At the end of the last piece from Albert Tate (“What Are You Doing Here?”), Jesus was talking with an isolated Samaritan woman beside a well. He came into her world and invited her into his, establishing a relationship and challenging her to be vulnerable. Then He tells her to go get her husband, knowing she was not married to the man she was living with.
Jesus tells her, “Go get your husband.” Go get the thing that’s got you isolated to begin with and bring it here. Bring to me the thing that’s got you coming to this well in such isolation. She tries changing the subject to religious strategy and how we worship. I love Jesus. He just calls it. He said, “Girl, y’all don’t know what y’all worship.” Can I tell you today? It’s not about your past, and it’s not about a new strategy of worship. The goal is not for God to use you. The goal is you. He just wants you.
It’s not about your past, and it’s not about a new strategy of worship. The goal is not for God to use you. The goal is you. He just wants you.
She hears this message, and she receives it. The disciples walk up right then, and she slips away. The woman goes into the same town the disciples just left. This woman who had no voice, who was shamed and isolated. She goes into town and says, “Come see a man. Oh, come see a man! Look, this man told me everything I’ve ever done. And y’all know I’ve done a lot of stuff.”
Now notice the difference. She comes back with the whole town trying to see Jesus! The disciples were just in the same town, and they came back with nobody. Maybe our problem with evangelism is that we’re too familiar with the one who’s been faithful. How are the disciples, who’ve known him best, going to go into town with little to no enthusiasm and talk about him the least?
Maybe our evangelism problem is that we’re too familiar and we need a fresh encounter with Jesus. Like the disciples, we’re so busy just eating around him and just being around him. We are going into the same cities and coming back with nobody. This lady had been saved for 30 seconds, and she’s coming back with the whole city!
Maybe our evangelism problem is that we’re too familiar and we need a fresh encounter with Jesus.
Or maybe we don’t have an evangelism problem. We’ve got a heart problem, and our heart needs to be stirred afresh by God himself so that our encounter, our testimony’s not from 1982. We’re not telling folks about what he did in the college dorm room back in ‘95. But our testimony is: “This morning, he touched me. Last night, he moved upon my heart.”
You have a God who sees you for you. He doesn’t want to just use you. He wants you. Don’t let any struggle or failure take that away. You’ve come to this well, and he came and met you here so he could be with you. Now hear your father speaking to you. He knows your name. He knows your every thought. He sees each tear that falls, and he hears you when you cry. He just wants you. May his son shine on your life and in your life out of that deep place of love. Now, go run and tell somebody about it.
