Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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If you're able to remain standing,
please do and let's turn our attention to
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John Chapter Four. John Chapter Four, verses twenty seven through forty two.
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John Chapter Four. I'm this is
where a Jesus, I mean it's this
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woman from Samaria at a well,
and we've been looking at this passage.
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We're coming to the end of it. Now I'm going to begin reading in
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Verse Twenty Seven, John For twenty
seven. Just then his disciples came back.
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They marveled that he was talking with
a woman, but no one said
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what do you seek or why are
you talking with her? So the woman
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left her water jar and went away
into the town and said to the people,
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come see a man who told me
all that I ever did. CAN
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THIS BE THE CHRIST? They went
out of the town and we're coming to
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him. Meanwhile, the disciples were
urging him, saying, rabbi, eat,
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but he said to them I have
food to eat that you do not
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know about. So the disciple said
to one or one another, has anyone
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brought him something to eat? Jesus
said to them my food is to do
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the will of him who sent me
and to accomplish his work. Do you
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not say there are yet four months. Then comes the harvest. Look,
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I tell you, lift up your
eyes and see that the fields are white
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for harvest already. The one who
reaps is receiving rages wages and gathering fruit
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for eternal life, so that the
souler and reaper may rejoice together. For
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here the saying holds true. One
sows and another reaps. I sent you
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to reap that for which you did
not labor. Others have labored and you
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have entered into their labor. Many
Samaritans from that town believed in him because
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of the woman's testimony. He told
me all that I ever did. So
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when the Samaritans came to him,
they asked him to stay with them,
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and he stayed there two days.
And many more believed because of this his
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word. They said to the woman, it is no longer because of what
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you said that we believe, for
we have heard for ourselves and we know
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that this indeed is the savior of
the world, a man you may be
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seated. You might remember that at
the beginning of John, for we have
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a reason for why Jesus and its
disciples are here at this well on Samaria,
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and the reason is is that judge
Jesus's disciples were making a lot of
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disciples, they were baptizing people.
In fact they were baptizing more people than
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John, and people started getting concerned. Who is this Jesus? We know
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about John, we know about his
ministry, but this Jesus and his disciples
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are now increasing above what John ever
was. People were getting upset and eventually
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Jesus decided to flee to Galilee and
he passed through Samaria to get there.
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Now, this fact that Jesus was
baptizing more disciples, that this work was
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greater than the great work of John, shouldn't have been any surprised. Anybody
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was listening, because John, and
several times and several ways, was extremely
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clear. He who comes after me
is greater than me. He will do
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greater things, he will baptize with
a greater baptism, he will I'm not
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even worthy to untie his Sandal,
John said. Nevertheless, people, the
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leaders in particular of Israel, were
concerned and Jesus leaves. Jesus had sent
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out his disciples, he began a
work and he sent them out. He's
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sending them out again at the end
here of John, for he talks about
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his own ministry, he says,
I my ministry, my work. Even
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describes it as food. The food
that, IE, is to do the
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will of him who sent me.
And now he's going to send these disciples
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out. He wants them to awaken
to this reality. Dy that the fields,
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as he describes it, are white
for harvest. What does he mean
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by that? Well, he's talking
about all of these people who are coming
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out of Samaria, just as they
were coming out of Jerusalem before. The
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disciples and other words have already had
this experience of people coming out to hear
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this word, to be baptized,
and now it's happening again, except this
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time not in Israel but in Samaria. What is going on here? The
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the the this woman goes, she
has this sort of interesting I'll say it
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that way for now. You'll have
to go back and listen to the other
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sermons to hear more about that,
but she has this interesting conversation with Jesus.
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She goes back into our town and
she says he's told me all I
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ever did and now all of a
sudden, all of these people are coming
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out to see Jesus and they're believing. How does Jesus explain this? The
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fields are ripe from harvest. He's
talking about souls that are ready. He's
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talking about him coming in the fullness
of time and this great harvest, this
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great reaping of blessings as people come
and believe the Gospel. It's an amazing
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thing. This woman's testimony is extremely
small, at least if in comparison to
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what we often think of is what's
necessary in giving a testimony or a witness
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to WHO Jesus was there. What
he says, remember what how she puts
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it, she leaves Your Water Jar
Verse Twenty Eight. She goes to her
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town and says to the people in
Verse Twenty Nine, come see a man
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who told me all that I ever
did, and then she asks a question.
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Can this be the Christ and they
just pour out of the town.
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It's really it's really astounding, and
that's why Jesus says you know you're where
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at this period of time, where
you're you know where you you know how.
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Everybody's saying four months and then we
harvest. He's saying the harvest is
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now. Of course he's not talking
about grain, he's talking about souls.
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Even as the disciples are asking about
food and he says my food is to
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do the will of him who sent
me, or is the woman asks about
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water. Give me water from the
well, and he says, if you
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would ask me, I would give
you eternal water. Jesus is taking all
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of these circumstances in their life,
the water that need to eat, the
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harvest that is about to happen,
and he's trying to use these things to
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teach them something about what is happening
right in front of them. Remember how
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he says to the woman? He
says, if you knew who it was
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would standing right in front of you, you would ask him and he would
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give you the gift of God,
this water, this eternal life. So
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what we are seeing here in John, for one of the things we are
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seeing here is the amazing work of
God in the Christ, just as John
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said, just as the Prophet said
that, just as the whole scriptures have
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been testifying about this Messiah, the
one who now stands in front of this
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woman and is said, and as
he said, I am he the Christ
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who is to come. He is
everything and more than all the people were
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expecting. We're seeing that in his
miracle of turning water into wine. We're
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seeing that in the way that he
talks with the Pharisees. We're seeing that
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in the way that he's going out
to the gentiles. We're seeing that in
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hearts that are changed with the tiniest
bit of Gospel News. As we think
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about this and as we think about
who Jesus is, I think it's a
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it's a good opportunity to think about
the work of evangelism, because that's what's
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Jesus is wanting his disciples to wake
up their wake up and open their eyes
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to the fields are white. They're
ready for harvest. The reaping time has
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come and they're seeing it right in
front of them. And indeed this is
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going to continue. When Jesus commands
his disciples to go out, he tells
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them to Jerusalem, to Sumaria and
even to the ends of the Earth.
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The disciples will in fact Gom to
Samaria again. John himself will come and
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will experience yet more of the Lord's
work in this place and in many,
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many other places. We've experienced that
work to do here as well, haven't
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we? Even this morning, our
brother has professed his faith in the Lord
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Jesus Christ, just as you have
professed your faith and the Lord. He
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has worked not only in this time
that we're reading about here and John,
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but in our time as well,
any promises to continue to that work to
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the end. It's a good reminder
for us that this great commission that he
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gave first of all to these apostles
is one continues on. The harvest is
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still being harvested and we have a
place in that. Now you all know
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that because you were harvested. The
Lord rereaped you, the Lord worked in
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you. You also know that because
you've seen yet more of that work here
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this morning. You know that because
that's one of the reasons that we exist
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as a church, to worship and
to glorify God and to call other people
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into that. That leads us to
all kinds of very practical questions which are
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worth considering here. One of them
is how do I share my faith?
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How do I trust in this Jesus
who has come in as a way to
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express myself and tell others? I
was asked by more than one person this
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week this particular question. How do
I share my faith? How do I
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do this? What do I how
do I learn? I, of course,
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have asked this myself. I talk
think about it all the time and
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perhaps you know there are I regularly
recommend books and things that you can read
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that are helpful when we think about
this immense responsibility of sharing the gospel,
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of proclaiming the good news about Jesus
Christ, who's come into the world to
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save sinners. In some of us
there's zeal and excitement, there's joy in
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going out. Others of US find
a lot of fear and we're scared.
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We worry that we might we might
fail. There's a lot of things that
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go into that. On that fear
of failure, of not doing right by
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the Lord, one is we don't
want to get the scripture wrong right,
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if you're called to be an ambassador, to go out to claim the message
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that you've been given, be really
bad to garble that message right. You
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don't want to go and tell somebody
thus saith the Lord and then not say
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that. And they're all kinds of
warnings in scripture about those who do that,
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especially those who do that knowingly.
They're called false prophets. We of
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course don't want to fall into that, even by even by accident. Then
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there's our faults. Man, if
I shared my gospel with the name my
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neighbor who knows x, Y and
Z, about me. What would that
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say to them about Jesus? I'd
rather than just think poorly about me and
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not about him. Right. So
maybe I better not say anything. And
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sometimes we don't share the Gospel because
we were about our faults as being an
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obstacle to someone else's faith. Of
course can't happen in some ways, there's
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other things too. Not only do
we not want to garble the message,
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I know in myself I don't want
to just not mess it up, I
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want to do well by it.
I want to be confident, I want
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to be smooth, I want to
be accurate, I want to be precise,
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I want to be a good list
CNER, I want to be able
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to anticipate objections and be able to
answer them well. So we ask,
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how can I share my faith?
And in all of these things, in
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all these concerns, I think there
is a pious, and I mean that
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in a positive sense, a holy
and good motivation. And in all of
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the things that I've mentioned there are
ways in which we can grow and which
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we can improve. But since we're
an honest church, we want to be
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honest here as well, and since
we desire to be accountable to one another,
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and before the Lord. I think
it's fair to ask this question.
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I'm could it be that our desire
to grow, our concerns about sharing our
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faith as sometimes a stall tactic?
Right? Imagine you're in a situation where
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you didn't really want to do something
and so you just ask a lot of
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questions to sort of delay doing the
thing that you know you want to do.
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Well, let's go over the plan
one more time, or and what
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about this, and what happens if
that happens? And True, you know,
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all good questions, but we know
that sometimes they're a little bit of
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a ruse, a little bit of
a way of distracting ourselves or paps,
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we think, maybe, the Lord, from doing what we want to do.
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I think this because I've been there, I've done that. I also
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think that because I read this passage
and I can't help but be impressed,
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and I mean that by the way, that something significant is pressed in upon
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me by how different the spread of
the Gospel looks here then sometimes it looks
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in in the church. Jesus has
this conversation with her where he tells her
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the good news. He says,
I am the Gift of God. I
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give to you if you would only
ask for eternal life. He confronts her
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about her sins, he she's he
tells her what she already knows, that
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she is an adulteress, a cereal
adulteress, that she is confused about worship,
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that she is not all kinds of
problems, but nevertheless he is the
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Messiah, he is the Christ.
What happens then? She simply leaves an
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interesting known in Verse Twenty Eight,
she leaves her water jar right, like
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the very thing that she came to
do, get water before she even knew
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Jesus would be there. She leaves
her water jar. I don't know why.
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Maybe she was forgetful, maybe she
planned to come back. Whatever it
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was, something of a higher importance
or order came. She goes into the
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town and she says, simply,
come see a man who told me all
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I ever did. CAN THIS BE
THE CHRIST? And then verse thirty.
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They went out of the town and
we're coming to him. There's almost like
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no transition right, no arguing,
nobeitia debating, no deciding, just this
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thing happens. When I think about
what she did, I make a few
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observations which I'll share with you,
and perhaps you have others which you can
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share with me I'm later. Here
are some things I noticed. One,
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the jar. She's got good priorities, right. She her priorities have been
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reordered in a way. Something really, really significant has happened to her.
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She has met the Christ, right, she says, we've been waiting for
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a long time for the Christ to
come. He stands there and he says
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I am he of whom you speak. That's a big deal, right.
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And so her priorities are reordered in
there some sense. She leaves her water
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J are, she's zealous. She
goes and speaks. Second thing I noticed
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as her resilience. Notice what her
resilience in the light of what looks like
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a pretty bad experience with Jesus's disciples? Right, her decide, the disciples
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go away to get food. Jesus
has this conversation with her. They come
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back and say, why are you
talking with a woman? All right,
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how would you like it if your
first experience with the church was Jesus was
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a somebody, one of Jesus followers? What is disciple saying to you,
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particularly if you're a woman? Why
are you talking with a woman? That
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probably wouldn't feel her good. Is
My guess. Perhaps something like that has
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happened to you, perhaps worse than
that has happened to you. Nevertheless,
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she doesn't let bitterness, anger frustration
with these jerks seep into her heart.
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She doesn't let this experience, by
would assume bad experience with the followers of
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Christ, affect her. What did
she do? She says, forget them,
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I just met the Christ. And
she goes and she tells others.
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Amazing. She also doesn't get suckered
in by by fear and pride that we
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often do. This Samaritan Woman,
this serial adulterous she's met the Christ.
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She doesn't spend three years reading books, She just goes and tells people.
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Now I recommend books. I love
books. Go to my website and there's
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all kinds of books you can read
that I've recommended. Read them, be
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blessed by them, but don't use
them as an excuse. We do this
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not just with evangelism, we do
all kinds of things. I'm thinking about
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it. Jesus, the Postle Paul
Talks about weak willed women that are I'm
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always studying, always reading and never
able to come to a knowledge of the
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truth. Not This lady. She's
met Jesus and she's going to tell people
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about it. We can always grow
and there's always room and there are there.
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We must maintain proper distinctions and we
can think about office and the differences
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between the Minister of the word and
those that are not called to that particular
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ministry. But we also don't want
to overcomplicate things either. Jesus is the
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Christ. He tells us about her, and she doesn't get overly complicated about
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it. She says, come see
a man who told me all I ever
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did. That's all she says here. And she asked the question, can
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be this be the Christ? That's
interesting too to me, because she doesn't
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come with all the answers. I
think sometimes we feel like that's necessary,
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like we have to know everything before
we can share anything. She asks the
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question. She says, I met
this person who did this. Can he
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be this person? And they come
now. I don't think there is a
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promise here to us that if we
just go up to people and say can
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this be the Christ, that thousands
of people will rush out of their homes
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to come meet Jesus. Jesus works, as he told US earlier in John
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Three, through his spirit and his
spirit is like a win moving and doing
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what he desires. One of the
things we recognize here about Jesus and his
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work, and we're continuing to recognize
in the Gospel, is that he is
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supreme, he is awesome, he
is powerful, he is God. Our
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job is not to become God and
have all the answers and then do the
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work of harvesting souls our God.
Our job is simple, to go out
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with what he has given us,
in the midst of all of our limitations
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and our struggles and all the rest. Notice that it's not just this woman
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who has this proper attitude, but
the Apostle Paul, a minister of the
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word, has this as well.
In First Corinthians, chapter two, he
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says this to the Corinthian Church.
And I, when I came to you,
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brothers, did not come proclaiming to
you the testimony of God with lofty
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speech or wisdom, for I decided
to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ,
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in him crucified, and I was
with you in weakness and in fear.
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And he says much trembling, and
my speech and my message were not
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in plausible words of wisdom, but
it in a demonstration of the spirit and
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with power, so that your faith
my not rest in the wisdom of men
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but in the power of God.
If you have this image of the apostle,
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Paul from barrel chested, charging place
into place after place, sort of
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proclaiming the message of God and sort
of a wakening people out of their sin,
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who just can't help, except by
the force of his personality, to
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say I submit right, I'll come
under the Lordship of Christ. You you've
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got it wrong. Now, Paul
did have a very strong personality, but
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what does he say, at least
about this particular mission? He says I
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came in fear. He even describes
it much trembling. Have you ever trembled
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when trying to share the Gospel with
someone? I have, I do.
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Paul did too, but rather than
shy away from it, he embraces it,
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not out of pride but for this
reason, verse five that I read
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to you so that your faith might
not rest in the wisdom of men or
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the power of Paul, or the
wisdom or eloquence of Paul, but in
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the power of God. He goes
as a jar of clay and he stands
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before people and he says, I'm
a jar of clay right, I'm scared,
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I'm nervous about talking to you,
but I'm going to say this as
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clearly as I can. I'm not
going to worry about being overly fancy.
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I just want to be clear.
Could this be the Christ? Or,
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as he says it, this is
the Christ. The woman does the same
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thing, the Samaritan woman who just
heard the Gospel, she does the exact
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same thing. She stands in all
her brokenness and all her mess and she
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said, as he told me all
my faults, he told me all that
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I ever did. She doesn't stop
proud of that. She's boasting in him,
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and that's the thing we've got to
remember at the end of the day.
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We ought to prepare, we ought
to study. The proverbs are so
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clear that there is beauty and elegance
and power and having choice words at a
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choice moment. You can be a
jerk in sharing the gospel. Don't do
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that, but also don't use that
possibility as an excuse for not saying anything
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or creating such a high bar for
saying anything that is higher than Jesus himself
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is willing to use and does use. But I'm trying to get at is
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that, if we make the Gospel
and sharing the Gospel about us and what
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we're doing and where we're at and
who we are and all those things.
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You're missing the thing about the Gospel
itself, which is it's not about you,
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it's about him. It's about him
as the Christ, it's about what
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he's done, it's about about his
power, it's about him coming into the
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world. When you have your mind
fixed on him, when your faith is
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in him, then that will set
the right order of things. You will
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know when to study and when to
be silent, you will know when to
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be bold and when to go forward, and even when you don't, your
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faith will rely on him and say, Lord, help me, I don't
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know what I'm doing. But it's
ultimately not about me. It's all about
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you. You need faith. That's
the key. But remember what Jesus says
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about faith. He says if it's
as small as a mustard seed, it's
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still mighty. Also, remember what
Jesus says about our faith. It's a
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gift of God. We have it
not because of anything that we've done,
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but because of what he has given
us. So, as always, my
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message is the same. Put your
focus on him, put your faith on
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him, know him to be true, know him to be strong, no,
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His forgiveness to be all that it
is. And when you have an
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opportunity to share the hope that is
in you, you simply say that.
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You simply say the good news about
him. It can be as simple as
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he told me all that I ever
did. I think he's the Christ.
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I've got a lot of questions still, but come you've got to see.
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Or it could be as Paul says
it. He says the saying is trustworthy
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and and reliable. Jesus Christ came
into the world to save sinners. People
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have all kinds of objections and they'll
have questions for you, but it's not
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your job to save them. We
simply put our faith in the Lord and
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enjoy the harvest. Your God is
strong, your God is good, he
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is come at the perfect time in
the perfect way. Whether you find yourself
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in a situation where you are trying
to find the right words to say,
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or where do you find yourself in
a situation like this woman, where you
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have sins to repent of, no
matter where you are at in your life,
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put your faith in him. He's
good, he is righteous, he
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is strong and he promises to give
you the gift of eternal life, a
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spring of water welling up in you
and lasting forever. Let's pray
