THIS IS 20 Week 1 - An Epic Invitation // September 5, 2021

thank you for joining us for our online gathering at hope church in las vegas nevada we exist to connect people to live the life of a jesus follower we're honored that you're tuning in we hope you enjoy this service [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hey hope church family my name is jasmine and i wanted to thank you for taking the time to watch our online worship service today at hope church we exist to connect people to live the life of a jesus follower if this happens to be your first time joining us we want to get to know you better go ahead and open up the hope church lv app or visit hopechurchlv.com and click connect with us and fill out a short digital connection card so we can do just that now here are a few things we want you to know about at hope church we believe that the life of a jesus follower is all about relationships we want to help you connect in community by joining a four-week group starting on september 13th during these groups you will have the opportunity to dive deeper into the weekend message and meet new friends after you fill out the front side turn it around and select the join a group option on the back side after service drop off your card at guest services you can get more information and register online at hopechurchlv.com grouptime secondly are you following us on social media if you have your phone close by open up instagram or facebook and give us a follow by searching hope church lv one of the ways we are celebrating hope's 20th birthday this month is by posting stories on our account we would love for you to like comment and celebrate with us in this way well that's all i've got so let's continue with our gather time praise the lord hope church family are you ready to worship god today come on let's give him glory this is the day that the lord has made so let us rejoice and be glad in it come on put your hands together as we celebrate the glory and the goodness [Music] this is the day this is the day that the lord has made that the lord has laid i will rejoice i will [Music] rejoice is the day that the lord has made i will rejoice [Music] this is the day that the lord has made that the lord will has i will rejoice [Music] i will rejoice [Music] this is the day that the lord has made that the lord has made i will rejoice i will rejoice this is [Music] day [Music] [Music] [Music] we bless your name god you are worthy of all the praise come on keep those hands going we're gonna testify of the goodness of the lord wandering into the night wanting a place to hide this weary soul this bag [Music] [Music] oh this [Applause] i thank the savior because he healed my heart he changed my name forever free i'm not the same i make the master i thank the savior i thank god come up with [Music] got no choice but to believe my doubts are burning [Music] you can just keep it save my he picked me up [Music] [Music] i am [Music] i [Music] he changed my name forever [Music] thank [Music] thank god [Music] this is a very special month in the life of hope church as we celebrate 20 years of joining in god's activity and one of the ways we're going to celebrate is by sharing stories and in honor of 20 years we're going to share 20 stories of life change so let's watch the story about the sousa family i started attending hope church in 2004 and from the very first service i attended i knew i was home in 2005 i also started attending hope church i grew up in a catholic church and knew a lot about god but never had a personal relationship with him in 2006 i gave my life to jesus and was also baptized then in 2008 carly and i got married only a few months into marriage while sitting in service at hope pastor chip was doing the announcements and said the department of family services was desperately looking for potential foster parents we had talked a lot about adoption prior to getting married but knew nothing about foster care we decided to attend an informational session to see what it was all about a week later we knew that god was calling us into foster care less than five months after getting married we brought home our first placement a sibling group of four three boys and one girl we quickly learned that even though we were tightly knit with our community unless someone was already engaged in foster care before they wouldn't understand what we were dealing with we knew we had to put other foster parents around us or the journey was never going to get easier in 2010 we opened our home for a foster parent support group and we had a few families actually show up it was a relief that even though we were all in the trenches at least we were all in the trenches together and then in 2015 we transitioned that support group to the hope church campus in 2017 foster care was identified as an area our church wanted to focus on to impact the next generation pastor travis approached me about officially launching a foster care ministry built on what we had already been doing for years over the next few weeks fostering hope was officially launched fostering hope is now serving over 200 foster families in the las vegas valley we still have weekly support groups that meet on campus we've launched over 50 small groups that care for the foster families we serve we have a resource center called hannah's closet where foster kinship and adoptive families from all over las vegas can come and shop for free for essential items they need to help make their placement a successful one we've partnered with a dozen churches across the valley walking alongside them to launch foster care ministries in their churches most importantly every single day god is allowing us to walk with unsaved people in our city showing them the love of our father we've seen families that have never stepped foot on a church campus before take their 10-week licensing classes here at hope attend our support group and even join our church body our family is now sitting at 11 people some officially suez and some not when we said yes to foster care and those first four kids god began to take us on a journey it's been a wild ride some serious highs and some serious lows but we would say yes over and over again because kids are worth it everyone deserves to have someone to call a family the ways that we have seen god show up over the years are way too numerous to count we've had a community of people foster hope in our lives and hopefully we've been able to foster hope in theirs what an absolute gift amen what a story there are so many ways that god has invited us to join in his mission regardless if you are worshiping in person or with one of our congregations or you're online there are multiple ways that you can give and you can see several of those ways on the screen [Music] as i lead us in a time of prayer i want to read a passage from psalm 145 that says on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works i will meditate they shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds and i will declare your greatness they shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness let's pray father we are overwhelmed by your goodness today we celebrate all that you've done in our lives and through the life of this church god only you can do that it is your activity that is at work here at hope church every single one of us here we have a story about how you intersected our life and changed it from the inside out and so lord as we celebrate today as well as the coming weeks may we be reminded of your goodness and the miracle that you did in each one of us we love you lord and we give it all to you and in jesus name we pray [Music] amen without [Music] to [Music] is [Music] praise the sun praise [Applause] [Music] to reveal the kingdom coming and to reconcile the laws [Music] [Music] knowing this was our salvation jesus [Music] god [Music] [Music] for the land that conquered and the dead rose from their tombstone for the souls of all the father are restored and the church of christ was born now this gospel truth [Music] for the love of jesus christ who has resurrected me free foreign [Music] go back to the beginning can't control what tomorrow will bring but i know here in the middle is the place where you promise to be [Applause] unless you come will you meet me here again is [Music] unless you come again is [Applause] [Music] this wasn't the life i had planned i've been to the dry desert and back again hopeless with no clear direction addiction and brokenness were heavy chains that bound me to this world i was spiritually dead and using drugs and alcohol human trafficking incarceration my brother passing homelessness losing custody of my daughter and even having suicidal thoughts this was my life in 2017 everyone i knew had given up on me stranded in the middle of the desert lost an addiction i prayed to a god i didn't know yet i hit rock bottom again i prayed my way to my aunt's home and this is where i met jesus for the first time i had so many questions i didn't even know how to ask them all as i began to read what i now know as the beatitudes blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven my eyes began to well up i continued to read promise after promise with tears streaming down my face i knew the words in red were significant but i didn't fully understand what i was reading and who was speaking to me at my lowest point i cried out to jesus and begged him to be real i put my hands up in complete surrender and said jesus i need you with my face on the floor before the lord begging for his mercy and forgiveness his cross was revealed to me this is why he died so that i could live and be free that i could be forgiven the love that i was searching for in all the wrong places led me to him my lord and savior jesus christ the heavy weight that i was carrying had been lifted i could see a new path the scales had fallen from my eyes and it was this very moment that i became a jesus follower as i began walking with jesus he led me to hope church and surrounded me with a kingdom his family two years later i get the amazing opportunity to serve with the level center alongside the hub and extend my hand out to those in the position i was in four years ago as i look back i can now see with clarity that not for one minute was my life ever out of god's [Music] control the the lord is in his place [Music] is lord isn't in this [Music] place the [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Applause] reach the spirit hallelujah [Music] lest you come for you meet me here again [Music] cause all i want is [Music] sing i'm not enough i'm not enough [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] holy spirit [Music] holy spirit [Applause] fill the room [Music] holy spirit holy spirit [Music] unless you come [Music] for you meet us here again [Music] cause all i want [Music] is [Music] this weekend as you've already heard we are kicking off our 20th birthday with a series called this is 20. before pastor scott opens god's word i want to pray for us god we thank you for this time that we are able to come together to worship you to praise you god will you meet us here like that song says to bless us to speak to us through pastor scott god we're celebrating an incredible moment of 20 years of your grace upon this church so god speak to us through pastor scott meet us here again in this moment as we spend time in your word it's in jesus name we pray amen you know we say all the time that before we are anything else hope church is a family the list is very short of people who have relocated their lives to plant a church in a different context and culture and seeing god move in such a way that lives were changed churches were planted and nations were impacted [Music] [Music] well i don't know about you but i am so excited to jump into this month already you can tell we are excited about all that god has done here if you have a bible go ahead and open it up to john chapter 4 or a device go ahead and flip open to john 4. i want to bring you back just as we jump in to april of 2007 april 2007 i'm 20 years old and i'm a part of this little bible college in southern california and i come back with my then girlfriend who's now my wife candace we come back to visit amen shout out to candice we come back to just visit our family here in vegas for easter and we were going to go to the church that she grew up at and the church that i gave my life to jesus at a church here in town and and we got an invitation in april of 2007 that i didn't know and this isn't being dramatic this is just being honest i didn't know that invitation would literally change my life see i got invited to come to an easter service at a little bitty church called hope baptist church and it was the first time that i drove on that pebble campus and i got to experience church like i never experienced church before like we just kind of did not much has changed right in 14 years from that moment 15 years around i just remember there was this dude on stage and he was preaching with some fiery southern baptist action going on he had pleated pants and a tucked in polo shirt and i thought i don't know if me and this man have anything in common but that dude loves jesus and so do i and i loved it i just kept coming back graduated from that little bible college come back get involved in what god was doing at hope church and got started serving in small group in the student ministry my wife and i got married we began to have children here and i look back as i was preparing this to jump into this is 20 this first week and i look back and i'm not trying to be dramatic god has completely changed and transformed my life at this church i'm going to get emotional probably because i'm looking at those stories i'm looking at christina i'm looking at the souza's i'm looking at i watched that little intro video this week when our team put it together and i'm just in my office getting all emotional because god is doing something special at this church i've learned so much of this church i've learned i'm literally my entire adulthood has been formed and and molded here at this church i've learned to disciple people and to raise children and to be a better husband and to preach god's word and so many things have happened because of god's grace through the ministry of hope church if you're thankful in your story for hope church can we just like give it up for jesus man that is my story of hope and every one of us have a story of hope even if today you're here for the very first time welcome to this amazing journey called hope church i hope today is an april 2007 moment for you and you'll be here for 15 years or longer whether you've been here for a day a month a year or maybe you were in pastor vance's living room in 2001 we are really really stoked if you can't tell for what god is doing here at this church and here's the best part what we're celebrating yes but also what we're looking forward to in the future god is not done with what he's doing his grace is so good and he's just put favor on this church and we can't wait over the next month just to share with you the things that we believe god has put on our heart for the future as we just invite what god's doing in as we invest into what god's doing we can't wait to share with you i could go on and on but there's a sermon to get to and the bible to get to so like i said john chapter 4 we are gonna look at a story today that's a perfect picture of how i feel my life has been impacted by this church it's an epic invitation pastor ricky mentioned it already jesus has this encounter with a woman you may have heard this story if you've been around church for any length of time it's referred to as the woman at the well and we're not going to read every verse of this story it's actually the entire chapter four of the gospel of john and we don't have time to preach verse by verse through every verse in the chapter so we're gonna read a little bit and talk a little bit and i'll fill in the blanks as we read but just before we jump in i want us all to lean into this reality that this is not just some ancient far-off story that has no uh tangible application to our lives this is not just something in the pages of scripture that's like yeah that's a cool story i want us to see today and hopefully you'll hear and feel today that god this is a this is a lot closer to home than we may realize in fact i would i would say it has a lot more to do with your story than you realize today and maybe you've never read it like that so jumping right in we're going to start in verse 5 of chapter 4 of the gospel of john we'll read a little bit and talk a little bit and read a little bit more here's what the bible says in john 4 chapter 5. john 4 verse 5. so he that's jesus came to a town of samaria called psychar near the field that jacob had given to his son joseph those are old testament characters jacob and joseph jacob's well was there so jesus wearied as he was from his journey was sitting beside the well it was about the sixth hour translation it's noon right it's noon verse seven and a woman from samaria came to draw water jesus said to her give me a drink for his disciples had gone into the city to buy food the samaritan woman said to him how is it that you a jew ask for a drink from me a samaritan a woman of samaria for jews have no dealings with samaritans real quick we got to do some context what's she talking about right here just on the j off the jump of this story jesus breaks two very important cultural rules the first rule she mentions he was a jew talking to a samaritan if you were here last week pastor edward talked about the the story of the good samaritan uh just cliff notes samaritans were not looked at as good people they were they were biracial they were they were half jewish half another culture and they were kind of outcasts of the society nobody had dealings especially if you were a jewish person with samaritans those are those people we don't do life with with those people so she's tripping a little bit because jesus a jew is talking to her uh samaritan so he broke cultural rule number one jews don't talk to samaritans cultural rule number two that he broke is women and men don't have conversation that aren't married to each other in public we don't know that in this day and age i can go to starbucks right now and you can ask the nice lady in front of you to go ahead and go before you and that's not weird but this is a really big deal in this culture men who weren't married to that woman they don't talk in public they don't talk unless they are married so jesus comes to this well at noon with this woman and breaks these two cultural rules see he actually broke four invisible barriers between him and this woman that you may or may not know and i want to help us to understand this story there's four invisible barriers that jesus busted right through there was a religious wall a religious barrier samaritans and jews had very different religious beliefs we're going to get into that a little later there was the gender wall we already talked about that why are you talking to me you are a man and i am a woman and you shouldn't be talking to me there is a racial wall you're a jew i'm a samaritan we don't do life together at all we live on different sides of the train track so to say and then finally there's a a moral wall a more moral barrier see there's a reason that this woman was by herself she wasn't with her girls at 6 a.m when most of the people went out to get water she was there by herself we're going to find out why later in the story but this woman not only was outcast because she was a samaritan she was an outcast even within the samaritan she's going to the well all by herself because she had some junk in her life and so jesus busts through that he sees past that for this amazing encounter and he says hey would you give me a drink she says you have you have nothing to draw water with and let's pick it up in verse 10 of john chapter 4. jesus answered her if you knew the gift of god and who it was that saying to you give me a drink you would have asked him and he would have given you living water what i want us to see throughout this entire story jesus is very intentional about where he's headed he has a plan and a sovereign purpose for this conversation so he's saying give me a drink she says you ain't you bring nothing you bring a canteen you didn't bring nothing how are you gonna get water and he says hey if you knew who it was that's asking you for this water you would ask me for living water and he introduced this radical concept of living water later on in the story jesus talks about this idea that with this living water you'll never have to go to this well again with this living water you will have eternal life with this living water you'll never have to thirst again because you will be fully satisfied so what does she say like you and me she says give me that water i hate bringing this jar to this well every day i want whatever it is this living water concept give me whatever that is and here's where i want us to kind of bust into our day and age today how many people do we know they may not be going to physical wells but every single day they're going to a different well looking for some sort of satisfaction they're going to something different to say this is what's going to give me thirst this is what this is what the news said this is what my best friend said that this is going to give me satisfaction and they go from well to well to well the well we know people we ourselves could use a dose of this living water we will never thirst again and jesus says it's available this living water very simply is a picture of salvation right here he says if you have this living water you'll never thirst again it's bubbling up and it's eternal life later on in the gospel of john jesus says in john 7 jesus stood up and cried out saying if anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink he who believes in me as the scripture said from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water there's that picture what is that this he spoke of the spirit whom they those who believed in him were to receive so when he talks about this living water he's asking this girl do you want to be saved do you want something that will satisfy you despite all the junk in your life right now i offer that and jesus does something very interesting she says to him please like that sounds great and we would all agree that's an amazing sales pitch give me that water but jesus doesn't say well here's the water here's salvation have a great day jesus takes a left look what he says there in verses 16 and 17. this is where this story gets real interesting some of you may remember jerry springer this is where it gets jerry springer like just a throwback there late 90s here we go he told her okay go and call your husband and come back listen here's what i want to see she said i want that living water but here's what jesus is about to do jesus is about to show him you may show her you may want this living water but i'm going to show you that you need this living water i'm going to lovingly show you your need for salvation go call your husband she says i have no husband jesus enters into a conversation here and a level of conversation here that that's that thing that she didn't want anybody to know about i think we can kind of all relate there's that thing that you don't really want anybody to know about but how on earth did this guy just know about her past that we're going to get into in a minute like why are you talking about my love life this is a hidden part of her life that she wasn't sure she was ready to uncover to anybody and all of a sudden this guy at this well on this random wednesday afternoon we don't know it was wednesday i just threw that in there it feels like wednesday go get your husband i don't have a husband jesus says you're right you've actually had five husbands and the one you're living with now isn't your husband now i don't know if you've ever been in a really awkward situation but this is like i'm gonna step out of this for a minute not even supposed to be talking to each other man woman jew samaritan what is going on here now all of a sudden she he's he's saying the deepest part of her sinful life he's unveiling why is he doing that jesus rubbing her sin in her face like why is jesus doing this i want us to see jesus is saying i know you want the living water but i need to show you you need the living water what jesus is doing is not rubbing her sin and her face what jesus is doing is lovingly showing her her need for salvation he's exposing her sin he's showing her listen you need living water what is that for you what was that for you when you realized man i missed it i messed up i i don't i don't have the goodness and the grace to enter into whatever it is this living water and jesus said that's the point i understand that i know that's why i'm showing you you need it and it's from it's a free gift from me jesus wasn't rubbing her sin and her face he was lovingly showing her listen sometimes we have to understand how broken we are before we can realize how beautiful salvation is that's why the gospel the whole gospel when we say that we mean good news the good news of jesus the fact that he came to earth he he lived a perfect life he died in our place he rose again that is very good news but unless you have the bad news attached to that it doesn't make a lot of sense because you're like why do i need that it's only helpful if you realize you need help so he's showing her you need help let's pick it up in verse 19. i love her response the woman said to him sir i perceive that you are a prophet like yeah something's going on there because i don't know how you knew all that and then she did something very interesting and the next several verses you can check it out later she she totally takes like an ancient rabbit trail she starts talking about cultural practices of worship it's almost like she's like let's put that five husband thing on the side let's talk about some high pie in the sky stuff for a minute you worship on this mountain we worship on this mountain and she says i know that one day a messiah is coming and again jesus lovingly zeroes back in and he said hey that messiah you're talking about that messiah you speak of look at verse 26 i who speak to you and he see what he's done he's breaking these walls down he's showing her her need she tries to take a left and goes on this rabbit trail and he says listen listen that messiah i am the messiah and i love what happens next in verse 28 through 30. so the woman left her water jar and went away into the town here's the part we're going to zero in on tonight she said to the people come see a man who told me all that i ever did come can this be the christ they went out to the town and were coming to him that little phrase at the top it's a very interesting phrase she left her water jar commentators kind of disagree and have some fun on what this means right a few things it could mean one is is it was like a big water jar so she's like had this amazing experience with jesus and she's bailing to go tell everyone she knows about it she doesn't want to carry the water jar that's a very practical way that that could be my personal favorite interpretation is she's so done she's experienced now this living water she's so done with that that she just doesn't even remember it and she just bails to go tell everyone she knows about this newfound living water she has that's an option other people say the beginning of the story jesus asked her for a drink and so she's just being hospitable i love that idea too like hey you didn't have you didn't bring anything to get the water you can have mine i'm gonna tell everyone i know about you right like that could be an option the bible doesn't say why she left her water pocket here's what every all commentators agree and we can agree this weekend on this woman left the well different than she came she had an incredible experience with god we celebrate this amazing for unforgettable experience but here's what i want us to see today that is not just her story that's just not her story and we're gonna we're gonna look at this story over and over again a few times in a few different lights with a few different perspectives but i want to summarize it very simply for us what is this story we just read a whole story i want to i want to boil it down really into four statements that i think we can all agree it's a great summary of this story here's the first point jesus saw her pretty simple he sought her out it says that he had to go through samaria it says in the beginning of this chapter historians tell us he didn't have to go to samaria to where he was going he could have totally went another way but he intentionally sought this conversation out jesus saw sought her out and jesus saw her this girl just showed up to the well probably like she did every other day she wasn't expecting an amazing encounter that would change her life forever she didn't wake up and think i'm going to get saved today she didn't wake up and say i'm going to have an amazing encounter where i'm going to experience living water but jesus knew what he was doing and he saw her second thing we see in this story is jesus spoke truth to her i love that aspect of this story he poured out amazing grace on this girl's life who was living in sin and all kinds of junk going on but he didn't just give her grace to show her that she needed him she spoke truth he spoke truth to her this is one of the best pictures in scripture of the grace of god and the truth of god on display he lovingly led her to show her you need this and the third thing he does is jesus saved her we praise god for that you say hi i didn't see that in the in the text how do we know that she is saved well a couple cross references happen later on in the chapter later on in the chapter she goes and says come and tells all the guys and girls hey come see the man told me all i ever did i just had this amazing encounter and then later on in verse 39 of chapter four it says many samaritans from the town believed in him because of the woman's testimony even later on in the chapter they said to the woman that's the samaritans they came back and they said to the woman it is no longer because of what you said that we believe for we have heard ourselves and we know here it is that this is indeed the savior of the world so jesus saw her jesus spoke truth to her jesus saved her and here's what she did she was compelled to share i love this about the story we love the amazing encounter she had with god but after jesus saw her and spoke truth to her and saved her what did she do she was compelled to share i love that this story doesn't say and after she had this encounter she got her journal and she went on a spiritual retreat to find herself right she didn't it doesn't say she had this amazing encounter at the well and then she went to a christian conference to learn a little bit more about this new relationship i need to know the greek and i don't know how the jews do life so i'm going to go now to seminary to learn about this listen no knock on seminary and christian conferences and spiritual retreats but that is not what happens in this story she is seen she's spoken truth to she's saved and immediately she is compelled to share what happened to her she says in verse 29 come see a man see this jesus is this the messiah this is a radical life-changing story but here's what i don't want us to miss that's my story praise god for christina's story in that video man i'm like in tears over here on the front row because that's christina's story and not because it was this crazy radical transformation i don't care if you grew up in church your whole life and when you're 16 you went to a summer camp and you know all the bible verses you saw your need for jesus and you gave your life to him the woman at the well story is your story the true story of the woman at the well is still true for us today and i i know that that kind of falls on on deaf ears and it's kind of like yeah we know that but can we just like all get around this idea that today if you are a follower of jesus i don't know what your well was but you got around a well with the god of the universe and he showed you your need for him he sought you out before the foundation of the earth he saw you and he spoke truth into your life and showed you your need for a savior and praise god he saved you like that's insanely wild today [Applause] and maybe you're just way higher on the moral standard than i am but i i'm looking at me and i'm thinking how did he save me like i know me you know you i could try to put up a front but we know ourselves like the king of all glory saw in his sovereignty to save me it's amazing so jesus follower if you're here today if you're watching online this is your story so here's what i want to do i want to show us just like we we put it out there the summary of her story i want to put that summary of our story the reality is jesus saw me i made it personal so you could really personalize this you didn't wake up on your day of salvation and say you know what i think i'm going to do today i think i'm going to get saved and go to heaven forever you may be here right now and pastor ricky prayed it earlier you may be here right now you just got an invitation to church from a friend but today is going to be your day at the well and god is going to save you but you didn't wake up this morning think i i sought after god but he sought after you jesus spoke truth to me at some point in my life for me it was at a summer camp student ministry i saw my need for jesus i saw man i can't do this by myself i can't be good enough to get saved or get to some eternal life out there somewhere i was shown the truth of god and jesus saved me and we praise god for that i haven't met one christian who's not super down with the fact that jesus saw me jesus spoke truth to me and jesus saved me put that there it is right there i we can all get down with that like we're super stoked about that but that's not what the woman at the well experienced that's not where the salvation experience ends she goes to her people and says come man see a man who's changed my life so the question i've been wrestling with all week and i hope you know that when we get up here we're just not trying to preach sermons that we're not being affected by like i'm wrestling with this question all week am i compelled to share like i want you to ask that of yourself but i'm asking that of me all week like scott worthington i've been seen i've been spoken truth to i've been saved now for like 15 something years i praise god for that but like am i compelled to share that with everybody i know come and see a man who changed my life there's an awesome truth that god has saved you but the awesome truth that a lot of times we don't get as rah-rah about is that god has also sent you and sometimes if i'm honest i'm just not compelled i'm just doing me so i thought about it in my own life again i just want to share out of vulnerability in my own experience i thought man why am i not compelled why are we make it plural to church together we're in this thing together why are we not compelled to share i'll share a couple that i know have been true of my life at times here's the first one i'm not compelled because i'm just not experiencing god like we can read this story and we could go that's a cool story but if i'm being honest i may be a christian but like this living water thing it kind of dried up 15 years ago and i'm going i don't want to take for granted just because you're at a church that you're just like having this amazing encounter with jesus and experiencing all this good god stuff let's not take that for granted today you may be here to say hey i know the living water's real i believe i have a relationship with jesus but like it's definitely not flowing up bubbling up eternal life in my soul maybe it's dried up for you today you're you're living on off off past realities instead of present realities past experience i remember that one time man that summer camp a few years ago i remember that one sermon series five years ago at hope church it changed my life listen we want to understand that a relationship with jesus is not only looking back at these amazing victories but every day having victory in christ spending time with him realizing this living water should never be drying up it should always be bubbling over in our lives and if it's not the call for you today is come back to the well that's there come back to the living water that's available there's nothing you've got to do so maybe i'm not experiencing god so of course i'm not compelled to share i'm not having this crazy well moments with the lord and here's one that really hit close to home for me we're too preoccupied i praise can we just say praise god this girl didn't have an iphone how many times like if this is in 2021 she's like scrolling instagram and double tapping and following people and she doesn't even know jesus is there for like 30 minutes is it just me you ever been caught by your spouse that's the worst she's talking to me she's going on her day is bad and everything and then and she's like did you even hear me and you're like what yes i did bam i'm so yeah wow listen i'm too preoccupied sometimes to be compelled to share praise god on the way back from this amazing experience she's not headed back to samaria to tell all her people about this man who's changed her life and her friend sent her the newest tick tock that she had to just stop and watch because it was so funny and we joke but like that's today i'm too preoccupied by my own desires that i don't see what's going on the god activity that he may be drawing me into today i thought about this i'm sitting in a coffee shop this week and i'm like in the sermon and all of a sudden i'm scrolling on instagram and all of a sudden i'm looking up things online i realize like i don't even i might as well be alone on an island somewhere right now i'm just zoned out i'm distracted by my own desires so i miss out and i'm not compelled and here's the deal i know this is one of those sermons that like it's a sermon about sharing jesus with other people and inviting people to experience what you've experienced and a lot of times you can walk out of these sermons you can feel guilty like man i got to talk to people about jesus more that's not the goal of today is to make you feel guilty that you haven't shared the gospel with anybody in the last week or month or year or decade no judgment here's what i want to do today as we start off this is 20 to simply recognize this lady had an amazing encounter with the living god and it only compelled her to share about it in fact that's what the new testament is all these people have these amazing encounters with the living living risen christ and they can't shut up about it you don't find anybody that's like yeah i just been really praying about how to share my faith today that's me it's like boy look at the bible they just talked about what they were experiencing constantly was on their mouths constantly it was on their lips constantly they couldn't shut up about the thing that changed their life and as we close let's take this out of sermon land i love saying that right because we can live up here like wow good points you know like let's take this out of sermon land like we understand this in real life put a put a statement on the screen that i 100 believe is true we become evangelists for whatever satisfies us and listen that's not like a spiritual principle we share and we don't shut up about whatever it is that we are satisfied with let me give you an example i never have to be coerced you never have to preach a sermon you never have to give me a book about how amazing a double double animal style in and out burger is ever and here's the deal you never have to coerce me or challenge me to tell you from a stage with a thousand people listening online with a face mic on double double animal style is one of the best things i've ever put in my mouth because why i'm a natural evangelist for whatever i'm satisfied with and i've tasted and seen that the in-n-out burger is good amen we understand this i i know we're kind of being funny but like whatever it is that your hobby your favorite movie your favorite sports team favorite book your family whatever you are satisfied with you are an evangelist stuff you just share like you have to be talked into so here's the question i've been wrestling with all week it's been a rough one am i truly satisfied with christ because i'll talk to you about everything under the sun but whatever reason i get all tripped out when i have to talk about jesus again how do we how do we respond to this let's lay that summary over our lives jesus saw her do i see people like i mean really see people like jesus because we see people let me be honest like i see people but let me just be real honest i see people most the time from a place of judgment anybody like to people-watch just make yourself feel better by judging other people i know you i know me like why is she wearing that why is he driving that i wonder what he does he can drive that right here's 20 21 here's a 20 21 seeing people i wonder if they're vaccinated too soon too soon i see people i wonder why she's he's talking to his kids like that i wonder why he ordered that you start thinking and seeing people but a lot of times i see people from a place of judgment and jesus is showing it's not just seeing people and observing some something about their lives he's seeing this woman not because he could have judged her right he could see her from her place of of moral bankruptcy can we just say you got you got six five husbands and you're shacking up with another one like you could judge that girl be really easy jesus sees her from a place of love and knows what he's going to do in her life not what she's done in her life he sees what he's gonna do not what she already has done so i want to see people like truly see people not as scott sees but as god sees [Music] second thing is uh jesus spoke truth to her what is this and hope we like to frame it up like this these are these are gospel conversations and i know it's tough people feel like i'm not qualified man i've never been to seminary i never preached a sermon here's what a gospel conversation is exactly what this girl did hey come and see a man who told me everything i ever did come and see the man who changed my life what do you mean you explain what happened to you a gospel conversation it's explaining the gospel what is the gospel we already talked about it a little bit earlier but this is the whole gospel explaining to your friend or your neighbor or your co-worker or your mom or your dad or whoever it is in your life that they are sinners in need of a savior and they could never do whatever they're trying to do to get to wherever they're trying to get they could never do it so god did for us what we could never do for ourselves god in entered into our humanity became a human jesus christ he lived a perfect life he died on the cross he lived the life we couldn't live and died the death we should have died in our place for our sin and three days later we celebrated every easter he got up from the grave proving that he defeated death hell and the grave and now right now this first weekend of september 2021 that jesus is ruling and reigning and running the entire universe as king [Music] and you tell people and you know it's crazy i know that god and you can too how can you know that god all you do is understand you're a sinner understand what he's done for you and you willingly lay your life down and say i surrender i give control of my life over to you i've been challenged this week like scott man when's the last time you said that to somebody so much easier to tell somebody you're praying for him that's good but man when's the last time you share the gospel with somebody so i've been praying maybe you could adopt this prayer in your own life every day for like two weeks i've been asking god god today let me see people and lead me to a gospel conversation today here's the deal i've probably missed a thousand opportunities but i'm literally just kind of being honest like i'm literally in my prayer journal every morning the last couple weeks god today show me somebody that needs jesus and give me an opportunity to share the gospel because i want to see people i want to speak truth to people and then here's the best part jesus saved her you're off the hook you can't save anybody i would be a really bad savior so i see people like jesus saw people i speak truth to people like jesus spoke truth to people i show them their need i have a gospel conversation and guess what i beg god it's not up to you to save people that's up to him it's our job to share and it's god's job to save so you see people and you share with people and you beg god save that person god because you can't [Music] see we think we're not good enough i think we don't what if they ask a question i don't know what if i don't know how to respond to their questions we think we have to have this qualification or this merit to share the merit you have to share is that you've had a radical encounter with jesus he's changed your life now you should be i should be compelled to share it all throughout history god uses very ordinary people to do miraculous extraordinary things read the bible there's some fools up in the bible and god uses them see people you speak truth to people and you you beg god save them [Music] so how do we respond to this i know we're jumping into this awesome month of celebration how do we respond to something like this i i want we want every person in our church to feel equipped this month to invite people on this journey of what god's doing at this church and so we've we've made it as simple as we can make it i think today i think this week you know maybe even right now man there's a gospel conversation that i need to have i've been i've been praying about this person i know exactly like as soon as you started talking sky god in my mind i know the person i'm supposed to share the gospel with i pray that this week you would share the glove of jesus with them and that god would save them so maybe the response today is that man i need to have some gospel conversations maybe another easy response for you is you would go get some of these invite cards as soon as you leave we have some invite cards got a bunch of them they say this is 20 on it and at the end of the month our 20th birthday pastor vance is going to be sharing the gospel like explicit clear like we hope this place is full and all three services of people that don't know jesus and so maybe for you you're like i'm just gonna give these to every person i know and if god leaves me an opportunity to share the gospel with one of them i'm gonna share the gospel with one of them or 10 of them but i'm definitely making sure everyone who has a pulse around me is getting one of these because i want to make sure they hear the gospel either by me or by our church in the next month so maybe just get a grip of these and handing them out everywhere you go this this month so how do i do that though it's kind of weird to just walk up to somebody and give them an invite card well we got you covered we came up with 10 really easy tips it's got things on here like buy the person's coffee behind you and as you give the give the server their your money and say hey i want to buy the person behind me and as they come up and get their latte would you give them this card and tell them the person in front of them just loves them that's one babysit for a single mother around you that you know just need a night off babysit for and say hey real quick before i take off i'd love to have you at my church or can we sit down and talk about the gospel for a minute maybe both praise god whatever it is the spirit of god leads you to do we want to equip our church we want to celebrate what god's done in the past praise god but we also understand he's not done inviting people to a relationship with him he's not done doing miraculous things to this church and we want to embrace whatever it is that he is calling us into as a church for the future amen [Music] just before we stand up and sing listen pastor ricky prayed it talked about it in this message maybe today is your well experience this whole time your heart's pumping you're like your heart's beating fast and you're like man like i feel like i'm the woman at the well right now you may very well be that woman and here's what you've just heard today jesus sees you in fact you're here today because he sees you all of you [Music] not just the parts that you pretty up to coming here today or to log online he sees you not only does he see you he wants you to know the truth that you're desperate for a relationship with god maybe today just through the preaching of the word and the worship and christina's story and the souza story and all that we've done in this service you realize man i need a savior i can't i can't do whatever it is i've been trying to do it's just an empty well that's gonna dry up i want that living water here's the best news ever he's done everything that needs to be done for that living water to satisfy you for all eternity it's already done so just like i said earlier in the message how do you get in on that you literally hands open you have to have your hands open you don't have to pray a certain prayer you just tell the god of heaven i'm in [Music] i'm hearing you're offering living water i receive that living water i i surrender control of my life to you listen if that's you today this is your well experience this is you right now at the well with jesus he's leading you into a relationship with him and we want to equip you we want to walk with you we want to show you just like when that girl went back to samaria and all those samaritans gave their life to jesus they started a church there i can't only imagine right they gotta worship jesus together and they did it together you and i were never meant to live the christian life alone so let us know not so we can just have some tally mark if you're a christian we want to know about it so we can walk with you and show you what it looks like to follow jesus the bible will call you a newborn baby in christ newborn babies need help so let us help you that's you today just as i pray in just a minute we're gonna have pastors down here we're gonna respond just by singing again just singing the gospel that jesus paid it all maybe today you would come up and say i think i'm at the well i want a relationship with jesus we'll connect you with somebody we want to get some information because we want to show you how to follow jesus maybe there's things going on in your life and you just like prayer maybe today as an altar you just want to come and just have some have have a moment with the lord just do business with god whatever it is every week we do this we've been doing it for decades now two decades responding as the word of god has preached to whatever the spirit of god is doing in your life what an incredible sermon by pastor scott we're going to close our service with one final song but before we do we believe that when we open up god's word he desires to speak to us if god is moving in your life we'd love to connect with you you can visit hopeturetv.com respond if today you made a decision to follow jesus welcome to the family of god we cannot wait to celebrate with you in our gatherings we always invite people to come forward to pray and to be prayed for if today you need prayer visit hope churchill v.com pray for me as you respond today our team is going to lead us in one final song so let's join them right now [Music] i hear the savior say thy strength indeed is small child of weakness watch and pray find it be [Music] jesus paid off [Music] had left a crimson stain he washed [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] right [Music] jesus paid it off [Music] he was is [Music] and when before the throng i stand in him complete jesus died my soul to save my lips shall still repeat jesus paid it all [Music] sin had left a crimson stain he washed it [Music] he was he was [Music] [Laughter] [Music] oh praise [Music] foreign [Music] is oh [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] jesus paid it all oh to him sin had left a crimson stain washed in white as snow come on sing jesus jesus paid it off [Music] can we give god praise for watching [Music]

Channel: Hope Church LV

Views: 440

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: hopechurchlv, hope church, hope church lv, church

Id: eoIRNyMKOlw

Length: 76min 31sec (4591 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021