John chapter 4, and my watch is not working, so I have no way to tell the time, so if it ends up being three hours and we're still going, sorry about that.
But anyways, actually I think this is going to be a bit of a shorter sermon, but anyways, we're in John chapter 4, we're going to look at four points here in John 4,
and let's start here at verse number 28 where the Bible reads,
The woman then left her water pot and went away into the city, and saith to the men,
Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ?
The first thing we're going to see in this chapter, or in the section we're reading is this, we're going to see a soul winning woman, okay?
Now this woman becomes a soul winner, and she gets a lot of people saved.
And, you know, if you remember from earlier when we talked about last week, this woman did not have a great past.
This woman had been married five times, and she's with some other guy.
She was obviously not living the most godly and holy life.
You say, did she repent of all her sins to get saved?
No, she just found out who Jesus was and she got saved.
That's what you see from John chapter 4, because you don't have to change your lifestyle.
In all honesty, you know, even though she does lead a lot of people to the Lord,
I doubt she went home and quit, you know, living with that other guy.
Because getting married to him would have been wrong because she had been married before.
The right thing would have been to basically not live with him anymore, but I mean honestly I doubt that she ended up quitting living with him.
You know, hopefully she did. You know, it's hard to tell. The Bible doesn't tell us.
But look, you don't have to change your lifestyle to be saved.
She could have lived the exact same lifestyle and been saved because salvation is believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so we see this soul-winning woman, and what you notice here in verse 29,
one thing I want you to see is this. The reason why she was a successful soul winner is because she had initial compassion.
It said, come see a man. You can see the excitement in her when she says, come see a man.
She wants them to come. She wants them to hear about Jesus. Notice verse 39.
And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman which testified,
he told me all that ever I did. It says, many of the Samaritans believed because of her saying.
Okay. Now obviously she said more than just he told me all that ever I did.
Oftentimes the Bible will kind of recap a statement. It doesn't mean that it tells you every single thing she said.
Because obviously for them to get saved, they need to hear more than just he told me all that ever I did.
But she was able to lead them to the Lord with her words. What she told them, she was able to lead them to the Lord.
You say, why would she be able to lead someone to the Lord if she hadn't been trained?
Honestly, the Gospel is pretty simple. Explaining it's like drinking a glass of water like Jesus had explained to her.
Explaining it's a gift. Explaining it lasts forever. It's not complicated what we explain.
You know, if you show people what the Bible says, even if you aren't the greatest soul winner, you'll still lead people to the Lord.
I remember when I first got saved and I was like this woman. I had an initial compassion where I wanted people to be saved.
I was scared people would die and go to hell. I had no clue what I was doing.
But you know, I tried the best I could to just explain eternal security to people.
I didn't have a good structure. All I really did was try to show people that, you know, salvation is forever and you can never lose it.
And then I kind of just ended the conversation. I didn't know where to end.
You know, it was not structured at all. It wasn't effective.
But you know, I ran into some of those people years later in college and tried to give them the Gospel again after I knew what I was doing.
And they said, no, I know I'm going to heaven. You already talked to me about this.
I had no clue that I had led people to the Lord because I wasn't trying to close them in prayer.
I didn't know what I was doing at all. I'd never been taught, never had any structure.
But you know what? The word of God is powerful. And if you show people what the word of God says, some people are going to get saved.
And look, she might not have even known that she led a lot of people to the Lord.
She might not have known that she led many people to the Lord. But the Bible says many of the Samaritans believed because of her, because of her saying.
Now, I want you to understand something that I would imagine that in this room, every single one of you, either when you got saved,
you were just excited to see other people get saved, or you reached a point in your life, since everyone in here is a soul winner, where you said, I don't want to see people go to hell.
But what you have to understand is that we are exceptions in this room to the average person who's saved.
You know, when I got saved, my first thought was, what about my family? What about my friends?
And I gave it the best shot I could talking to those people because I had an initial compassion. In this room, we had that compassion.
But you know, that's not the average person. Most people, when they get saved, they just don't care that much.
You say, why is that important? It's important for us to realize this because some people think that, well, when I got saved, I had a desire to see other people get saved.
So that means if you really get saved, you're going to have a desire to see other people get saved. That is not what that means.
That means that you, when you got saved, you had a desire to see other people get saved.
Some people, when they get saved, they are really sorry about their sins. They don't want to sin anymore. And that might be you.
That doesn't mean it's everybody who gets saved, though. Some people, when they get saved, they start crying.
Look, I didn't cry when I got saved. Maybe you did. But you know what? Just because you cried when you got saved doesn't mean that you have to or you're going to if you really get saved.
And that's where it can be kind of a dangerous thing because sometimes people look at their own life and they assume everyone is just like them.
They assume that, well, you know, I read the Bible, so if you're really saved, you're going to read the Bible. No, that just means you read the Bible.
It doesn't mean that you have to read the Bible or you will read the Bible if you're saved.
And look, when I got saved, I was really sorry for the sin that I committed. I felt very relieved when I got saved.
And I immediately was concerned about people I knew that would die and go to hell. That doesn't mean that's everybody, though.
Because people, all they have to do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And the truth is many people we get saved, they just don't care that much. That's the truth.
We are exceptions to the rule. Look, I mean, very few people are soul winners, right? All of us are soul winners. We're obviously exceptions to some degree.
Honestly, a lot of people get saved and they don't care that much. I have gotten people saved before.
And very often when I get somebody saved door to door, I'll ask them, is there anyone else in the house that I can talk to?
And sometimes I'll see somebody in the background, like a brother or a sister or a husband or a wife.
And you know what? Sometimes the people that you get saved, they'll bring someone for you to talk to.
Other times, they'll be like, you know, I don't think they'd want to hear. And it's like, what is wrong with you?
It's like, I care about your husband more than you do. I care about your brother more than you do.
And they're embarrassed. They're shy for whatever reason. But honestly, we have more love to get their relatives saved than they do.
It's sad, but that's the way it is usually. Now, like I said, in this room, we're exceptions to that.
We actually do care, and that's why we do go solo. But unfortunately, a lot of people when they get saved, they just don't care that much.
Now, the truth is the Word of God is powerful. So the Word of God can change people's hearts.
There could be people that get saved but don't really care about anybody else. But once they hear the preaching of the Word of God, it can change their hearts.
Now, I don't know. I haven't asked everybody in this room. But some of you have probably been saved for a long time.
But it doesn't mean that you really care that much about the lost. But maybe hearing the Word of God preached, it changed your heart.
I know hearing the Word of God preached has changed my heart. And it gets you more on fire for the things of God.
But I just want you to understand that we need to be very careful not to add a stipulation to salvation that the Bible doesn't have.
Just because you have a certain experience in life does not mean that everyone else has the same experience as you.
Now, let's look at verse number 40, the Bible reads. So we see that she has an initial compassion. She immediately starts preaching the Gospel.
Most people do not immediately start preaching the Gospel. Most people never start preaching the Gospel.
Verse 40, So when the Samaritans would come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them, and he abode there two days.
And many more believed because of his own word, and said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying,
for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.
So not only does she lead people to the Lord with her own words, there's other people that are encouraged, they're interested because she was so excited,
they come and hear Jesus themselves and get saved as a result of his words instead of her words.
So not only did she lead some people to the Lord, she also led some people to Jesus where they heard the Gospel and they got saved through the words of Jesus Christ.
And you say, Well, why is it that this woman was so successful? Well, there's one big thing that she had in common with Paul the Apostle.
Now turn to Philippians chapter three, Philippians three.
I think that we would all agree in this room that this woman has a pretty checkered past. She didn't have the most righteous or holy past in her life.
But you know, I can think of somebody who had a worse past than her. That'd be Paul the Apostle. When he was Saul, didn't he have a worse past than her?
I mean, she was, you know, married to a bunch of guys, but, you know, Paul was helping some others get put to death.
I mean, what she did was bad. What he did was worse. Now, I'm sure that she knew what she was doing was wrong, getting remarried and getting remarried,
whereas Paul the Apostle did it ignorantly and unbelief. He did not realize that what he was doing was wrong.
That's why the Bible says he obtained mercy because he did it ignorantly and unbelief. He honestly thought that what he was doing was right.
But he had a pretty bad past. But notice what it says in Philippians three, verse 12.
Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect. But I follow after, if that I may apprehend, that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before.
You know what he had in common with this woman? They were able to forget their past and move forward. That's a very important thing.
Now, in this room, some of you might have a very clean past. Maybe you've never drank alcohol before, you've never smoked cigarette,
you've never done anything really wrong before, you know, major. They obviously were all sinners, but you've never had any grievous sin in your life.
But honestly, there might be some people in this room that you've done some really bad things in the past.
You know, I was homeschooled starting in middle school. Look, you know, I drank twice in my life. I went to college, I got saved in college.
But, you know, I didn't live a party sort of lifestyle before I was saved like most people do out there.
But you know what? I promise you that within our church at Verity Baptist Church Manila, even though we're not a major church right now,
I promise you there are people that have lived a bit of a checkered past before and have done things that maybe none of us have done before.
But that doesn't affect their future. That's the past. Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth onto those things which are before.
You know, one reason why people don't become good Christians, sometimes because of their past they let it drag them down.
And they just think, well, I could never be like this person because, you know, I've done these things in the past. No, that's the past.
You can become a soul winner like this woman. Now, obviously, if you've committed sins in the past, you're more likely to commit those sins than someone who's never committed them.
Like, for example, I've never smoked a cigarette. So honestly, the odds of me smoking a cigarette I think are pretty low.
You know, if I didn't smoke before I was saved, and I think it smells, you know, terrible, you know, I don't see myself smoking in the future.
But obviously, if somebody who smoked in the past, that could be something they could fall back into.
That's definitely possible because that's something your flesh already has a tendency to do now that you've opened up that door.
Once you open up that door, it's more likely it's going to come in the future.
But look, regardless of that, you can still move forward and do big things for God. And the past is the past.
And Paul the Apostle mentions that. He highlights that. He's like, this one thing I do, he was actually able to forget his past.
Quite honestly, most people probably wouldn't. Most people, if they had done that in the past, they would have allowed that to get them down the rest of their life.
And they would have just felt guilty their entire life and never done anything for God. We must be willing to forget the past and not dwell on it anymore.
And see, this is what it says in verse 14. Because he's able to forget the past, we'll notice this in verse 13.
He says, this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before.
Look, you cannot reach forth unto those things which are before unless you forget about the past.
Just thinking about it, you can't reach with both hands out towards the forward if you're still holding on to the past.
And if you're going both ways, it's not going to be very effective. You must just forsake the past and reach forth unto that which is before.
And then in verse 14, he says, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
That's a pretty famous verse in verse 14, isn't it? The reason why he's able to press toward the mark is because of the fact he's able to forget about the past.
He's able to let that be in the past and forget about the things he had done wrong in the past. It's the same thing with this woman.
Now, turn back to John 4. I do want to say this, that when Jesus preaches the gospel to her, he brings up her grievous sin that she's committed.
The whole point of that, though, was to show her that he was deity, that he was the real deal. He was the Messiah. He was Christ.
Because that's what resonates with her. She's like, I perceive you know that thou art a prophet. Well, a little bit more than that, but you're getting closer.
She doesn't understand salvation. That's the reason why he brings it up. But notice, you know, after he explains the gospel, you know, he doesn't beat her up about her past either.
Because he wants her to leave it in the past. You know, the Bible says that you're supposed to reprove, rebuke, exhort.
It's kind of like what we do solely because we start off with the negative news. You know, we reprove them, we rebuke them, but then we try to exhort them at the end.
It's the same way with preaching. You know, every sermon should have a mix of these things where you approve, rebuke, but you end with some sort of exhortation.
And if we want someone to become a soul winner, we need to give them confidence that they can do it. Because most people do not believe they can become a soul winner.
When I got saved, I did not think I could become a soul winner. The person who led me to the Lord tried to encourage me to become a soul winner.
And I told him, you know, I was like, Mike, that's your gift. I was like, I could never. I'm not a social person. I could never talk to people and preach the gospel.
And the truth is, that's the way people feel when they first get saved. Most people do not feel that they can do it.
What they don't understand is that all of us when we get saved know, like, this much about the Bible. I couldn't have quoted a single verse in the Bible when I got saved.
But obviously, over time, you can learn and grow and it can change you. We need to be able to try to give people confidence and encourage them.
And it's not bad to give them a swift kick in the pants a little bit, like, try to say, hey, you know, what if your brother died? Or something like that.
But we want to try to give them confidence that they have the ability to do it. That's why we leave them with the invitation. You say, you can show them, well, here's the verses. You can explain this to them.
Now, the truth is, most people when they first get saved are probably not going to do a great job preaching the gospel.
So it's very possible that they could preach it and not get their brother saved. But they could at least plant the seed. It's not going to hurt them.
Obviously, we encourage them to come to church and things like that. But we want to give people confidence that they can do something they forgot.
Now, so we first see a soul winning woman. And we also see from her some principles on how to bring visitors to church, which is kind of what the name of this sermon is about.
And notice what it says in verse 29. It says, Come see a man which told me all things that ever I did is not this, the Christ.
What we see from this woman is we see effort and excitement in bringing people to the Savior. Okay?
She puts in an effort. We just saw that because she's out there talking to people. But it's not just that she puts in an effort. She also has excitement.
Okay? She says, Come see a man. You can tell from the way she's saying that she is excited to bring people to Jesus. She wants people to see Jesus and to hear Him.
Notice what it says in verse 40. Actually, turn to John 1. Turn to John 1. We'll look at a few other examples of people that were successfully able to bring people to Jesus.
And it says in John 1.40, One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
He first findeth his own brother Simon and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted the Christ, and he brought him to Jesus.
So you notice that he's putting in effort. Okay? Andrew puts in an effort to bring Simon Peter to the Lord.
Now let me ask you a question. Which one of those people accomplished more in their lives, based on what we know in the Bible? Simon Peter. Right?
But Andrew's the one who brought him to Jesus. And look, we don't know when we preach the gospel and go door to door and invite people to church.
You never know what that person might end up doing for the Lord someday. Look, you know, I've talked to a lot of people and put in a lot of effort.
And very few times did they ever come to church. Very few times did they do anything for God.
You know, at the same time, I'm also the first person who preached the gospel to Brother Richie Simes.
Now, I didn't get him saved because I wasn't great at preaching the gospel at the time.
But eventually that helped lead him to being part of us and hearing the preaching and doing something big for God.
Look, if we put in the effort, there are people like that right out there in Pasadena, right out there in Metro Manila.
People that aren't even saved right now. But they do want to hear the word of God and they could get saved and do something big for God.
That's why it's important to put in an effort because, you know what, you just don't know if they're going to do something for God or not.
Most people we talk to, most doors we knock, they're not going to get saved. But we still knock every door just in case they get saved.
Most people we really try to invite to church are not going to come. But we still should do it. Why? Because some will.
That's why we need to put in effort and excitement. They're not going to want to come to our church if we don't even sound excited about it ourselves.
If we just give them the gospel and just say, okay, I'll see you later. They're not going to want to come to church.
We've got to convince them that, hey, it's worth it to come to church. We've got to try to get them excited about it.
And so the only way we can get them excited is if we're excited. Because people can tell if you're fake about it.
If you don't really care that much, you will not be able to be excited and you won't bring anyone to church. You have to be excited about it.
And look, it is very hard to bring people to church. But one thing I've noticed through the years is certain people that go soul winning just as much as each other, some of them bring a lot more visitors to church than other people.
It just is what it is. Because they're just obviously more excited, more friendly, or whatever it is.
I've known people that were much better at bringing people to church than me. This is something I need to work on and get better at myself.
Obviously in the past, you know, when we're in this hotel, I mean, obviously we're kind of in a transition phase right now.
These first couple months we've gotten so many people saved, we haven't really been in a position to necessarily bring lots of people to church from our soul winning.
That's going to change though starting this Sunday. That's going to change. Now we have a building. Now we have a location.
And now most of our soul winning is going to be towards people that live nearby. We want to get them saved. We also want them to come to church as well.
I have been to churches before where it's really hard to be excited to bring them to church because I realize whether they come to church or not, they're probably not going to grow spiritually from the preaching.
But you know, when you're part of a church, they actually will grow spiritually. I mean, if we can just get them into church, that can change their life.
I mean, if they went to your old church that you went to before you came here, it probably wouldn't have really helped them that much.
You would have to get them to start listening to preaching and teach them the Bible yourself.
But at this church, if you just get them to come to church, they're going to hear the preaching of the Word of God and it can change their heart and it can change their life.
We need to have effort and excitement just like this woman has, just like Andrew has. Notice verse 45, John 1, verse 45.
Philip findeth Nathanael saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses and the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
And Nathanael saith unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.
See, Philip is excited to bring Nathanael. Now, there's all kinds of excuses that people have for why they're not going to come to church.
People might say something like, Is there any church that's really worth going to? It's like, Well, come and see.
Find out for yourself, because obviously I think so. Obviously we think so. Say, Well, you know, I don't think I'll really learn in church.
I've never learned at church before. We'll come and see. You're going to learn at this church.
But people are going to have reasons why they're not going to come to church. We want to try to get them excited.
And we want to put in an effort to get them to come to church. Now turn back to John 4.
One logical reason why it's important to try to bring people to church is because of the fact it's going to make your soul winning a lot more exciting.
If you're able to bring people to church, you're going to be like, Wow. Now, obviously, we know we're getting people saved.
There's no question about that. But at the same time, when you bring people to church, it makes it more real to you when you actually see it.
And then they're out here at church, and they love the preaching of the word of God. It's going to make it exciting. It's going to make you want to go soul winning even more.
So it's going to help out your soul winning. Now, another thing we need to keep in mind to bring visitors to church is not only effort and excitement, but also endurance.
Which means we keep it up, even if we've been trying and not being able to bring people to church, we need to endure. We need to keep going, keep trying after it.
John 4, verse 30, then they went out of the city and came on to him. So you see that she puts in the effort and excitement, and you know what? People end up coming to him.
Now, I understand that, you know, it's very difficult to bring people to church. But if we keep enduring with it, we will bring people to church.
And here's the thing about being part of a church. If we have five visitors on a Sunday morning, that's exciting to all of us.
So you might not get a visitor from your effort, but someone else might have that Sunday. When we come back from soul winning, we rejoice in the results of a group effort.
It's the same thing with bringing people to church. And what I honestly believe is this, that if God looks down at a church that's really trying to bring people to church,
I've seen it at Verity where we put in a lot of effort bringing people to church, and those people don't come, but some random person that got an invitation months ago just happens to show up.
And I really believe it's just God blessing the church. So even if it's not the same people we're putting in an effort to, it's not a waste of time, because God says there's profit in any labor we do.
It is profitable to put in an effort. Notice what it says in verse 40.
So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with him, and he abode there two days.
And many more believed because of his own word, and said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.
And so she's excited because of the fact they actually did come because she invited them to hear the Savior.
And so let me just talk a little bit about bringing people to church here, and let me give you some practical tips on how you can do that effectively.
Now when we go out soul winning, let's say for example we get somebody saved, okay, and we tell them, you know, Hey, you know, would you like to come to church on Sunday?
That's usually what I say after I get somebody saved. Would you like to come to church on Sunday? And they respond, Well, you know, maybe. They're not going to come to church.
There's a zero percent chance they're going to come to church, okay? They're lying to you and saying maybe. It's like, you mean maybe? No. Obviously you're not going to come to church, okay?
If they hesitate at all, they're not going to come. It's kind of like when we're preaching the gospel, and we'll ask them about eternal security, and they know what the answer is, but they hesitate because they don't really believe it.
That means they don't believe it yet, right? We say, you know, well, let's say, for example, you know, you committed suicide. Would you still be saved?
And then they kind of hesitate, and you can tell they don't really believe yet. They might even be able to say the right answer. They'll say, Well, yeah, you'd still go to heaven.
But if they don't respond with the right tone, you know that they don't believe. You understand what I'm saying there? The tone means a lot.
And so we invite them to church. If they say, Yeah, you know what? I want to come to church on Sunday. That means they might come. It doesn't mean they will. It means they might come.
It means that at this moment they actually are interested in coming to church. You know, usually you'll be able to tell. So what's good is you ask them afterwards, Hey, would you like to come to church on Sunday?
If they kind of give a half-hearted answer, don't waste any time trying to follow up on them whatsoever. You're just going to be spinning your wheels, and you're going to get frustrated that you're spending lots of time on people that have no interest in coming to church.
But if they are actually interested, then put in an effort. I'm going to be sending out a text message to several people that I've gotten saved here over the last several weeks because I told them, Hey, we're going to be moving into a new building.
Do you mind if I just get your number so I can remind you about it when we go to the new building? And I'll send them a text message here, you know, Friday, maybe, or Saturday, and just remind them about it.
I don't know if they're going to come or not. You know, probably not. But it's worth an effort. Why? Because they actually were interested in coming to church.
Now, if they weren't interested, I wouldn't waste my time because we've all gotten lots of people saved over these last couple months. Most of them, it's a waste of time to try to even invite them.
But if they are actually interested, it might be worth it. It's not that hard to just send a text message. Just get their number.
And you know, honestly, at our church, one thing we're going to do, we're going to get follow-up cards that we had at Verity that you can use.
And so if it is a good contact, you can ask for their information, get their number, and then you can send them a text message, you know, before the Sunday service. Try to remind them about it.
And hopefully they'll end up coming. Some people will end up coming. One thing I did in Sacramento, and this is something I learned from Pastor Menes, and something he used to do, and something that he did very effectively, because there's people that go to his church, and this is how he invited them.
After they got saved, you know, he got their follow-up information, and he would drop off like a small little bag of cookies to their house. Now you say, well, why is this effective? Well, here's the reason why.
Because if they're not there, you just leave the cookies with a note, so you didn't waste your time. See, most people, when they do a follow-up, they don't have a real method, so they get very frustrated that they just show up to everyone's house and nobody's there.
And so, honestly, they are wasting their time. But if you have the small little bag of cookies or something like it, small little bag of brownies, then you can just kind of leave a note there if they're not there, and then, you know what I would do in Sacramento is I'd call later that day or text, say, hey, did you get, you know, what I left you?
And they'd be like, oh, yeah, you know, thank you very much. I just wanted to remind you about church. You know, would you like to come to church tomorrow?
And, you know what, honestly, you will get visitors to church as a result of that. I'm not saying you're going to get most of them, because most still won't come, but, you know, you'll get a lot more visitors if you put in an effort.
And, honestly, you know, this is obviously a different country, different location, different vineyard, so to speak. It could be a little bit different here. I don't know if that would be effective here or not, but I want to give it a shot, because, you know what, it might be effective.
You know, here's the thing about this. Most things you try in life fail. Most things are not successful. But, you know, if you try 10 things and one is successful, you just keep what's successful, and it wasn't a waste of time.
So it's not going to hurt us to try to put in an effort. You know, a lot of churches, Baptist churches, have like a designed follow-up program. There's certain people who may be designed to go to those houses and remind them about the things of God.
The Bible talks about Paul going back to the house of the people that he talked to. And so I don't think it's a waste of time. I think you see that in the Bible, but at the same time, you know, you go back to that same house where you got a woman saved, and guess what?
You could always ask them, hey, could I talk to your son, your husband? You can get other people to save that house. When I would do follow-up in America, oftentimes I'd get other people saved in that house that I didn't preach the gospel to before.
So it doesn't really make it a waste of time. I'm not saying forsaking soul-winning. We're never going to forsake soul-winning. I'm just saying in addition to soul-winning, you could add something else.
If you could only do one, then just do the soul-winning. But if you have time to put in a little bit of an effort, then you know what? It's worth putting in a little bit of an effort.
And like I said, we're going to try different things. So honestly, you know, there's people that, it could be a ministry maybe where people, if they wanted to volunteer, and we have to, you know, get it structured and come up with ideas.
But, you know, we want to try something because I believe if we can get the people passing to come to church, I believe that that can change their lives. And so we want to try to convince them.
One thing we're doing for the opening service, we're going to try to leave an invitation that, you know, Brother Emmon designed in a little flyer, you know, half-page flyer that just, you know, looks very inviting and friendly to try to get them to come to the first service, try to get them excited about the first service.
We'll see if it works. You know, if it doesn't work, then, you know, we'll still try it a few more times, try to get them to big events maybe, you know, just leave a flyer in every ward. It takes time, it takes effort.
But, you know, honestly, the secret to reaching Metro Manila in the Philippines is by getting people to come to church. We're only going to get so many people through the online ministry.
You know, praise the Lord for the people we've gotten through the online ministry, but we're not relying on Pastor Anderson to just reach more people in the Philippines to bring them to church.
We have to figure it out ourselves. And look, the truth is that there are people that are successful with churches. They're able to get people to come to church.
Now, I understand that the one reason why they might be effective is that they water down the preaching and things like that, which we're never going to do that. But at the same time, you know, some people, they have methods to bring people to church.
And you know what? We ought to try something because we need to get people to come to church. That is the secret to our church growing is getting the people we're preaching the gospel to to come to church.
There are honestly a lot of people that listen to sermons online within Metro Manila, probably double the size of our church, I would say, that, you know, are like minded. But, you know, maybe it's too far. Maybe they just, for whatever reason, don't come to church.
But at the same time, it's still a limited amount of people. There's only so many people that are listening to sermons online. We must reach a new segment of population. We must reach new people.
You know, one thing that another thing we might try to do sometime, we might try to have like a month, we might do it in March, where there's a reward at the end of the month for the person who brought the most first time visitors.
I know churches that have done that. And, you know, it makes it exciting for everybody. And obviously, we're not competing against one another. But we can also still, you know, help motivate people.
You know, the more one of you guys go solely, the more I'm going to go. We rub off on each other, we help each other out. And so honestly, I've thought of that as an idea. I think we're going to try that every once in a while, just have maybe a competition to see who can bring the most first time visitors to church.
You might have to start paying them. I don't know. You say, hey, I'll pay you 1000 pesos if you come to church. I don't know.
I want that prize at the end of the month, it might be worth it. But, you know, things like that, you know, I want to try something, though, because honestly, even if these things that I mentioned aren't successful, I believe God's going to look down and say, you know what, they're putting in an effort, I'm going to help them out.
You know, I first started preaching the gospel, I did not know what I was doing. I was preaching the right gospel, but I didn't really have any sort of method. But I was putting in an effort. And I believe that's why God helped me learn how to preach the gospel.
It's probably the same thing with many people in here, you're putting in an effort, trying to get people safe, trying to do whatever you could, and you weren't that successful. But don't you know how to preach the gospel now? Maybe God blessed you because you put in the effort.
And so if we put in the effort, I believe God can bless us. And this is going to be the secret to reaching the Philippines with the gospel, because in order for us to end up doing church plants and things like that, we need our church to grow.
And so we're going to need to bring people to church. Now turn back to John 4. And let's look at verse number 31. And the third point I want you to see is valuing the spiritual over the physical. In John 4, verse 31.
In the meanwhile, disciples prayed him saying, Master, eat. Okay. And so they're telling him, it's time to eat. Now go back to verse five in chapter four.
And I want you to remember that Jesus was resting there when he preached the gospel to this woman. He was tired. He was thirsty. He was hungry. He was exhausted. Verse five,
Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being weary with his journey, sat thus in the well, and it was about the sixth hour.
There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy me. And so he's exhausted with his journey. And he wants something to eat. He wants something to drink. He is exhausted. He is tired.
But in verse 31, they say, Master, eat. We'll notice what his response is in verse 32. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another. Have any man brought him ought to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work.
What is Jesus telling them? He said, Yeah, you know what? I am hungry. But you know, there's something more important that's going on right now. It's time to preach the gospel.
And look, you know what? Here's the truth. We have our Bible reading challenge this month. Now, some of you might be on schedule, some of you might not.
But look, if you were to really count the amount of minutes that you've spent reading the Bible this month versus the amount of minutes that you've spent eating.
I mean, a lot of you might be behind schedule, but you've spent that much time eating. And if you spent as much time reading the Bible as you did eating, you'd be fine on your Bible reading challenge.
But we need to value the spiritual more than physical. That's what we see through Jesus Christ. Now, obviously, all of us, we get hungry, we get tired, we have our personal needs.
I'm not saying to just forsake our health. But, you know, there is a time to care about the things of God.
And it's like I eat three meals a day, you know, like most people. But you know, it's not the end of the world if you have to skip a meal because you're doing something for God.
That's not the end of the world. We end up having some soul eating marathon one time and we just say we're going to put in an extra push, just forsake lunch, then have a big dinner.
Hey, that's not the end of the world if you have to go a couple more hours without eating. Right?
I'm not saying that's going to happen, but you know, it could happen sometime. We might do that sometime. I don't really know.
But it's not the end of the world if you miss a meal for a couple hours in order to preach the gospel and get more people saved.
We must value the spiritual more than the physical. That is what Jesus Christ did. Notice what it says in verse 35.
Say not he that soweth, and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
Now, let me just say this, that I heard a pastor say this one time, and you know what, I think it's pretty wise.
It's not a pastor that's, you know, in our movement, but he is an independent fundamental Baptist pastor.
And he said that, you know what, if you struggle to read the Bible and you come to the end of days and, you know, the end of your day often, you've never read the Bible,
he's like, maybe you should just make it, you know, a set plan that you will not eat any food or drink any water until you've read the Bible that day.
I think it's pretty wise. I think it makes a lot of sense because, you know what, I promise you none of us just forsake food every day. Right?
It's not like you come to the end of the day and say, oh, whoops, I forgot to eat today. I mean, does that ever happen to you?
I mean, we make sure we get our food. Right? But, you know, sometimes we could forsake our Bible reading.
And what is more important, the physical or the spiritual? The spiritual is more important.
So if you have something in your life that you just are not good at, let's say you don't pray during the day, let's say you just don't have any prayer life whatsoever,
maybe you need to decide to pray before you eat any food every day and care about the spiritual more than the physical.
Because, you know what, honestly, when it comes to our physical food, although that's important, that's nothing compared to the Word of God.
You can go 40 days without eating and you won't die. I'm not saying that we should go 40 days, but I'm saying in the Bible you see people fast that long.
And in human history, people have fasted for that long. But going, you know, six hours without food, just so you can do something spiritual,
make sure you do your Bible reading or whatever, that's not the end of the world. People go a long time without eating and they're perfectly fine.
And so we need to make sure we value the spiritual more than the physical. Verse 37,
And herein is that saying true, one soweth and another reapeth. I sent you to reap, that whereon ye bestowed no labor, other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors.
And then we see the end result here in verse 41 and 42,
And many more believe because of his own word, and said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard of ourselves,
and know that this is indeed the Christ the Savior of the world. It says many more believe because of his own word.
So he led many people to the Lord by preaching the gospel. And so if we try to envision this sort of situation,
basically, you know, he's preaching the gospel and he has the opportunity to preach to a lot of people.
You know, several groups and he's preaching the gospel one right after another. He may be a group of five, a group of six.
Kind of like in his whole park sometimes, where you can have groups of people over and over you're preaching the gospel to.
It's not just that he's talking to one person and then another. No, it says many.
There's a lot of people. It doesn't give us a number, but he's able to get a lot of people saved.
So in his mind, he's looking at the situation and saying, there are so many people I have an opportunity to preach the gospel to right now.
In two hours, I'm not going to have that opportunity. Now I could eat right now and then the opportunity is gone.
Or I could preach the gospel now and just wait a couple hours without food.
It's kind of like on these missions trips or, you know, during whether we make a marathon or during our missions trip we just had that, you know, sometimes there's opportunities to preach to a lot of people.
And you got to say, you know what, man, I want to go eat, but there's like five people right here that are willing to hear the word of God.
And you know what, sometimes maybe you got to put the food to the side for a little while. That's what Jesus does.
He says, you know what, there's still people to preach the gospel to. Now, obviously, there's always people to preach the gospel to.
So at some point you got to just decide, I'm just going to go eat. I'm going to go back home or whatever.
But he gets many people saved. And if you notice in the Bible, usually Jesus is just preaching to one person at a time, like the woman at the well or in John 3.
But this is an opportunity where he has to preach the gospel to a lot of people, to several groups.
And he's getting lots of people saved. So he puts in more time and he forsakes food for a little while.
I believe this, that if you do this, God's going to give you the energy you need to accomplish it.
Because remember, he's exhausted. He's weary. But he does have the energy to complete it.
And I believe that when you're doing something spiritual like that, God can give you an ability that you normally would not have.
I'll tell you this, that soul winning is probably the most tiring thing that there is.
Soul winning, preaching sermons, these things are really tiring because it's spiritually draining. It's mentally draining.
And it can be physically draining as well.
You know, honestly, for me, I'm more tired on Monday mornings than any day because I preach two sermons.
And because, you know, God's soul winning, I'm exhausted the next day.
You know, doing a spiritual work is very exhausting.
When I was in Guyana, I was going soul winning basically, you know, seven hours every single day.
And Guyana is different than the Philippines because you're really just preaching the gospel to one person or two people.
Then it's another person. Then it's another person.
So you're preaching the gospel like 14 times in seven hours. It's like back to back to back to back to back.
There's always one person, but there's never two. They're not in groups.
Like here, you can just spend like an hour and a half and you talk to, you preach the gospel to like 20 people.
You got to go all day in Guyana.
But you know, honestly, I was able to do that every day, day after day after day.
Is that really logically possible to preach the gospel for seven hours every day, day after day?
No.
We don't have the energy to do that.
Right.
But God can give you an energy that you normally wouldn't have.
You preach the gospel for an hour, it's tiring. Two hours, it's very tiring.
But you know, he can give you an ability to accomplish something that you normally would not be able to do.
Now, let me give you some examples of accomplishing things when you're really tired.
When it comes to spiritual things, anything, you know, I believe we can, let me just give you a couple examples.
In terms of soul winning, I was preaching the gospel one time. This is kind of a personal testimony in Arizona.
And I was going door to door and I went for like six straight hours. Nobody saved.
Door after door after door after door after door. Nobody wanted to hear.
Now I was going back to the church to run a soul anytime and to meet up with some people from the church.
But I was like, man, I was looking at my time. I was like, I want to get one person saved here.
Just one person.
And the last door, the last door on that map, the last door on that street, that person ended up getting saved.
And then I rushed back to the church. It's amazing how that works.
We had our mission in Manila just a couple months ago, our big, you know, day of soul winning.
Soul winning marathon. And didn't we get a lot more people saved in the second half of the day than the first half?
It always works that way.
During our missions trip, every single day, I promise you, there's more people saved in the second half of the day than the first half.
Oftentimes you accomplish more when you're tired than when you're not tired.
Well, I went back to the church and we went out soul winning for about an hour and a half and I was able to preach the gospel to a group of two, a group of three, and then one person.
And so I ended up having seven people saved in one day. Now seven people in America, that's like 700 here.
I mean, that's an awesome day to get seven people. I mean, that's a great day here as well.
But seven saved in America. I had nobody saved after six hours.
I mean, that was depressing. And I ended up having one of my best soul winning days I've ever had in America.
It was amazing. Oftentimes, God will bless you if you put in an effort when you're tired.
I've had times where I was reading the Bible, you know, late at night and I was exhausted.
But then I found something or I saw something in the Bible that I'd never seen before.
And I believe God will bless you if you put in an effort when you're tired.
Same thing with Bible memorization or prayer. If you put in an effort when you're tired, I believe God is going to bless you.
Now, let's look at one other thing. Look at verse number 43.
And the Bible reads,
And we're going to see, once again, like we did last week, we see the Jews' rejection of Jesus Christ.
This is kind of a common theme throughout the entire Bible, throughout the entire New Testament,
that I don't understand why people don't see this, that the Jews completely rejected Jesus Christ.
That's throughout the entire New Testament.
And, you know, what Jesus is basically saying is this, that you're going to have more success in an area that you're not from than an area you are from.
He's saying he had more success with the Gentile world than the Jewish world.
Now, an application for us is this. Honestly, it's pretty hard to win family to the Lord.
It's not an easy thing to do. It's difficult.
Now, I still have to think about how we're going to do this.
But I went to a church that would have a list of the people's family members that weren't saved.
And I want to get a detailed list from our church of family members and friends that you want to hear the gospel, you want to get saved,
and, you know what, that they're not saved.
Because, honestly, it's hard to preach the gospel to family.
And you might really want to see them get saved, but it's difficult for you.
You preach the gospel to them, you might basically be ousted from your family.
But somebody else could come in and just knock that door and preach the gospel, and you what?
Maybe they get saved, maybe they didn't, but it would be easier for them.
Than it would for you.
Here's one thing I believe, that in our lives, when it comes to people that we care about, we want to see them get saved.
If God sees us putting in a big effort to win people that we don't know to the Lord,
He's going to bless us in our personal lives as well.
But I do think that as a church, we should get a list of the people's family members that aren't saved.
You know, maybe you have a grandmother, a grandfather, a father, a mother, a cousin, or whatever.
And you know what? Somebody will go and knock that door and try to get them saved.
Now obviously people live a long ways from each other.
When we did this in West Virginia it was pretty easy, because everybody lived within 15 minutes of one another.
So I'm not necessarily going to drive all the way down to Mootinloopa every week to try to get somebody saved.
But we have people from all over, so honestly it would be a good thing for us to do,
to get a list of people that you want to hear the gospel, and we'll pray about it and try to get them saved.
And you know what? I believe in many people we get saved.
And so what Jesus is saying though is that, you know, a prophet has no honor in his own country.
Jesus was rejected by his brothers. His brothers didn't believe on him.
Now they ended up believing on him, but they did not believe on him. They rejected him. Why?
Because, you know, your family members have seen, obviously Jesus was perfect,
but I'm sure his brothers looked at him like he was a sinner.
You know, they probably looked at him and said, wow, you should have done this or whatever.
They obviously didn't believe on him. They didn't believe he was a messiah. They didn't believe he was the Christ.
You know, when it comes to my family or people I know, they've seen me do a lot of stupid things in the past.
And so it makes it difficult to preach the gospel to them, because they remember like ten years ago when you were doing whatever.
And so it does make it difficult to preach the gospel to family.
Now, verse 45, then when he was coming to Galilee, the Galileans received him,
having seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast, for they also went on to the feast.
So the Galileans received him. But did most of the Jews receive Jesus? No.
Most of the Jews rejected Jesus. In fact, the Bible says the Jews killed Jesus Christ.
It's not blame. The Romans are not the ones blaming. It's the Jews that are blamed for killing Jesus Christ.
And so what do we see? That Jesus had more success, not in his own country, but to other people.
Now, the apostles and the disciples and the followers, they should have read that in the Bible.
They should have known that and quit trying to always preach the gospel to the Jews,
like you see throughout the book of Acts, and they keep getting themselves in trouble.
They should have seen what Jesus said and spent their time trying to get the Gentile world saved, more so than the Jews.
Look, let's say for example that, you know, obviously this is a receptive country,
and throughout the entire world, you know, Filipinos are pretty receptive to the gospel,
and countries that are not receptive. But let's say for example there's somebody who lived here in the Philippines.
And let's say for example he was from some unreceptive country.
Now look, obviously I understand he's going to have a heart for those people and he wants to see them get saved,
but you have to realize that if the area you're from is just not receptive,
that's just not the best place to spend all your time trying to get people saved.
There are just countries that are not receptive to the gospel.
And you have missionaries, they go to countries that are unreceptive, and it's like, what are you doing?
Why are you wasting your time? There's Orthodox countries that the priests are extremely powerful in those countries.
You're not going to be able to do anything in that country.
You'll never be able to preach against the religion that 99% of people are.
You're never going to hardly get anybody saved.
So why would you go to those areas and try to get them saved?
You know, it's possible that later on God could open up that door.
This country has not always been receptive to the gospel.
Until it became a Catholic country, it was not receptive.
For the last 2,000 years, most of that time period, this has been a very unreceptive country.
It wouldn't have made sense to send all kinds of people to preach the gospel a thousand years ago.
It does make sense now.
And so what we have to understand is there's certain countries and areas that might not be receptive to the gospel now,
they might be receptive one day.
But you go to areas that are receptive.
Now notice verse 46, let's finish up the chapter.
So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee where he made the water wine, and there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.
And so Jesus is returning to those that actually receive him.
Verse 47, when he heard that Jesus was coming out of Judea and Galilee, he went on to him,
and beside him he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.
Then said Jesus on to him, except he sees signs and wonders he will not believe.
The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down here, my child, die.
And Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way, thy son liveth.
And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.
Remember the Jews always wanted to see a sign?
They required a sign.
This guy doesn't require a sign.
He just believes. Why?
Because the Jews weren't receptive to the gospel.
By and large they rejected Jesus Christ, and by and large now they reject Jesus Christ.
They're just very unreceptive to the gospel.
Verse 51,
And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, My son liveth.
Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend.
And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.
So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said unto him,
Thy son liveth, and himself believed in his whole house.
This is again the second miracle that Jesus did when he was come out of Judea into Galilee.
And so, I mean, this is going to be a theme throughout the book of John and every book in the Bible.
You're going to just see this, that the Jews just completely rejected Jesus Christ.
He that believeth not the Son shall not see life.
The fact that Baptist churches here in the Philippines are going to tell you the Jews are God's chosen people,
they either don't understand the Bible or they've never read it.
Or they're just lying to you. It's one of those.
I mean, because there's no way you could read through the New Testament and walk away and say that the Jews are God's chosen people,
that they're special above any other people.
Because it's like every single book in the Bible is just refuting that.
And a lot of these books, it's every chapter is rebuking it.
And it's like, what verse are you possibly pointing to to say that the Jews are God's chosen people?
Look, if they hate Jesus Christ, which most of them do, they're not God's chosen people.
The people that are God's chosen people, the elect are those that have believed on Jesus Christ.
It's elect based on whether or not you put your faith in Jesus Christ.
And you know what, Judaism is not really unique because the Calvinists are the same way where they believe there's some special group of people.
There's a lot of religions like that, where they believe that their group is somehow special more than anybody else.
But you know, the Bible throughout the entire time says that anyone can get saved.
That's what we see in John Chapter 4 with this woman.
And we see that the people Jesus preaches to afterwards, it's not the Jews, because they just didn't receive.
Let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here in your house today in this last service we have here at Bayview Park.
And I ask you just to help us...