Embark on a contemplative exploration of sin and salvation as we trace the steps of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Discover how this profound encounter shapes our approach to guiding believers and reaching out to non-believers with grace. We navigate the complex terrain of addressing sin within our own ranks while extending a hand of mercy to those outside our faith. Learn how to embody the peace, joy, and contentment that come from Christ in a way that illuminates rather than condemns, inviting others into the transformative experience of God's love.
Embark on a contemplative exploration of sin and salvation as we trace the steps of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Discover how this profound encounter shapes our approach to guiding believers and reaching out to non-believers with grace. We navigate the complex terrain of addressing sin within our own ranks while extending a hand of mercy to those outside our faith. Learn how to embody the peace, joy, and contentment that come from Christ in a way that illuminates rather than condemns, inviting others into the transformative experience of God's love.
My website is https://www.godslovingsacrifice.com
Speaker 1:
Hello, today is going to be a little different. I'm not sure what to tell you I'm talking about because there are several things going on in my mind, but I do want to start it out with a scripture, and it's going to be a long scripture, so bear with me. We're going to read John 4, 7 through 26. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her Give me a drink. Of course, the disciples had gone away to the city to buy food.
Speaker 1:
Then the woman of Samaria said to him how is it you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her and said If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you Give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. The woman said to him Sir, you have nothing to grow with and the well is deep. Where, then, do you get that living water? Are you greater than our Father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock? Jesus answered and said to her Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst, but the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman said to him, sir, give me this water that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw. Jesus said to her Go, call your husband and come here. The woman answered and said I have no husband. Jesus said to her you have well said I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. In that you spoke truly. The woman said to him Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. Jesus said to her Woman believe me, the hour is coming when you will, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews, but the hour is coming, and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. The woman said to him I know the Messiah is coming, who is called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things Jesus said to her. I who speak to you, am he I didn't read this to tell you about the woman from Samaria. I read this to tell you how Jesus reacted to the woman from Samaria. He knew what her sins were. He didn't call her out and call her an adulterer and tell her she was going to go to hell. He gave her the good news of everlasting life.
Speaker 1:
As Christians, we hear the quote a lot Judge not least. You'd be judged, and that is in fact, proof. But it's not talking about judging other Christians. It's talking about judging people on the outside. If you're a Christian, you have a right to judge other Christians. You have a right to go to those people and tell them where they're sinning and we're going to get into scriptures about that but if they are not Christians, then God judges them. So how should we react when we come up on someone who's talking to us and we know there's in sin? Do we call out that sin or don't we call out that sin? God told us to go into all the world and preach the gospel. He didn't say go to all the world and harass them over their sin. He said tell them the good news. Tell them the good news I live and I give everlasting life. That's what Jesus did to the woman Samaria. He is our example of how we react to people who are in sin.
Speaker 1:
I've had so many conversations lately about people who are doing things that go against what the scripture says. I'm not going to get into what they're doing, but we'll just say they're doing things that's not what the scripture said. And some people say well, you need to tell them that. Well, are they Christians? Are they brothers in Christ, brothers and sisters in Christ? Are they on the outside looking in? What we tell the people on the outside is the good news of the gospel. The way we live our lives, the peace, the joy, the contentment and the mercy that we receive is what they see. That's the Jesus that they see. We need to be that Jesus. Now, jesus didn't call out the Samaritan woman saying you are an adulterer and you're just beneath me. You know, I'm so much better, I believe in God. No, he just said bring your husband. She said I have no husband. He says you're true, you do not have a husband. You've had five husbands. The one you're living with now is not your husband. So she told the truth. He didn't be a little hurt. He said I can give you living water If Christians learn that we are not a person to go out there making accusations and offending people.
Speaker 1:
We shouldn't offend people just because that's rude, but sometimes we offend people for very good reasons. We should not purposely offend people that know the truth. If someone comes and tells you that you need to say something that is untrue about them as a person and you say that, aren't you bearing false witness? Because the truth is that person is not what they say they are and you know they are not. We're not supposed to be involved in their sin. We're supposed to be an example with our lives and we need to be telling them that Jesus saves, jesus gives you eternal life. I've heard a story about a couple that had been together for a long time, a homosexual couple. They had just recently gotten married and they had recently gotten saved, and the question was do you tell them that sin or not? So as Christians, yeah, we could have told them that they said. They said they thought God was okay with it. And if God had said that God is okay with any sin, but your sins no greater than anyone else's. We've all sinned.
Speaker 1:
There's a scripture in the Bible that talks about forgiving A day. If somebody comes to you 70 times, 7 in a day, and asks for forgiveness, you're supposed to give it to them. You know why? Because that's what God does to us. Jesus forgives us for everything that we do. Yeah, we can tell them that's not what the scripture says. But there's also a scripture that talks about taking the log out of your eye. Before you try to get a spic out of someone else's eye, if you're not free from sin and none of us is then don't go trying to correct them until you correct yourself.
Speaker 1:
I want to read 1 Corinthians 5, 9 through 13 says I wrote to you in my apostle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetedness or extortioners or idolaters, since you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named brother who is sexually immoral, covetedness, an idolater, a reveral or drunkard or an extortioner. Not even to eat with such a person, for what have I to do with judging those also who are on the outside? Do you not judge those who are on the inside, but those who are on the outside? God judges. Therefore, put your away yourself from the evil person. When that's talking about put yourself away from the evil person, it's talking about the evil person that is brother to you, that is brother to you.
Speaker 1:
There is something that we need to do when we're around people who are not Christians, who are not in the body of Christ. 2 Timothy 4 1 through 5 says I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and teaching, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things. Endure afflictions and do the work of an evangelist and fulfill your ministry. That's what we're supposed to do with all long suffering Isn't that with patience, with teaching, we show them God?
Speaker 1:
And so many people have turned to God because of people's actions more than their words, and they've also turned away from God for their actions and not always their words. So what we do every day, we have to remember that people are watching us, people are looking for Jesus and we may be the only Jesus these people ever get a chance to know. We are to be Christlike, we are to be an example. We're not to call out people on their sins 2 Timothy 2, 23 through 26 says but avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient and humility, correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. To teach, not to condemn. To be patient, not out of anger, in humility, not in superiority. That's not the way you win people for Christ. Why, I mean some people think that we should not spend time with sinners. Why? Why should we not spend time with sinners Jesus did, but you don't spend time with sinners agreeing with their sin. You don't spend time with sinners saying if their sin's okay, joining in with what they're doing. You don't go out with a drunker to get drunk. That's not what God's asking you to do. He's asking you to be an example.
Speaker 1:
Matthew 9, 10-13 says what happened as Jesus sat at the table in the house that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? When Jesus heard that, he said to them those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick should go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Do you think he ate with them and talked to them and agreed with their sins, or did he tell them the good news? Did he tell them that there was everlasting life ahead for them?
Speaker 1:
When we talk to people, we need to talk about the gospel, the love that Christ has done for us, the things that he's done in your life. You're to be Christlike, the Holy Spirit will convict them. We don't need to do that. We plant the seeds. If they fall on rocky ground and don't take, at least you planted the seeds, but you plant the seeds so that the ones that fall on good soil can be nourished and taught to live for Christ. If they ask you about sin, if they come and say what do you think of that, again, you can tell them what the scripture says, but you don't condemn them for it. You tell them that Christ is the answer, that when you get him in your life, those sins no longer are desirable.
Speaker 1:
Now some people sin constantly, and there are some of the people we're talking to. They think I'll never stop sinning. I'm not going to stop doing this, so I guess I'll never be saved as Christians. How many sins do you create a day? Do you ever tell a story? Don't quite tell the honest truth about something. What kind of sin are we doing daily?
Speaker 1:
The scripture said and I think I said this before if a person comes to you 70 times in a day, you're supposed to forgive them, because that's what Christ does. So if a person's a new Christian, but they continue to sin and they ask for forgiveness every time they ask for forgiveness. God is going to forgive them At some point. The Holy Spirit will work with them. If you lead your life the way you should, possibly you can show them that we are not to be judgmental, we are not to be superior to other people, but we are to use humility and mercy and grace and love the love we receive from Jesus Christ, the love that we give other people because Christ has put it into our hearts. You do those things, and you do it with kindness, so that one day they may receive the gospel, they may believe the Word of God and they may be saved.
