Good morning everyone. The reading today is going to be from John chapter 1 to 32.
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So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given his son Joseph.
Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well.
It was about noon.
When the Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her,
Will you give me a drink? His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
The Samaritan woman said to him, You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman.
How can you ask me for a drink? For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.
Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink,
you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.
Sir, the woman said, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.
Where can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself,
as did his sons and his livestock?
Jesus answered, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.
But whoever drinks of the water I give them will never thirst.
Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.
The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.
He told her, Go, call your husband and come back.
I have no husband, she replied.
Jesus said to her, You are right when you say you have no husband.
The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband.
What you have said is quite true.
Sir, the woman said, I can see that you are a prophet.
Our ancestors worshipped on the mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is Jerusalem.
Woman, Jesus replied, Believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father,
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You Samaritans worship what you do not know.
We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the spirit and in truth,
for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.
God is spirit and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.
The woman said, I know that Messiah.
Christ, called Christ, is coming.
When he comes, he will explain everything to us.
Then Jesus declared, I, the one speaking to you, I am he.
Just then, his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman.
But no one asked, what do you want or why are you talking with her?
Then leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people,
Come, see a man who told me everything I've ever done.
Could this be the Messiah?
They came out of the town and made their way towards him.
Meanwhile, his disciples urged him, Rabbi, eat something.
But he said to them, I have food to eat that you know nothing about.
Then his disciples said to each other, could someone have bought him food?
My food, said Jesus, is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
Don't you say, don't you have a saying, it is still four months until harvest?
I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields.
They are ripe for harvest.
Even now, the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life.
So that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.
Thus the saying, one sows and another reaps, is true.
I sent you to reap what you have not worked for.
Others have done the hard work and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.
May God bless his word.
Good morning, Wes Kilburn.
Good morning.
So we're going to start our series.
Let me get a timer on here really quick.
We're going to start and restart our series.
It was called Encounters with Jesus.
So we've been going through the Book of Romans.
Don't worry, next week Steve will be back to look at the Book of Romans again.
But we're going to take a slight reprieve here.
And we're going to talk about encounters with Jesus.
Now, I don't know about you, but whenever I meet somebody,
somebody new, I can't help but compare myself to them.
This happened actually just this week when I was playing basketball.
There was a guy that normally doesn't come.
He was new this week.
So I normally play with a group.
About 15 to 20 of us play basketball on a Thursday.
And there was this guy that came that was new this week.
And so automatically you start making comparisons, right?
I saw him and I saw him start to warm up.
And I went, hey, you know, this guy, he's pretty good at basketball.
But automatically my brain went to something very skeptical.
And I was like, well, he's good right now, but we haven't started playing.
So maybe, maybe we'll see how this translates into the game.
Very quickly, I went from skeptical to practical because he was put on the other team.
And I was the one that was tasked with guarding him.
So very practically, I thought, okay, I got to know, you know, how's he shoot?
Where is he going to go?
How does he drive?
So I was thinking very practically about this, these types of things.
One time up and down the court, I went from practical to beneficial.
I was thinking, hey, you know, actually this will be quite good for me.
You know, the level of skill or my basketball, my basketball excellence,
I'm like right in the middle.
I'm not very good.
Okay, so you need to know that before we continue on with the rest of the story.
But I'm also not like terrible.
I'm just like right there in the middle.
And so I was going, you know what, this will be good for me.
You play against somebody that's better than you.
You'll say, okay, you know, iron sharpens iron here.
You know, I'll be better.
And as I was thinking this, I went from beneficial, that thought process,
to what I stayed in the rest of the night, which is what we'll call surrender.
Because as I was thinking, oh, this will be very beneficial for me,
I just got down to guard him.
And then all of a sudden, the next thing I knew, he was behind me scoring a goal.
So you don't need to know a lot about basketball to realize that's not very good.
So quickly, I found out, and the rest of my teammates found out as well,
that I should not be guarding that guy.
And so I guarded somebody else.
So that quickly went from, this will be good for me, to, yeah, I'm going to guard somebody else.
So that is the surrender response.
Today, in our story, here in John 4, we're going to say that the woman at the well,
she has these four responses as well when she meets Jesus.
See, she's going to move from being skeptical of Jesus,
to thinking very practically about Jesus,
to thinking how he can be beneficial before she finally surrenders to him.
And when she surrenders to him, just like me at basketball,
she will get a new assignment as well.
But this one is going to be greater than anything she could imagine.
So let's dive into the passage.
Let's start here in verses 1 through 6.
Verses 1 through 6 basically give us a snapshot of what had been happening before.
As I said, it's been a little while since we have been in our encounters with Jesus series.
But if you remember, the last time that I preached,
we were talking about Nicodemus, right?
And Nicodemus was a Jewish Pharisee who wanted to figure out
what does it mean to be born again?
Well, Jesus had been spreading this good news and this gospel
of what it means to be born again all throughout Jerusalem.
And, well, it kind of became a problem.
It was not very safe for him to stay in Jerusalem anymore.
So him and his disciples, they packed up their tents,
and they decided to move north.
And as they're moving north, they have to go through Samaria.
Now, if you know anything about the New Testament,
you know that the Samaritans and Jews might as well have been cats and dogs.
They did not get along.
And see, so this is where we are as Jesus,
with the sun high in the sky, goes through the town of Sychar,
and he stops to get a drink from a well.
He sends his disciples into town, and here comes a Samaritan woman.
And he asked this woman for a drink.
Let's pick the story up in verse 9.
Go ahead and look at your Bibles there if you have them.
It says,
Sir, the woman said,
You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.
Where can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob,
who gave us this well and drunk from it himself,
as did also his sons and his livestock?
You see that this woman's response when she first encounters Jesus is skepticism.
She says,
Wait a minute.
Aren't you a Jew?
Like, we don't get along.
Why are you asking me for water?
I mean, they don't get along so much that the gospel writer John puts in here
an explanation that they are water and oil.
They don't get along.
So that's why it's so strange when she questions him.
It's very abnormal.
It would be like if you're walking down the street in London,
and somebody comes out and hands you a hundred pound note.
It says,
Here you go.
Take this.
That's not,
you're not going to respond and go,
Oh yeah, just a normal Tuesday.
If you do,
let's be friends.
But,
instead,
you're going to go,
Wait.
Why?
Am I being filmed?
Is there something happening here?
And so that's how weird this interaction was for Jesus and this woman at the well.
But yet,
Jesus,
ever the evangelist,
continues pressing on.
And he says,
Actually,
if you knew who was asking you for a drink,
you would ask about this living water.
And again,
the woman,
she responds with skepticism.
She doesn't quite understand.
She says,
Wait a minute.
Who did you say you are again?
This well is deep.
And let me double check.
Yeah,
you don't have a bucket.
What are you doing?
She says,
Are you actually going to be greater than our father Jacob?
who,
who through his persistence and altruism,
dug a well that has watered our cattle and our families for centuries.
Are you better than him?
See,
you can tell this woman is not bought in,
right?
She has a ton of questions.
And if we think about it,
this can be like us when we engage Jesus today,
isn't it?
Maybe you walked in here today because a friend invited you.
Or maybe you came because you just were walking by the street and felt like the Lord was calling you in today.
Whatever it is,
maybe you are here and you are surprised that you have made it this far in the sermon without lightning striking your seat.
You're thinking,
Man,
if these people knew what I did last night,
they would have double locked the doors and not let me in.
Or maybe you're thinking,
Based on some of the things that I have said in my past,
I cannot believe that I am sitting here today.
Just like the woman at the well,
you have questions for Christians.
You've heard the name of Jesus be used not for the betterment of society,
but to its detriment.
Maybe you have friends,
loved ones,
people you care about,
or maybe even yourself that has been hurt by people that call themselves Christians.
Or maybe,
again,
you're the other person that has done their research and you're going,
Hey,
this doesn't add up.
There are millions of books that have been written.
Why is this one,
the Bible,
quote unquote,
inspired?
This Bible,
these stories,
they're not real.
This is just a fairy tale.
God's not real.
This doesn't belong in the world.
And if God really loved me,
why would I be single?
Why would I not have a mom anymore?
Why am I unwell?
but despite all of these questions,
you find yourself sitting at West Kilburn Baptist Church today.
You can't get rid of this nagging feeling that there is something bigger than you out there.
You think life has got to be more than just a chance accident, and you think there's got to be more to life than work on Monday and drinks on Friday.
I think you can identify a lot with the woman at the well here, can't you?
Did you notice what time the woman was at the well?
Verse 6 shows us noon.
Women did not go to the well at noon.
They either went early in the morning or late at night.
So why is this woman going to fetch water at the hottest part of the day?
It's because she's an outcast.
She's not a part of the religious elite.
She's actually quite the opposite, which we'll find out in just a minute.
And I am sure she was asking similar questions to you.
She's thinking, why has my life turned out this way, God?
Why can't I keep a relationship?
Why, God, do you even care that I exist?
And here, in one of her lowest moments of the day, where she is reminded every single day that she is alone, that she is a social outcast,
Jesus meets her.
And he doesn't shy away from her, but instead he presses deeper.
So that's the first response.
You can be skeptical to Jesus.
You're going to see the woman at the well then moves into another response.
And this one is practical.
Let's look at verse 13.
The woman at the well here is much like Nicodemus just one chapter earlier.
She hears what Jesus is saying, and she's thinking very practically.
She's thinking Jesus must mean practically here.
Never be thirsty again.
Somebody's offering you, you don't ever have to drink again.
You don't have to come and draw this water.
You don't have to lug a water jug out here in this hottest part of the day.
Sign me up.
And again, I think this is a common response when we encounter Jesus.
See, the pragmatist hears the gospel and hears somebody say, hey, the gospel has changed my life.
And they say, sign me up.
Who doesn't want a changed life?
But very practically, they come to church.
They sit through the service.
They sing a song.
They hear the sermon.
And they pray a prayer.
And they say, okay, great.
Now my life will be perfect.
But do their problems disappear?
Not at all.
So instead, they come back.
Maybe they say, maybe God just didn't hear me.
I didn't have, you know, the words in the right order.
Maybe God has Vodafone and the coverage was out that day.
Whatever it is, maybe I'll just try again.
And they keep treating Jesus like a genie.
Let me speak directly to you if you are the pragmatist in the room today.
Jesus is not a genie.
You cannot rub the lamp and get your three wishes just because you prayed a prayer and how you want your life to turn out.
Jesus is not a genie.
He is a savior.
And when he comes back, it will not be beside a well.
He will come back on a white horse with fire in his eyes, a robe dipped in blood, a crown rightfully put on his head, and tattooed across his body.
It will say, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Does this sound like somebody that's coming to grant your wishes?
No.
This is a savior.
So pragmatists in the room today, do not be fooled.
God is not a spirit in the sky waiting to meet every one of your needs.
He is Lord.
If you want to have a relationship with him, you either follow him as Lord or you prepare to meet his wrath.
There is no in between.
See, let's look at Jesus' response here.
He knows that the woman at the well is just not getting it.
So he presses her even deeper and brings up her sexual past.
So we don't know any more specifics about this woman at the well than what is listed right here.
We don't know if she had five husbands because all five of her husbands have died,
and now the guy that she is with now is looking around and going,
I know what happens when people say, I do to you.
I'm good.
Or maybe all of her husbands divorced her.
Maybe she divorced her husbands.
Maybe she was unfaithful.
We don't know.
But either way, we do know that she is dealing with an immense amount of shame.
And Jesus knows that just saying a little prayer or repeating a little mantra to herself is not going to help.
He needs to go deeper.
He has to go to her heart.
So this brings us now to the third response when we encounter Jesus,
which is looking at him and trying to get something beneficial out of the relationship.
See, the beneficial person is very much like the practical person.
They're looking what they can get out of this relationship with Jesus.
They're looking for the benefits of a relationship with Jesus.
But unlike the pragmatist, it's not just practical.
They want to go deeper.
See, the beneficial person wants to be friends with benefits with Jesus.
See, their purpose in following Jesus,
they want to have purpose in following Jesus.
They want a unified mission.
They want the freedom.
They want the worldview.
But they do not want to surrender.
They want the benefits of that relationship with Jesus,
but without the commitment.
Let's look at verse 19.
This is right after Jesus has exposed this woman's sexual past.
She says,
Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.
Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain,
but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.
Jesus has just said to her,
Hey, you've had five husbands.
This is not something that she proclaims widely across the town.
And so she's starting to wake up to this conversation.
She's saying,
Hey, this is not just some normal Jew that has come to the well here.
No, this guy, he's really something.
She sees this meeting as an opportunity to use for her theological benefit.
She says,
Hey, Jesus, here you can help me with my worldview.
See, the Jews and Samaritans had beef
because after Solomon died,
the kingdom of Israel split into a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom.
And in the northern kingdom,
there was a kingdom outside of Israel called Assyria
that came in and took over the northern kingdom.
The Assyrians took a lot of people that were beneficial to them out of Israel,
and they put a lot of Assyrians into the northern kingdom of Israel.
And so it was through this that intermarrying started to happen.
And the Jews that were in the south and the southern kingdom of Judah,
they looked at those that were in Samaria in that northern kingdom,
and they looked at them as unclean.
They were unwelcome in their worship because they had intermarried.
And this beef had been going on for centuries.
On top of this beef,
they also established different places of worship.
For those in the southern kingdom,
that would have been Jerusalem, right, at the temple.
For those in the northern kingdom,
that's Mount Gerizim,
which is almost exactly where Jesus is
as he talks to this woman at the well here.
So this woman is looking around,
and she says,
Hey, I know that Jesus is powerful.
Let me use this.
She wants him to give her an answer
to this theological question of where to worship
so that she can have a purpose.
She's thinking to herself,
Hey, if I figure out where we are supposed to worship,
then I can set up a TikTok account about this.
I can start posting around,
and people will say,
Hey, this girl knows what she's talking about.
And I'll start to get some followers,
and I'll gain some money and some momentum,
and I'll be able to make a lot of money
and make a name for myself.
She can even say,
Hey, wait, I'll start out a website of this,
www.rightplacetoworship.com.
And I'll have people come in,
and they'll see me as an authority on this.
I'll be able to write a few books.
I'll get my name out.
I'll go on a nice big tour,
and my life will be set.
What does Jesus answer her with?
Well, he blows her entire framework up.
He says the hour is coming.
In fact, it is here,
where temples,
they're just not going to matter.
What matters is that you worship
the God of the universe
in spirit and in truth.
Now, these words,
in spirit and truth,
there's a lot to unpack with that.
So I'm going to give
a very brief SparkNotes version.
Does anybody still use SparkNotes?
No?
A chat GPT version
of what is happening here.
To worship in spirit
means that worship comes from your heart.
It engages the whole heart.
And to worship in truth
means that your worship
is informed by who God is
and what he is like.
This is not an either or,
but a both and.
John Piper says it like this,
truth without emotion
produces dead orthodoxy
and a church full
or half full
of artificial admirers.
On the other hand,
emotion without truth
produces empty frenzy
and cultivates shallow people
who refuse the discipline
of rigorous thought.
But true worship,
so this is what he's saying,
true worship
comes from people
who are deeply emotional
and who love deep
and sound doctrine.
Both and,
not either or.
I think we can see ourselves
in this woman's story again.
I've seen this
as I've looked around our society.
As we're being confronted,
as this woman's being confronted
with the power of Jesus,
she's not choosing to submit.
Instead,
she's looking to Jesus
from pointers
that will be beneficial
for her life.
As I was saying,
I've looked around our society,
I think I've seen this,
what is called
the quiet revival.
See,
there's been an increase
in people,
in young people specifically,
that have been going to church
in the UK.
This is something
that we need to celebrate.
16%
according to a recent study
of 18 to 24 year olds
attend church
once a month in the UK.
16%.
In 2018,
do you know what that number was?
4%.
Now my masks are not great,
but I believe,
chat GPT told me,
that this is a 300% increase.
That's amazing.
Praise God for that.
But before we start
to ring in the bells of revival,
I think we do need
to think about one thing
and be cautious
about one thing.
I've seen
in some of the media
that I have ingested
and podcasts
and other things
of that nature,
that there are guys,
and I do intentionally say,
guys,
I think this can affect
both genders,
but I say guys intentionally
because I think
a lot of the media
is framed towards them.
I see a lot of guys
that are intentionally
co-opting Christianity
to use to their own
personal benefit.
They strip Christianity
of its spiritual meaning
and just are trying
to figure out
what it will do
to benefit their lives.
They adhere to Christianity
because it brings them
discipline.
It brings purpose
to their lives.
It helps them explain
some feelings
that they might have.
Like, why are they depressed?
Why do they feel hopeless?
And it gives them
a foundation
for dealing
with some of the craziness
of the world, right?
Think about some
of the hot topics
that we have today.
Immigration,
gender identity,
on and on we could go.
Christianity gives you
a worldview,
a foundation
for looking at these things.
But if you have
this worldview
and you do not submit
to God,
it will not work.
It cannot work.
See, Christianity
requires full surrender.
That's what it means
to call Jesus Lord.
These people want to
use Christ
for what will be
beneficial to them,
but they do not
give themselves to him.
Jesus sees it today.
And he saw it
2,000 years ago
with the woman
at the well.
This worldview
will not lead
to prospering.
Jesus knows it
and so he draws
the woman deeper.
Let's look at
the last response.
Last response
of people that encounter
Jesus is surrender.
We had skeptical.
We went from skeptical
to practical,
practical to beneficial,
and now we go
to surrender.
Let's look at verse 25.
The woman said,
I know that Messiah
called Christ
is coming.
When he comes,
he will explain
everything to us.
This woman has tried
to push Jesus away
with her skepticism.
She's tried to add
Jesus to her life
with very practical
and beneficial ways
and now here
she is at the end
of herself.
She says,
listen,
all right,
fine.
You seem to have
outsmarted me
at every turn
in this conversation.
There's one coming
who will explain
this to this,
trying to end
the conversation.
And in this moment,
when she cannot
see a way forward,
what happens?
In one of the
most clear ways
in the entire
Gospels,
Jesus sees this woman
who has been spit up
and chewed out
by the world,
who is broken down,
who is looked at
as worthless.
If you're thinking
about Nicodemus,
the chapter earlier,
complete opposites,
right?
And he looks
at this woman
who the world
would say
has nothing to offer
in the clearest way
in the entire Gospels.
He looks at her
and he says,
the Savior
you are looking for,
I am he.
So when we encounter
Jesus,
we can have
a few responses,
right?
We can reject him,
we can try and add him
as a bonus to our life,
but there is genuinely
only one right answer.
That is full
and complete surrender
to God.
The woman at the well
got to the end of herself
and when she got
to the end of herself,
she found Jesus
right there,
ready to accept
her surrender.
If you do not have
a relationship
relationship with Jesus,
this is all you have
to do.
If you feel a tug
on your heart
right now,
do not put it off.
This is not the product
of really great teaching.
This is not
just because we put
some emotion
in the air
here at West Kilburn.
That's the Holy Spirit
working on your life.
Do not leave this room
without giving
your life to Christ.
But maybe you're
in the room today
and you have said
yes to that question.
You've answered
that question.
You've said,
I have indeed
completely surrendered.
Of those four responses,
I have submitted
to Christ.
What does this message
mean for me?
Let's move into
our final part
of the sermon today
called Share.
When we encounter Jesus,
we are forced
to compare
our old life
to what Jesus
is offering.
But when we accept
what Jesus is offering,
then we go from
comparing
to sharing.
This is what happens
to the woman.
Look at verse 28.
She says,
Then leaving her water jar,
the woman went back
to the town
and said to the people,
Come, see a man
who told me
everything I've ever done.
Could this be
the Messiah?
This is a complete
shift
in this woman's demeanor.
Remember,
originally,
why did she go
to the well at noon?
Well, because she wanted
absolutely nothing
to do with the town,
right?
And now,
after surrendering
her life to Christ
and leaving her baggage
with Christ,
she goes back
to the very people
she was trying
to avoid.
But,
she can't help
but to say
this good news
to the town.
Let's think about this
for just a minute longer
and then we'll be done.
Why
is there a 180 degree
shift in this
woman's life?
Where moments earlier
she was thought of
as an outcast
and lived her life
as an outcast
and now she is an
on-fire evangelist
for Jesus.
Because she realized
how much
she had been
forgiven.
If you think
that you are
a generally
good person
that hasn't done
that much
that bad
and haven't done
that much wrong,
you know,
you pay your bills
on time,
you don't steal,
you give a portion
of your salary
to those that are
less fortunate
than you.
If you don't think
that you're that bad
when forgiveness
is offered to you,
you don't think
it's that big
of a deal.
But when you
truly understand
how much
we've been
forgiven
as Christians,
then you realize
that this forgiveness
is sweeter than
honey on the tip
of your tongue.
See, the Bible
calls our good
works filthy
rags.
So the good
things that we
think are earning
us a spot in
heaven,
very, very
bluntly,
God calls them
minstrel rags.
Isaiah, look it up.
And it's in this
moment when you
think that your
good works are
helping you that
Jesus comes along
and says, no, no,
no, this is not.
And it's when you
realize this,
that your good
works are just
dirty rags,
that you realize
how much you've
been forgiven.
When you realized
you've been saved
from death to life,
you can't help
but share that,
right?
Verse 14 says
this living water,
Jesus says,
this living water
that I am offering
you will burst
forth from you,
will be like a
spring bursting
forth from you.
Eugene Peterson
is a guy that
translated the Old
and New Testament
into the original
Greek into English.
And he says in
verse 14,
here, I love his
translation.
It says,
the water I will
give will be an
artesian spring
within,
gushing fountains
of endless life.
An artesian spring,
for those of you
that didn't get
your architecture
degree,
is the complete
opposite of a
well.
A well you dip
your bucket into,
you have to draw
water out.
An artesian spring
is bursting forth
with water.
It's basically like
an ancient water
fountain, right?
You don't have to
do any work,
you just lean over
and drink.
This is what
happens when we
grasp the forgiveness
that Jesus has given
us, right?
This truth wells
up inside of us
and bursts forth
to anyone around
us.
And we need
this to happen.
You cannot just
rely on the
quote unquote
professional Christians
like Steve and
myself to spread
the gospel.
Because there are
people in your
life that only
you can reach.
I was recently
talking to a
guy that works
in one of those
big corporate
buildings in
central London.
And as we were
chatting over
lunch, I just
casually brought
up the question.
I said, how
are we going to
reach people
like you?
There are
thousands of
people within a
small radius in
central London that
come there every
day.
How do we
reach them with
the gospel?
And after a
pause, kind of
looked back at
me and he
said, you
don't.
I do.
See, it
wouldn't make
sense for me to
go in there and
try and run a
Christianity
Explored, right?
No offense to
Christianity
Explored.
It's not going
to work.
I don't have a
relationship built
up with these
people.
They don't know
me from Adam.
But this guy,
who spends day
in and day out
with these people,
he goes to get
drinks after work
with them.
He spends his
lunch break with
them.
He has that
10-minute break
that every one
of us always
has that we're
not really doing
work but we're
just chatting
with a co-worker.
He has that
moment as well
to share the
reason for the
hope that is
in him.
Who has God
put in your
life that only
you can reach?
Is it a
co-worker?
A neighbor?
A classmate?
A teammate?
Who around
you can have
their life
changed because
they have
encountered
Jesus through
you?
Let's pray.
Father in
heaven, we
thank you just
for the
opportunity.
Lord, that it
wasn't us that
went to you at
the well and
said, God,
here's my good
works.
Give me some
water.
But it was
you who saw
us in the
midst of our
filth, in the
midst of our
nastiness, and
what we thought
was good but
is actually
perverse.
God, you
reached down
and said, I
love you.
And God, I
pray that there
would be people
in this room
today that
would realize
the immense
love that you
have given and
would give over
their life to
you.
Say, I have
been Lord of
my life for
too long and
it's not
going well.
I need
someone to
rule.
Lord, I
pray that
there would be
people that
would come to
the end of
themselves today.
Lord, I
pray for
West Kilburn
that we
would be a
place that
when people
look, they
see us
worshiping in
spirit and
in truth.
God, that the
gospel, the
good news, that
you have come and
saved us from
sins, we
couldn't help
but have it
overflow out of
this building.
The light
shining in a
dark place would
be so bright that
people would be
attracted to it.
God, we
pray that you
would use us.
God, what a
gift that we
get to be used
in your kingdom
to help bring
people to
Christ.
Lord, it is
only you that
can bring people
but you use
us.
God, and we're
thankful to be
the hands and
feet of you as
we go out.
Lord, we pray
all of these
things in your
name.
Amen.