“The Lord’s Prayer in the Psalms” – Praise – Psalm 100

I want to do an experiment.  I’ve not done this before and I’m not sure how well it’s going to work but I have a pretty good idea.  I’m so blessed to be able to have my two dogs in the worship service and I really appreciate you letting me do that.  Today, I want to use them in an experiment.  They love these Milk Bones and I want you to watch their reactions when I offer them one.

I want you to watch how they concentrate on them and how there is nothing that could distract them from their dog biscuits once they see them.  There is nothing more important in this world right now to them.  I think it’s safe to say I have their full attention.  All their thoughts, hopes and wishes are in my hand.

That is what it should be like for us when we pray.  When we really pray, we should be completely tuned in to God and zoned out of everything else.  Our focus should be on God and what He wants for our lives even as we go to Him with our requests.  Those requests should be made with confidence because He tells us to come boldly into His throne room in Hebrews 4:16. But I think we will find as we study prayer more deeply that God’s ultimate purpose for prayer is not so you have a number to call when you need something but the ultimate purpose of prayer is for God’s glory and when everything you say in your prayers is backed up with that mindset, the more powerful your prayer life will be.

Have you ever been in a so-called conversation with somebody and you realize that they are only partly paying attention?  Does it seem like they are really only participating when they are talking?  What’s worse is when that person only wants to talk about themselves and when you try to steer the conversation elsewhere they always bring it back to them.  Well, I have heard enough people pray in my life to know that must be how God feels sometime.

So, do you ever feel like your prayer life is weak and ineffective?  If it feels that way, then it is weak and ineffective and it is weak and ineffective because your walk with God is weak and ineffective.  Your conversation with Him can only be as powerful or as weak as your relationship with Him and your relationship grows stronger as you learn to trust Him and obey Him.

Do you remember that old hymn, “Trust and Obey”?  It says in one of the verses:

Then in fellowship sweet
We will sit at His feet
Or we'll walk by His side in the way
What He says we will do
Where He sends we will go
Never fear, only trust and obey

Oh, that’s good stuff!  Do you want that powerful and effective relationship with Him?  Do you want your prayers to be powerful and effective?  James 5:16 says, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”  Well, to be righteous means to be right with God.  So, you can either be perfect or be forgiven and obedient.  I’ll have to be the latter.  But because I am right with God through His Son Jesus and I have been forgiven and when I am trusting and obeying Him, I can expect my prayer life to be powerful and effective.

But there is a good way to pray and there is a better way to pray.  Did you know that? The good way to pray is, “Aaaahhh!!! Lord, please help me!”  Sometimes that’s all we have time for or all we are able to do and that works.  God hears that prayer.  But there is a better way to pray and Jesus told us as He told His disciples who asked Him about it in Matthew chapter 6:9-13.  The Lord’s Prayer is found there and is a skeleton upon which we will fill in and flesh out what our fervent prayers should look like.

The Lord’s Prayer was never intended to be repeated as a prayer itself.  The disciples didn’t ask Jesus to teach them a prayer but to teach them how to pray and so Jesus gave them this outline.  For the next few weeks we will fill in that outline through the psalms as we see what true prayer really looks like. So, first turn to Matthew 6:9-13 and then we will look at Psalm 100 in a few minutes.

“This, then, is how you should pray:

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
¹⁰ your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us today our daily bread.
¹² And forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ And lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from the evil one.^”

I want you to use your imagination with me for just a minute and imagine that you are a private in the Army and the Secretary of Defense, General James “Mad Dog” Mattis has come to your platoon to show the new weapons system that has been developed.  It is fairly easy to use but there is a method to it and if used correctly, it will absolutely change the way wars are fought.

Its name is the Patriots Right and Your Every Responsibility weapons system, more commonly known as P.R.A.Y.E.R. and all you have to do is cock it, take the safety off and fire and it will completely wipe out the enemy.  But because you weren’t really paying attention when Mattis was demonstrating it, you get into battle and don’t use it correctly.  You pull the trigger but nothing happens and so you finally use it to poke the enemy in the eye or use it as a club but it doesn’t really seem very effective and you finally just give up on it.

That’s just how real prayer is.  There is a method to it and when used correctly, it is the single most powerful weapon on the planet because it is the power of Almighty God, the power of the Creator of the universe and the risen Savior of the world.  Here in Matthew, Jesus gives us the outline for using prayer and it can be broken down into four steps.  The first two verses are praise.  Verse 11 is asking for provision, verse 12 is asking for forgiveness or pardon and verse 13 is asking for protection.

Today, we are going to look at the first step to real and powerful prayer.  If you want your prayer to be heard and for it to be effective, Jesus says to start out with praise to God.  So, what does true praise sound like or look like?  Well, I invite you to turn way left in your Bibles to the middle of the book; to the book of Psalms, specifically Psalm 100.

Do you appreciate what God does for you?  Do you enjoy being with Him and witnessing His glory and power?  Then just tell Him.  Expressing our love for God in praise doesn’t just tell God, it actually completes the enjoyment and appreciation.  Expressing praise is part of the enjoyment.  This part of the prayer ought to flow out of you like water through a hose.  We don’t know who wrote Psalm 100 but he obviously can’t contain his praise.  Just look at the very first word.

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
²     Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs.
³ Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his;
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name.
⁵ For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

I want to read it again and I hope you see that the psalmist is praising God just because of Who God is and what He has done and not because of who the psalmist is or what the psalmist has done.

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
²     Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs.
³ Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his;
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name.
⁵ For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Do you see how he praises God just for who God is and what He has done?  This first part is not about you.  If you have a hard time thanking God for who He is, then you don’t know who He is.  In whatever circumstance you are in, you should want to SHOUT your praise to God for His goodness, mercy, grace, love and forgiveness.  Without all of that, whatever you are going through would be immeasurably worse.  You shout for a football game that means absolutely nothing.  You should want to shout for all that God has done, is doing and will do in your life.

Now, I know that this psalm is not a prayer.  It’s actually a song but it involves the kind of praise that we should incorporate into our prayers.  Look at verse 2.  Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Now, obviously, this is talking about praising God when you are in a good mood, right?  When all is well, worship with gladness.  Praise God with joyful songs when you are happy.  Right?

Actually, this makes no such qualifications.  Every time we seriously pray, we should realize who God is and who we are and that should bring us joy to the point where we can pray with gladness and joy because we are talking to the Creator of the universe and Almighty God.  When we do that, we will start to see power in our prayer life just like Paul and Silas did in Acts 16.  In Acts 16, it tells of Paul and Silas being thrown into jail for something they had not done.  Not only were they thrown in jail, but they were whipped and put into stocks that would keep them from moving or finding any comfort.

How would you feel about that if it were you?  I have to admit, I’m afraid I would be seething mad.  I didn’t do anything wrong.  I’m in pain.  My rights have been taken away.  Most people would be miserable and mad.  But in beautiful verse 25, it says that Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the other prisoners were listening to them.

I don’t know what they were praying or singing but there is power in that kind of joyful, praising, worshipful prayer.  In the next verse it says that there was suddenly a violent earthquake and the foundations of the prison were shaken and the doors flew open and the chains were loosed.  Talk about “Chainbreaker”!  Tell me there’s not power in prayer.  Tell me again how you have it so bad you can’t pray.

Paul later went on to say, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹²I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

You ought to SHOUT that to God in prayer! “Thank you Lord for what you are doing in my life and while I may not be comfortable, I know that because of my relationship with you that I can do all things through Him who gives me strength!” And maybe that means that God will remove you or release you from your trouble like He did with Paul and Silas that time or…maybe He just gives you the strength to get through it praising Him because you know that the other prisoners are listening to you.

Because they are listening.  Other people hear your prayers and they want to know what kind of God you worship.  Do you worship a God that you only pray to asking for help and protection as you cry out in pain or do you, in the midst of pain, shout to God your praise just because of who He is and what He has done in spite of who you are and in spite of what you have done?  That’s a powerful way to start your prayer right there.

We all remember the story of Daniel in the lions’ den but do you remember what got him there?  He was caught praying and giving thanks to God.  What did Daniel have to praise God for?  He was in captivity in a foreign country, his country had been conquered with its capital city of Jerusalem in ruins and yet Daniel risked everything to praise God.  He must have been convinced of the power of prayer and especially the power of praise in prayer.

Or how about good old Job?  One day Job was the richest man in the world, blessed by God with everything he could want including seven sons and three daughters and the next day he lost everything including all his children and what did Job do?  It says as soon as Job got the word, he got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.” (Job 1:20-21)

Evidently Job, too, knew about the power of praise in prayer.

We know that the night before Jesus was arrested, He ate the Passover meal with His disciples, including Judas, and it says that as He took the bread, He gave thanks and as He took the wine, He gave thanks. (Luke 22) Jesus is eating what He knows will be His last meal with the very person who has betrayed Him sitting there with Him and yet Jesus gives thanks.  There must be power in praise. Why else would Jesus tell His disciples to pray starting with praise?

Let’s spend some time right now just praising God for who He is and what He has done.  Remember, this is not about you.  Praise God for His grace and mercy.  Praise Him for His love and forgiveness.  Praise Him just for being who He is and even though you don’t understand Him, you will trust Him and obey Him because He is God.  Do that right now, as the music plays.

If you don’t have a relationship with God through His Son Jesus then all you have to do is believe that Jesus is the only way to Heaven and by His sacrifice on the cross, all your sins can and will be forgiven if you just ask.  Repent – turn away – from those sins and ask God to be Lord of every aspect of your life and open up the power of prayer in your life today.  Do it now.  Today is the day of salvation!  Thank you, Lord!

“What Next After Being Saved?” – Matt. 28:18-20

Hey, really quickly before I get started, I have another announcement to make.  This may not be the best time to say this but I want you all to know about something that has been going on with me personally.  I didn’t want you to hear it from somebody else and I don’t want you to make a big deal out of it but I have been dating a real sweet lady for a while now and it looks like it may develop into something more and so I want you to know about her.

She, too, has been married before.  She has several kids.  She’s about my age and most of the time she actually lives in California.  Some of you may have heard of her before.  She’s been in several movies.  Her name is Angelina Jolie.  Have y’all heard of her?  No, seriously, after Brad Pitt left her, she was really torn up and needed some counseling and so I was there for her.  She knew how much I love kids and we just started spending some time together and then one thing lead to another and we have been dating for several months now.  It’s nice.

Y’all believe me, don’t you?  Okay, I know most of you believe me but some of you may not and so I want to level with you.  I’m just kidding.  I’m not really dating Angelina Jolie and let me tell you how you can know that I am not telling the truth about this.  While it is entirely plausible that I could be dating her and me not dating her has nothing to do with me being short, fat, bald, poor and thousands of miles away, how you can tell that this is a made-up story is that I supposedly went months without telling anybody, right?

Because if I was really dating Angelina Jolie the beautiful, glamorous, movie star, trust me, I would have mentioned it before now.  I would have told everybody after the first phone call.  I would tell everybody.  I’d put it on Facebook.  Shoot, I might even put it on my business card.  Can’t you see it?  Todd Blair, Pastor, Christ Fellowship, Lake Bridgeport, DATING ANGELINA JOLIE!

If you are married, you know how it is.  You want everybody to know.  You’re proud of your spouse.  You’re proud of being married to that person and you should want people to know.  Now, what’s even more ridiculous than me dating Angelina Jolie and not saying anything about it is people who claim to be Christians, who the Bible calls the bride of Christ, and yet never tell anybody…about Jesus.  That’s unthinkable.  If you truly have a relationship with the Savior of the world, you will want to tell others about Him.

You don’t have to know everything about Jesus to tell others what you do know, do you?  I know that quite a few of you regularly tell other people about this church and that’s good.  You invite people to Christ Fellowship often and yet I bet you have no idea how many light bulbs are in the Fellowship Hall.  I bet you don’t have a clue what longitude and latitude we are or how many boards there are in the back deck.  And do you know why you don’t know that stuff and yet still invite people?  Because you don’t have to know.

All you have to know is that our church is, as the inmate said, the church that helps people.  All you have to know is that Christ Fellowship preaches, teaches, sings and talks about the truth of the Gospel, that we love people and love Jesus and our goal as a church is to do whatever it takes to lead people to have a life-changing relationship with Jesus.  Now, if you can tell others about this church, why can’t you tell them about Jesus?

Sure, I know you have to start somewhere and I know not everybody that sows will reap and all that stuff but at some point, we all have to do better; we all have to start saying the name of Jesus to people who are not Christians.  At some point, you have to say His name.  Don’t answer out loud but how long has it been since you started a conversation about Jesus with somebody that was not a believer?  Well, as the chili commercial said, “Well, pardner, that’s too long!”

Let’s look at the last few verses of the book of Matthew today and we will see the last few words Jesus spoke to His disciples while still on the earth.  Yes, I know you have heard and read and have listened to sermons many times on these verses but you are going to hear it one more time, at least.  Matthew 28:18-20 is the Great Commission but we go back over it again today because it has become the Great Omission in too many lives.  Too many people claim to be disciples of Jesus and have gone their whole lives going to church and singing in the choir and giving ten percent in the offering plate as it goes by and yet have never once witnessed to anybody.

That’s exactly the type of person that is going to die and see God just long enough for Him to say, “Get away from Me.  I never knew you!” (Matt. 7)  I love you all too much NOT to tell you that and I will explain why I say that after we read Matthew 28:18-20.

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

So, we know how people get saved by now, right?  How are we saved?  Ephesians 2:8 says we are saved by grace and through faith.  We know who can be saved.  We know that nobody is too good or too bad and that everybody can be saved.  Revelation 22:17 says, “let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.”  We also know that not everybody is going to respond to the Gospel message in the same way.  Some will accept it and others won’t.  Jesus told us that in His parable of the soils in Luke 8.

Today we answer the last question in our sermon series, “What next after being saved?”

Let me ask you a question.  How many of you like to have fun?  Of course you do.  That seems like a dumb question but we all know some people that put a little more priority on fun than others, right?  When I go on vacation with my family, we sometimes like to play a game where you search for things as you go or you do things as you go, all in the name of fun.

We make a list of things like sing or dance in public, ask a stranger to scratch your back, get your picture taken with a cop, fall down or tell the biggest lie.  Stuff like that.  You get points for doing each one and everybody votes on how many points you get depending on how much effort you put into it and the one with the most points wins.  It’s a whole lot of fun but the only problem is that it takes a lot of energy to have fun.  Sometimes you just want to relax.

It’s the same with making disciples.  When you see the light bulb go off in somebody’s head and they realize they are a sinner in need of a savior and they ask Jesus to forgive them and to be Lord of their lives, that is the most fun you can ever have.  Period.  That’s a great feeling to know you helped change somebody’s eternity! But it takes some effort – just like everything else in this life. 

So, if you were to ask, “What next after being saved?”, the answer would be, “Go and make disciples.”  We have talked before about what a disciple is.  A disciple is simply one who learns from Jesus and then tells others what they know.  That’s it.  You don’t have to know everything about God and the Bible.  You don’t have to know the difference in pre-trib or post trib.  You don’t have to know what happened to the dinosaurs or if all dogs go to Heaven.  You just have to learn something from Jesus and then tell somebody else.

How cool is it that the main thing Jesus tells us to do is also the most fun thing in the world?  That’s great.  But it takes some effort…and it takes some love.  I’ll tell you what you do.  You mix all of your effort together with all of your love.  Put it in your hands and say to God, “Lord, this is all I have.  Will you please do the rest?” It’ll be like Jesus feeding the 5000 with a few loaves and fishes but He will do it.

That doesn’t sound too hard, does it?  Take the effort to tell people what you know just because you love them.  Yet, I have seen two different polls this week that both said 98% of professing Christians don’t ever tell anybody else how to be saved.  Only 2% are really carrying out the Great Commission.  I bet there are at least 98% of the people that want to complain about the shape our country is in.  I bet 98% are concerned about the eternity of their children and grandchildren.  I bet at least 98% of professing Christians want God to bring a revival to our community but only 2% are obedient to make disciples.

Gee, I wonder why we don’t see revival around here.  But the good news about the Good News is that it’s not too late and it’s not too hard.  I want to share two surprisingly easy ways to do it.  You can witness to somebody biblically or relationally or both.  Let’s look at the biblical way first.  Grab your Bibles.  You might want to underline or circle or highlight a few verses but they are easy to remember.

This is just one way.  There are lots of others.  But this way is easy to remember and tells people the minimum they need to know to become a Christian and start to be a disciple themselves.  First, they need to recognize they are a sinner.  Explain that sin is simply anything that displeases God.  Point them to Romans 3:23 that says we are all sinners and all fall short of God’s glory.  Then point them to Romans 6:23 that says the wages of sin – what we deserve for our sin – is eternal death and separation from God in Hell.  That’s bad news, isn’t it?

But then tell them that the Good News, literally the Gospel or Good News of Jesus Christ is found in good old John 3:16.  ^”For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  All we have to do is believe in Jesus but that belief goes way beyond just believing that He lived and then died on a cross.  That belief will manifest itself in a changed life; one that continues believing and changing to be more like Jesus every day.  It’s not perfection but it is changed.

That’s easy.  We can all remember three verses.  Bookmark them in your Bible and have them ready for the other person to read when they show an interest.  That’s all you have to do.  They may or may not believe right then but if you are prayerful through this, God will give you what you need at that moment and their decision is up to them and the Holy Spirit.

Now, the other way is by giving your testimony.  Honestly, you’ll probably use this first before you go through the biblical way and so you must, must, must have this down.  All you are doing is telling the other person your story and that story has three aspects.  It needs to include what your life was like before you became a Christian, how you came to know Him and then what your life has been like since.  It’s not complicated and there’s no magic way but there is a right way and a wrong way.

Let me illustrate the wrong way by first telling you my plans for becoming a millionaire when I retire from pastoring.  I’ve told some of you this before but if I ever do retire, I’m seriously thinking about how to start my own business just listening to people.  I even have a name picked out: Ears To You.  I’ll go to nursing homes or peoples’ houses or businesses, wherever I can and just listen to them talk about themselves.  I guarantee it’s a money-maker because everybody loves to talk about themselves but nobody wants to listen.  In my job all I will say is, “Yes” “Really?” and “Tell me more.”  Then I’ll charge you a dollar a minute and leave.  Money in the bank. I tell you my plans because nobody wants to hear your life story when you give your testimony.  It’s the number one, biggest mistake that everybody makes.  I know it’s important to you.  I know it’s truth and it’s powerful and it really shows what God has done in your life but if you can’t tell it in less than a minute or two, it’s not your testimony.  It’s your biography.  That goes in your memoirs. 

Your testimony is not about you.  It’s about Jesus and what having Him in your life has done for you and the others around you.  I’m sorry to tell you this because I know you want to talk about all the good things God has done in turning your life around but the person you are witnessing to needs to only hear a one or two sentence version of what you were like before, then tell them how you came to know Jesus, which is telling them how they can know Jesus and then what your life has been like since.

I went on a little weekend retreat a couple of weeks ago with another church’s men’s group.  It’s a long story why I was there but I was sitting at lunch across from a guy I didn’t know.  He had said something about God to somebody else and so, just to avoid some awkward silence between us, I asked him to tell me what God was doing in his life.  He said, “Well, the weekend’s not long enough.”  I said, “Okay, just give it to me in a few sentences while I finish my sandwich.”  I said, “You have three minutes.  Go.” No kidding, twenty minutes later, he paused just long enough to take a breath and I acted like I had something I had to do and I got up and left.  I felt bad because I know it was meaningful to him but he was boring me to death.  The guy actually followed me around trying to tell me more.  It started to make mad.  I enjoy hearing about what God is doing in your life as much as anybody but when you start out, “I was born at a very young age and when I was two, my mother took me to so and so church and at four, we moved and then…” Just stop.

Let me give you an example of what a good testimony should be.  I’ll make up a scenario.  I used to be a drug-dealing, alcoholic, bank-robbing outlaw biker who went by the name “Slash”.  I spent years and years in prison.  I did a lot of mean and nasty things but none of it ever brought satisfaction or contentment.  I had no joy or peace.  I was miserable and about to kill myself but I met a man in jail who explained that Jesus loved me even though I was a sinner.  He explained that sin was anything that displeased God and he told me that if I would just repent – turn away from that sin – that God would forgive me and that if I would make Jesus Lord of my life that I could be forgiven and spend eternity with Him in Heaven.  Since then, my life is not perfect.  I still have problems and I still sin sometimes but when I do, I ask God for forgiveness and now I have joy and peace even in the difficult times because I know God loves me and He is in control.  Is that something you would be interested in?

Ninety-nine percent of the time that’s all you have time for.  Any more than that and you will lose them.  If they ask for more then you tell them all about it but let them ask.  Again, your testimony is not about you.  It is about what having Jesus in your life has done for you and others around you.  Customize it to fit you.  Make it your own.  But keep it under three minutes because rarely will even the most dramatic story be beneficial after that.  Save the whole story for when I come visit you in the nursing home as CEO of Ears To You.

For some of you, even telling somebody else the bare minimum of your life scares you to death.  What if I mess up?  What if they don’t respond?  What if I can’t answer their questions?  Look back at Matthew 28:20. Jesus tells His disciples that He will always be with them.  For us, we have the Holy Spirit living in our lives all day every day and His main job is to guide us and help us as we go making disciples.  James tells us to ask for wisdom and we will get it.  We just have to be willing.  But now, as the music plays, I would love to pray with you about whatever is on your heart today.  Maybe you don’t have a testimony because you have never asked Jesus to be Lord of your life.  You have never truly trusted Him today.  You know how.  Do it right now.

“Why Not Be Saved?” – Luke 8

How many of you have a Facebook page?  How many of you don’t have one but wish you did?  How many of you have one and sometimes wish you didn’t?  I enjoy Facebook sometimes.  It’s good to see pictures of my friends and family and we can keep up with what folks are doing.  I’m afraid, though, that what Facebook has taught us more than anything is that some people have way too much time on their hands.

I just have no patience for some things on there. I don’t want to see pictures of abused animals or kids – ever.  I know it happens but I don’t want to see graphic pictures of it.  If you think that if you type “Amen” into a post that God will bless you with lots of money, you don’t understand God…or money.  And if you send me another request to play Candy Crush one more time, I will take your life.

But there are some things on there I don’t really understand.  I see them every time I go on there.  There are all of these little surveys you can do to find out what kind of bird you would be or what kind of food you are.  Evidently you answer some questions and it will tell you who you were in a previous life or what color your aura is.  My aura?  I don’t think I have an aura and if I do develop one, I’m going to the doctor to have it removed.  Aura!

But if Jesus were on Facebook, He might give us a survey to find out what kind of soil we are. Yes, soil.  It doesn’t sound very interesting at first but it is actually the most important question one can ask.  We need to know what kind of soil we are because our very eternity depends on it.  I guess there’s nothing wrong with knowing what 60’s rock anthem you are if you have that kind of time but what we really need to know is the spiritual condition of our hearts and Jesus brings that out in our passage this morning in Luke chapter 8.

Jesus is well into His ministry and is teaching and preaching and healing as He goes around the country and He has developed quite a following as you can imagine.  He has said some incredible things and done some incredible miracles including raising the dead to life and so lots of people are interested in Him, wondering what He is going to say or do next.  It’s life-changing for some and a pretty good show for others and Jesus sees that not all of them are going to accept His teaching and so He tells them a story - a parable - to illustrate that fact.

Turn to the third Gospel; the Gospel of Dr. Luke, if you will, and let’s see what kind of soil we are in verses 4-8 and 11-15.

Luke 8:4-8 ⁴While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: ⁵"A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. ⁶Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. ⁷Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. ⁸Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown." When he said this, he called out, "Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.  Verse 11."This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. ¹²Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. ¹³Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. ¹⁴The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. ¹⁵But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.”

Back in the early ‘90’s, I worked at a feed store in Arlington. One day, I watched a man pull up in front of the store in a nice, new van.  He got out and walked in.  He was well-dressed in slacks and a nice shirt.  He was well-groomed and a big man, well over six feet and muscular.  I thought he might be a salesman of some kind because he had something in his hand but I was surprised as he started to talk.

He introduced himself and explained that his family had done business with this store for years (although I had never seen him before) but that times had gotten tough and he was needing to make a few bucks today.  He then set this brass tea pitcher thing on the counter and asked me how much I would give him for the pitcher.

Well, I looked at it and knew right off the bat it was not something I needed or wanted.  I’m still not sure exactly what it is and I think it may be broken or at least missing some pieces.  So, I nicely explained it was not anything I really needed and I wouldn’t give him anything.  He got a little closer to me and a little more forceful and said, “I really need some money.  I’m not asking for much.  Just give me something.”

Again, I explained I didn’t want or need it but he wasn’t going to settle for that.  Now he leaned over the counter I was standing behind and sound in a loud voice, “You don’t understand!  I need some money and I need it right now!  How much are you going to give me?!”

Now, at this point I did not know what was on this man’s mind.  I didn’t know his heart but the one thing I did know was exactly how much money I had in my wallet so I got my wallet from my pocket and opened it up and there was one 1-dollar bill in there.  I opened it in front of him to show him and said, “This is all I ha…” and before I could finish my sentence, he grabbed the dollar bill, slammed the pitcher on the counter and screamed, “Thank you!  Have a nice day!” and walked out of the store.

That’s a true story and my mother keeps this pitcher at her house to remind her to pray for me.  Now, just like how I did not know this man’s mind or heart, we also cannot know anyone’s mind or heart when it comes to salvation, nor are we supposed to.  This passage is not for you to be able to tell if somebody else is a Christian.  This passage is so you will be able to tell if YOU are a Christian.  Our job is not to judge somebody else’s salvation but it most definitely is our job to know for sure that WE are saved.

So, as we look through this passage closer, try not to think of other people that you know who might fit into each soil type or heart type but, instead, see only where you fit.  There are four types of soil listed here by Jesus and they represent the conditions of the heart that people have as the Gospel is presented to them.  It is the same Gospel given to each one but each one has a different reaction.

Now, let’s backtrack for just a second and remember the first two sermons in this series that were entitled, “How Are We Saved?” and “Who May Be Saved?”  The answer to the first question is, we are saved by grace and through faith as Ephesians 2 tells us.  The answer to the second question is, anybody can be saved, even the most sinful, vile person on the planet.  This week we see that the same Gospel is given to everybody and yet there are different responses with most hearing and yet not being saved.

Have you ever wondered why some people don’t accept the Gospel?  Do you wonder why some people are saved and others are not?  How about the question of “once saved, always saved”?  So many people struggle with that doctrine, yet the Bible is clear on that and Jesus explains it simply right here.  All of that is in these few verses so let’s look closer, starting where Jesus is explaining the parable in verses 11 and 12.   "This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. ¹²Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.”

In Luke 22:66-71, Luke describes the trial of Jesus and says, “At daybreak the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and the teachers of the law, met together, and Jesus was led before them. ⁶⁷"If you are the Messiah," they said, "tell us." Jesus answered, "If I tell you, you will not believe me, ⁶⁸and if I asked you, you would not answer. ⁶⁹But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God." ⁷⁰They all asked, "Are you then the Son of God?" He replied, "You say that I am." ⁷¹Then they said, "Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips."

Yes, the chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there in front of Jesus, asking Him if He is the Messiah, the Christ and when He verifies it…they kill Him.  They don’t want to hear the Gospel and when it is presented, as Jesus had been doing for three years in their presence, as it says, “the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.”

Jesus compares these men’s hearts to the hard-packed ground like the paths that the farmer would walk on when he scattered his seed.  In those days, the farmer would have a sack of seed on his shoulder and as he walked along the path between the fields he would just scatter it out with his hand.  So, obviously, some of the seed would be wasted as it hit the hard-packed path.  The birds would snatch it or it would just be trampled underfoot.

When it comes to the Gospel and the fact that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and no man gets to the Father except through Him, do you think the chief priests and the teachers would have listened if Jesus had just explained it better?  Maybe He should have told them another parable or something.  No, I think that’s part of the reason Jesus didn’t say much during His trials.  No sense wasting His breath.  Their hearts had never been softened and tilled up by the realization of their sin.  They had never repented or asked forgiveness, not truly.

2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.”  There’s no sense in pointing out the right direction to a blind man.  That’s what it’s like telling the Gospel to a man with a hard heart.

In verse 6 of our passage in Luke, Jesus says that some of the seed fell on rocky soil.  The person hears the Gospel and he receives it with joy but he has no root and it doesn’t last.  In verse 13, Jesus says that in time of testing they fall away. Sometimes you might see a flower grow in the crack of a sidewalk or somewhere strange and it will bloom faster and prettier than a flower planted in a nice flower bed but it doesn’t last as long.  When the sun beats down on it, it’s lack of roots make it unstable and unable to handle stress. People can react to the Gospel in a similar way.

Would you say that Judas Iscariot was a true believer?  Would you say he was a Christian?  Of course not.  But think about it.  He walked with Jesus for three years.  He ate with Him, ministered with Him, prayed with Him and even preached in His name.  But when things got difficult, he betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, doing the devil’s work and is now in the devil’s hell.  How is that possible?  It’s a superficial acceptance of the Gospel that changes a person outwardly and temporarily but not down to the roots.

With that person there is no real repentance, no remorse over sin, no contrition, no brokenness and no humility.  Jesus said in Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.”  Oftentimes this person came to Christ for what he thought he could get in the way of personal benefit but when he sees the price it will cost him, he won’t pay it. (John MacArthur)

The man with a rocky heart might have the outward appearance of being saved but falls away in times of testing.  Jesus said in Matthew 24:13, “He who stands firm to the end will be saved.”  That person won’t be perfect but he will be changed.  A true believer is a changed believer and continues to allow God to change him as the years go by.  I’m afraid the 21^st century church is full of Judases.

In the 14^th verse of our parable, Jesus explains the third soil type and that the seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures.  At the end of 2 Timothy, Paul asks his friends to come help him quickly because his one-time friend and fellow missionary Demas has deserted him “because he loved this world.”

The rich, young ruler in Luke 18 came to Jesus and asked what he had to do to be saved and Jesus told him to sell everything he had and give it to the poor.  Why did Jesus tell him that?  He never told anybody else that.  I thought we were saved by grace and through faith.  Jesus told him that because Jesus knew that man’s heart was full of thorns; thorns like worries over riches and pleasures.

I have told some of you before that when I was a kid, my dad bought this little camper trailer.  With three kids, he needed a place to get away and study or maybe just get away and I don’t blame him.  It wasn’t very big but he was proud of it, as he should have been.  There’s nothing shameful about having stuff.  The problem was, some neighbor kids got into it and messed up some stuff and he was afraid somebody might steal it so he had to put an extra lock on it.  Then it needed insurance and tags and then the lights didn’t work and then it was just one thing after another and it just got to be too distracting for what it was worth.

It’s easy to do that with anything, isn’t it?  That’s the problem with having stuff.  It doesn’t fulfill us but only brings worry and greed and distraction and when that is in our life, Jesus goes from first in our life to well on down the list until the Gospel just gets choked out.  Someone that professes to be a believer and a follower of Jesus but doesn’t come to church and is not broken by the sin in their life and is not bearing fruit like a believer should obviously has a “weedy” heart.  Where Jesus should be, they have the weeds of stuff, sports, entertainment, money or career and that is eternally tragic.

But Jesus wraps it up on a positive note as He explains the one good soil.  Make sure you fall into this category.  He says in verse 15 that the good soil “stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.”  As I said, I hope you don’t try to think of people you know who fit into these categories because we can’t really know someone’s heart but the Bible knows their heart and reveals those to us.  When it comes to good soil; a good and noble heart, free from rocks and weeds, I think of the Apostle Peter.

I mentioned Peter a couple of weeks ago and we know he wasn’t perfect.  Even after expressing to Jesus that he knew Jesus was the Messiah, Peter still denied Him three times.  He was impetuous, violent, confused and just flat wrong at times but he had a noble and good heart, tender to the Lord and for His ministry.  The good soil that Jesus is talking about doesn’t mean it was perfect, it just means that it had been prepared; tilled up by trials and temptations but not distracted by worldly things.  He was all of that before he met Jesus but the heart of Peter - and therefore how he acted - was changed by his relationship with the Lord.

God talks about changing our stony hearts in Ezekiel 36:26. I like how the New Living Version puts it.  “And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.”  That’s what happened to Peter.  That’s what happens to everyone who hears the Word, retains it…and then what happens?  They produce a crop, according to Jesus in verse 15.

Now, what does that crop look like?  What does it mean to be fruitful?  Obviously, He is talking about spiritual fruit and spiritual fruit is the inevitable product of a spiritual life (MacArthur) and the fruit of the Spirit is described by Paul in Galatians 5 where he says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control.”  I bet some of us ought to run through those again and see how well our lives match up.

A tender, responsive heart is also obedient to God.  Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commands.”  (John 14:15) Obedience is fruitfulness.  What was the last thing Jesus told us to do before He ascended back to Heaven?  In Matthew 28, Jesus said, “Go and make disciples and teach them to obey me.” (My version.)  Good fruit makes more fruit.  Everywhere it goes, as it goes, it plants seeds.

That’s the Gospel.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and in Him and through Him we have eternal life with God the Father in Heaven.  We have lasting joy and peace in this life even in the difficult times but we have to be faithful and fruitful.  We have to tell others.  If we don’t, who will?  We have to be obedient to everything the Bible says.  No, none of us are perfect but when we mess up; when we sin, it should pain us.  We should hate that more than anything and we should immediately ask God for forgiveness and to help us never do that again.

Don’t be thinking about anybody else right now.  If that’s not how you are living your life, then maybe the soil of your heart has never really been tilled and prepared.  Maybe the weeds of materialism and stuff and the worries of this world have kept you from really putting all your faith and hope and trust in Jesus.  If that is true of you today, then I would love to pray with you right now as the music plays.

Some of you may think you would be too embarrassed to come down and pray because you are just now realizing that you are not a true believer and you have said you were or assumed you were or thought you were for all these years.  But there is nothing more joyful in this world than for a person to realize that and then have their lives changed.  Do that today.

“Who Can Be Saved?” – John 4

Tony Campolo is a professor and evangelist and he tells the story about flying to Hawaii to speak at a conference. The way he tells it, he checks into his hotel and tries to get some sleep. Unfortunately, his internal clock wakes him at 3:00 a.m. The night is dark, the streets are silent, the world is asleep, but Tony is wide awake and his stomach is growling. He gets up and prowls the streets looking for a place to get some bacon and eggs for an early breakfast. Everything is closed except for a grungy dive in an alley. He goes in and sits down at the counter. The fat guy behind the counter comes over and asks, "What d'ya want?" Well, Tony isn't so hungry anymore so eying some donuts under a plastic cover he says, "I'll have a donut and black coffee." As he sits there munching on his donut and sipping his coffee at 3:30, in walk eight or nine provocative, loud prostitutes just finished with their night's work. They plop down at the counter and Tony finds himself uncomfortably surrounded by this group of smoking, swearing hookers. He gulps his coffee, planning to make a quick getaway. Then the woman next to him says to her friend, "You know what? Tomorrow's my birthday. I'm gonna be 39." To which her friend nastily replies, "So what d'ya want from me? A birthday party? Huh? You want me to get a cake, and sing happy birthday to you?" The first woman says, "Aw, come on, why do you have to be so mean? Why do you have to put me down? I'm just sayin' it's my birthday. I don't want anything from you. I mean, why should I have a birthday party? I've never had a birthday party in my whole life. Why should I have one now?" Well, when Tony heard that, he said he made a decision. He sat and waited until the women left, and then he asked the fat guy at the counter, "Do they come in here every night?" "Yeah," he answered. "The one right next to me," he asked, "she comes in every night?" "Yeah," he said, "that's Agnes. Yeah, she's here every night. She's been comin' here for years. Why do you want to know?" "Because she just said that tomorrow is her birthday. What do you think? Do you think we could maybe throw a little birthday party for her right here in the diner?" A cute kind of smile crept over the fat man's chubby cheeks. "That's great," he says, "yeah, that's great. I like it." He turns to the kitchen and shouts to his wife, "Hey, come on out here. This guy's got a great idea. Tomorrow is Agnes' birthday and he wants to throw a party for her right here." His wife comes out. "That's terrific," she says. "You know, Agnes is really nice. She's always trying to help other people and nobody does anything nice for her." So they make their plans. Tony says he'll be back at 2:30 the next morning with some decorations and the man, whose name turns out to be Harry, says he'll make a cake. At 2:30 the next morning, Tony is back. He has crepe paper and other decorations and a sign made of big pieces of cardboard that says, "Happy Birthday, Agnes!" They decorate the place from one end to the other and get it looking great. Harry had gotten the word out on the streets about the party and by 3:15 it seemed that every prostitute in Honolulu was in the place. There were hookers wall to wall. At 3:30 on the dot, the door swings open and in walks Agnes and her friend. Tony has everybody ready. They all shout and scream "Happy Birthday, Agnes!" Agnes is absolutely flabbergasted. She's stunned, her mouth falls open, her knees started to buckle, and she almost falls over. And when the birthday cake with all the candles is carried out, that's when she totally loses it. Now she's sobbing and crying. Harry, who's not used to seeing a prostitute cry, gruffly mumbles, "Blow out the candles, Agnes. Cut the cake." So she pulls herself together and blows them out. Everyone cheers and yells, "Cut the cake, Agnes, cut the cake!" But Agnes looks down at the cake and, without taking her eyes off it, slowly and softly says, "Look, Harry, is it all right with you if...I mean, if I don't...I mean, what I want to ask, is it OK if I keep the cake a little while? Is it all right if we don't eat it right away?" Harry doesn't know what to say so he shrugs and says, "Sure, if that's what you want to do. Keep the cake. Take it home if you want." "Oh, could I?" she asks. Looking at Tony she says, "I live just down the street a couple of doors; I want to take the cake home, is that okay? I'll be right back, honest." She gets off her stool, picks up the cake, and carries it high in front of her like it was the Holy Grail. Everybody watches in stunned silence and when the door closes behind her, nobody seems to know what to do. They look at each other. They look at Tony. So Tony gets up on a chair and says, "What do you say that we pray together?" And there they are in a hole-in-the-wall greasy spoon, half the prostitutes in Honolulu, at 3:30 a.m. listening to Tony as he prays for Agnes, for her life, her health, and her salvation. Tony recalls, "I prayed that her life would be changed, and that God would be good to her." When he's finished, Harry leans over, and with a trace of hostility in his voice, he says, "Hey, you never told me you was a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to anyway?" In one of those moments when just the right words came, Tony answers him quietly, "I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning." Harry thinks for a moment, and in a mocking way says, "No you don't. There ain't no church like that. If there was, I'd join it. Yep, I'd join a church like that."

What do you think about that story?  How do you think you would have responded if you were in his shoes?  How do you think Jesus would have responded?  Well, thankfully, we pretty much know how Jesus would have responded because there is a similar occasion related by the Apostle John in his Gospel.  No, they weren’t in Hawaii and Jesus wasn’t jetlagged, but He was tired and there was a promiscuous woman there so let’s look at John 4:1-42. 

Jesus has called His disciples and is just starting His ministry.  He is leaving Judea and heading north to Galilee.  Now, any other good Jew would have done whatever it takes not to go through Samaria even though it would be a much longer trip.  Samaria was between Judea and Galilee but Samaria was full of…you guessed it…Samaritans and Samaritans were half breed Jews and Gentiles and therefore despised by everyone.  In fact, in the time of Jesus, the only thing worse than being a Samaritan was being a woman.  Just keep all that in mind as we read John 4:1-42.

¹Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John- ²although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. ³So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. ⁴Now he had to go through Samaria. ⁵So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. ⁷When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" ⁸(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) ⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) ¹⁰Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." ¹¹"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹²Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?" ¹³Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." ¹⁵The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." ¹⁶He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back." ¹⁷"I have no husband," she replied. Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true." ¹⁹"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." ²¹"Woman," Jesus replied, "believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²²You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth." ²⁵The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." ²⁶Then Jesus declared, "I, the one speaking to you-I am he." ²⁷Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?" ²⁸Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹"Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?" ³⁰They came out of the town and made their way toward him. ³¹Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something." ³²But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." ³³Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?" ³⁴"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. ³⁵Don't you have a saying, 'It's still four months until harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. ³⁶Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. ³⁸I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor." ³⁹Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹And because of his words many more became believers. ⁴²They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."

Okay, we had a really long opening illustration and a really long passage to read and now I don’t have time to preach, so I hope you are blessed.  Have a great day!  No?  Okay, well then, I will preach fast if you promise to listen fast.  Actually, to top it all off, I want to spend just a minute talking about something that is not the main focus of this passage.  Look again at verses 1-3.  This is just a set-up for the rest of the passage but even here I want us to learn a very important lesson. 

It says that the religious folk were spreading a rumor that Jesus was baptizing more people than John the Baptist was when in reality, Jesus was letting His disciples do the baptizing.  Now, Jesus could have gone and set those guys straight.  Let’s make sure the record is clear about all this, right?  No.  Jesus realized that this was drama that could be avoided and should be avoided and since it did nothing to promote His work, He walked off from it.  That’s all I’ll say about that for lack of time but just save the drama for your llama and the Pharisees, okay?

Now, because He was leaving all that, Jesus goes through Samaria and meets this woman whose name we will never know until we see her in Heaven.  It says that Jesus was tired and so He waited there at the well which was some distance outside of town for His disciples to go buy lunch.  We know it was noon; it was lunchtime because it says it was the sixth hour and that’s how they told time back then.

When all of the sudden…what a coincidence, right?  This must be good luck or good karma or something for Jesus to meet this woman, don’t you think?  No!  This is a divine encounter.  This may be the only reason that Jesus went through Samaria.  In fact, this may be the whole reason He was headed to Galilee, just so He could meet this woman and I want you to see the process that happens in this woman’s mind about who Jesus is as He talks to her.

She first recognizes Him as being a Jew in verse 9.  If you write in your Bibles, you might underline or circle that.  Just underline the name “Jew”.  By the way He was dressed and how He talked, she recognized Him right off and she was probably shocked that this man would even look at her much less talk to her, much less ask her for a drink.  This was twelve kinds of scandalous.  This just doesn’t happen.

I tried to think of a similar group of people that some Americans might hate today but nothing compares to the hatred that Jews and Samaritans had for each other.  It was deep-rooted and vicious and ugly so when Jesus simply asks for a drink, it was a big deal.

The typical time for women to go this well for water would have been in the cool of the morning and evening but this woman was obviously trying to escape some drama herself since she probably had a bad reputation among the other women of the town and didn’t want to hear about it.  So, there she is at noon, in the heat of the day and this Jew just happens to be there.

Jesus immediately understands the situation and knows that this woman’s greatest need is not water.  It’s not companionship.  It sure isn’t judgment.  What she needs is salvation so He starts to turn the conversation that way as soon as possible by telling her of living water.  This term “living water” was what most people then would have understood as water from a stream or river.  It was moving water, not the stagnant water from a well.  Moving water or living water would have been fresher and better so this piqued her interest, although we know that is not what Jesus was really talking about.

The Samaritans were proud of this well, though, because they considered themselves children of Jacob and Jacob was said to have dug this well and it provided what they needed.  So, see in verses 11-12 that she now asks Him if He is better than Jacob.  Jesus went from being some Jew to now He is better than her forefather so He’s making progress.  Underline “greater than Jacob.”

Have you ever noticed that when Jesus talks to people about salvation that He never uses the same method twice?  He doesn’t have a canned speech or a one-size-fits-all approach.  He literally and figuratively meets people where they are in life and talks to them in terms they understand.  This woman was drawing water.  What better way than to talk about living water?  If she had been a farmer, He would have changed it up so it was obvious to a farmer.  Everywhere Jesus went, He went with a purpose and every conversation He had would ultimately lead to the Gospel.

Then, because Jesus is God and He knew this woman’s story before she told Him, He told her to go get her husband and when He says this, notice her response.  It’s the shortest sentence she says in this conversation.  “I have no husband.”  I imagine her eyes went down and she blushed a little as she said it.  She probably thought she was glad He didn’t know her whole story.  That would be embarrassing.

The problem was she was talking to Jesus and He tells her her story.  But notice that He doesn’t do it in a way that condemns her or puts her down.  He just states the facts and even does it in a loving way.  Then in verse 19, she promotes Him to prophet.  Underline that.  Now he’s a prophet.

Just like this woman does, we can also expect people we are talking to to change the subject when things get real personal.  She tries to get Jesus talking about how and where to worship but He gradually brings the conversation back to where it needs to be.  He didn’t get distracted.  He keeps the main thing the main thing and in doing so, she brings up the subject of the Messiah in verse 25.  Jesus unlocked the door.  She opened it and walked through.

Okay, just a few more verses to look at here.  In verses 28-29 she leaves her water jar and runs off to tell her friends and neighbors, calling Him the Messiah, the Christ, as she goes.  Underline that as well.  Her life has been changed and what used to be important (getting water) is not so important anymore.  Now she has good news to tell and the words of Isaiah 43:18-19 come back to mind.  ¹⁸"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. ¹⁹See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

She forgets why she even went to the well because now, because Jesus loved her and spent just a few minutes with her, this promiscuous woman is now a new creation.  She also sees Jesus differently as well and so do all her neighbors.  In verse 42, Jesus isn’t just a Jew.  He’s not just a good guy or a prophet.  He’s even more than just a fulfilled promise.  Underline that He is the Savior of the world!  He is the One who knows, who forgives, who loves, who saves and changes– even wild women!  Even big bad bikers, meth-heads, drunks, perverts, Atheists, Democrats - even you – and believe it or not, even me.  Thank you, Lord!

While the music plays, I would love to pray with you and for you.  Come to the front right now for prayer about whatever is on your heart.  Maybe today is the day you accept Jesus to be Lord of your life and you ask Him for forgiveness of your sins.  Repent - turn away from - those sins and accept His love, forgiveness and salvation today.  There is no other way to Heaven.  There is no other way to have lasting peace and joy in this life.  Do it now.  None of us are guaranteed another day.