Jesus and the Samaritan Woman—the Value of One Soul

Glory to the Lord. I want to invite you to turn to the Gospel according to John, chapter 4, to the well-known passage about Jesus and the Samaritan woman. There the word of the Lord says:

“Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard it said, ‘Jesus makes and baptizes more disciples than John,’ although Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples did, he left Judea and went again to Galilee. And he needed to pass through Samaria—a significant detail. So he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.—We are talking about a place of great archaeological importance because it went back to the ancient history of Israel, to the patriarchs, in this case Jacob and his son Joseph.—

And the well was there—that well called Jacob’s well—so Jesus, weary from the journey, sat down there beside the well. It was about the sixth hour—that is, around 12 noon according to the Roman system of reckoning time—and a woman of Samaria came to draw water, and 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, being a Jew, ask me for a drink, since I am a Samaritan woman? For Jews and Samaritans have no dealings with each other.” Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing with which to draw it, and the well is deep. Where, then, do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well, from which he himself, his sons, and his livestock drank?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks the water that I shall give him will never thirst; rather, the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me that water so that I will not thirst or have to come here to draw it.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband and come back here.”

The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have rightly said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not even your husband. In this you have spoken truthfully.” The woman said to him, “Sir, it seems to me that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you say that Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we Jews worship what we know, for salvation comes from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

For the Father also seeks such worshipers to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” The woman said to him, “Well, I know that the Messiah, who is called the Christ, is to come. When he comes, he will explain all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one speaking with you.”

May the Lord bless his holy word. What a beautiful passage, isn’t it? I want to expound this passage in light of something very important, and that is the urgency of winning souls for Christ. The urgency for each one of us to be a personal winner of souls. The urgency for all of us to become involved in the work of personal evangelism. And you know that we have been becoming more and more involved in an evangelistic effort in which, as I said earlier, we have gone out into the community as an exercise in evangelism, because I believe there are many other things we can do; and as a way of launching out in faith and validating this method of preaching the Gospel, as we see it done in Scripture, an intentional way of evangelizing.

And I want to make sure that all of us receive that call from the Lord, because God has been impressing upon me more and more each day how important it is that, now that we have finished these construction efforts in which we have spent 20 years building buildings, we devote that extra energy we now have to what... As I say, we have been building buildings; now we are going to build up souls for Christ. We are going to win and bring in souls—temples—because the Bible says that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we want many people out there to become temples of the Holy Spirit. And we want to use this time now, as God has gradually been leading us to accelerate that process, and at last we have launched out in the name of the Lord and now have this effort of hope.

We want all of us to have that same urgency, that same evangelistic mindset, and to feel that call from God, because if you do not feel the call of God, if we do not know, brothers and sisters, that our primary identity is to share the Gospel with others, that this is the church’s reason for being, then we have missed the point. Each one of us must feel that inspiration and that obligation, in a sacred sense, as well as that privilege of sharing the Gospel with others.

And I want us to begin reflecting a little on how we, as a congregation, can become an effective church in the area of evangelism. And I realize that the first thing we must acknowledge is that evangelism, and personal evangelism, in the times in which we live, in a culture that is so resistant and so difficult, is hard, and that there is a great deal of resistance to the preaching of the Gospel.

I realize, brothers and sisters, that it is very difficult to preach the Gospel in these times. People sometimes seem so arrogant, so proud. People are often difficult; everyone is very protective of their privileges and their privacy: “Nobody touch me, nobody talk to me. I have my own faith. I’m out on the street and don’t want anyone coming up to me.” At work, it is sometimes difficult to reach people, and that is why I believe many of us have allowed ourselves to become intimidated about sharing the Gospel. But I believe that once we understand that this is urgent and that we must do it because there is no alternative, God then begins to move and to resolve many of the obstacles we encounter along the way.

I believe that no matter how difficult it may be to preach the Gospel nowadays, I cannot imagine God up there in heaven, Almighty God, saying, “You know what? Since it is so difficult in the twenty-first century, let us abandon the effort of evangelism and simply resign ourselves to letting people come to church however they can; and, as many people out there preach, all we have to do is preach the Gospel through our lifestyle, through the way we live, and let people approach when they feel the call to seek God.” But that is not how it is.

The Bible is very clear that we must be personal soul-winners. All of Scripture, especially Matthew in the New Testament, right through to the end, speaks to us about the importance of going—not waiting for people to come to us, but going and preaching the Gospel. Amen. That verb “go” is absolutely important.

We must take the initiative to reach souls. I believe that sometimes we Christians have become too sophisticated for this idea that we must do the work of evangelism, that we must give birth to new believers through evangelistic effort.

Nevertheless, the Bible must be the model we use to see what God wants us to do in preaching the Gospel. And we could learn a great deal from the evangelist par excellence, who is our Lord Jesus Christ. And this passage about the Samaritan woman teaches us in a very graphic way how the Lord evangelized and how we too can do it very effectively.

One of the things I see in this passage is the tremendous value the Lord placed on a single person, on a single soul. The Lord preached to multitudes, and he came to save all humanity through his work, and yet what moves us is seeing the Lord, on many occasions during his ministry, speaking with just one person. I think, for example, of Nicodemus, when he approached Jesus at night to speak with him, and the Lord told him how he could be saved.

I think of the book of Acts, when Philip the evangelist was preaching to a great multitude and the Holy Spirit called him to go into the desert and preach to just one person, this Ethiopian political figure. And Philip left his work, and the Holy Spirit miraculously transported him into the desert, where he found this man in his chariot. Then the Holy Spirit took him and placed him back in his usual place of activity.

The Bible attaches great importance to a single person—whether Zacchaeus, this Samaritan woman, Bartimaeus, or the blind man. The Lord always stopped what he was doing to attend to a single soul. And I believe that we must take our own cues from the way the Lord positions himself for that encounter with that woman.

The Bible says that he was on his way to carry out a mission, and yet, in order to reach his destination, he had to pass through Samaria. The writer clarifies this because the Jews did not pass through Samaria. They detested the Samaritans because they considered them unclean people. The Samaritans were like cousins of the Jews; they were of Jewish blood, but centuries earlier they had intermingled with the pagan tribes in the area, and so their religion became a mixture of Judaism and other religions. The Jews despised them for that and avoided contact with the Samaritans as much as possible.

What is interesting is that Jesus does not do what the other Jews do. The Lord says, “I have to pass through there; that is the way I am going.” And I believe he discerned that there was an evangelistic opportunity in that place. The Lord knew everything. That same Jesus who knew this woman’s moral history also knew that she was going to arrive where he was. And he sits down precisely where she is going to come.

That act of seeking a position that would facilitate an evangelistic encounter is, I believe, very revealing for us as well. Because we too must position ourselves in that way so that the Lord may use us to bring others to the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

In fact, one of the things we did 20 years ago was seek a position. We relocated from Cambridge in order to reposition ourselves here in Boston, at great inconvenience, so that we could better preach to what we believed was our calling: to preach specifically to Boston’s Latino community. I always thought we could more easily reach Roxbury, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, Villa Victoria—the areas where Latinos lived.

And we came to this central location. When we arrived here, the Lord revealed to us that he wanted us to reach many more people than only Latinos. And if you come to the morning service, you will find more than 20 nations represented—not only Latinos, but Africans, Asians, Europeans, and Caribbean people from different parts of the English-speaking islands of the Caribbean—a host of people whom God has provided for us, and we have been able to reach many more people. And God broadened our ministry in extraordinary ways because we located and positioned ourselves in a place where it would be easier to reach those people.

And I believe that we too must position ourselves to preach the Gospel. How can you do that? I believe you do so first by acquiring an evangelistic mindset, recognizing that God wants to use you, that the Holy Spirit is within you, that the Lord has commanded you to share the Gospel, and that you have a duty—and that it is your privilege—to share the Gospel. Then you must be alert to the possibilities. We must take advantage of every opportunity.

How often do we have neighbors all around us and never approach them? Even though they sometimes look at us when we pass them on the street, or sometimes in the morning when we leave our home as they are leaving theirs, we could at least offer a word of greeting in order to position ourselves, yet we do not do it. Sometimes at work someone comes up to us while we are getting a little water from the water dispenser, and there is an opportunity simply to introduce ourselves, yet we do not even do that. And the person greets us, “Hello, who are you?” and perhaps there is an opening to begin establishing a connection, but because we do not have that evangelistic mindset, we fail to take advantage of it.

There are often opportunities to invite someone to a special church event. Christmas, Holy Week, and Thanksgiving are wonderful times to invite people: “Look, my church is having a special event. We have a worship concert,” or whatever it may be. They are opportunities. You can position yourself, or position that person, to draw them to the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

We must take different initiatives and position ourselves so that we can share the Gospel with others. We must pray for opportunities to evangelize people. Identify three, four, or five people at your workplace or within your social circle, write down their names, and begin praying for them so that the Lord will give you an opportunity to share the Gospel.

I frankly believe that one of the things holding us back the most is fear. The fear of being rejected, the fear of approaching someone and having them say, “I’m not interested.” But again, we must overcome that fear, go beyond it, and, in the name of the Lord, cast the net. Amen. And let the Lord do the rest.

Ultimately, they are not rejecting you; they would be rejecting the Christ you are presenting, so it is important for you to position yourself, to look for a way. The Bible says that Satan blinds people’s understanding so that the light of the Gospel will not shine on them. Pray that the Lord will remove the veil covering the understanding of many people. Intercede for the people around you; ask Him to anoint you and give you opportunities, and stay alert. Take steps of faith, even baby steps, to bring others to the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

I don’t know whether there are people here—I remember years ago when a sister who is now part of our congregation, and whom God has touched in a very precious way, was going through a difficult family situation. God led us to take the risk that she might think we were being nosy and intruding into her life. It would have been very easy to be rejected in that situation, but we dared to do it. I took the risk; I went to where she lived because I had learned about her situation, knocked on her door, and asked whether I could help in any way, explaining that I was a pastor and that we were nearby. Brothers and sisters, it was honestly as though the door to her life had been opened to us, and to this day she is a sister who has progressed and prospered so much in the Gospel, who has been such a blessing, and who blesses me with the enthusiasm with which she speaks about her relationship with Jesus Christ. And it has been of great benefit, and she has brought others to the knowledge of Jesus.

So we have to overcome fear. We have to reach out in the name of the Lord. God is always providing opportunities, and what I want is to encourage you to position yourselves, as the Lord did, to speak to this person about the Gospel.

This passage shows how urgent that soul was to Jesus. If you think about it, this woman was, first of all, a woman, and the Lord, as a rabbi, as a man, and as a Jew, exposed Himself to the possibility that people might go around murmuring, “What is He doing talking to that woman who has such a bad reputation in the town?” But the Lord did not allow any of those things to prevent Him from approaching her. He placed Himself there, approached her, rose above the limitations of ethnic and social identity, and ministered to this woman.

The Lord knew something very important: if that life did not have an encounter with Him, she could not be saved; she could not have fellowship with the Heavenly Father. Within that woman, who appeared to lead a questionable and very immoral life, was the essence of God, which needed to be rescued. The Lord knew that if this woman did not have a personal encounter with Him, she would go to eternal perdition, and that is why He took advantage of that moment. That is the urgency of sharing the word of the Gospel with someone.

And I have been meditating on that, and for a moment I want to underscore this fact. How many of us believe that if a person does not have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, that person will be lost forever? In other words, that person will go to hell. Because that is something many of us find difficult to believe. Nevertheless, if you read, for example, about Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus in chapter 3, you see something. When Nicodemus… Look, Nicodemus is a respectable man, a religious man, an officer of the Sanhedrin, an extremely decent, God-fearing man. He approaches Jesus Christ, acknowledging many virtues in Him and a certain degree of exceptional relationship with God, and yet look at how the Lord stops him in verse 3. John chapter 3 says:

“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Truly I tell you that unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.’”

Unless one is born again—and how is one born again within the system of the Gospel? Through an acknowledgment of Jesus Christ as Savior of the world and Savior of our soul. That is what is called the new birth: being born of water and of the Spirit. Then the Lord tells him, “Truly I tell you that unless one is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.”

He says this to a religious, decent, God-fearing man. The Lord makes it clear to him: “Nicodemus, your salvation does not come because you compliment Me or because you recognize a certain degree of special character in Me.” How many people think that because they fear God, go to church from time to time, give an offering, help others, and do no harm, that this is already enough to be saved? The Lord says, “It is not what you do; it is not your reputation; it is nothing having to do with time and space.”

The Kingdom of Heaven is mystical; it is supernatural; it has nothing to do with the earth. There is a different dimension, and nothing human can penetrate that dimension. It must happen through a change in physiognomy, a change in chemistry, in chemical composition, so to speak. There must be a divinely facilitated transaction for a human being to ascend to the divine eternal dimension. And for that, something like a change of nature is needed, and that is what a personal relationship with Jesus Christ makes possible.

So many people say, “Well, but I am generous; I do good works.” But that does not allow you to enter, because that is not the transaction required to give you access to that dimension; it is another one. It has to come from God; it has to come through the system God has established. And that is what Nicodemus receives from Jesus Christ.

And there we have the famous verse in 3:15–16, where Jesus says to Nicodemus, verse 14:

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

If one does not believe that people can be lost, then that’s fine; there is no need to preach the Gospel to them. But what if you believe that people can be lost, can go to hell—a word we do not like very much—if they do not know Jesus Christ? If you know and are convinced that only a person who knows Jesus, who has received Him and accepted Him as Lord, as the owner of his life, and as Savior—that only through that transaction can that person enter eternal life—wouldn’t you do everything possible to make that information, that knowledge, accessible to them?

I tell you, if every one of us were convinced that this is the only way a person can be saved, I believe that would revolutionize our lives. I think many of us perhaps know it intellectually, but it has not made its way into our hearts, and what I ask of the Lord is that He make our hearts tender toward that realization. It does not matter how good, how decent, or how sincere in their religion a person may be. How many of us can believe that a Buddhist, a Hindu, or a Muslim—even if they are more decent than many evangelicals, and there are such people, you know—cannot go to heaven if they do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?

Frankly, I find it scandalous to think that an individual who leads a respectable life cannot be saved if he does not have a relationship with Jesus Christ—but that is what the Lord says in His Word. If the Bible did not say it, I would follow my own way of seeing things, because I would like everyone to be saved. And they can in fact be saved, but through the method God has established. And if we do not do it through that method, then we are lost.

But that idea that a person, if he does not have Christ—because He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one”—underline no one—“comes to the Father except through Me.” And there are so many passages that are very clear. For there is one mediator, the Bible says, between God and men: the man Christ Jesus.

So if we are convinced of that, brothers and sisters—and I believe that is where the heart of the matter lies—you have to ask yourself: “Do I truly believe that a person who does not know Jesus Christ, no matter how honest and convinced of his religion he may be, will be eternally lost if he has not made that covenant with Jesus?” Do you believe that? And if you believe it, we have to ask the Lord, “Father, seal us with that conviction.”

I believe that one of the things we have to do before going out to preach the Gospel is simply ask the Lord to convince us that it is only through Jesus Christ that a person… That is the passport; that is the visa for entering the Kingdom of Heaven: a personal covenant with Jesus Christ.

And that is what the Lord understands. Throughout all of Scripture, one sees the fact that the Lord practiced it and also told His disciples to practice it: bringing people to the knowledge of Him as Savior. And here we see that this is what He does with this woman. He plants Himself there, knowing that at some point she is going to arrive, and when she approaches, He begins to cast the net little by little. Like the skilled fisherman He is, He begins, little by little, to draw her in.

He does not start from scratch by telling her, “I am the Son of God; receive Me as your Savior.” No. Look at the first thing He does. He says to her:

“Give Me a drink.” In a culture devoted to hospitality, as the culture of that time was, this was a very pleasant way to approach her. She had the means to do it: she could lower her container, her vessel, draw some water, pour out a little, and give it to this stranger, who surely asked her in a very pleasant way. But He knew that this would intrigue her, that it would tickle her curiosity.

And then she answers Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew…”—because she could evidently identify Him racially as a Jew. He was not from the town; in a small town, people knew who belonged there and who did not—“How is it that You, being a Jew…?” This causes her some intrigue and also a certain sympathy, because what she would normally have expected from Him was rejection.

The first thing He does is approach her. How many opportunities do we have to do the same, brothers and sisters? To win someone for Jesus Christ. There are very pleasant ways in which you can win a person over by making some kind of friendly approach, by presenting yourself as vulnerable, as though they were actually going to serve you. There are friendly, pleasant ways to win people for Christ.

So she gets involved… You know, one of the things they try… We are currently working on a new website, and we have hired a company to do it. They have great ideas about how to make this website not only visually attractive, but they say, “It is important not only for people to visit the website, but also to grab their attention so that they remain on it.” Because many people visit a website, click, enter, look, are not interested, and move on. Ninety-nine percent do that.

So they tell us, “You have to find ways to get people to remain on the website and, from the moment they enter, offer them something that grabs their attention and invites them to continue.” One of the things he says is, “It is important for you to obtain people’s email addresses so that you can invite them to other things, other activities, and so forth.” How do you get people to give you their email address so that you can contact them again? Well, you offer them something important; you invite them to provide their address if they want to listen to a sermon, and so on. But the idea is to get them involved.

And I think one of the questions we have to ask ourselves is: “How can I make friends? How can I start a conversation with people so that I can then engage them in conversation and go beyond a merely superficial relationship?” Ask yourself that. Invite someone to have coffee with you; cast a net on the train and say anything: “Are you from such-and-such a country? Wow, I love your dress,” or whatever. There are many ways to begin and then establish…

He says to her, “Give Me a drink,” and, intrigued, she asks, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink?” And look at what He tells her: “If you knew who it is who is speaking to you and who is asking you to give Him a drink—in fact, you would ask Him, and He would give you eternal water.” That is where the conversation begins.

It is interesting that He does not say, “If you knew Me.” I think He did that to make the idea less personal, creating more distance between Him as a man and her as a woman. But that intrigues her; it arouses her curiosity. And she is thinking in material terms. “You would ask Him, and He would give you living water.”

Why? Because the water in the well was static, dead water. It is contained there in a well, and there it remains. It simply rises into the well through gravity, and there it is, still. And He tells her, “I would give you living water,” leaping water like the water of a river or stream, water that moves, that makes noise, effervescent water. Then, intrigued, she asks Him, “Well, but how can that be?” Because she does not have a symbolic mind. She thinks He is speaking literally. The conversation continues.

“Sir, where are You going to get water like that of a stream? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well?” In other words, she is already beginning to think about other things, and the Lord uses that dialogue to continue and says to her: “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.”

He offers her something of great value. He says to her, “Wouldn’t you like never to be thirsty again?” And evidently she is intrigued: “How is it possible to do that? Of course. Give me some of that water that takes away thirst.” Now, of course, he is speaking in spiritual terms. He is saying, “Look, if you go to a nightclub, the world satisfies you for a while; if you indulge in an illegitimate pleasure, it satisfies you for a while, but then you feel depressed again. The next day you are completely burned out, and you have to take 2 aspirins, a tranquilizer, and 3 energy pills just to keep going. But whoever drinks the water I am going to give them is always satisfied because they have it within them; they have peace in their heart, they have Christ, they have God, they can seek him, they can pray, they can go to the Father at any time.”

And she says, “Well, Lord, give me some of that water. I want it.” See how he proceeds little by little. And I believe we have to learn from that, brothers and sisters. I believe we have to say, Lord, give me wisdom about how to reach others with the Gospel; give me courage to look for opportunities; give me prudence to do it at a suitable time when the person is receptive. Open the way and help me to be friendly with people; help me reach them.

I believe that if we begin asking the Lord, God will do the work. Amen. I am asking the Lord to begin anointing us specifically for evangelism as a church and to open up a thousand different ways for us. And I believe that simply getting involved in efforts will cause something to happen, that the Lord himself will then establish a dynamic through which souls will begin to flow. God will begin giving us opportunities because, ultimately, this is something spiritual. Ultimately, when we dare [inaudible] see something that is very important, and that is the power of the Holy Spirit so that others may come to know Jesus Christ.

Because one of the things he does is that, when the moment comes and he has established a relationship with her, he goes somewhat deeper and says to her, “Go, call your husband and come back here, and then we will carry out the transaction in which I give you water so that you will never thirst again.” He knew what she was going to tell him; he knew her life. Jesus had supernatural knowledge of this woman’s life. In a sense, it is a miracle. What he has there—he is perhaps using the gift of knowledge or the gift of discernment by which one knows the secrets of the heart that God reveals. And then she tells him, “I have no husband.” “You are right. You have had 5, and now you have another one whom you are not married to either.”

But how interesting that the Lord has first won the opportunity to have this conversation with her. And I believe he did not say it in an accusatory way; he said it almost sympathetically, because she is sensing that this man has a certain authority. He tells her something that is true—how could he know that? So what I see here is something very important: God wants us to testify, and he wants to give us supernatural resources, because when I look at Scripture, I continually see that the Lord provided supernatural means for the preaching of the Gospel.

When he sent the 12 out to preach, when he sent the 70 out to preach, the Bible says that he gave them authority over diseases and demons. And in the same book of Mark, I believe it is Mark 13, the Lord says that these signs will follow those who believe. Do you remember that famous passage in Mark 13, right near the very end? Mark 16, excuse me:

“And these signs will follow those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; if they drink anything deadly, it will not harm them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

And when we see in the Book of Acts how the Lord poured out his Holy Spirit at Pentecost, he caused such a commotion in the city of Jerusalem that everyone flocked there to see what was happening; they spoke in new tongues. Right away in the Book of Acts, we see signs and wonders: the healing of the lame man, miraculous catches of fish, thousands of people being converted in a moment, and miracles of different kinds throughout the Book of Acts.

Because I believe that God gives his gifts to a church that evangelizes. I believe that sometimes we are putting the egg before the chicken and want the gifts first so we can evangelize afterward. But what if God wants to say, no, evangelize first, and then I will give you the gifts? We have to begin by faith.

The Bible says that if you have been faithful in little, I will put you in charge of much. And perhaps what the Holy Spirit is saying is, look, I am going to give my gifts to those who are working. Why would I give my gifts otherwise? Because the gifts are designed precisely to support the preaching of the Gospel.

So I believe we have to begin by faith, to begin with what we have at hand. Ask the Lord; make use of the opportunities you have. Collectively, I believe there are at least 50 potential opportunities here right now, or 100 opportunities, within this group of people.

I know that if we could take an X-ray, we would see hundreds of people whom we could potentially reach with the Gospel in one way or another. And if we began with that, and those who come to the Lord bring others, and those people bring still others, it is like a pyramid, like Shaklee: you sell to one person, and that person sells to two, and those two to four, four to 8, 8 to 16, 16 to 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384. It can be done, brothers and sisters, if we dare to do it, if we begin seeking.

But it is a matter of beginning with the little we have. If 4 of you, or 8, get started, God will continue doing the work. We have to begin with little. Look at how the Lord began with just one woman. And what happened with that woman? She receives Christ, and God turns her into an extraordinary evangelist. She leaves, and while she is over there sharing what a blessing this man has been, the Lord is speaking with his disciples.

And what they say to him is interesting: “Hey, what were you doing talking with this woman, who is a Samaritan?” I did not read that part, but they said to him, “Rabbi, eat; we have food for you here.” And he told them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about. My food is to do the will of the God who sent me and to finish his work.”

In other words, look at this: the Lord equates evangelizing souls with eating. That is how important it is to him. He knew that his sole reason for being was to serve as a means of salvation for people. How many of us think that way—that evangelizing souls is more important than eating? Do not answer me, because I know what you are going to say. But that is what the Bible says.

That is the reason for being, the identity of a child of God. And then he makes this great declaration: “Behold, I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest.”

I want to tell you something, brothers and sisters: all this turmoil we are seeing in the United States and throughout the world at this time—terrorism, hurricanes, earthquakes, threats of nuclear war, national division, a crisis of political leadership in this nation, and other things that we will see in the future—should, in a sense, be all the more reason for us to rejoice spiritually, knowing that they represent opportunities to preach the Gospel.

People are afraid, people have no answers, people feel insecure. Humanity will reach a point where it recognizes that all its technology, all its diplomatic efforts, all its scientific knowledge, all its knowledge of the human gene, of human genetics, of its neurology, of the brain, of space, of the ocean, of the innermost structure of matter—none of that is capable of solving the problems humanity has at this moment.

And something different is needed, and the one who makes that difference is the Son of God, Christ Jesus alone. The devil wants you to think that it is impossible to preach the Gospel at this time. And the Lord says, look, this is the best time; this is the best time. Begin discerning opportunities.

I believe we have to launch out, brothers and sisters, and listen, I am… the thing is that God is motivating me in such an extraordinary way that I say there is no turning back, not for me and not for this congregation. We have to become an evangelistic church, and I am frankly asking the Lord for a second conversion, for myself and for our congregation, so that we may be converted again—this time into soul winners—and so that this church’s identity may change.

Look at how the Lord has blessed us. Look, for many people this is a great, enviable church, along with all those who are not here but come at one time or another during the year. But this is nothing compared with what we could do. This church could bring thousands of people to the knowledge of Jesus Christ—thousands. And it all depends on our adopting, like Jesus Christ, a sense of urgency, understanding God’s call, valuing souls, and daring to act in the name of the Lord.

I believe that just as there is a veil covering people’s understanding out there, there is also a veil covering the church’s understanding. And that veil must be torn off, as one would tear off an artificial, superficial, false skin that the enemy has placed there. It is the skin of fear, the skin of indolence, the skin of inertia, the skin of thinking that this is the responsibility of the pastor, the ushers, the deacons, or the evangelism specialists, instead of thinking that it is for us as well, for you and for me. The Bible says that you will know them by their fruits, that God has placed us here so that we may bear fruit, and bear it abundantly. And we must take up that calling.

So, at this time as we are beginning, I want to challenge you. Look, here is an opportunity. I hope that 20 more people this afternoon will conceive the desire to participate in this effort. And if you need help, as I have said, if you have the clients, we will provide you with the method and the help.

Some may have knowledge but no clients. Others have clients but no knowledge; we are going to bring the two together. By inviting two or three people—they do not have to be many—and praying for them, praying for the next 3 or 4 weeks, I believe God can do something very, very significant.

Let us bow our heads for a moment and conceive within our spirits that calling to reach souls for Christ. Ask the Lord to make you fruitful right now, right where you are. Say, Lord, create in me a sense of urgency about evangelizing souls, about bringing souls to Christ. Think about that.