OPENING ILLUSTRATION:
When I first became a Christian I would hear Christians use words like, “what a testimony” or, “you could be a powerful witness for Jesus” and I have to be honest, I was like, “what the heck are you talking about?”
I just kept thinking I was gonna get called into court and asked to testify about Jesus or worse yet, there would be some guy shining a light in my face while I’m tied to a chair asking me
“Now, tell me your whereabouts on January 5, 2010, at 6 pm….”
It wasn’t till I had been around for a while that I learned
Being a witness or having a testimony was you sharing your God story with someone who’s never heard it.
But maybe you are sitting out there going,
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“Kent, I don’t have a ‘God’ story and even if I do, why would I need to share it – that’s a private thing between me and God”
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Can I take you to a story today that might help you see why you sharing your God story could be one of the most impactful things you could do?
SCRIPTURE:
We are going to be in John chapter 4 today, I want to tell you the story of what’s happening and then get to the end of it…
Jesus has been in Judea – think the area around Jerusalem – the best way to think of Israel is to think of someone with their arm held up, cut off their chest and the top part of their arm above the elbow and that’s what the country looks like. Judea is the bicep. Jesus is heading towards Galilee – north of the elbow :).
The reason Jesus is on the move is that the fuzz is hot on his tail – He’s starting to pick up some heat from the religious leaders and His time hasn’t come yet. And Jesus makes an interesting choice – see, normally, Jewish people when they would travel between Galilee & Judea would travel around an area known as Samaria. You’ve heard of a “good Samaritan” before, but did you know that there is a series of mountains between the north of the elbow and your bicep that a group of people actually lived who are called the Samaritans – there are still like 900 people of this decent alive today. In ancient times Israel had been broken into two Kingdoms, a Northern Kingdom and a Southern Kingdom. The Northern Kingdom was taken captive by the Assyrians, and when that happened, the people left behind became the Samaritans – basically, they were Jewish, but they had one major difference, they claimed the place you worshipped God was on a mountain inter territory, not the southern territory…
They literally changed what the old testament said to reflect this and for a 1st-century Jew, this made them hate them.
It would be like someone saying, “in order to be a real Kentuckian, you have to cheer for Louisville :)”
The Jews would go around Samaria, because of their deep hate for them
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But not Jesus – Jesus tends to go straight through Samaria
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There’s something about Him that takes Him where no one else is willing to go…
oof there’s a sermon in there, but it’s for another day…
Let’s get to it. Jesus has gone directly to this spot in Samaria, He’s right at the base of this Mountain where Jacob had hundreds and hundreds of years before dug a well, you can literally still visit this well…
And Jesus is sitting there, by Himself, it’s noon and this woman comes out to get water. She’s by herself. She’s coming at the hottest part of the day, she’s at the very least ostracized from the community – and I think we find out why. They start talking and Jesus tells her to go get her husband, she’s had 5 husbands and she’s living with a guy who’s not her husband…
This woman is loose – there are choice words we’d call her today, right?
What is Jesus doing talking to a woman like this?
I mean seriously, she’s damaged goods… And not only does He talk to her, but He tells her He’s the messiah (I actually think He tells her twice, once He references that He can give her living water – one of the things the Messiah will do from Zechariah is bring living water – it would flow out from Him). But He also blatantly tells her
She’s so much the wrong person for Jesus to be telling who He is that John remarks on it in a backward way:
John 4:27
27 Just 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?”
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John’s intimating that they all wanted to ask, but didn’t…
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Watch what happens out of this tender moment of Jesus telling the wrong person all the right things…
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Him turning her worst story into her redemption story
John 4:28-38
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people,
She’s in such a hurry, she leaves the very thing she had come there to do – leaves her water jar…
Look what she tells the people of the town…
29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
ILLUSTRATION:
You ever gone through an experience like given someone CPR, they almost died and you, just a normal person saved their life?
Other people just don’t get it, do they? You’re hopped up on the experience and they can’t relate…
that’s what’s happening here.
The disciples think He’s hungry and they don’t know He’s just changed this woman’s world.
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’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. 36 Even 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. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I 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.”
I can’t prove it, but I think as Jesus is saying this, the woman is coming back over the hill with a crowd following her of people who have heard her story. I think he’s saying, “the field is ripe!”
The next thing John tells us is the Samaritans come and believe because of the woman’s testimony. But their belief grows because they come into contact with Jesus themselves.
CLOSING:
One of the craziest things in the world to me is that as followers of Jesus, we’re scared to tell people about Him. Listen, I get it, you’re worried about stepping on someone’s toes, you’re worried about looking like an idiot, you’re worried you won’t be able to answer people’s questions but maybe you’re missing the point.
What people need to hear from you is your story with God
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I was this way, and now I’m a different way
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They need to know how your worst story became your redemption story
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See, when people in your world hear your testimony, “I was this way, and now I’m different,” and you help them come into contact with Jesus themselves – YOU CHANGE ETERNITY
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So, my question today is this…
Who do you need to tell?
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If you don’t have a story to tell – you may need to really look at your life and ask the question, have I brought my worst moment into contact with Jesus?
Don’t miss it today – today could be your redemption story – for the rest of us, let’s tell someone, and then invite them to this place where they can come face to face with Him!
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