Open House - Week 4

Amen, quickly go to John chapter four. I'm gonna preach

for let's see twenty one minutes, twenty one minutes. I'm

gonna I'm gonna twenty one minutes.

We're gonna be redd rolling.

Now I'll take that back eighteen minutes. I'm gonna preach

for eighteen minutes. I can't even do the math on

the clock, so I don't know when that is.

Uh.

John chapter four, verse thirteen. It says 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 will become in him a fountain of water, springing

up into everlasting life. The woman said to him, Sir,

give me this water that I may not thirst nor

come here to draw. Let me stop right there for

a moment. Let's pray. Father, We thank you for your word.

It's the only change agent on the face of this planet.

And I pray that today, at the very fabric of

our being, that there is a change.

That we would begin to see the opportunity.

We have as we meet people, and that we would

maximize that opportunity for the kingdom.

Lord, I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen, Amen, and amen.

You know this is uh this is what we call

the story of the Woman at the Well. If you're

not familiar with this story, we have all we have

our own titles for all these stories. And the reality

is is that this woman was standing at that well

not to draw water, but she was she was looking

to make money. She was she was a woman of

the night. She was a prostitute, and and she went

to this well and she was waiting because that's where

all the shepherds would come and draw water and drink,

and that's where she would do business every day. And

Jesus had interrupted the course of his ministry. He was

he was on his way and he stopped and he said, no, listen,

I got to go through some Aaria. You guys, go

to subway, get me a sandwich, and meet me over

at the well and I'll be there. But I got

to go through some Aaria. There's somebody I need to

go talk to. There's somebody in Samaria that I need

to have a conversation with. And Jesus shows up at

the well and this woman is there, and he begins

to have a conversation with her. They begin to talk,

and Jesus didn't come and say, listen, change your ways

or you're going to hell.

Woman, that was at the conversation Jesus.

Had with her, although he had the capability to doom

her there if he chose. But he begins to talk

about life. He begins to talk about the basic need

of water. He talks about the goings and the doings

of everyday life and some area. These were people that

the Jews look down upon. And here is Jesus, a

man talking to a woman at a place where prostitutes dwell,

a Jew talking to a Samaritan. Everything was wrong with

this picture. Nothing was culturally appropriate about what was happening.

But Jesus defied all those things. He took time out

of He's the Let me tell you, Jesus was the

son of the living God. I would imagine he had

a few things on his agenda. Amen, But he took

time out of his day to stop and have a

conversation with somebody.

And as he began to talk to this woman, she says.

Something in the midst of this conversation that I think

we missed just when we read it. She says something

that when I saw it in the reality of what

she was saying, broke my heart, and I'm sure it

broke the heart of the Lord.

To she said. The woman said, to sir, give me

this water. She says, said, listen, this water. You're gonna

drink it. You're gonna get thirsty again.

But I have water. You're never gonna thirst again. It's

gonna it's it's gonna satisfy every need you have if

you drink the living water that I'm talking about. She said, Sir,

give me this water that I may not thirst.

Nor come here to draw, she says.

Do something in me that allows me to no longer

come here to do what I came here to do.

Help me be different than I am.

Meet me at my point of need, in the midst

of my brokenness, and so change me in my brokenness

that I don't need to do what I do because

what I do I know is wrong. Do you realize

that the majority of people that live outside of the faith,

that have not yet had a grace collision with Jesus,

they still know that there's something fundamentally wrong.

With the way they live and what they do. They

may not be able to put their finger on it.

But that uneasiness, that that lack of peace that they

see other people, and they think, if I could only

experience peace in life like they do, that I don't

have to self medicate myself, and I don't have to

go and do and I don't have to run, and

I don't have to worry, and I don't have to stress,

and I don't have to and Jesus says, come and drink.

But the reality is the only way.

People find that that that moment of connection is if we're.

Going out of our way to meet them at a well.

Yeah, y'all miss that somebody would have said, amen, I mean,

I'm the only way that happens if someone goes and

meets them at a well. If we stretch ourselves and

we see the people that nobody else wants to be around.

Y'all know who I'm talking about. You all know the

people that are unlovable.

If you don't know them, you may be them.

That shouldn't be a revelation to everybody.

We all know those people that everybody avoids.

That that that person at work that you know when

they walk up to the water cooler, even the gossip stops.

Jesus is sending us to the unlovable. You know, I

don't want you to take offense when I say these things,

but you know, the reality is is I understand that God.

Called me to hurting broken people.

Now, that's just who God has always called me for

equipped me to to reach that. That's who God has

has created me to be. And when I look around,

God has created our on island of misfit toys. Amen,

we're all just a little bit of this and a

little bit of that, but not a whole lot of anything.

We're just ordinary people that have struggled and we have

found the grace of Jesus. And then we've struggled and

we found the grace of Jesus again. And then we

struggled and we found the grace.

Of Jesus again.

And He's always met us at our point of need,

and he's never let us down. He's always been there

right on time. And as a result of that, we

owe it to him to go and help other people

through the same things he's helped us through. Jesus said

to her, go call your husband and come here. In

the woman's answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus

said to her, you've well said I have no husband,

for you've had five husbands and the one you shacked

up with now ain't your husband. Listen, Listen, he learned

he learned the art of communication because he looked at

her and said, after he just read or mail.

He looked at her and said, in this you have

truly spoken. You got all that wrong, but hey, you

got the other part right.

Do you realize that that friendship and communication is both

about saying hard things and good things. It's about accountability

and encouragement. It's about a perfect mixture of those things.

And if you're that friend that always puts someone down,

you're not much of a friend. It's okay, even when

someone is living a dysfunctional life for you to look

and find something that they do well and talk about

what they do well. You know, my my, my ain't i.

Her name was Idia's. I don't know how we came

up with ain't i, but that's just all that. That's

her name, ain't I? And she always said good things

about people. Now, my great grandma was the meanest woman

that ever lived. They lived next door to each other,

and my me mom would start talking about somebody in ain't.

I would always point out something good. There's a guy

that lived on down the road and he was a

pretty mean fella. I mean he he cussed me so

many I mean I was on his property when he

cussed me, but he cussed me so many times. And

he was just a mean spirited fella. And he passed away,

and my me Moa was like, I'm just so glad

he died. He wanted nothing but a blight on the

face of the earth. He was this, he was that,

and I mean she just was ranting and rating. Then

my uncle got involved. He was saying things and he

was like, oh, yeah.

I can't believe that. I can't, but he did this.

I can't, but he did that. He was just good

for nothing.

And I spoke up and she said, yeah, but he

sure could whistle. You know, when you meet the woman

at the well, when you come into contact with We've

talked for three weeks about intentionally building relationships with people

for the purpose of leading them to Jesus. And when

you're in the process of building that relationship, the person

probably already realizes there's something not right, that there's something

missing and broken, and there's heard and there's pain, and

there's guilt and there shame. It's okay that in the

midst of that thissfunction that you dig deep, because a

word of encouragement can often go further than a word

of condemnation. That when we examine the situation of people's lives,

Jesus sees the good and the bad in every single

one of us, and he calls us towards the good

every time. Now, Jesus he tells this woman that he says, hey, listen,

I know your situation. I realize that. And do you

realize that that's a spiritual gift. Jesus operated in a

spiritual gift, and you have that spiritual gift as well.

It's called word of knowledge.

Jesus knew something about her that he didn't have the ability,

based on situation, to know.

And you have that same gift as well.

When you are baptized in the Holy Spirit, the gifts

of the Spirit move into your life and endwell your body,

and you have access to those gifts. And it is

a tool belt used not for magic tricks and an

altar in a Pentecostal church, but for encounters with lost

people in a real world that are hurt and broken.

We need to use the tools where Jesus intended them

to be used.

If the only place we use the tools are in

the altar, the world is never exposed to the very

thing that he said would be a sign to the unbeliever.

And it's that that awakened her.

Jesus' willingness and ability to flow into supernaturalist what awakened

her and quickened her to do what's next in verse

thirty nine. And many Samaritans of that city believed in

him because of the word the woman who testified.

He told me all that I ever did.

He told me everything that I ever did, but he

never told me how terrible I was. He told me

everything that I ever did, but he encouraged me. He

told me everything that I ever did. But he still

came to Samaria, and he still stopped at the well,

and he still had a conversation, and he didn't care

what anybody else said about it, because it was his

purpose on earth. Every single one of us share this

purpose for those of you who are looking for purpose,

and that's that's what we do here.

We do four things.

We experience God walking, freedom, find our place so we

can live with purpose.

I'm just I'm gonna give every single.

Person purpose today, because there is a purpose that's unique

to every one of us, and that is sharing our

faith and telling our story so that other people can

have the same kind of grace collision with Jesus that

we had.

If you don't know what God wants you to do,

if you.

Don't know your purpose, start right there with the common

purpose for the kingdom, and that is to win other

people to the Kingdom of God. We start right there

in that place. She said, Lizen, he told he told,

He told me everything.

That I ever did.

You know the significance there is, he told her. He

didn't tell everybody else. He told her everything she did.

He didn't tell the crowd that gathered everything she did.

Stop.

So when the Samaritas had come to him, they urged

him to stay with him, and he stayed there two days,

and many more believe because of his word. Then they

said to the woman, now we believe not because of

what you said, for we ourselves have heard him and

we know that this is indeed the Christ, the savior

of the world.

He said, here's the here's the deal.

These people were gathered because of what happened to you.

But because of what happened to you, they saw Jesus,

and Jesus is the uplifting saving agent on the face

of the planet. I want to set you free from

something right now. You don't have to talk to anybody

into getting saved. You don't have to convince anybody that

they need to be saved.

You don't need to.

You don't need to protect Jesus' reputation. You don't need

to defend Jesus. You don't need to do any of

those things. He does all of those things on his

own for his self.

All you need to do is show love and speak truth.

For you to be.

The ambassador of Christ that he's calling you to be.

You need to love and speak truth. Love and speak truth.

Love and speak truth. Just in case you didn't get it,

Love and speak truth. And when you do that, God

will revolutionize your walk with Him, and the people around

you will have an encounter with him. You know, it's

possible that you're here today and you don't know Jesus

as your personal savior. You don't have the assurance.

Of knowing that you would go to heaven. But I

want to tell you that even before you've ever come

to him. He has a plan for your life.

There is value in who you. I don't care what

anybody told you this week. There is value and who

you are. I don't care where you've been and what

you've done. The Lord has been waiting on you this

morning because he loves you, and he gave his life

for you so that you could experience peace, enjoy fulfillment,

and satisfaction like you've never experienced in your whole life.

So if you would, everybody buy your heads for me

just a moment, close your eyes. If you're here today

and you don't know, if you die, that you would

go to heaven. You've never asked Jesus to to forgive

you of your sins, but today you want to do that.

Slip up your head and say that's me, pastor. I

want to meet Jesus. Amen, I see that hand. There's

somebody else, Amen, I see that hand, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

One last calm. Just put your hand up and put

it right back down.

Fast.

You and you want to you want to turn your

life over to Christ today. Amen, Amen, I see that

end now, every eye open, every head looking around. As

matter of fact, everybody stand to your feet. Here's what

the Bible says. The Bible says that if you confess

him before men, he'll confess you before his father in heaven.

If you deny him before men, he'll deny you before

his father in heaven. Raising your hand was the first step.

But we believe that you need to make a public

profession of your faith. So I'm gonna ask our altered.

Team to come. Now listen, do not let fear rob

you of this encounter.

It is the greatest decision you'll ever make in your life.

But if you raised your hand, if you said that's me,

I want to give my life to Jesus. I'm gonna

ask you, on the count of three to step out

from where you are and make your way to the front.

Just whoever you think is the nicest or coolest, or

prettiest or ugliest or whatever you get to chewse just

go to the person that you that you identify with

the most, and they're gonna pray with you. Now, let

me explain what's gonna happen. The moment you open your

mouth and you begin to pray, the Lord is going

to wipe away your sin.

And he's gonna make you a brand new creation and

a miracle.

It's gonna take place, and from that moment on you

will be on your way towards Heaven.

Set against Hell.

Yeah, happens by stepping out and making that that decision

of faith. So on the count of three, if you

raise your hand, I want you to step out, and

I want you to come one, two, three.

Step out and come right now.

Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on,

come on, come on, come on, come on, come on,

come on.

Amen. Amen.

Maybe you're here and you didn't raise your hand, but

now you've decided maybe that you should have. If that's you,

I want you to come. If now you've decided, hey,

I should have raised my hand. The hand raising is okay,

you can skip the hand raising. You could just do

the coming down part. These the halters open. The band

is gonna sing and listen, everybody, hang with me for

just mon because we're gonna finish the day up with communion.

The band is gonna worship and three souls coming into

the family of God, Glafory to God. Pastor Clay