Mountain Life Church/

Thirsty? Mountain Life Church/Life Pack/October 28, 2012

Thirsty? Sermon Notes October 28, 2012 I. The Divine Rest Stop A. Jesus HAD TO GO through Samaria 1. The normal route for Jews to travel 2. The route Jesus took B. This story seems preordained 1. Jesus only did what He saw His Father doing 2. Jesus seemed to know when to be somewhere, 3. What to say, 4. And why He was going there Write any notes from the week here 2 II. The Woman at the Well A. A Social Outcast 1. She gets water at noon 2. She is alone 3. She is divorced many times over 4. She is living with a man B. A Spiritual Seeker 1. She desires what Jesus offers 2. She receives what Jesus says 3. She does not hide her heart from Him III.The Natural Conversation turned Spiritual A. Simple words conveying profound principles B. The amazing guarantee C. The Word of Knowledge 1. The Word of Knowledge defined 2. The gifts were not just for use in the church 3. Jesus uses the gift wisely and with grace 19

Read John 4: 1-44 Table Talk Teens Question One: Jesus left Judea to go to Galilee. Jesus had to go through Samaria. Besides being the shortest route from Judea to Galilee, why do you think Jesus had to go through Samaria? D. The Disciples Natural Mindset 1. Rabbi Eat! 2. I have food to eat you do not know about E. Jesus there you are Mindset 1. This ushers Jesus into supernatural conversations 2. This enables Jesus to give people what they need 3. This helps Jesus to see what the Father is doing 4. This provides the Samaritans with a spiritual awakening Question Two: During Jesus day, the Jews hated the Samaritans and considered them to be no longer pure Jews. Jesus did a surprising thing, what did he do? Question Three: The normal prejudices of the day prohibited public conversation between men and women, between Jews and Samaritans, and between strangers. Also, the Jews do not use dishes Samaritans have used. Especially from Samaritan women, who were considered unclean. Therefore a Jew who drank from a Samaritan woman s cup would become ceremonially unclean. Why do you think Jesus broke all gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic classes and tradition in this encounter with the woman at the well? Question Four: After the woman s encounter with Jesus, where he offers her the gift of God, her spiritual journey and attitude became the same. She first viewed Christ as a Jew, then as a Prophet and finally as the Messiah. Her attitude was first hostel toward Jesus, a Jew, then respect toward Jesus, a Prophet and finally believing Jesus as the Messiah. When you receive the gift of God, the living water, how does that change your attitude? Question Five: Share what the impact was of the Samaritan woman s encounter with Jesus at the well. 18 3

Life Group Questions for October 28, 2012 Good News Series Message =Thirsty? Ice Breaker: Tell the group what makes you feel like a million bucks. Read John 4: 1-44. 1. Tell what you observe about this passage. 2. Talk about how Jesus brought this discussion into a spiritual/ heart level discussion with the woman. Has God enabled you to do this in the past? Please tell the group about how you were used by God to bring a conversation from a normal conversation into a heart level conversation. 3. Randy talked about the Word of Knowledge mentioned in I Corinthians 12. This is where the Spirit enables you to know something that only God should know. Have you ever had a Word of Knowledge before? Please tell the group about it. 4. When you go through the average day, are you focused on God and others to the point that you continually think about how to bring a conversation from the natural to the spiritual? Please share about it with the group. 5. It s as if the Holy Spirit led Jesus to be at the well at just the right time for the woman. Has God ever led you to be in just the right place so you could minister to someone? Has someone ever been in just the right place to minister to you? Share about it. 6. Jesus said, The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Tell what you think this means. 7. Pray for one another. Elementary John 4: 1-44 Table Talk Day 1 - Who in this world knows you better than anyone else? As you think about this person, are there things that they do NOT know about you? Come to think of it, is there something in your life that only you know about? Guess what, there is someone that knows you even better than you know yourself...nothing is hidden from this person...can you guess who that is? It's Jesus! He knows everything about you! This week's passage is John, chapter 4. Read John 4:1-42. Day 2 - In the time of this passage, Jews and Samaritans did not speak to one another, yet Jesus was different and He did speak to the Samaritan woman. What did Jesus say to the woman in John 4:10? As Jesus continued to speak to her, she changed from curiosity into trust and confidence in who Jesus was. Acts 10:34 says that Jesus is no respecter of persons, rather, he shows no favoritism. All are invited to join the kingdom of heaven. You, too, are invited to drink the living water and receive forgiveness and eternal life. Have you made this choice in your life yet? If not, talk to your parents, or your pastor, etc. and make this decision sooner than later! Day 3 - Jesus was very patient and loving in dealing with the Samaritan woman. Jesus told the Samaritan woman, Whosoever drinks of this water will thirst again. The well water represented that which is material what the world offers us. If we thirst after material (worldly) things such as money, popularity, pleasure, and other things of this world, Jesus warns us we will not find satisfaction. We may find a sense of temporary relief, but we will be thirsty again. What do you thirst for? (Give an honest answer). Do you thirst for things of this world of for things above? 4 17

Table Talk Preschool & Nursery: Day 1: Read John 4:1-30, 39-42 Start out reviewing, briefly, about how Jesus called Levi to follow Him even though Levi was a despised tax collector, and how Jesus told Nicodemus about how he can have eternal life. Talk about how this story is about a woman, who is not liked, but gets to meet Jesus and He tells her all about how to receive Living Water. Ask about what good things water does for you. Now ask about what good things Jesus does for you. Day 2: Share again, about how God loves us ALL very much! Even people who are not very well liked by others. As believers, we are called to be like Jesus, and Jesus loves everyone and so should we. Talk about how we cannot live very long without water, and we also cannot live forever without Jesus. We cannot drink Jesus, but we can believe in Him and follow Him to live forever. Jesus is our Living Water! Memory Verse: We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world. -John 4:42 Day 3: Talk about how Jesus knows all about us, and He loves even though we make mistakes or misbehave. Discuss briefly some mistakes or naughty actions that have been a problem lately, pray together for forgiveness for those things, and ask God to help you behave better and be more like Jesus. Activity: Run a family water relay. Divide into two equal groups or go child vs. parent. Provide the first person in each group with a small drinking cup. Position a bucket of water per group at the start line and an empty bucket at the finish line. The group that transfers the most water from the first bucket to the second, after giving each group member a chance, is the winner. Aren t you glad it isn t as difficult to be filled up with Living Water (Jesus)? Personal Devotion Pages The following pages are designed to help you enjoy a regular time alone with God. We have divided up the curriculum to help us grow wherever we are at in our relationship with God and in our knowledge of His Kingdom. LEVELS: Since we are a Colorado church, we use skiing imagery to communicate the different levels of intensity and time involved in relating to God. BEGINNER: If you are new in your relationship with God, we encourage you to try the exercises under this symbol: INTERMEDIATE: If you have walked with God for some time and would like a little more challenge and more time involvement, try the exercises under this symbol: ADVANCED: These exercises are for people who have walked with God for some time and display maturity in their relationship with Him. These exercises provide a practical way to encounter God and His truth on a regular basis. There are no rules here. Please don t hurry through the process. Slow meditation and memorization seems to soak in better than cramming. Enjoy! 16 5

Day One Day Five 1. Take some time to praise the Lord for who He is and enjoy thanking Him for what He has done in your life lately. Jesus replied, People soon become thirsty again after drinking this water. But the water I give them takes away thirst altogether. It becomes a perpetual spring within them, giving them eternal life. ~ John 4:13, 14, NLT 2. Read and meditate on John 4: 1-42. 3. In the space below, write down what God says to you through the passage in John. Memorize John 7: 38-39. Memorize John 7: 38-39 and John 4: 34. Memorize John 7: 38-39 and John 4: 34. Jesus has now successfully transformed this conversation into one that touches the heart. It is said that the deepest level of conversation is one in which people reveal their deepest needs. The heart hungers for a lasting and true fulfillment that comes only from relationship with Jesus. Though we will continue to thirst physically while on this earth, Jesus will meet the deepest thirst of the heart. Jesus prophesies a future event when He promises this woman that she can drink and never thirst. In John 7: 38-39 He says, He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. When a person receives the Holy Spirit, he walks around with his own water supply for spiritual nourishment. A person no longer exists. They LIVE! This is a promise of not only living forever, but of living forever in fulfillment and peace. So, Jesus is not promising the moon and delivering a rock. He never promised what He could not deliver. Father, give me the water that will cause me to never thirst again! 6 15

Day Five 1. Take some time to praise the Lord for who He is and enjoy thanking Him for what He has done in your life lately. 2. Meditate on John 7: 38-39. 3. Take time to pray for people you love who do not know Jesus. Write three of their names in this space and ask the Lord to bring them to Himself. Day One So he left Judea to return to Galilee. He had to go through Samaria on the way. ~John 4:3, 4, NLT John gives us a subtle hint about Jesus submissive nature in this passage. As we have studied now for months, Jesus only did what His Father initiated. He chose to do nothing apart from His Father s direction. The fact that Jesus HAD TO GO through Samaria is an example of such. The average Jew, when traveling from Judea to Galilee would avoid Samaria altogether. They would travel east through Jericho to the Jordan river. They would follow the river north until they reached to shores of the Sea of Galilee and then head west to the villages of Galilee. Jews had NO dealings with Samaritans. They despised them. They chose to avoid their country altogether. But Jesus held no such avarice in His heart and HAD TO GO through Samaria. The following story, if you read between the lines, causes us to wonder if Jesus knew what was going to happen before it happened! The Father had let Him in on His plans for the day, and Jesus HAD TO GO where the Father was working. Such a dependency is foreign to most of us. We are taught from infancy to grow in independence. Our sinful nature before salvation lends itself to independence from God and it becomes our default way of thinking - even when we come to know Jesus. Jesus modeled for us the life that is free - a freedom that comes from joyful slavery to the Father. 4. Finish your Bible memorization today. We spend much of our lives learning to be dependent on the Father as Jesus was. It comes through much tribulation. Such a life of dependency grows through a day by day time alone with Him. As we push into Him in the secret place, our dependency grows quietly, mysteriously, and exponentially. 14 7

Day Two 1. Take some time to praise the Lord for who He is and enjoy thanking Him for what He has done in your life lately. 2. After reading again John 4: 1-44, write down what you learn from the way Jesus shared the Gospel with the woman at the well. 3. Write down the names of people with whom you have erected a wall between you and them. Take time to repent and ask God to tear down that wall in your heart. 4. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you a divine encounter with someone who is spiritually thirsty this week. 5. Continue memorizing and meditating on the scriptures for this week. Day Four Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, Please give me a drink. ~John 4:7, NLT I m looking for a tract, a Four Spiritual Laws, or a Peace with God, or something that Jesus uses here, but I just can t find it. His method is so simple and yet so wise. Jesus has a way of using simple phrases to transform a normal discussion to a spiritual, heart level conversation. In this story, Jesus uses water as His jumping off point. When He asked the Samaritan woman to give Him a drink, He broke down walls of racism and gender discrimination. Though He was asking her for a favor, the request conveyed unconditional acceptance and love. I ve discovered that people in America are not too different from the Samaritan woman. Have you noticed that we like to be loved and accepted by a person before we will accept a message from them? Bill Hybels says it this way, Why is it that if a stranger gives me a two page tract, I ll throw it away without reading it, but if my friend recommends a 1,000 page book, I ll read it joyfully? Most people need to be accepted before they will accept our message. Jesus begins this conversation not because He is thirsty, but because He always thought of others first. As I become focused on others rather than on my own needs, taking a conversation down to the heart level becomes the norm. 8 13

Day Four 1. Take some time to praise the Lord for who He is and enjoy thanking Him for what He has done in your life lately. 2. Meditate again on John 4: 31-44. Ask the Lord if you are a worker in the harvest. Are you invested in helping others know how they can walk with God? 3. Meditate on Romans 8: 1-15. 4. Continue meditating on and memorizing the scripture for this week. Day Two There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give Me a drink. For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman? (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) ~John 4:7-9, NAS Oh boy. Here we go again. Jesus seems to revel in breaking societal rules. Jesus breaks two rules of culture, that we know of, in this passage. In all middle eastern cultures, men do not talk with strange women, and women do not even give them eye contact. To do so is considered EXTREMELY forward and women get bad reputations for even looking a man in the eye. The second rule is even more binding: Jews do not have any dealings with Samaritans. Seven hundred years before this story happens, the country of Assyria invaded the northern kingdom of Israel (made up of 11 of the 12 tribes of Israel). They sacked the capital of Israel and took the majority of the people as captives back to Assyria. The remaining people were poor. Then the Assyrians invited all sorts of other cultures to move into Israel and over time, they intermarried with the remaining Jews. The resulting nation was that of the Samaritans. Because the Jews were so intensely arrogant about the supremacy of their race, they felt that the mixed blood of the Samaritans made them abhorrent. The Samaritans were NOT welcome to come to Jerusalem for the holy days, so as a result, they created their own place of worship. As for the Jews, they avoided Samaritans at all costs. They would not have business dealings with them, eat with them, and they tried not to even cross through their lands. Father, show me where I ve set up walls against other people. 12 9

Day Three 1. Take some time to praise the Lord for who He is and enjoy thanking Him for what He has done in your life lately. 2. Meditate on John 4: 31-44. Write down in this space what Jesus meant when He said, I have food to eat that you do not know about. 3. Ask the Lord again for a divine encounter with a spiritually thirsty person. Ask Him for divine wisdom to share and for a way to bring the conversation into a heart level conversation. 4. Continue meditating on and memorizing the scripture for this week. Day Three For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. ~Ephesians 2:10, NAS In John chapter 4, Jesus stops to rest at a well just in time for His disciples to leave to go buy some lunch and for a spiritually hungry woman to come to the well to draw water. It s as if the timing was foreordained. Paul believed that God prepared beforehand the good things He had in mind for us. I think He learned this from studying Jesus. When we first moved to Fort Collins to plant Mountain Life Church, our team made it a priority to make friends with people who were spiritually hungry. I distinctly remember a discussion with Hank Schilling. Our young sons were in the same grade and both loved football. We contemplated coaching their team, but sensed the Holy Spirit leading us not to coach, but rather, to spend time meeting the parents of the other players. Our first day at practice was foreordained - I m certain of it. We met three young coaches who were students at CSU and we met Casey and Segan Lowham. Through a short time, we found out that the three student coaches were believers but did not have a church home. We started a Bible study in their apartment and our college group was born at Mountain Life. Some of those original students still attend our church. Casey and Segan Lowham were at that time seeking a church home and we instantly became fast and lasting friends. Through the years, we have seen God do amazing things in that family! Father I pray that you will lead me and guide me in the things You have for me this day. 10 11