How to Lead People to Water - Part A

We have the greatest message the world has ever known it's the life-changing gospel of Christ We need to deliver it Evangelism explosion a great outfit Has said 95% of all church-going Americans have never let another person to faith in Christ Welcome to connect with Skip weekend edition Valentine's Day.

It's not the only day we can celebrate love In fact, any opportunity we get to share about Jesus with someone is like a holiday It's a celebration of the greatest love of all God's love and yet so many Christians don't ever get to do that Why well, that's what we're going to look at today with Skip heitzig how to share the good news of the gospel Before we do that though. Let's find out more about this month's connect with Skip resource offer Our lives rotate around crucial moments and decisions where everything changes we call them pivot points Here's Skip heitzig in this you greatly rejoice Though now for a little while if need be you have been grieved by various trials Do you think Peter is actually saying that there are times when God knows you need a? trial nobody say Uh-huh, it's exactly what he said you can prepare for inevitable upcoming pivot points in your life Receive your copy of skips pivot points collection of six messages the pivot point package speaks to marriage death Depression recovery fear of the future and moving to a new location or job This package includes a personal message of direction on each topic from Skip the pivot points package is our thank you when you give $50 or more to this teaching ministry by calling 800 922 1888 or give online securely at connect with Skip comm slash offer We hope you'll help us take our messages into the top 20 population centers in our country That's our vision for the coming year. Will you help us make it happen? Please call 800 922?

1888 or give online securely at connect with Skip comm slash offer Thank you for partnering with us. We continue today in John chapter 4 so find that spot on your Bibles Let's join Skip Heitzigs it as he begins by taking a revealing poll I want to take a little survey here this morning an informal survey. I need all of your participation This is a census you have to be involved in this for accuracy purposes How many of you came to faith in Jesus Christ by watching television some program on television show of hands? Okay Just a few people very few how many of you by listening to something on the radio you listen to the radio and you receive Christ Show of hands, okay How many of you received Christ at a church service hands up a lot of them? How many of you came to faith in Christ? Because of the witness of another person in your life somebody personally led you to faith in Christ See, that's what I thought the last two were the greatest Response and this is what I've discovered both personally as well as from sharing the gospel I I personally came to faith in Christ. It was by watching television, but it was way after Somebody shared with me one-on-one how to receive Christ and why I should and I've had the opportunity personally to Lead men and women to Christ over the years sometimes at a Bible study sometimes at a crusade But the greatest thrill is one-on-one. There's just no greater joy than when a conversation Leads to a conversion It's a wonderful wonderful experience The question for this morning is how do you do that? What is the method?

What is the approach? Is there one and is there a biblical model and the answer is a resounding yes, and it comes from Jesus example himself with the woman at the well of Samaria there's something about this woman It's obvious, but it should be said this gal was not predisposed to hearing the message She was not Raised in a Christian home. She did not have the environment that would lend itself to Believing what she was about to enter into She was hardened by life. She was calloused by the experiences of life But through this encounter and no doubt one of the reasons Jesus shares it Is to show us how he led her to water to living water Back in 1949 there was a guy named John courier and he was sentenced to life imprisonment because he was convicted of murder he was Living out his life sentence when after several years he was paroled to a work farm environment at a work farm near Nashville, Tennessee and Then in 1968 his sentence was terminated and a letter was sent to him to tell him he was a free man He never saw the letter He never got it he never was told about it he never read it and so he stayed working on the farm for 10 more Years until finally a state parole officer heard about it and he personally told him about it found the letter showed it to him and John courier was released Here's the question that follows that story Would it matter to you if somebody sent you an important message? The most important message of your whole life But year after year after year after year it wasn't delivered It would totally matter like it mattered to John courier And so that is really the trust of today's message is delivering the message We have the greatest message the world has ever known. It's the life-changing gospel of Christ We need to deliver it Evangelism explosion a great outfit Has said 95% of all church-going Americans have never led another person to faith in Christ well As we look at John chapter 4 I want to talk to you today about two principles first is your attitude and my attitude and Number two is the approach the attitude and the approach both are important attitude all important your attitude will show people will know if you care about them or you don't care about them even a dog knows if you care about it or not and People will certainly pick up on the fact that you really love them or you don't so much and people don't know how much or don't care about how much you know until they know that you care and That's first and foremost and then there's the approach and I know a lot could be said about what is the proper approach to an unbeliever and there are classes and there are seminars and there's a whole host of of sometimes complex approaches to a person And by the way, I'm for all of them Anything that will motivate a believer to share his or her faith with somebody else But I believe in keeping it simple And what I love about this passage is we have these two things only and granted I'm gonna define and describe them. So there's three things hanging off of each one, but simply the Attitude of love and then the lingering approach. Here's what I mean by lingering approach It's the approach that says I'm gonna stick with this person a while. I'm not gonna give up I'm not gonna say well the soil is too hard.

I'm gonna bag this one and try somebody else It's I'm gonna enter into a conversation. In fact a relationship God willing that will over time Allow me to lead this person to Christ Now, let's look at verse 10 and we'll go to verse 30 and here's something you'll notice we're gonna cover a few verses that we looked at last week but from a different angle and We'll even cover next week some of the verses that we look at today more in depth But verse 10 to verse 30 Jesus answered and said to her that's the woman at the well of Samaria If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you give me a drink You would have asked him and he would have given you living water The woman said to him sir. You have nothing to draw with the well is deep Where then do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank from it himself as Well as his sons and livestock Jesus answered and said to her whoever drinks of this water Will thirst again But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life The woman said to him sir. Give me this water so that I may not thirst nor come here to draw and Jesus said to her Go call your husband and come here The woman answered and said I have no husband Jesus said to her you have well said I have no husband for you have had five Husbands and the one whom you now have is not your husband in that you spoke truly The woman said to him sir, I perceived that you're a prophet Talk about the understatement of the century Our father's worshipped on this mountain and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship Jesus said to her woman believe me The hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain or in Jerusalem worship the father You worship what you do not know We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews but the hour is coming and and now is when true worshipers will worship the father in and Spirit and in truth for the father is seeking such to worship him God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth the woman said to him I Know that Messiah is coming the one who is called Christ When he comes he will tell us all things And Jesus said to her I who speak to you am he And at this point his disciples came and they marveled that he talked with a woman Yet no one said What do you seek or? Why are you talking with her the woman then left her water pot and went her way into the city and said to the man come See a man who told me all the things I ever did could this be the Christ They went out of the city and they came to him Let's begin with the attitude shall we a loving attitude Start asking God to give you a loving attitude toward people who are lost Here's the problem with some of us.

Some of us have been saved so long. We forget what it's like to be lost Ask God to give you a love for those who are lost We can't do what we're called to do without love now. Let's say you're a doctor Theoretically you could practice medicine without love You might not love your patience.

You're in it for the money most doctors However, don't do this, but it's possible technically to approach a patient and treat a patient without having a depth of love for that person If you're a lawyer, you can do your job without love for your clients if you're an engineer same is true But you cannot I cannot Do what we're called to do in reaching the world? successfully without love Jesus was filled with love for this woman and And there's three things. I want you to notice about his loving approach His love transcends culture Transcends culture remember how we talked last week about the Jews and the Samaritans there was a rift between them and in verse 4 It says Jesus needed to go through Samaria But then in verse 7 even the woman remarked Why are you asking a drink from me as Samaritan woman? And then John says for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans We covered that last week and we noted something and I just sort of reinforce it and add to it a little bit today 2,000 years ago strict Jewish people didn't even like Gentiles non-Jewish people They didn't like them. They didn't hang with them at least They didn't like the Samaritans because the Samaritans had defected from the true Jewish religion and had their own rival system So listen to some of the comments by the ancient rabbis. Here's one and I quote Gentiles are created by God to fuel the fires of hell Close quote.

Here's another one. There is joy in heaven when one sinner is obliterated from off the face of the earth Close quote and Jesus said just the opposite didn't he there's joy in heaven when one sinner repents But when it came to the Samaritans there had been this long-standing rift and animosity In fact a popular prayer 2,000 years ago was this Lord do not remember the Samaritans in the resurrection So needless to say Jews and Samaritans Didn't hang together. They didn't high-five each other on the street.

They didn't Facebook each other. They didn't Twitter each other They were on the outs with each other There was no contact whatsoever So when we read again a reminder in verse 4 he needed to go through Samaria That's a statement about his love and his loving attitude as much as it's a statement about anything else He needed to go cuz he loves everyone Of any culture of any country in any time He loves everyone There's a song that you may have learned as a child or you taught it to your children. Jesus loves the little Children all the little children of the world That's true. He does love little children, but you know what else he loves adults too and teenagers, you're going really?

Yeah, and college students and white collar workers and blue collar workers and drug addicts and prostitutes He loves them all In fact, he loves them as much as he loves you or me or Billy Graham In fact in reading through the Gospels, it says though he goes out of his way to love them Matthew 18 Jesus said if a shepherd has a hundred sheep and one wanders away in his loss. What will he do? Won't he leave the 99 others and go out into the hills and search for the lost one?

And if he finds it He will surely rejoice over it more than over the 99 that did not wander away In the same way it is not my father's will that even one of these little ones Should perish. I have a question. I want you to just answer privately in your own heart. Is There a culture That you have trouble with are you prejudice in your heart? Against a people group has that been something passed down to you from your parents or Grandparents or in some of the circles you've hung out with and you say certain remarks and have certain feelings that are just flat-out wrong for White people it could be a prejudice against blacks or Hispanics, but didn't end there I know many Hispanics that have prejudice against white people, etc, etc So then ask If you're not sure if you wonder if that's a problem Just ask somebody who loves you and is close to you and who's honest with you and just say do you see it that? Defect my life.

They'll tell you Am I prejudiced in any regard? then ask God to give you a Transforming love a real love for those people Did you know that Mahatma Gandhi? the great Hindu leader and social worker Almost became a Christian. He wrote in his autobiography. He was reading the Gospels. He was so impressed with Christ That he wanted to convert to Christianity and he thought Christianity would be the answer to India's caste system But you know what kept him from being a Christian Christians Christians did He said that he was going to church one Sunday for instruction on Christianity and baptism and he was stopped at the door He was refused a seat in that church and the person at the door said go and worship with your own kind He left that church never to return to another church in his life, and he wrote in his autobiography Well, then if Christians have caste differences. I might as well remain a Hindu Do you have a caste system in your heart?

Does that need to be torn down? Then just start right there and ask Jesus to give you the kind of love for people that would transcend their culture and your cultural differences second thing to remark about Jesus love is it's a love that transcends gender gender now me we may not have that problem, but then again, we might Jesus was a Jew and she was a Samaritan Jesus was a man and she was a woman and Back then those were huge differences Even the woman said how is it that you being a Jew ask a drink from me a Samaritan woman? and did you notice by the way in verse 27 at this point his disciples came and they Marvelled that he talked with a woman That's funny to our ears, but here's the disciples here's Peter James John They got halos on they're coming up the hill and there's Jesus talking to a woman and they go He's talking to a chick You Know why that is Because they didn't talk to women Strict rabbis had instructed younger rabbis never Talk to a woman in public even your own wife even your own daughters Because it could be a distraction and even keep you from the study of the Torah which could eventually send you to hell Wow The rabbi said and I quote let a man burn the words of the law rather than teach them to a woman Women were subservient they were hidden even Abraham when strangers were invited into his tent Sarah was hidden away from sight in the next Quarter of the tent. Oh, and by the way When they traveled together and there was a donkey Guess who rode the donkey? The man rode the woman walked So I know the artist depiction of Joseph walking alongside Mary is a beautiful one But he'd have been the laughingstock of everyone in those days. That was just not culturally done and In fact, did you know there was a group of people this is gonna crack you up. They were known as Bruised Pharisees are actually bruised and bleeding Pharisees Because whenever they saw a woman publicly they close her eyes They'd shut their eyes didn't want to look at another woman.

They didn't want to be tempted So can you imagine what that would do? You're walking along the street and you see a woman you close your eyes you keep walking you're gonna what? You're gonna hit a wall. You're gonna hit a house. You're gonna get beaten up Could you imagine if that happened today?

How many beat up people there be? Now the point is that Jesus Obviously did not care about these stupid social customs of man versus woman. It was a person who was a human being it was one of his created beings and she lived in Samaria and she needed the truth and he cares about people all People women understand something. It's not the Christian Church that has kept women subjugated and kept them as slaves and Gloria Steinem and the movement of womanhood is suddenly baloney thank God for sending Christ who liberated women and Raised them up to the standard that makes them all equal.

That's what the New Testament says Paul writes in Galatians There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free There is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ that is Bible That is Bible So his love transcends gender There is no greater love than that of Jesus Christ who willingly died on the cross and rose from the dead to prove His love people need to hear about that and are we willing to tell them? That's going to wrap up our time for today But before we go don't forget to keep up with Skip Heitzig via social media Pastor Skip is continually posting updates on Facebook and photos on Instagram Sending out tweets working on new articles and blogs and sharing his thoughts about what God is showing him You can keep up with Skip and all that he's working on at his central hub. That's connectwithskip.com In fact, you can even order a copy of today's teaching when you visit that website It's available on CD for just four dollars plus shipping when you call us at 1-800-922-1888 And if you ever have any questions or comments you'd like to share, please do so by writing us at PO box 95707 Albuquerque, New Mexico 8 7 1 9 9 we'll continue to learn how we can share the good news of the gospel and how important it is for us to Do that next time so be sure to join us right here on connect with Skip weekend edition a presentation of connection communications Connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times