Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Good morning church!

I am so excited to be with you this morning!

Listen: you picked the greatest day to be at church because today we’re kicking off a brand new series- Takin’ It To The Streets.

Over the next couple of weeks, we’re going to be taking a look at what it might look like if as a church we commited to living life on mission.

Now, when we say “on mission” or we talk about the word “Mission”, maybe you start thinking about missions trips or living in a third world country and sharing the gospel.

But if we zoom out a little bit, in a broader way, when we say “mission”, we are talking about an important task or assignment.

The word ‘Mission’ is defined this way, you can see it on the screens: it’s a task coupled with a passion or conviction also defined as being sent for a specific purpose.

God the Father sent Jesus to be here with us to be the Living Gospel to bring hope to a lost and hurting world.

There was a specific task, and deep sense of passion with this sending.

And today, Jesus has sent us out to share and proclaim that same gospel to our communities because He is passionate about seeing the lost come home!

Swimming Illustration:

There’s a guy named Samuel.

When Sam was in elementary school, he found out that he was the only kid in his class who couldn’t swim.

Once a week, his class went to the school swimming pool for lessons.

But the swim teacher really didn’t know what to do with him.

See, up to that point, all of her other students could already swim, even if they weren’t that good.

So when they got into the pool and started class, all his instructor would do was yell at him: “swim!”

But the command was useless to him.

If he could already swim, he would have been doing it!

So yelling “swim” at him didn’t make him magically receive the ability to swim.

So he spend most of those classes clinging to the edge of the pool.

See, If people can’t swim, there’s no point in yelling “swim” at them.

But this is exactly the way many pastors and christian leaders try to motivate believers to evangelize, isn’t it?

Urging just people on a Sunday morning, “Tell your friends about Jesus” without telling you how can just make you feel guilty, overwhelmed, and disheartened, right?

But you and I weren’t made to just cling to the edge of the pool.

And the truth is, that sharing our faith shouldn’t be something that puts knots in our stomaches.

And my desire is that today, God’s Word will put you at ease and give you the confidence to push off the edge.

So today, I want to start the conversation of living “on mission” by sharing our faith without having to be afraid or feel uncomfortable.

If you have your bible with you, go ahead and open it up to John chapter 4. If you don’t have a bible with you today , its completely fine, we’ll have it up on the screens and if you don’t have your own copy of the bible, please make sure you stop by one of the prayer stations up front and one of our amazing Dream Teamers would love to get you one before you leave today.

John 4, let’s start with verse 1. Let’s read that together...

Passage

This morning as we open up this series I want to preach to you a message I’ve simply called ‘Jesus’ Passion’.

Will you pray with me?

Pray

Video: Woman at the Well (4:36)

Jesus’ Passion.

In our passage, we see a woman with a desperate need, not unlike many others in the city.

But why Jesus ministered to this woman remains a little bit of a mystery.

See, unlike the others in the city: she didn’t seek Jesus out.

He came looking for her.

We read that He came to a small village in Samaria and engaged in a conversation with a woman of questionable character.

This was a woman whose own people rejected her.

This was a woman marked by regret and remorse.

And as we look deeply into this passage, we see four things that Jesus did that can serve as a model for us as we set out to take the gospel to the streets.

First, we see that...

1. Jesus Passionately Pursues the World

Jesus’ ministry in Judea was growing too popular for the Pharisees, so He decided it was time to go to Galilee, where the authority of the Sanhedrin was less rigorous.

And when the text says “Jesus had to go through Samaria”, it doesn’t mean it was the only route to travel.

There were a couple of different routes that Jesus could have used to get to Galilee:

(1) The first one was longer, and it was the one more commonly traveled route by self-righteous Jews.

The reason being that this one would have taken him around Samaria and along the Jordan Valley.

Remember: Jews and Samaritans didn’t get along.

And because of the family history of the Samaritans, the Jews always saw them with suspicion and mistrust.

For me it’s like when I would go downtown with my friends and my parents would warn me about Spring Street.

There were feelings associated with Samaria for them.

(2) The other route was shorter, and more direct route that would have taken Jesus through Samaria.

And knowing well the prejudice of the day: Jesus would have no part in it.

He won’t bypass anyone on this planet that is in need of Him.

And Jesus travels this second route, the woman is surprised at the appearance Him- a Jew- in the middle of Samaria.

She was alone and by a well at noon, the hottest time of the day.

She would have much rather come early in the morning with the other ladies.

But because of her past and maybe some bad decisions: she would rather endure the heat and isolation than the cold stares and whispers.

At one time she was a beautiful woman – but now she had aged beyond her years with deep scars in her heart.

She had endured five unsuccessful marriages, broken relationships, and abuse.

She was now living with man #6… and even in spite of the hurt she experienced, there was no marriage on the horizon with this one.

So isolated and alone, she carries a much heavier emotional load than the water pot she came to fill.

“How did my life get so messed up?

Where did it all go wrong?”

But this day would change her life forever.

Jesus, in passion, had come on mission to seek and save the lost.

Listen, church: this is the kind of weight that those in Goose Creek are carrying each and every day.

Everyone everywhere needs to hear about Jesus.

No one, no matter how far away or disconnected they may be is outside the reach of His passionate pursuit.

So what does passionately pursuing the world look like in our life as we set out to share our faith?

It simply means going where the need is.

Just as Jesus didn’t bypass Samaria, we shouldn’t bypass those difficult neighbors or annoying coworkers.

Because everyone everywhere needs to hear about Jesus.

But not only does Jesus passionately pursue the world, we also see that...

2. Jesus Freely Offers New Life

Today, we go to any faucet in our house or any water fountain just about anywhere and just turn the handle- water!

But this woman had to make a journey everyday to get that basic necessity!

So Jesus arrives at the well, He’s tired and thirsty, and He asks this woman for a drink of water.

But as they talk, we know that this encounter led to a much more in-depth conversation about Spirit and Thirst and Living Water.

Can’t you just see God at work?

He isn’t there to simply quench her physical thirst – He was there to meet her greatest need.

This conversation happened at Jacob’s well- a historical sight that would have represented the old order of the law.

Do this, and God will approve of you.

But the amazing thing was that God’s age of grace had come in Jesus.

See, the law could not bring life, and she well knew it.

Only the Spring of water – springing up to eternal life could.

We know that Spring is Jesus.

Speaking of Jesus, look at what the prophet Isaiah says...

When Jesus comes on the scene: everything changes!

I love how Jesus paints this picture: see, he reminded the woman that though she found fulfillment in the water from Jacob’s well, that water could dwindle in supply.

It could be filled with rocks and debris.

And isn’t this just what we do?

We tend to place our hope and trust in the quick fixes that bring us satisfaction immediately, even though though they aren’t lasting solutions.

But the Living Water of Jesus offers an eternal quench for the woman’s deepest thirst forever – not just for a day!

Church: every place of worldly amusement or pleasure and all the things that seem to offer us security will ultimately run dry.