Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Morning again.
[00:00:02] How many have ever done a little bit of traveling in some maybe Third World parts of our globe? Anybody here done a little traveling? How many know that a lot of these countries, they don't have a lot of economic resources? How many have figured that out? And so when we send missionaries out, sometimes they go to First World countries, but they also go to Third World countries. And some of these countries are very difficult to get into. As a matter of fact, you can't even go as a missionary. So a lot of people, they actually go and do other types of work, but in reality, they're actually helping strengthen local congregations in those countries. And so when we talk about a special offering for missions, some of our missionaries have approached us. They like to do VBS and they need curriculum and material. So when we give to that, that's kind of what we're giving towards. And we just want you to understand what we're trying to do. I'm not going to mention anything because everything is monitored nowadays and we don't want to tell you where we're doing this.
[00:00:59] Some places may not be as excited about it as we are. How's that? Or they may be excited for the wrong reasons.
[00:01:07] And then I want to also mention know we've all heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, right? Well, this is too good to be True Sunday. What do you mean, pastor? Well, I talked to our so Graham asked if we could do a Community Sunday, but with the full buffet menu. And so I said, yeah, let's go ahead and do it. And so what does that really mean? It means that you can go down and have the full buffet today for $6 per adult and 250 for children. That's unbelievable. You're going, how can you guys do this? You know why we're doing it? Because we want to entice you to actually go down to the cafeteria, number one. But the real purpose behind the cafeteria isn't just to have wonderful food, which there is, but it's to build meaningful relationships with people in our church, family. How many think that's important? And I think it's great. I've gotten to know a lot of new people. Our church has really been growing and we have lots of new people. And it's really fun to go to a table. I don't know these people. We sit down, we start talking, and it's just a joy to find out where people are from, maybe some different parts of the world, find out where they're coming from, where they're at in their life. They share their story. It's been a real enjoyable time. So that's the main motivation why we're doing this. All right. And so if you're able today, I think this would be a great Sunday to go because I know that the price can't keep you away. How's that? Let's stand this morning as we go to the Lord in prayer. So, Father, we thank you this morning. What an amazing father you are. And we know that you are gracious. You're full of generosity and kindness towards us. And Lord, as we open up Your Word today, may you open our hearts, may Your Spirit speak into our innermost being, and may we hear Your voice challenging, encouraging, comforting, instructing, and stimulating us, Lord, to walk in Your ways, which are always healthy, and they are dynamic. And I just pray today that we will sense the dynamics of Your presence as we hear Your Word this morning. In Jesus name and God's people said amen. Amen. How to refresh the thirst in your life. How many know? We're all thirsty. That is true, but we have to somehow refresh know. What may be shocking to some of us is the people that Jesus actually connected with in the New Testament and then some of the people Jesus did not connect with. I think it's kind of an irony, those that did or didn't, Jesus reaches out and he really cares for people who are struggling with sin issues in their you know, for most of us, I would say this includes all of us to varying levels of degree. Some of us are in denial. I know some of us think we're okay, but not to burst our bubble or anything, but there are some things in our lives that I'm sure God would like to bring about a transformation, maybe in a wounded area, maybe in a part of our life that's been broken, it's been touched by abuse or whatever it is. God wants to do an amazing work of restoration, reclamation, healing, and he can transform us. He can take what was once we considered ashes and make it into beauty. It's just amazing how God has the ability to do that. And we certainly see that in the life of Jesus. As a matter of fact, Jesus came to a very religious group of people. How many of the Jewish people are very religious? And some of the people that had the most difficulty with them were the religious people.
[00:04:51] Many of the Pharisees did not connect with Jesus. Some of them did. Some of them recognize what he was doing was maybe challenging some of their thinking. And I believe that God likes to stretch us a little bit. How many think that's probably true? And so Jesus comes on the scene, and the common people are happy to hear what he has to say. As a matter of fact, John the Baptist goes and he's preaching and he's preaching the same message that the prophets preach, and it's actually the same message that Jesus preached. You know what that message is? It's a message of repentance. Now, I know that repentance almost seems like a negative term, but I think it's very positive. Repentance is a call to change our way of thinking. That's all it is. And how many know some of us, our thinking probably needs a little transformation and change. And so when we're open to that in our minds, it's amazing what starts happening in our lives. Now, Jesus said this in Matthew's gospel, we're going to be in John's gospel. But I want to just open this with this idea that he said, I tell you the truth, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. That was kind of a real challenging remark to a whole bunch of people who felt know, we're on the inside with God. And all of a sudden he says this statement to them and he tells them why. Here he said, For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness or doing the right thing and you didn't believe him, but the tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him. You didn't believe what he was telling you.
[00:06:32] We have to be careful that we're not rejecting what God is trying to lay down in our lives.
[00:06:39] Now, in John, chapter four, we're going to continue our journey through this gospel. We find the story of a woman who is really an outcast in her community and how her meeting with Jesus not only changed her life, which was amazing, but her entire community. How many would like to think that there might be a key to unlocking our city?
[00:07:05] And that person may be the most unlikely person you and I would ever consider. Isn't that interesting? Because if you and I were thinking on this, on a strictly natural thinking, we would have never selected her as the key to opening up the community. How about that? And yet Jesus, when he comes into people's lives, he can unlock a bunch of things inside of us. And so I would say she was probably the most unlikely person and yet had the greatest impact. And we're going to see why. And we pick up the story in John, chapter four. And he's talking to a woman who has a lot of emotional baggage and hurt and disappointment in her life. As a matter of fact, I believe that she's trying to find the greatest need that we all have. She wants to be loved. She's looking for love. She's looking for acceptance in her life. But what she's experienced has been pain and disappointment. So what appears to be a serendipitous meeting turns into a life changing moment. Now, how many know with God there's no serendipity it's actually providentially. So Jesus shows up at the right moment. And I love that about Jesus. He always shows up at the right time. And many times today he's using you and I to show up at the right moment. So what we're going to learn today is how to clue in when we need to be in the moment. Because sometimes we're not always aware that we're on assignment. How many know that's true? And sometimes we miss the assignment God has for us. Now, Jesus has a way, I believe, of challenging the status quo and breaking into the places of pain in our lives. And regardless of the type of sin that entraps us, jesus is ready to free us. And I'm going to say that some of the most profound moments in my Christian journey, I've been totally unprepared for. How many can say that's know, you're sitting in a service, you're thinking, oh, this is great. Doesn't apply to me. And at the end of the service, the Holy Spirit just kind of unravels something inside of your know, it kind of caught you off guard. And that's been my prayer know, we can be rolling in here. It's a regular Sunday. We're not really anticipating much. Then all of a sudden, God starts unpacking and unraveling our life. That's one of those special change moments in our being. And so that's what I've been praying for this morning, that you will experience that moment of transformation inside of your soul. Regardless the question we need to ask ourselves, are we willing to get involved in the process? Are we willing to be free and become God's instruments in our broken, sin filled world? Now, Haddon Robinson, who was the former president of Gordon Conwell, he says something very interesting that speaks directly to this issue of our willingness to get involved in Jesus'great program. Okay. He says this there's a kind of math that has originated in the counting rooms of hell. This kind of math is always interested in reaching the masses, but somehow never gets down to the individual, to the man, or to the woman. This kind of math always talks about winning the world for God, but doesn't think much about winning a neighborhood for God. That's interesting.
[00:10:27] In other words, we have this view that the world needs to be won, but we can't see that maybe it's our neighborhood that needs to be won. What's he doing? He's telling us we need to focus in because when you think of it in terms of the broader picture, we usually are overwhelmed by it and do nothing about it. But if you start thinking of it in a smaller unit, then you begin to realize maybe you have an assignment to a small area. And a lot of times we look at that as maybe this isn't going to have much of an impact. And I want to argue today from Scripture that the real impact happens when we zero in. We get focused. The math that makes it heroic to cross oceans but never crosses the street, isn't that interesting?
[00:11:11] What is he saying? It's like I'm a missionary. If I travel across an ocean, can I tell you you're the same person crossing the ocean or crossing the street?
[00:11:22] And if you can't cross the street, why should we send you to go cross an ocean. You know what I mean? Let's do it here first. Let's see what we're capable here before we ship people off in other parts of the world. Can we do it right where we're at? So the needs of the masses, I think, usually gives us a level of being either overwhelmed and uninvolved. And what we need to rediscover is that we need to focus on the need of the individual that God is directing us towards so we can be an instrument in impacting a community. We impact communities one person at a time.
[00:12:02] Okay? So let's move away from we got to reach the city of Red Deer to I have to reach this one individual. But if you can imagine if every believer was reaching one individual, what kind of an impact would that have on the city? How many are catching on? There's a strategy to this.
[00:12:19] Let's move away from the bigger picture and focus in on what can I do? What's the piece of the pie that God wants me to address in my life? Now, years ago, a friend of mine who was a mentor, Jack Weitzel, told me a story. I've never forgotten it. He tells the story of this cocktail waitress in Abuquerque, New Mexico, and she becomes a follower of Jesus, and her life is really transformed. She's so excited that when she's about to be water baptized to share her personal testimony. She invites everybody she knows friends, family, everybody she meets, and a whole stack of people show up that day in church. And on that particular day, 32 people gave their lives to Christ because they saw the transformation in this one woman's life. How many think that's an amazing situation? One person's change brought about transformation in many other people's lives. And that's what we need to start thinking about here. Now, Jesus is actually passing through a small Samaritan village named Sykar. And as we look at Jesus, as he approaches this woman, we're going to look at we're going to see that there are three major things I think we can learn about reaching out to people. We can learn it from Jesus. How many think that Jesus is probably the best model for anything you want to learn about in life?
[00:13:53] It's true, isn't it? He's the absolute perfect person to follow his example. So let's take a look at Jesus. I'm going to call Him the personal worker or Jesus, the person that's going to show concern to one individual. How does he go about bringing this wonderful message of life to a hurting person? I think we can learn from Him. So let's take a look at how he goes about doing it. And the first thing I think we need to do is well, we need to do it. First of all, inside of us is reevaluate our own life's purpose, because I think we can learn from Jesus. His purpose was what to do. The will of the father.
[00:14:33] So if my purpose in living life is to do my Father's will, then I have to be open daily to doing my Father's will. And that's why I love the Lord's Prayer, because if you pray that prayer and I keep suggesting that we do this daily, what does that prayer go like? He says, not only do we honor God and we're glorifying God, but then he says, your kingdom come, your will be done. Now, if that becomes my agenda daily, that God's kingdom would come in my life and through my life, and God's kingdom would come in and through your lives, and that God's will would be done this day. Don't worry about the other 364 days of the year. Just focus on today. That God's will would be done today.
[00:15:19] There's a lot of things that could happen over the course of many days, because every day, daily, I'm trying to do the will of the Father. So what is our focus? What are we trying to accomplish? What is our life all about? If life is only about our personal security, comfort and prosperity, then we're going to stay hidden behind our self made, culturally conditioned barriers. We have a lot of them. We're going to live inside, quote, the comfort zone. And I think for most of us, we're trying to build a life that we can enjoy, and it's not hassle. And we don't have people bugging us. You know what I mean? We want to protect ourselves, layer our lives, insulate ourselves so we can live, quote, a very self focused life. Is that really God's plan for us? I don't think so. But if we're going to impact the lives of people around us, I think we start with, okay, how am I living?
[00:16:21] To reach out to others requires we move outside of our walls and barriers that we've created to protect ourselves. And we have to begin to enter into the pain of other people's lives.
[00:16:33] Right now, when I say that, what I'm saying is you have to move from comfort to discomfort.
[00:16:39] Do you realize that you and I cannot change or grow if we stay in a comfort zone?
[00:16:43] A lot of people have not grown a lot. Look at your life and say, how much have I grown? What is it that am I really developing as an individual? Am I growing as a person? Am I growing in my skills? Am I growing in my relationship to people? Am I growing in my life? It's a good question to ask ourselves, am I moving forward? Is my life having some sort of a significant difference in the lives of other people? Or am I just sheltering myself and hiding myself away? And really, I'm beginning to withdraw. And I'm noticing something. People who withdraw from people are really emotionally, mentally, physically, even dying. That's what's happening. I see it. So God is trying to pull us out of that. Now so why do we resist getting involved in other people's lives? Well, it's costly and it's inconvenient. How many go? That's true.
[00:17:41] I mean, the moment you get involved with people, it becomes inconvenient, right?
[00:17:47] And it can cost you something. You can be misunderstood. You can be taken advantage of. I'm just throwing things out there. We got to be realistic about this. This is going to take effort. This is not, oh, this is easy to do. I'm being honest with you. This is not easy to do. It's a lot easier not to get involved, but it's a lot more rewarding to get involved. And it changes not only the other person's life, but it'll change your life. It's the way it works. And I think if we're going to be effective in reaching out to others, the focus has to be on the other person.
[00:18:25] Okay? It's not I need friends. They need friends.
[00:18:31] See the difference? The focus has to move away from us now.
[00:18:41] But I think when we reach out, what we're going to find out is our life becomes far richer. To remain contained within our comfort zones actually diminishes us, and it leaves our lives unfulfilled and ultimately dissatisfied. We're thirsty. Every human being is emotionally thirsty. Every human being is spiritually thirsty. I would even say we're even physically thirsty. We have to at, know, quench, know, satisfy the physical thirst, just like we have to satisfy the emotional and spiritual thirst that's part of life. Jesus now is seen here breaking some of the social conventions of his day. First he breaks a racial convention which Jews and Samaritans did not relate to each other. There was tension between that ethnicity, and there was also a barrier in his day that men did not talk to women. That just was in an appropriate behavior. So all of a sudden, Jesus was going to do everything wrong to do everything right.
[00:19:42] You ever have those moments in life where you're doing things that people could perceive to be wrong in order to do right?
[00:19:49] I remember years ago share this story we were with family, and I was thinking, this is so interesting because I know a lot of people struggle with people who are attracted to the same sex. I know that people struggle with this.
[00:20:06] But then I looked around and we were playing volleyball, and I was the only straight person on the team.
[00:20:13] Do you know what I mean? And I was thinking to myself, I'm a pastor, and my whole teammates are they're not straight.
[00:20:22] And I was thinking, well, I wonder what my congregation would think right now if they saw who I was hanging with.
[00:20:28] But then I was having such a wonderful time. And I want to say this to all of us. We must learn to love people who live differently than us and care deeply for people. And, you know, sometimes the people that have a different viewpoint on life feel like we're judging them and critical of them, and we don't love them. And that's the furthest thing from the truth, because God cares, god loves. And how are we going to convey that God cares and loves if we don't care and we don't love?
[00:21:01] We need to get that across to people.
[00:21:05] That doesn't mean I have to agree with people's lifestyles. It doesn't mean I have to agree with people's politics. It doesn't mean I have to agree with people's different ideologies in life. I don't.
[00:21:17] But I need to care for them as individuals, and I need to love them as people just the way God does.
[00:21:25] That's the only way people are going to embrace a message that says God loves you. How can people believe that if they don't sense it from us, that they're loved by us? Okay, now, when a Samaritan woman came to draw water, jesus said to her, will you give me a drink? The Samaritan woman, well, his disciples, it says, had gone into town to buy food, so we know Jesus was hungry. It was about noon. He was thirsty, been traveling. And it says here the Samaritan woman said to him, you're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan woman. Notice she points out the barriers. How can you ask me for a drink for Jews do not associate with the Samaritans. That's a little brackets that the scripture writer tells us that. He's giving us the reason why she's saying this, because there was a lack of association. And here's Jesus just breaking down the walls, breaking down the barriers. How many know you can't reach people until you break down the barriers?
[00:22:23] True that's. Right.
[00:22:26] Now, Jesus could have been so tired and just was, man, I just had a long day talking to these disciples. They weren't getting what I was laying down. How's this woman going to pick up what I'm going to try to lay down to her? He could have just I'm tired. I'm hungry. I'm thirsty. I'm just not going to say anything. I'm going to just stay in my little world. He didn't do that.
[00:22:49] Remember when I told you it was not always convenient to minister to people? This is a non convenient moment for Jesus. He's tired, right? Can you see it? Thirsty? Well, I think we can only become effective in touching other people's lives when our focus changes from my needs to their needs.
[00:23:09] And that's exactly what you know. It's interesting. Ellie Weissel some of us may know who he is. He's a Holocaust survivor. He wrote a number of books. He spoke on April 12, 1999, he delivered a speech to then President Clinton and his wife and members of Congress in Washington, DC. And he spoke about the perils or dangers of indifference. And this is what he said. What is indifference? The root meaning of the word means no difference. A strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur between light and darkness, dusk and dawn, crime and punishment, cruelty and compassion, good and evil.
[00:23:50] What are its courses and inescapable consequences? Well, indifference, he says, can be tempting. More than that, seductive. It's so much easier to look away from people who are the victims. It's so much easier to avoid such rude interruptions to our work, our dreams, our hope. It is, after all, awkward troublesome to be involved in another person's pain and despair. You know why it's awkward? It's uncomfortable. It is uncomfortable. Let's be honest. It's difficult. That's what he's saying. Yet for the person who is indifferent, his or her neighbor are of no consequence, and therefore their lives are meaningless. Their hidden or even visible anguish is of no interest. Indifference reduces the other person to an abstraction. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger or hatred. This is a fascinating statement. Anger can at times be creative. Sometimes people write great poems or great symphonies, simply do something special for humanity because maybe one is angry at the injustices that they're witnessing. But indifference is never creative. Even hatred, at times may elicit a response. You fight it, you denounce it, you disarm it. But indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response. It's not a beginning, it's not an end. And therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor, never the victim whose pain is magnifying when he or she feels forgotten. The political prisoner herself, the hungry children, the homeless refugee. Not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope, is to exile them from human memory.
[00:25:32] And in denying their humanity, we betray our own. What's he saying? Indifference is deadly to us because it diminishes us as a human being. And so we need to have some sort of a concern for what's happening around us. Do you know, when we think of sin and I've said this before we usually think of something we're doing that's wrong.
[00:25:56] But sometimes sin is not doing what's right. That's called the sin of omission. And for us to know, to do the right thing and we don't do it, that's a sin. And sometimes, when we can help people and we don't, that's bad. That's a sin. God is looking at that. Sometimes we're thinking we're okay, when in reality, maybe there's things God wants us to do that we're not doing.
[00:26:18] There's some need that we see that God is showing us that he wants us to be involved in. Now, you can be overwhelmed by needs. How many know? We can see the needs of the world and we just feel like, where do you start, Pastor? There's so many, right? Where did we start with all the needs in our world? But I love that little story of the boy that's on the beach and there's all these starfish and the tide has gone back out, and here he is throwing starfish into the ocean. And this older gentleman comes along and he said, son, he said, what difference do you think this is going to make? Look at all these starfish on the beach. And the kid just reaches down, grabs a starfish and throws it into the ocean and says, it made a difference for that one. And I think that's the attitude we need to develop. Yes, the needs are overwhelming today, but we need to see where God is asking us to be involved. So how do I recognize those moments in our lives and I call them divine opportunities. How do I recognize God wants me to be involved?
[00:27:16] How does God want me to see things? I believe that once we open our eyes and begin to pray a prayer, say, Lord, help me to see people as you see people, it starts changing our approach to life.
[00:27:28] Jesus is on his way from Galilee to Judea when he stops at Jacob's well to rest and refresh. And it's here he meets this woman and it's an unstructured meeting. It's not you know, I think how often in my life have I had these unstructured meetings with people? You ever had those moments? I remember one time we were camping in Yellowstone and I went in to take a shower and ran into these guys, an older gentleman and a younger man. And we were chatting in there and the next thing I know they started telling me that they were on vacation but older gentleman's wife had passed away and so they were experiencing grief. And so I asked them if I could just pray with them I was a pastor. And they invited me over to their amazing motor home. And so I said, let me go get my wife. And so there was the father, the daughter and her husband. And so Patty and I went over and began to minister to them on the vacation. Now we were with my in laws, Patty's sister and brother in law. And he said to me, don't you ever stop pastoring.
[00:28:33] I'm going, It's not about that guys. That's not what the issue is. There's a need and God brings that to your focus and you zero in on it. Right. Or the time I flew down to visit my brother in Las Vegas and while I was flying home ever go on those non direct flights? I try to avoid know, but I ended up flying to Minneapolis. How many know vegas to Calgary. Doesn't look like Minneapolis should be a part of it. But they flew me to you know, God had a plan. And when I got into Minneapolis got on another plane, here was this couple. I thought they were a couple, but it was actually this guy and his sister in law sitting next to me. And I had a chance to share the gospel with them as we flew back to Calgary. And this is an amazing. Story. So the girl stays in Stetler. He's moving to New York with her.
[00:29:26] She's her sister is his wife. And they're moving to New York. And we have this long conversation.
[00:29:33] So I make this amazing appeal to this young woman because she's moving to central Alberta. Sharing the gospel with her made an appeal. Would you give your life to then, you know, you never know. Nothing happens. I give him my business card. About a year later, this guy phones me up. The guy that moved to New York was flying back this way, made an appointment and came to see me in my office and told me the sad story that his sister in law that had moved to central Alberta overdosed on drugs.
[00:30:01] It was so heartrending. And he was grieving that loss. And while I was chatting with him I was able to share the gospel and lead him to Jesus and able to hook him up with a church. And our fellowship in New York. What an amazing thing. But so that little trip to Minneapolis that seemed out of the way was part of God's plan. But I wish I could always say I'm just this sensitive to every opportunity.
[00:30:24] I'll give you a story where I wasn't quite so sensitive to the opportunities. And they come our way too. We were vacationing in Florida. Now, that my Patty's brother who recovers and builds pool tables. That's his job. And so, you know, because they're heavy, they're slate tables. So I volunteered to go work with them while we were down vacationing. Right. So I'm over there, and here's a guy that comes to the door.
[00:30:53] Listen how dead out of it I was.
[00:30:58] He walks up to the door, he introduced. He says, Hi, my name is Fred and I'm a three time loser. Does that give you a clue that this person might be hurting?
[00:31:06] Oh, my goodness. Anyways, I felt conflicted between spending time with him and hearing his story and working on what my brother in law on the pool table because he's just, like, bearing down on this pool table and needed my hands to help him lift slate and all the rest of it. So I felt conflicted and I just felt like I should have probably spent more time with Fred there because he was a hurting unit and really wanted to talk about what had just happened in his life. So there's a lot of times in our lives we miss golden opportunities to minister to people. But here we see a divine appointment. And John tells us in verse one jesus had learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John. Although in fact, it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to, you know, recognizing that his popularity was drawing attention to himself deciding it was wise to back away at this moment. Heading back up to Galilee and the Bible says now we had to go through Samaria. Now some Jews were so anti Samaritans that they would travel around that location but Jesus felt like no I'm just going to go home and he's heading through Samaria. The Bible says he came to the town in Samaria called Sychar near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there and Jesus tired as he was from the journey sat down by the well and it was about noon. So we have the setting of this amazing story. Now in that moment he knows now there's a reason for him being here because there's a woman here all by herself at the well. This is highly unusual. Most of the people in small town likes to do things together and how many would like to go during the cool of the day rather than the heat of the day to gather water? We all know the story. She's obviously by herself and there's a reason for it.
[00:33:06] So why do we miss God's appointments? I think sometimes it's out of fear or sometimes we're so concerned about how the other person is going to respond that it keeps us from saying anything.
[00:33:22] We're afraid of their response. But let's open our hearts as God begins to give us these opportunities. Let me just encourage you for a moment here. You don't have to be a theologian to talk to people about God. I'll tell you what you need to have the ability to listen.
[00:33:40] If you can learn to listen to people and hear their heart and show concern for them and then have the courage to say to them I would love to pray with you would you be offended if we prayed right now? I have discovered that 90% of the time they'll say yes that would be wonderful and some of them will feel uncomfortable and say no and all you need to say then is that's okay, I understand but I just want you to know I will be praying for you. And usually the response is now thank you so much. You see because people when they're hurting appreciate someone who cares. Let me move on to the last thing here we can learn about Jesus reaching out to others. The first is we need to understand what is my purpose in life? If I have the wrong purpose I'm going to miss a lot of opportunities. Number two I need to recognize them and they're all over the place and they're probably more available to us than we realize. I think if we pray every know Lord I want to do your will today and I want to be open to that. If you pray that prayer with sincerity every day Lord I want to be open to every opportunity. God will bring them by you. Next is the willingness to risk being misunderstood. How many think you have to take a risk some of us. I'm not a good risk taker. Well, let's be more secure, okay? Let's just say if you think about it, when you consider time versus eternity, and here's an opportunity to talk to someone who could change their whole eternity, maybe it's worth the risk. Okay, now I want to just redefine success for a minute. Success is not the end result. I think too many of us are focusing on what happens. Is there a good outcome? The success is just being obedient. That's all you need to do. If you are obedient to what God's showing you to do, then you're successful in seizing that moment of opportunity.
[00:35:42] And I know as Canadians, we struggle with risking offending people, and we don't like to offend people. That's part of our cultural values. That's a nuance that's woven into our culture. I've discovered it's far easier to talk to people of other cultures. They don't get offended when people ask them about spiritual things. They're not uptight about it. But how many of you notice that Canadians, we get really indignant.
[00:36:08] How dare you talk to me about spiritual things?
[00:36:13] It's like, where did we come up with this stuff?
[00:36:18] I think we have some sort of a demonic element in our culture that needs to be cast out.
[00:36:24] Think about that. But don't worry about that attitude, because we think everybody has it. But not necessarily. When people hurt enough, that wall comes down. That's why we're praying, god, show me the right opportunities.
[00:36:39] So I think often we see our silence as culturally acceptable, but I would argue it's not necessarily the loving thing to do. You have to be willing to engage with people. Often the reason we may not speak is that we don't know what to say. That's probably the number one reason. You know what's really funny? This past fall here, when I did the course on discipleship and evangelism, the staff laughed. They said, Pastor, this is the smallest course you've ever taught. I said, no, I knew it would be like this.
[00:37:08] People are afraid to learn how to share their faith because they don't really want to do it. Because they're afraid to do it. But I'm trying to eliminate our excuses. See, I don't know what to say. I want to eliminate that because it's not that hard to share the gospel with people. You know, the Apostle Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation.
[00:37:31] And by the way, if you do share the gospel and someone gives their life to Christ, what a moment of joy.
[00:37:38] If you've ever experienced that, what a great moment of joy.
[00:37:42] While we may not know the circumstances in people's lives, we may not know what's in their hearts. We can learn about the circumstances by having a concerned heart and a listening ear. You know what I discovered? People want to talk about themselves. Anybody know that's true. How many know that's true?
[00:38:01] I have friends, and they'll go, I don't get how many people tell you their problems. I say that's because people don't want to listen to people's problems.
[00:38:09] The moment you come along, that takes an interest in people. They'll tell you their problems. Once people sense that you genuinely are concerned about them. Do you know people pick up on that vibe? A lot of us, I'm just too busy. We have this vibe of I'm too busy, don't bother me vibe. People won't tell you anything, but if you slow the pace down and go, how are you really doing? And you start taking time for that person, they're going to open up, and there's a lot of stuff going on that'll shock you, but people will never tell you unless you're willing to do that. So here's the conversation. Jesus says, Will you give me a drink?
[00:38:52] How many recognize that? Now, Jesus is about to shift the conversation from the natural to the spiritual by creating interest. So here's how Jesus's opening line goes, hey, would you mind giving me a drink of water? Obviously, he had a need. How many know if you ask people for help, people are genuinely willing to help you? I'm amazed, but they are. They like doing that. It's an empowering thing on you're, empowering them in one sense because you need their help. Now, Jesus says this in verse ten. 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. How many know that Jesus had an ability to create curiosity. I think curiosity is a very important tool in helping people dialogue with you, learning how to facilitate curiosity. Very interesting thing that he said to her.
[00:39:46] Of course, the lady now is wondering, okay, here's a guy that shows up, has nothing to draw water with, asks me for water, and then he tells me, hey, if you knew who the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, in other words, if you know who I am. He says to her, you'd have been asking me not for this water, but for living water, sir, the woman says, You've nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? How many see that? She's on a totally different thinking. You know, this sounds good. I like living water. I like this idea of having a need met in my life.
[00:40:27] But how are you going to do this?
[00:40:30] Are you greater than our Father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock? In other words, hey, listen, are you greater than Jacob? How many think it's a humorous question when we, the reader knows who Jesus is.
[00:40:49] Obviously, Jesus is greater. He's the creator. Isn't that amazing? And she's asking him this question. Jacob provided water that would refresh for a moment.
[00:41:03] Jesus has water that will refresh for eternity. How many think that's an amazing already? You know, she's curious as to where this conversation is going.
[00:41:18] Jesus moves on to the he moves her to a new level, a spiritual level, when he starts asking that question, and he says to her this, hey, listen, everyone who drinks this water, they're going to be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
[00:41:48] This is amazing. I have water that's going to satisfy the thirst not for your body, but for your soul. And I know you're thirsty.
[00:41:59] Do you know, I'm going to say this. Every human being is thirsty. Thirst never goes away. We all have physical thirst. We can satisfy it for a moment, but there's a thirst inside the human soul. We need to understand that right off the bat. See, when you come with that understanding towards people that there's a thirst in the human soul, I think you have a greater confidence that what you're about to share is going to have a greater impact in their life.
[00:42:27] This thirst is not for natural water, but for God, for eternal life in the presence of God. And the thirst is not met by removing the aching desire, but by the pouring out of the spirit. That's the answer. That's what D. A. Carson shares with us. Our greatest longing is actually coming from within us. You and I are thirsty.
[00:42:47] We're thirsty for God.
[00:42:49] We were designed by God to relate to Him. We were designed to have relationship.
[00:42:56] Human beings are social. How many know that's true?
[00:42:59] One of the deepest form of punishment is isolation, solitary confinement. Some people can't handle that. Just terrorizes them. To be alone is terror for many people.
[00:43:12] Now, I know some people can handle solitude, but eventually you'll need people.
[00:43:18] Jesus knew what was in her heart and was about to gently confront her about the issues of her life. That Carson's was the quote above that somehow got mixed up there.
[00:43:30] Jesus realizes she's totally misunderstood what he's telling her and not realizing what the core issue was in her own soul. And I think that's true for most people. Most people don't know they're thirsty. Did you know that? They're just running around trying to satisfy their thirst with all kinds of activity and desires. People are doing this. People are doing that. People are doing this. Why are they doing these things? They're thirsty, and they'll continue to be thirsty now.
[00:44:02] So Jesus zeros in on what she's thirsting for. What is it she's thirsting for? She wants to be loved. So he says to her, go call your husband and come back.
[00:44:14] Okay, now we're getting into meddling here, right?
[00:44:19] She goes, I have no husband. She replies, yeah, jesus says, you're right when you said you have no husband. In fact, you've had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. Whoa.
[00:44:32] What you've said is quite true. How many go, I don't know if I could do a Jesus thing know? He's calling her out, basically, and he's doing in such a gentle manner. He's not condemning her. He's just saying, I want to explore with you how thirsty you really are. Now, I don't know, having five husbands, some of them may have died, some of them may have divorced her, and now she's with someone that's not her husband. How many get a sense that this woman does not want to be alone. She wants to be loved, she wants to be cared for. She wants to be nourished, she wants to be cherished. It's a longing in her heart.
[00:45:11] It amazes me here.
[00:45:13] Do you think it's easy to speak to people's sin issues a little more challenging, isn't it? But you have to say this sometimes to people. You know, the thing that's keeping you from true satisfaction is the thing that you're embracing right now. That's what Jesus was basically saying. You have a barrier to the true life that's available to you. You have a barrier that's keeping you from God. How many know sin is a barrier that separates us from God, and it doesn't matter what form it know. A lot of people we think, well, we can't really call people out today, Pastor. It's not the right thing to do in our culture today. We have to accept everything everybody's doing. The only problem with this is that it's keeping people from finding true satisfaction, because if we live in sin, it's a barrier to what will truly satisfy the human soul, and that's a relationship with Almighty God.
[00:46:11] And do you realize that repentance is a movement towards God? It's a change of mind. It's a turning our back on what is wrong and evil. It's turning away from serving idols to serve the true and the living God. And I would say this, that even sometimes as Christians, we make a presentation of the Gospel as if there's no repentance to it. And we're telling them to turn to God, but not to turn away from their sin. And Christians are living in bondage and sin, folks. We have to turn away from sin because it separates us from God. And we'll never be truly satisfied until we come to genuine faith in Christ, and we've turned our back on that which does not satisfy and does know quench the thirst in our know? Carson explains the power that Jesus has on people. He said, the sheer flexibility of Jesus leaps from the pages as he deals with a wide array of different people and their varied needs. No less startling, though more often ignored, is the manner in which Jesus commonly drives to the individual's greatest sin. Hopelessness, guilt, despair, and need. Jesus goes right to it, and that's what we need to do.
[00:47:26] He goes on to know rabbinic opinion disapproved more than three marriages, even though they were legally permissible. No body of religious opinion approved common law marriages.
[00:47:39] In other words, she was shunned by the people in her world. She felt all the social stigma of failure and shame. Yet rather than condemn her, jesus reached out to her and offered her a new beginning and a new hope. He gave her a reset button. You can start over again.
[00:47:58] Sharing the truth can bring people to a life transforming faith. Listen to what Jesus says. The woman said, I know that when the Messiah called, Christ is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us. And then Jesus says, I the one speaking to you. I'm he. Do you know how powerful this is? This is the only scripture.
[00:48:18] At least this is the first one that I can find that Jesus says, I'm the know. Actually, it is entirely in line. Carson says, with this Gospel that Jesus unambiguously declare himself to be the Messiah to a Samaritan, but to not his own people. Why? For many Jews, the title Messiah carried so much political and military baggage that its self disclosure in such settings necessarily had to be more subdued and subtle. In other words, they had a wrong understanding what the Messiah would do, but she had the right understanding. When the Messiah comes, he's going to tell us what needs to be done.
[00:48:56] Wow.
[00:48:58] When we fulfill God's purposes, our soul is renewed in the process. And I love how Jesus says to his disciples, they came back and they said they urged Him, rabbi, eat something. They brought him something to eat. Right.
[00:49:13] And he says to them, I have food to eat that you know nothing about.
[00:49:18] This is an interesting statement. Then his disciples said to each other, could someone have brought him? Like, where did he get this food? This is interesting. Jesus is explaining to them, there's something that nourishes our soul. He's not talking about his body here, but his soul. Right. My food, Jesus said, is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish his work. What is Jesus saying? I am refreshed. I am satisfied.
[00:49:48] My needs are met when I'm doing the will of the Father. How beautiful is that?
[00:49:55] I love it.
[00:49:57] So what was the result? Well, the woman ran off to town. She told everybody in town, I met a man who told me everything about me. Could this be the Messiah? She drags all of these guys back. I think that's fascinating. While Jesus is giving, the discourse on the harvest is plentiful. I mean, sorry. You say there's a saying, four months and then the harvest will be ripe. He said, the harvest is already ripe. And I could see the woman coming back to the well with the villagers when he said that. Can you see that picture? And in Jesus'mind, there's the harvest, and he spends two days there. And the whole village comes to faith in Jesus. And they say to the woman, now, we believe not because you told us, but we've experienced it for ourselves. Here was the least likely person to impact her community. But when you meet Jesus, it changes everything in your life. And you now are catalytic to transformation in the lives of other people. Let's stand as we close the service in prayer.
[00:51:00] I don't know about you, but to do God's work satisfies.
[00:51:07] Amen. To do God's will. Satisfies. Now, I'm not suggesting that we're going to have we go out, we lead someone to Christ here in Red Deer, and the whole city gets transformed. I can't make that guarantee.
[00:51:23] It could happen, but I'm just saying that's not what this message is about. This message is helping us understand that every one of us has a responsibility.
[00:51:34] To be truly satisfied in our life as a Christian means that we are willing to step outside our comfort zone and bring this good news into the life of another person. That's what this message is about. And regardless of their response, either positively or negatively, when I'm obedient to God to do what God's showing me to do, that's what's important. Do you know sometimes people walked away from Jesus? How many know that's true? They decided they weren't going to follow him. He called them and they rejected him. Did Jesus fail in his mission? No. But those individuals lost out, did they not? And so what you and I need to understand is when God is sending us to know, some of them will respond and some of them won't. We can't walk around and measure our success based on their response. That's what I'm trying to tell you. We have to measure our success based on our obedience.
[00:52:32] Am I concerned about the people that God brings into my life?
[00:52:38] Am I willing to risk offending people by sharing the gospel? And if they get offended, they might get offended. I've had those moments where people were offended, but later on those seeds. Sometimes the people that react the most negatively eventually turn out to be the most positive response in the end.
[00:52:59] Are you following what I'm saying? How many know? Saul of Tarsus wasn't an easy guy to witness to until he got saved, right? Even Ananias goes, really? God? You're sending me to that guy? Don't you know what he's doing? He's arresting us and killing us. I mean, you want me to go tell him about Jesus? He said, yeah, but I've prepared him for you, Ananias. He's had a little experience before you get there. How many know God can prepare hearts before you get there. Isn't that amazing? But just every head bowed right now.
[00:53:28] Has God been speaking to your heart this morning? And you have been saying to you, listen, I have a plan in mind. I have people I want you to talk to.
[00:53:38] And I want to be willing, Lord. And today I want to make a fresh commitment with you. I want to pray that every day, as I can remember to do this, by Your grace, I will open my heart and say, your will be done today. I want Your kingdom to advance and I want you to use me. And if that's your heart, cry today. Why don't we just lift our hands to God and say, lord, here am I. Just like Isaiah said. Here am I, Lord. Send me. Here am I, lord, send me.
[00:54:08] Amen. Send me, Lord. And so, Father, we thank you this morning that you want to use our lives to bring this wonderful message of Your grace that satisfies the human soul for the person who's receiving the message but also the person who's giving the message. Because when we're doing Your will, it satisfies us. And we thank you for that. In Jesus name, amen. God bless you. As you leave this morning.
