Elevation Ballantyne Sermon notes 4/23/2017 Pastor Steven Furtick Sermon Title: Harvest Problems Being Mission Minded and not Meal Minded Scripture: John 4: 34-38 (NIV): 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. John 4: Jesus Talks with a Samaritan Woman: 4 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. 4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, Will you give me a drink? 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. 11 Sir, the woman said, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock? 13 Jesus answered, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. 15 The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that I won t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water. 16 He told her, Go, call your husband and come back. 17 I have no husband, she replied. Jesus said to her, You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true. 19 Sir, the woman said, I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem. 21 Woman, Jesus replied, believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth. 25 The woman said, I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us. 26 Then Jesus declared, I, the one speaking to you I am he. The Disciples Rejoin Jesus: 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? 28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 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? John 4: 390 to Many Samaritans Believe 39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman s testimony, He told me everything I ever did. 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became 1 P a g e
believers. 42 They said to the woman, 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. Pre-sermon notes: Church-wide love week is July 22 to 29, 2017. Got to http://elevationoutreach.com/love-week/. Click the events tab to sign up and serve with 240 outreach partners. Over 1200 people accepted Christ during Easter 2017 simply amazing. Elevation worship: "He Is Lord" Again the wind is raging, But I will not be shaken, For I know, who's in control. The greater One within me Is more than what's against me. He's in control, for I know He'll see me through like before. He is Lord, He is Lord. I'm not afraid anymore. He is Lord, He is Lord. The One who holds tomorrow Is calling me to follow Heart and soul, I will go. The Maker of the promise Will finish what He started. Heart and soul, I will go. He'll see me through like before. He is Lord, He is Lord. I'm not afraid anymore. He is Lord, He is Lord. And at His name the mountains bow. Lift every voice declare it now. Jesus Christ is Lord. And with a shout the walls come down. Lift every voice declare it now. Jesus Christ is Lord. And at His name the mountains bow. Lift every voice declare it now. Jesus Christ is Lord. And with a shout the walls come down Lift every voice declare it now. Jesus Christ is Lord. He'll see me through like before. He is Lord, He is Lord. I'm not afraid anymore. He is Lord, He is Lord. He'll see me through like before. He is Lord, He is Lord. I'm not afraid anymore. He is Lord, He is Lord! Pre-sermon comments by Pastor Steven: Halleluiah and revival. For most of us, the greatest challenge is getting out of our own way. Here, worship is helpful to help you get into the spirit. The redundant and repetitive nature of a good Halleluiah song helps us. What is weird is letting our mind control our lives and remain in a cave where the enemy contains you in thoughts of doubt a factory of fear and self-doubt. Regardless of your location, Halleluiah means the same thing: Praise the Lord. The Psalmist says to praise the Lord oh my soul. Here we have an opportunity to command our state of mind to command our heart and soul and get out of your mind (out of this self-inflicted factory of fear). When we say Halleluiah, we get outside of your mind and take command of our thoughts. We sing Halleluiah. Jesus is our king enthroned. All of the praise is His forevermore. How many like to eat and how many like to cook? Let me hear you if you are hungry? Let us let the Lord feed us today. As a preacher, it is much more fun to cook than it is to eat. John 4: 34 and 35 Harvest Problems John 4: 34-35: 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. Turn to your neighbor and say: The harvest is here! The hardest things to do as a preacher or a Christian is to a. not only understand things on a conceptual level but b. to also understand things on a practical level. Where an abstract thought makes no difference, and has no impact on our everyday lives. It is would be frustrating for me to preach only to make you feel ok for about 45 min and not strengthen you for the long term. Most of us can t relate to an ancient middle-eastern farming proverb for a culture that was dominated by agricultural as in John 4. It is hard to use an agricultural proverb in an App-store culture. Context is so important. Without context, we have trouble relating to others. With every concept, there needs to be a context. Context is how you have compassion for someone. 2 P a g e
Consider the difficulty in taking about unity within a multi-racial church or within a society that has de-facto racism. Concepts are sexy but may not play-out well in other cultures. For example, consider blessed church problems like trying to find parking in a growing church after Easter during a rain storm. This is what we call a first world problem. Pastor Steven has been preaching for 21 years. Consider Joshua 6 where the Hebrew people shouted until the walls fell-down. Explaining this without context is a bit weird. This would be hard to understand until we understand the context. There are things that are keeping you from the promises of God and the other side of the wall is the promise. So praise him to get past what is blocking you? Embracing powerful worship to fight through every partition, and every difficult life situation? Take for examples the phrase you are more than a conqueror in Romans 8. Does that mean that you now have a life without any conflict? No - of course not. How can we conquer and succeed without conflict? What are you going to fight with, your couch cushions? (A Pastor Steven Classic). The word church is an interesting context vs. church 2000 years ago. The church was not a building nor was it a 503c corporation. Back in the day, church was not where they went, it was where they were. Thus, term going to church would have been foreign to early Christians. Also consider the term worship - To Paul, he would not understand our present-day worship. To Paul, in view of God s mercy, your life ought to be like a sacrifice and you are dead to yourself and you become a new creation in Christ. Paul says that your life ought to be like this act of worship and you become alive to God. Where Paul says, your testimony is your spiritual act of worship. Today we use terms that were never intended to be use and we water-down the meeting. So, this becomes a performance rather than participating in it rather than contributing we merely consume. And then we consume what we are told and do not apply the wisdom that we receive. To understand the concept, we have to know the context. The word harvest is often misunderstood. As Pastor Steven s Mom would say: you would not know the word harvest if it came up and hit you beside the head. How many of you have real farm experience? (and I am not talking about growing cucumbers in the back yard). When we hear the word harvest, we think of break-through where the wall finally came down. We are happy and God is about to do something wonderful in our lives. We think that God is about to hook-us up. To the seasoned farmer, the word harvest means more of lots of hard work where we reap what we sow after many months of hard work. To the farmer, they say, the corn is not going to pick itself. During the harvest, the days are long. The wake up is early and the workday is late. One preacher says that the harvest is the hardest part. The harvest is not a Krispy cream hot now sign. Harvest is not a drive through where I pick it up because microwaving something takes too much time. The harvest is what you reap and you can t reap sitting in chair with your feet up. Consider Easter. To a pastor, Easter is exhausting. However, reaping the results of Easter is truly awesome. For some Easter was merely a free Elevation pen that is used for un-godly purposes. What you received in a down-load, somebody had to dig out. It takes work to prepare a down load. Where you are able to reap what someone else sowed. Recall the Eastern message where Jesus had to go to Samaria (a place of great cultural conflict). The Jews hated the Samaritans and there was conflict. 3 P a g e
Today we use the term Good Samaritan back in the day the Hebrew people hated the Samaritans for desecrating Jewish traditions and being half-breeds where the term good Samaritan would be more like the good ISIS fellow. And Jesus walked directly into the conflict to meet a thirsty woman at a well during the middle of the day. The women had five husbands and this was her a pattern. If you had five husbands, this was not just a bad decision this would be a pattern. If you need new friends every two years and you can t keep anyone of them, this is a pattern and sustainable relationships might not be your thing. It is a pattern. Jesus tells the women at the well that if you drink from His well, you will not need another husband to satisfy you. Where her biggest problem is her greatest opportunity. Recall that the Samaritan women wants to keep things at the abstract conceptual theoretical level. However, Jesus does a deep dive into her personal situation where Jesus addresses something within her. Where this man is different than all the other men that were broken jars that could not hold water. This one is different. Could this be the one? If the matter is not right within, the job, the income, or the situation is not the root of the problem. She had to discover - as we have to discover, that the biggest issue lies within. In John 4:27-29: The disciples want out for a meal and then re-joined Jesus at the well. From the perspective of the disciples, this was not good PR for Jesus to be talking to this woman. While Jesus is sitting near the well, the Samaritan women can t retrieve any water where she is not yet aware of Jesus is going to teach here a bigger life lesson. She does not know this yet and is confused like any spiritual journey, it will always appear to be confusing at first. The only way to clarity is to begin in confusion where you have start where you are and not where you want to be. When the woman challenges Jesus for not having a bucket, Jesus is probably thinking. The Samaritan women is going to become the bucket by the nature of her conversion and testimony. Jesus wants to create a bucket to expand his ministry in a region where modern religion had quarantined and avoided. Jesus is saying: I need to get some water into this region and I need a bucket. A Pastor Steven Classic: Are you on Jesus bucket list? We have a saying a Elevation Church: See what God can do through you. Some folks came to church today not looking for a blessing and not to see what God can do for them. They came to be a bucket the ushers, the welcome team, the ekids volunteers, and the parking attendants. See vs. 28: The disciples are concerned about Jesus intentions. The women then retrieved people from her village to witness this new well. The disciples did not understand that situation because they were meal minded. The next meal, the next career, the next crisis, etc. Many of us living in the next meal. The next relationship. The next career. We need focus on what is going on inside. We need to think about the mission. Not the next meal. The mission determines your focus and your passion. Jesus had to go to Samaria. Say this: I am on a mission. While on this mission, there are some calls that you can t return, some opportunities that I have to say no to, and some meals that I can t eat - because it s harvest time. And it is not going to pick itself. Say this: I can t hand with you, it is harvest time. We have to reap the harvest before it rots. 4 P a g e
And some of you keep waiting for the blessing of God that he gave you, but it is rotting because you are not reaping. It is reaping time. The disciples were thinking about a happy meal and Jesus was thinking about a harvest. If you are meal minded your need for comfort and your need for preference has kept you from your purpose. How long are you going to keep coming here and just consume? Aren t you ready to reap something to see what God can do through you? Reapers rejoice. It is Harvest time. Your work is not in vain. It is harvest time. For the 1200 people that accepted Jesus during Easter, you had a part in that. Our tithe (1/10 th ). This is how we acknowledge the blessing. It is not a sacrifice but a blessing to give. Jesus says: Keep your meal. You eat and I will reap. I have a purpose to fulfill. What is the harvest? The harvest is Him. This is a farm to table sermon. But what we need is a sermon to the table sermon. For teenagers that have friends without focus: Tell them, you eat and I will reap the harvest. Because the seeds of your future are in your faithfulness of today. So, tell your friends: go ahead and eat and party because you have a purpose to fulfill. See John 35: The fields are ripe for harvest. It is coming. Put down the waffle fries and the milk shake and see the harvest. Stop looking at what is in the little bag of food. And what do they see: The fields are ripe to the harvest. They see the blessing. When Jesus said this to his disciples, what did the disciples see? Men of the village coming up to the well at the urging of an inspired woman. The Samaritans are coming and they represent the harvest. Let your eyes see the true nature of the harvest. What the Hebrew people called the problem (the on-going conflict with the Samaritan people), Jesus calls the harvest. The harvest is here right in front of us. What you call a problem, heaven calls a harvest. We tend to want wait for everything in our life to be right as a condition to feeling blessed. To have joy, to give back, the help others. The harvest is here. The harvest is the words that you use to comfort others. The harvest on the horizon looks (at first) like an array of problems. And it is hard work and does not always come easy. Here come the racial differences, here comes discrimination. Here come the deficits. Here come the Samaritans. Jesus says: Here is your harvest. If the devil can keep you from recognizing it, the devil can keep you from reaping it. If we only look at problems, we do not understand the purpose behind the problem. All that stuff that is coming to you this week it coming to you looking like a problem. What if God is using the hardest things in your life right now to do in your heart what you have been asking God to do all along. This is the definition of a harvest. Do you see this? Here is the application: For all of us that have been so focused on what we are not getting, that we don t have yet, the harvest is here. We need to stop staying WTF where s the food? And get out of a meal mindset 5 P a g e
This week walk towards your problems and don t run from them. Embrace your problems. Ask this question: WTH? Where is the harvest? So, when a bad report comes in this week, don t be afraid and discouraged. My kids are acting crazy! Your response: Where is the harvest? This is an opportunity to show grace and understanding. The harvest is right there - in your problem. If the ground of your heart is ready to receive, then look for the harvest even if it looks like something that you hate or looks like something that you are trying to avoid. This is not a quick fix like the #3 combo at McDs you will have to chew on this a bit. Ask God for insight and understanding. Closing prayer by Pastor Steven: What is it that you are calling a problem that God is calling a harvest? Learn how to reap and learn how to harvest. Father, we thank you for the harvest. God, I thank you in my hardship - food to eat that you know of. There is something that will keep us going on the inside. It is called a mission. Look to the fields in front of you. Look beyond what we feel. Look beyond what it looks like on the surface. The harvest in here. The kingdom has come. It is harvest time. We come to rejoice. We receive it. Closing song by Elevation Worship: Like a flood; like a flood, We receive Your love When You come. Like a flood; like a flood. We receive Your love! And with great, anticipation, We await, the Promise to come Everything, that You have spoken, Will come to pass, let it be done! We receive Your rain. 6 P a g e