Intentional Conversations That Lead to Christ

So, but I just wanted to take a few moments here this morning as we're talking about, you know, we had the, this morning's message was about you as a missionary.

If you know Christ to be a missionary.

So one of the things I want to encourage you is we're going to talk just a little bit this morning about Jesus's gospel presentation.

And some keys in it of just not so much the message, but looking at what Jesus did when he shared the message.

Because sometimes that's the application.

We need some application.

You have the what, but how do you do it?

You know, and so Jesus gives us some examples here that we can redeem and that we can use and apply in our own life.

So, you know, we know that Jesus, the scripture records many conversations that Jesus had with individuals.

You know, one of the most famous conversations is John chapter 3 with Nicodemus.

John 3 · chapter mention

You know, where Jesus's famous statement from John chapter 3 is what?

John 3 · chapter mention

You must be what?

Born again.

You know, that was a gospel interaction between Jesus and Nicodemus.

Nicodemus came and asked questions and Jesus gave him answers.

You know, that's one kind of interaction that you'll have.

Sometimes people come with questions.

But I want you to look over into John chapter 4 because here in John 4 we have something different.

John 4 · chapter mention

And actually you might say the total opposite of Nicodemus in chapter 3.

Because in John chapter 4 you have another famous interaction and it's Jesus with the woman of Samaria.

John 4 · chapter mention

Now, the difference between these two, one came looking for Jesus.

The other had no idea who Jesus was.

As a matter of fact, we're going to look at a little bit of this this morning because now once we find here,

notice in chapter 4, he says this in verse 4.

It says,

He must needs go through Samaria.

And they cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sakaar,

near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

Now Jacob's well was there.

Jesus, therefore, being wearied at his journey,

sat thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour.

And there cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water,

and Jesus saith unto her,

Give me to drink.

Now I want you to see one very important thing here.

When Jesus went to share the gospel here,

the first thing you need to have,

sometimes people aren't going to come to you,

you need to have intention.

Jesus knows here,

I must needs go through Samaria.

In other words, Jesus went with intention.

And sometimes to share the gospel,

you have to have intention.

You have to be intending and looking for opportunity.

You know, that's one of the keys you'll find in Jesus

as we look at this interaction.

It involves intention.

Intentionality.

I must needs go through Samaria.

Why did Jesus want to go through there?

You know, we can look,

well, he divinely knew this woman was going to be.

I think he was also giving us the example

that sometimes it takes intention.

To say, this is what I want to do for this purpose.

Because we see intention,

I must needs go through Samaria.

But the second thing we see here

is it involves contact with people.

Have some contact.

You know, look here at verse 6 again.

It says that,

Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey

sat there thus on the well.

It was about the sixth hour.

And there cometh the woman of Samaria

to draw water.

And Jesus saith unto her,

Give me to drink.

You know,

Jesus here is waiting for the disciples to return.

And the Samaritan woman comes out

and approaches the well.

You know, I want you to understand,

this is not something that normally

would have taken place,

as we'll see later on in the conversation.

You know,

I want you to see that this,

what took place here

was not a normal dynamic.

For many reasons.

Because we know that the Jews

and the Samaritans

had a long history

and would actually intentionally

avoid one another.

When Jesus said,

I must needs go through Samaria,

he did something that Jews

normally didn't do.

Most of them would depart Jerusalem,

go out through Jericho,

the other side of the Jordan,

head up the other side of the Jordan,

then cross back into Galilee.

Because they didn't want anybody to know

that they would step foot in Samaria.

So when it says,

Jesus said,

I must needs go to Samaria,

there was a lot of intention.

There was an intentionality

and there was also contact with this woman.

This woman that was there,

his disciples,

especially for Jesus,

a Jewish man,

to engage a Samaritan woman.

His disciples were shocked

when they returned to find Jesus

speaking with her.

Look down at verse 27 of this passage.

Verse 27, we see this.

It says,

And then came his disciples

and marveled that he talked with the woman.

Yet no man said,

What seekest thou?

Or why talkest thou with her?

In other words,

they said,

this is out of the ordinary.

This is different.

But Peter even was smart enough to say,

I'm not going to ask.

If you know anything about Peter and his personality,

Peter's the one to always pipe up and say something.

Even Peter didn't say anything on this one.

I mean,

we don't know all the details,

but it was different for them.

They knew there was something different.

But you know,

I want you to understand,

to share the gospel involves having contact with lost people.

That's a very simple principle.

Why did Jesus must needs go to Samaria?

Because there was a lost woman

that he was going to meet at the well.

There was a woman that was needed.

We have to be engaged with lost people.

You have to be among them.

Now,

this gets into something I want to explain a little bit,

because we need to understand something here

that's often misunderstood.

You know,

because today you have this picture.

People try to present Jesus.

He was among sinners.

He ate with sinners.

I want you to understand,

Jesus was among them,

but not of them.

I want you to understand,

that there was a problem for Jesus to talk to sinners.

Luke 15,

2,

the Pharisees and the scribes murmured,

saying,

this man receiveth sinners,

and eateth with them.

Now,

I want you to understand,

Jesus was not participating in their sin.

They were sitting down over a conversation

at a meal or a house.

Jesus would interact with these people

in either a public or private space,

but it was not to participate in their sin.

It was to engage in interaction with them.

There was an engagement.

There was contact that was there.

Yes,

Jesus interacted with sinners,

but he did not participate or partake in their sin.

He was out,

oftentimes it was out on the street

where he walked to conduct business.

I mean,

you think about Zacchaeus.

What was he doing?

He was strolling down,

says,

Zacchaeus,

what are you doing up in the tree?

Jesus initiated contact

and then went to Zacchaeus' house

and shared the gospel with him.

Zacchaeus was a sinner.

He was a tax collector.

If you read that passage,

Zacchaeus wasn't popular in the community.

He'd ripped a lot of people off.

He was a shyster.

And here Jesus is going to his house.

Why?

Not to be a shyster.

But there had to be that contact.

Jesus interacts here with the lady here,

but it was a daily course of events.

He spoke to her at the public well.

In other words,

we understand this woman was an adulterous woman.

She was living with a guy who was not her husband.

But yet Jesus didn't focus upon that.

He met her in a public place with a conversation.

Because I want you to say

it's important to understand something as a believer.

And as I was thinking through here recently,

I came across a statement

that I thought was a pretty good application.

As believers,

we need to be insulated from the world,

but not isolated.

I thought that was a pretty good description.

Our lives need to be insulated from the world,

but not isolated of the world.

Now, let's look at Jesus' principle.

Turn to John 17.

John 17 and verse 15.

The Bible tells us this,

and Jesus says this as he's praying for you and I.

He's praying for believers here.

And you know what he says?

He says,

I pray not that thou should take them out of the world.

In other words,

Jesus says,

I know my disciples.

Those that believe on me

are going to have to live in this world.

But notice what his next phrase is.

He says this,

but thou shouldst keep them from what?

Evil.

Insulated,

not isolated.

We need to keep

and make sure about our testimony.

That means you don't want to be seen

doing things

with people.

Say,

I'm going to lead them to the Lord.

You know,

I tell you what,

people don't get led to the Lord

drinking a beer with them at the bar.

Get a testimony problem.

We talked about that a little bit this morning,

about the importance of your testimony.

It ought to be different.

You ought to be distinct

from some things on purpose.

Because of what those things associate with.

You know?

Now I want you to understand

the importance of what we're speaking of here.

Jesus here had contact,

but he had the next,

the most important thing besides contact.

You need to be around lost people.

Then you need to have a conversation.

You know,

most of us have no trouble talking.

If you have something you like to talk about,

people talk.

Now some people don't say much

until you hit on what they want to talk about.

But if something they want to talk about,

people talk about.

You know?

Everybody has something that they love to do

or something that they have

that they're going to want to talk about.

It's not that we can't talk,

it's what we choose to talk.

Notice Jesus here,

he has conversation,

he has communication.

And we'll talk about that

because there's different forms

of communication today

other than just engaging somebody by word.

We have written communication,

you have video communication,

you have all sorts of different means of things.

It's like,

I don't know how anybody,

you could use modern platforms

like Facebook

or X

or whatever.

I mean,

to me,

those are a problem sometimes

because of clarity of things,

but they could be used.

Communication is communication.

Notice what Jesus says,

look at verse 7.

Jesus looks at her and says,

give me to drink.

Now I want you to see here,

when you engage in conversation,

one of the keys here

is to engage in things

that's common to both of you.

You know?

If you're going to have a gospel presentation,

the best thing to do is not,

well what do you think of the wheel in Ezekiel?

Or who's the beast in Revelation?

That's probably not the best starting point.

Because if they're already saved

and have an opinion,

you're just going to get sidetracked anyways.

And if they're not saved,

they're looking at you like

you just will paint a third eye

on your forehead.

You need to have communication

that involves something common.

What did they have in common?

Water.

The water was there.

You know,

one way to engage people,

think about all the things

we have in common.

You know?

You live in the state of Nebraska,

you have something

almost everybody has in common.

They'll talk about football.

Or they'll talk about volleyball.

You know?

Now,

I'm not saying you get caught up in it,

but you know,

sometimes you need to stay ahead of that stuff

because that helps you

have an opportunity of conversation.

You know?

Conversation.

Engage in something that you're common,

whether it's hunting or fishing

or vehicles or kids.

I mean,

anybody with kids will talk about kids.

Nothing else will talk about

how bratty somebody else's kids are.

But people will talk.

You know,

find something in common

and then comment

about something

relating to God

or religion.

You know,

many avenues we have

there for us.

We have a,

but communication

is key

because once you open that,

you need to transition

the conversation.

Look at verse 10.

I'm running out of time here this morning,

so we'll cover these quickly.

Look at it.

And Jesus answered and said to her,

If thou knewest the gift of God

and who it is that saith to thee,

Give me to drink,

thou would have asked of him

and he would have given thee living water.

Now here Jesus goes by asking

for a cup of water

to explaining,

now we move to the spiritual

of living water.

He moved the conversation

intentionally.

He took that conversation

and intentionally transitioned it

from normal water

to living water.

He turns or steers the conversation.

This is where intentionality comes in.

Forethought.

Thinking about

how you're going to respond

to those things.

Have you ever noticed

when you're talking to people,

oftentimes you think about it

after you get done

with the conversation?

I should have.

You know,

one of the things

that will benefit us

if we think about,

Hey, if this comes up,

how do I transition that?

How do I move that

to a spiritual conversation?

How do you move

looking at the stars in the sky

to a spiritual conversation?

You know,

there's a lot of ways

you can move that.

You know,

Hey, those are amazing

that God created that.

You know what?

You're transitioning

that conversation.

You're moving

into the realm

of things

to be able

to communicate

with them.

Now,

on a sub-note of that,

I want you to understand

in this communication,

don't get distracted.

So I want you to see

the woman at the well

try to distract Jesus.

You know,

well,

I'm a woman

and you're a Jew.

Why are you talking to me?

Have you noticed

Jesus didn't touch that?

Jesus didn't get

distracted by it.

In other words,

the devil threw out

a hook and he said,

oh,

kick that one aside.

You know,

we need to be careful

we don't get distracted

to the wrong thing.

You know,

think about verse 9 here.

He says this,

And then saith the woman

of Samaria,

unto him,

How is it thou,

being a Jew,

askest drink of me,

which is him a Samaritan?

For the Jews

have no dealings

with the Samaritans.

Now,

verse 9,

people get distracted

with social and political issues.

What this woman

was talking about

is a social and political issue.

Those are not necessarily,

I'm not saying

they're not important,

but if you're on intention

of sharing the gospel

with somebody,

don't get distracted.

Because it can take

all the air out of the room.

You're spending time

talking about stuff

that was not the intention.

If you notice,

Jesus just let that lay

and moved on.

That's some good advice

for us too

when you're talking to people

is you don't have to

bite on every abstract thing

that goes by.

You know,

verse 20,

if you look down there,

she's talking about

even religious things.

You know,

our fathers worshipped

in this mountain

and you say that

in Jerusalem

is the place

where men ought to worship.

You know?

Now,

as it was a religious thing,

Jesus transitions that

and doesn't really address

that,

but refocuses it upon God.

Refocuses it upon the message.

So one thing

I want you to be careful

to be thinking

and paying attention

that you don't get distracted.

Because people can have you

chase rabbit trails.

You know?

Don't get caught

chasing rabbits

someplace out in the woods.

You know,

or as we say today,

don't get caught

by the squirrel going by.

Because people will try

to distract.

Intentionality,

you know,

don't get distracted.

But also,

don't condemn.

Now this is important sometimes

because this has to do

with body language.

This has to do

with how we respond

to something.

Because I want you

to understand

when it talks about

condemning here

is to express disapproval.

You know?

I want you to understand

when it comes to

reaching people

to the gospel,

let the conscience

do its work

that God designed it to do.

It's not your or my job

to condemn somebody.

Now they might accuse you

of condemning them

because when you point out sin,

people feel conviction,

which they ought,

but make sure

that your response

is not one

that's condemning them.

Let the Holy Spirit

do the condemnation.

John 16 makes it clear

that's his job,

convict of sin.

You know?

John 16, 8 says,

when he has come,

he will reprove the world

of sin and righteousness

and of judgment,

of sin because they

believe not on me.

You know?

Now, turn quickly over

to John chapter 8

John 8 · chapter mention

for a moment.

John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

Now this is Jesus

with another interaction.

But I want you to see

a statement that's made here

that's very important

to understand.

Jesus didn't condemn

those standing around him here.

Because if Jesus

condemns somebody,

you're in trouble.

But notice what took place

in verse 9.

It says,

and they which heard it

being convicted by what?

Their own what?

Conscience went out

one by one.

What convicted them?

The Holy Spirit

pricked the conscience

of the individual

and they knew

that there was a problem.

We need to understand

that we need to let

the Holy Spirit

do its work

in the conscience

of an individual.

It doesn't mean

you don't talk about sin.

Condemning them

is putting them

to say,

I don't want to

or I think less of you

because of what you do

or what you've chosen to do.

Jesus didn't think

less of this woman.

He saw her as a person.

A soul that needed a Savior.

We need to be careful

on that

because we need to understand

it also needs to be

a direct presentation.

Look back in John chapter 4.

John 4 · chapter mention

Look down at verse 26.

And it,

you know,

the woman that is

talking about Christ

when He has come,

He will tell us all things.

Verse 26,

Jesus says unto her,

I that speak unto thee

am He.

That gets about

as direct as you have.

You know?

She says,

are you the,

we're looking for the Christ

and Jesus says,

that's direct.

There's a time

in a gospel presentation

where you need to be direct.

They need to know

what salvation

is only through Jesus Christ,

not anything that they can do

that does require a response.

People are not saved

by osmosis

and people are not saved

by information.

People are saved

when they call upon the Savior.

There has to be a response.

Romans chapter 10,

Romans 10:8

verse 8,

it says,

But what sayeth

that the word is nigh thee,

even in thy mouth

and in thine heart?

What is the word of faith

which we preach?

That thou shalt confess

with thy mouth

the Lord Jesus

and believe in thine heart

that God hath raised Him

from the dead?

Thou shalt be saved

for with the heart man

believeth unto righteousness

and with the mouth

confession is made

unto salvation.

There has to be a response.

People need to know

a response is required.

You know?

It's kind of like

showing up to an RSVP event

and you didn't fill out the card.

They're going to look at you like,

we don't have a card for you.

When you call upon the Lord,

you RSVP your place in heaven.

And Jesus looks at that

when you get there

and says,

hey, you got a place

because you've taken care

of salvation.

Now we're over time,

so I'll cover this last point quick

because this is important.

Sometimes you need to know

when to stop.

Every time you go

and you get an opportunity

to share the gospel,

does it mean you have to share

the whole thing with somebody?

Because you know what happens?

You get so focused

in getting your spills spilled out.

That people sometimes

take time to process.

Look at me down

in verse 40 of this passage.

It says,

So when the Samaritans

were come unto him,

they besought him

that they would tarry with them

and he abode there two days.

Many more believed

because of his own word

and said unto the woman,

Now we believe

not because of thy saying,

for we have heard him ourselves.

And no,

this is indeed the Christ,

the Savior of the world.

You know what?

Jesus gave them

a little time

to simmer on what was said.

Sometimes people need

some time to process

what's been presented.

Know when to stop.

Know when they're processing

but aren't ready

to move forward.

You know,

sometimes people don't.

I had a conversation

a while back,

presented the gospel,

gave the person

an opportunity to pray

and they said,

I don't think I want to.

You know what?

They still have the truth.

I don't have to be there

for them to pray.

Know when to stop.

Don't push somebody

into something

that they're doing

just for the sake of doing it.

Know when to stop.

You know,

I encourage you this week

as a,

you know,

we got lots of tracks

back there on the table.

I encourage you

to pick one up.

Maybe it has a phrase

or something on it.

I want you to pick that up.

I want you to read it.

And then I want you

to pray about

who can I use

to make contact with

and use this

to give them

a track

and have a conversation.

That's your Sunday school

assignment for the week.

Amen?

So,

let's close in a word of prayer.

Heavenly Fathers,

we come before you

this morning,

Lord.

We just love you

and thank you,

Lord.

We're thankful

that you loved us

enough that you came

and died upon the cross

for us.

Lord,

I pray that you just

work in hearts

and lives today,

Lord.

We pray that you

just might take

these things

and the challenges

and the reality

of missions

and even our own selves.

Lord,

I pray that you

just would stir in us

the responsibility

to live

for you

and part of that

is to intentionally

contact

and to engage

to tell others

about you

and what you've done.

And Lord,

I pray that you

just stir our hearts

towards you

in a mighty way

even this week.

And Lord,

we just give you

all the praise

in Jesus' name.

Amen.

All right.

See everybody out

Wednesday evening.

Wednesday evening,

6.30 prayer time.

One of the most

important services

of the week,

prayer time.

Make sure you're here.