Nothing will be wasted. 0:53:46.160 --> 0:53:49.200 Nothing will be wasted, Nothing will be wasted, nothing will 0:53:49.239 --> 0:53:49.720 be wasted. 0:53:49.920 --> 0:53:53.080 I'm reaping this. Nothing will be wasted. Tell your neighbor. 0:53:53.120 --> 0:53:54.120 Nothing will be wasted. 0:53:54.520 --> 0:53:58.080 Nothing, nothing, not a breakup, not a bad turn, not 0:53:58.200 --> 0:54:00.839 a left turn, not a bad day, not a wrong 0:54:01.360 --> 0:54:10.840 nothing that you'll been through. I'm thinking like a reefer 0:54:11.320 --> 0:54:16.520 now I am seeing that God is transforming through my tears. 0:54:17.719 --> 0:54:22.320 And feelings don't come first, Faith does. 0:54:23.800 --> 0:54:26.880 So we're gonna do something that is going to absolutely 0:54:26.960 --> 0:54:29.040 confuse the enemy in. 0:54:28.920 --> 0:54:30.440 Just about twelve seconds. 0:54:30.840 --> 0:54:35.960 We are going to absolutely rejoice because we're reefers, and 0:54:36.120 --> 0:54:39.759 reefers reap with joy, and we have been crying with 0:54:39.840 --> 0:54:43.600 tears of anxiety, and crying with tears of regret, and 0:54:43.719 --> 0:54:47.000 crying with tears of pain and unhealed trauma. 0:54:47.040 --> 0:54:50.239 But we are going to confuse the enemy in just. 0:54:50.160 --> 0:54:54.960 About three seconds because we're gonna start rejoicing. 0:55:01.760 --> 0:55:08.200 Because we're reaper. Give me my joy back. Get me up. 0:55:09.680 --> 0:55:20.960 I'm a wicked when I think of all you go. 0:55:23.640 --> 0:55:30.840 When I think of volume, when I think I'm reaping 0:55:30.880 --> 0:55:33.960 where I didn't sew I never seen. 0:55:33.960 --> 0:55:36.200 I'm standing in what I didn't deserve. 0:55:36.880 --> 0:55:42.800 I think I'm breathing breath that's borrows. 0:55:43.360 --> 0:55:45.760 I'm gonna need every reaper to get your hands something 0:55:45.840 --> 0:55:51.400 like that. Hold on, let's receive, let's receive seed, and 0:55:51.440 --> 0:55:52.640 then let's turn it the plain. 0:55:52.800 --> 0:56:00.680 Come on. When I think, thank thank you for joining 0:56:00.760 --> 0:56:03.480 us special thanks to those of you who give generously 0:56:03.600 --> 0:56:06.440 to this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry 0:56:06.560 --> 0:56:09.280 is possible. You can click the link in the description 0:56:09.560 --> 0:56:13.759 to give now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast 0:56:13.800 --> 0:56:16.920 for more information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you 0:56:16.920 --> 0:56:17.920 can subscribe. 0:56:18.200 --> 0:56:19.520 You can share it with your friends. 0:56:19.840 --> 0:56:22.120 You can click the share button, take a screenshot and 0:56:22.160 --> 0:56:24.279 share it on your social stories and tag us at 0:56:24.280 --> 0:56:25.160 Elevation Church. 0:56:25.200 --> 0:56:31.880 Thanks again for listening. God bless you.