My Sunday Sermon Recap 1.9.11

Have you ever thought that it would be a lot easier to talk to God if he was physically right in front of you? No wondering if he heard you or what His answer may be.

That seems to be a huge advantage the people who came in contact with Jesus had over us. They could go straight to the source with their problems or issues and we’re left tossing up holy wishes hoping God may hear one of them.

But what if the same conversations Jesus had with people were the same conversations He would have and wants to have with us?

Over the next few weeks we’re going to be looking at actual conversations people had with the Lord in the gospels and turning them into prayer parables or “prayables” that can help us in our own prayer conversations with God
Jesus and the Samaritan Woman - John 4:1-30

This one of my favorite encounters with Jesus in the bible cause it’s a place I believe all of us will find ourselves at some point. That’s the place of not feeling good enough or worthy enough to talk with a perfect Savior or God. But there are two key elements to this story I want us to realize this morning:

1. Jesus meets the Samaritan woman where she is.
(4:4) “Jesus had to go through Samaria…”???
- He didn’t have to go that way (there were other routes)
- Most Jews would not have gone that way (they would have avoided Samaria)
(4:6) “Jesus sat down by the well…”
- Jesus didn’t wait for her to come to Jerusalem or come to church
- He knew where he could find her and it didn’t matter to Him where it was
(4:7-9) “Will you give me a drink?”
- Jesus spoke to her first
- Jesus surprisingly associated with her
- Treated her with respect
- Did not follow customary prejudices
- Broke through social barriers
- Willing to break through the biggest barrier of all: sin (vs. Holy God)
- Asked her for help (saw her as valuable)
(4:29) “He told me everything I ever did”
- The Lord knows all about me and still cares for me
- The Lord knows all about me and still talks with me
- I don’t have to pretend to be something I’m not with the Lord
- I can talk with the Lord about anything / everything in my life!
2. Jesus consistently moves the conversation to deeper levels
- From physical thirst (4:7) to spiritual thirst (4:10,13-14)
- From superficial worship (4:20-21) to the heart of worship (4:23-24)
- From a gloomy past (4:16-18) to a joyful future (4:28-29, 39-42)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My "Crazy Love" Small Group Discussion Questions

Image
I've had the opportunity to lead several small groups based of the Francis Chan book "Crazy Love". The discussion questions that come with the DVD study leaves a lot to be desired. So through my own personal questions and questions from other "Crazy Love" resources online I've been able to develope a more indepth study of the book. Below are the questions I have used for all 10 chapters of the book study. Feel free to use them as you'd like. Chapter 1: Stop Praying Stop and think about the last prayer you voiced. How did you begin? Our Father? Dear Lord? Jesus? What word or phrase did you use to start the prayer? Now, take a minute and consider the prayer you prayed before that prayer. How did you begin? Same word or phrase? Different? Sorta different or radically different? If you begin all your prayers in much the same way, ask yourself why. Read these words from G. K. Chesterton: A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence,
Read more

Her Story: Does Satan really exist? Many United Methodists see evil as more subtle.

After spending much of my full time ministry life in the United Methodist Church, I found this article very interesting. It's written by Mary Jacobs and she nails the fact that most UMCers are scared to death to mention the "S" word (Satan) or the "D" word (Devil). Jesus stood up to him. Plenty of Christians talk about him. And some blame all sorts of evil on him. But likely you won’t hear his name tossed around much in a United Methodist Church. Could it be... Satan? “For the most part, you don’t hear mainline Protestants talking about Satan, the devil or the demonic,” said Jaime Clark-Soles, associate professor of New Testament at Perkins School of Theology. “I think we’ve handed that kind of language over to the fundamentalists.” Though Methodism founder John Wesley talked about Satan in his sermons, the United Methodist Church has no official doctrine on the devil or the demonic. Few Methodist ministers in the U.S., it seems, preach about Satan as a personal
Read more

His Story: The Beginning of the End for the David Crowder Band

Image
** pic of Jacob and David when we met him at a concert The following is an email I just got from the David Crowder Band. A piece of me died when I read it but I'm so excited I have tickets to see them in Charlotte this fall. We have several things to let you know about, First of all, we can’t begin to express how excited we are getting about The 7 Tour this fall. If you haven’t heard yet, we’re doing a national tour with some of our favorite artists ever. Gungor, John Mark McMillan, and Chris August are joining us, and we cannot wait to be in the same room with these folks night after night. We’re pretty sure you’ll want to be at every single one of these get-togethers. “Unreasonable!” you say? Well, not to us. That’s why we’ll be there every single night. Seriously, we, the band, are all getting on a bus and following the whole thing around for like 3 months. It’s going to be awesome. Now, another reason we are sure this will be one of the most meaningful tours we’ve ever
Read more