Jesus Meets You Where You Are

Jesus Meets You Where You Are

John 4:6-19
People often think that Jesus could not want them the way they are. People want to say that they could not come to Jesus until they clean up their act. It’s an excuse I hear all the time. And it is a logical excuse. It goes along with human thinking, human nature. Let me point out a few things from this account of the Samaritan Woman.
1. Jesus knew this woman. He knew her inside and out. He knew everything she had ever done. Jesus told the woman to call her husband (v18)…. He did this to demonstrate this fact to her. Jesus knows everything you have ever done. He knows where you are, physically and spiritually.
2. Not only did He meet her where she was at, He was there and waiting. He already knew where she was, physically and spiritually. He was waiting on her. He is there waiting on you. Wherever you are, he is waiting for you to come to him.
3. Jesus still offers the woman everlasting life (14). Knowing she was an adulterous woman, a sinner. Jesus was still waiting on her, with his gift of eternal life. Jesus simply did this because that is what Jesus does.
4. You don’t have to try to be acceptable to Jesus before you can come to Him. You don’t have to clean up your act first. You don’t have to meet Jesus where you think He is at. Where you think He wants you to be, If it could be done that way, you would not need Him!
I want to leave the woman at the well with Jesus for just a little bit, let them finish their chat; we will catch up with them in a few minutes and see how things turn out. But I want to share something else with you right now.

Last Sunday Al asked if some of us would put together our “God Moments”. I want to tell you about mine tonight. Some of you know most of this story, some of you know a little of it, a few of you it is going to be completely new to. I imagine it is going to be quite an earful to some of you.
Several years ago I was in prison. How and why is not really important, but that is where I was. One day a pastor came to visit. I went to see him to get out of the cell for awhile. Any excuse was good enough to get out of the cell for awhile…. Now, this man did not really make much of an impression on me. I don’t remember his name. I don’t remember what he looked like. I don’t know what church he was with. I would not recognize him if I saw him again. I don’t remember anything we talked about. But the man gave me one of those little New Testaments that the Gideons pass out. You have all seen them, the little Bibles with the New Testament, and Psalms and Proverbs. That is all I really remember about this man. But one of these days I am going to shake his hand.
Not long after meeting this fellow, I ended up in a place called solitary confinement. Solitary is where inmates end up when they act in a way that is unacceptable behavior for convicted felons…think about that a second. That should show you the depths I had sunk to. I was there about ten days. I only had a few things with me.
Two orange prison jump suits.
One pillow, two sheets, and a blanket
One towel
One washcloth
One pair of boots. They had taken the laces out; because they were afraid I would try to hang myself with them, and I probably would have.
That’s all I had in that cell besides that little Gideon Bible. After a couple days, I got bored, and I started to read it.
I read Psalm 34, and the 6th verse really stuck in my mind. “This poor man cried and the Lord heard him, and saved Him out of all his troubles.” Now what really struck me about this passage was the poor man part.
It did not say this great man, it did not say this worthy man, and it did not say this deserving man. It did not say this just man; that would be logical right? This poor man. The thought occurred to me that just maybe this poor man was me. Well, I knew I was a poor man at the time, I was a special kind of person, I was a jerk, I was scum, but the rest did not make any sense to me. What was this business about the Lord hearing him, and saving him? But it started me thinking. I tell you what I was thinking: Why should He… And how could He? That’s what I was thinking.
A few weeks later, I went to a prison church service. Again it was just a chance to get out of the dorm. The evangelist preached on Psalm 34:6, “this poor man cried, and the Lord heard Him, and saved him out of all his troubles.” This was the strangest thing. I knew the Lord was speaking to me. I believed in the Lord. But I hadn’t met him yet. I did not know him. This preacher was using the same passage that was troubling me. Oh what was the Lord trying to say to me?
Like so many people, I just couldn’t understand that Jesus was willing to meet me where I was. Even in that place…. Jesus was waiting on me. I was a little more hard headed than the woman at the well, as you will see shortly. I spent the next two years trying to figure out why the Lord should hear a poor man like me. That was a kind of love that was completely beyond my understanding. I spent the next two years trying to get to where God is. Trying to make myself presentable to God. Trying to make myself worthy to come to Jesus. Trying to make myself acceptable to Jesus. It did not work.
Then I got to thinking about the Samaritan woman. I realized maybe if Jesus was willing to meat her where she was, and Maybe if the Lord saved the poor man the Psalmist spoke of, just maybe he could do it for this poor man too. I was still pretty skeptical…. I still tried to think of an intellectual way to explain that kind of love. I was trying to logically justify a love so deep that it is completely beyond human comprehension. Nothing in the realm of human experience can even compare to it.
One morning I just couldn’t wrestle with it anymore. I just accepted that it was. I went to pastor Ernie, and told him I was ready to meet Jesus. I went to the altar that morning, and Jesus met me there. The same Jesus who was waiting to meet me where I was in prison was also waiting to meet me through my own self reliance and pride, through my own guilt and doubt.
I wasn’t skeptical anymore. Jesus saved the poor man in Psalm 34, He offered eternal life to the Woman at the well, and He did it for me, and I have never been the same. Jesus met me where I was at. That’s my God moment.

Now this is what I am here to tell you tonight. If Jesus can meet the poor man in Psalms, if he can meet the woman at the well, if he can meet this poor man in the depths I was in, he can meet anybody, anywhere. That is why I am up here tonight.

Lets go back to Jacob’s well and see what is going on. I am going to read John 4:28-29, Jesus and the Woman have finished up their discourse, and the woman becomes convinced that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah sent to save those who will accept Him. She becomes a believer, and she left her water-pot in her excitement, and ran around town, giving the invitation; “come and see a man”, come and see a man who told me all I ever did. Is this not the Christ?
I want to extend that invitation to you. Come and see a Man. Jesus will meet you regardless of where you are spiritually.

Honor of Father and Mother

Deuteronomy 5:16

Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you; that your days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with you, in the land the Lord your God has given you.

I. We, as Children have not honored Father and Mother.
1. You and I have known people who have fleeced their parents for everything they have.
They have used and abused their positions as caretakers, power of attorney, or estate administrators to further their own greedy causes.
Some have committed their parents to nursing homes so they might gain control of family estates so they could squander what their parents had worked for years to accumulate.
2. Some children have disregarded their Christian heritage and spent their lives in sin. They act as if they never heard the word of God. This is a disgrace to loving parents who pray for them to turn from their wickedness and serve God.

II. We, a parents have shown disrespect for our positions as Mother and Father.
1. Fathers often think it is more important to make a good living and have a blossoming career than to mentor their children.
2. Mothers often think it is more important for the children to have every possible extravagant toy that is on the market than to teach their children to be patient and kind.
3. Both mother and father thinking that each child should be involved with so many activities that they loose their love for being around the people of God, and they loose their desire to learn the Word of God.
4. Fathers and mothers who are so absorbed in themselves that they resign from their responsibilities to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Conclusion: Am I guilty?

Who is Jesus?

Matthew 16:13-16

Have you ever been to a party or a social event where you play a game to guess what kind of job the other guests have, and you can only give a few clues to each other to guess what job or training that person has. Without knowing the other persons character makeup it is a rather difficult task. When my wife and I were younger before we were married we used to attend church camp every year. This one year someone not knowing us walked up to us and asked if we were brother and sister just making an assumption based on how we were acting. We quickly told that person no and that we were dating. Later in the day someone else that knew us said that we were acting like a married couple. It was interesting how in one day two different people could make such varying statements about us. My point is that we can’t really know who someone is or who they are in relation to someone else if we don’t have any facts about them. Knowing important information about others is something that is necessary to know them, I call this having a Character Profile. We can know who Jesus is by looking at what He has done, said, where He has gone, and the lives He has touched. In the past few years it seems to me that more and more comic books are being made in to movies. While filming those movies you often see the actors being interviewed and they are asked how they were able to portray a certain character so well. The actors would usually answer that by studying comics and reading as many as they could and it helped them to understand the character better and to play that character in the movie. Well we actually have a good profile of Jesus it is the Bible. If you want to know who Jesus is just begin reading the Bible and you will quickly begin to know Him. Right away one thing that we can know about Jesus is that He is the Son of God. There are actually several places in the Bible where Jesus is making a direct claim to be God, the first can be found in John 8:58 “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” Jesus is claiming to have existed before Abraham and referring to Himself as I AM. Jesus’ reference to being I AM draws from a statement made by God to Moses, which if found in Exodus 3:14 “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” Jesus also is referred to as God in Luke 22:66-71 “And as soon as it was day, the elders of the people and the chief priests and the scribes came together, and led him into their council, saying, 67 Art thou the Christ? tell us. And he said unto them, If I tell you, ye will not believe: 68 And if I also ask you, ye will not answer me, nor let me go. 69 Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God. 70 Then said they all, Art thou then the Son of God? And he said unto them, Ye say that I am. 71 And they said, What need we any further witness? for we ourselves have heard of his own mouth.” Jesus was hated by the Jewish leaders because of who He claimed to be. For that reason He was crucified, however after His death He proved once and for all that He is God Almighty and that death has no power over Him when He had risen from the dead.
Ask someone who is Jesus Christ and they will probably tell you many different things mostly incorrect things except those that say He is God. Some of the answers people might give are that He was just a Good Teacher. Well my question is if someone were just a teacher why claim to be God if you are not and you just want to be known as a good teacher. How about a Prophet well why would a prophet claim to be God directly A prophet is someone who would have a message from God. Another claim some people would make is that Jesus was just a made up Bible Character and that He was not real and never existed. Sorry you can’t claim this one because history proves He existed we have the writings of Josephus who was Jewish Roman historian. Tacitus who was another Roman historian., and still another Pliny the Younger also a Roman historian. So now we are only left with two choices as to who Jesus Christ really is, He is either Jesus Christ the Lord God, wholly God and fully man or He is a lunatic, just a man claiming to be God. So let me ask you who is Jesus? Is He God Almighty Lord of your life or is He just a man making ridicules claims to be something He is not. If you don’t think He is the Lord God don’t call Him a good teacher because a good teacher would never make ridicules claims to be God. However I challenge you to open up the Bible and read for yourself to see who Jesus Christ is.

What Great Faith You Have!

Hebrews 11

(1) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
---- We do not display our faith by what Gid has provided us to see, touch, or hold. If we display faith it is by holding on to the promises that God has provided in His Word regardless of ever experiencing them in this present life.

(2) For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
---- Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and others believed in God's promises and deliverance before they ever viewed it with their eyes. Indeed some of them never did see the full promise of God in their lifetime.

(3) By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
---- Evelutionists and creationists can battle back and forth and present one argument after another to prove thier reasoning for taking their stands as they do.
However, in the end there is that understanding of faith that is pre-conceived that develops our tenacity to stand where and how we do. We must come to the conclusion that we cannot fully understand nor fully explain why we believe the way we do.

(Read Hebrews 11:4-40)
---- God moments: Everybody has them. You might have had them prior to conversion to Christ but couldn't understand what was taking place. You might have called it luck at one point in your life, but now you know better.
It might have been that day, hour, or moment when God revieled to you the next step of your journey with Him.
It might be when you first asked Jesus to take control of your life.
It might have been that time when you were in such a state of despair that you didn't know where to tour and God revieled His love and purpose for you.

What is your God moment?

Know Jesus?

John 14:15-21

The title of my sermon is a rather simple question. Know Jesus? I want you to think about your answer to this question and by the end of this message you should be able to answer it. Has anyone ever asked you do you know … and you answered I know of … because you really didn’t know that person personally you just heard of them or what they have done. The same can be true of Jesus you can know about Jesus of you can know Him as your Lord and Savior.
We can read all about Jesus and study day and night about Him but if we don’t know Him personally as our Savior and Lord then it was all in vain. We can have a head full of knowledge about Jesus but if we don’t have Him in our heart what good will it do. To know Jesus is to love Him, and let Him be Lord of our lives, one of the ways in which we can show our love for Him is to obey what He commands.
We are not alone in this world the Holy Spirit is hear with us dwelling in the hearts of every believer. He comforts and counsels us. The Holy Spirit teaches us and helps us to understand God’s word. He also directs us in what we should do and should not do. Jesus said, “I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” What does this really mean, well it means that God is with us and we are not alone. Is there something that the Holy Spirit is trying to deal with in your life, if so pray about it and ask for God’s help.

Sing Your Bible

Sunday evening worship

II Corinthians 4:5-15

(5) For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus sake.
--- This is why we are here, to preach the Word of the Lord, to tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may. Our personal testimonies are only the proof of the goodness of God and the consistency of His Word.

(6) For is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
--- Genesis through Revelation speaks of God revealing Himself therough the man Jesus of Nazareth.

(7) But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excelence of the power may be of God and not of us.
--- There is nothing that we can brag about; all tht we have or are is due to the grace and goodness of God. We are nothing, but He is everything.

(8) We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
--- People wonder how Christians can go through so much trouble and still enjoy life.

(9) Persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed---
--- Some people marvel at how Christians can continue to get back up when life continually hits them so hard.

(10) Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal body.
--- What we share with the world ist he death of our Lord Jesus Christ. We live out to life of Jesus by doing what He would do if He were walking in our shoes.

(11) For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
--- If you have not recieved some critisism for your stand in Chirst; it might be because you never really stood for Him.

(12) So then, death is working in us, but life in you.
--- It is an amazing thing, but wherever and whenever the Church of Jesus Christ suffers persecution, the result is a stronger and more active and vibrant church body that wins over even some of those who persecute them.

(13) And since we have the same Spirit of faith, according to what is written, "I bekieved and therfore spoke," we also believe and therefore speak.
--- What we talk about the worl cannot deny; it is the personal experience of each individual believer. Peter told the Sanhedrin that he could not stop telling the truth about Jesus.

(14) Knowing that He who raised up the ord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you.
---- Hey! This is why we are so confident. Jesus alredy made it to the gates of glory. He also has promised that He will personally come back to get us so that we can be with Him forever. If this stuff dowsn't light your fire you'll burn in hell!

(15) For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, having spread through many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.
---- When believers in Jesus are tested and tried, they overcome. We might struggle, we might waiver a bit, and we might even fall; but eventually we get back up and get going and get the job done.
It's like the old Christian that was being persecuted and tortured for his faith in Christ. he kept singing praises and whistling hymns while consoling those around him who were hurting and dying. He was asked how he could suffer so much and still remain cheerful. He said, "I've read the last chapter of in the last book of the Bible; in the end we win."
This is why we are here, to preach the Word of the Lord, to tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may. We are not responsible for how the Word of God is recieved. We are only resposible for the distribution of the Word of God, and only the Word of God. Our personal testimonies are only the proof of the goodness of God.

Keep The Sabbath Day

Biblical Violations Series:

Deuteronomy 5:12-15

(12) "Keep the Sabbath day to sancify it as the Lord Your God commanded you.
(13) You have six days to do all your work:
(14) But the seventh day is the Sabath of the Lord your God: in it you shall do no
work, You, nor your son , nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your
maidservant, nor your ox, nor your ass, nor any of your livestock, nor your
stranger that is within on your property: that they may rest as well as you.
(15) And remember that when ou were servants in the land of Egypt, and and the Lord
brought your out from there with a mighty hand and by a streatched out
arm: therefore the LOrd your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

1. In the beginning God created the hevens and the earth...on the seventh day He
rested.

I have often wondered; why was it that God rested on the seventh day? Was He tired? If He was then we has better beware of wearing Him out with all our many petitions. Relax! I was just kidding! God was not then nor has He ever been wary of doing all that He does. All the people of the earth could be empowered of God and He would not lack a bit of His extreme might and power. So why did He rest on the seventh day?
God knew that we would need a rest at the end of a hard work week and He wanted us to have a special time to pause and reflect on what had been accomplished by His presence in our lives. God didn't rest on the seventh day because He needed it, He did it because we need it. We need time to plan our future and to communicate with Him about our dreams and aspirations.

2. You can have six days to do work.

Some of you can recall when there was litterally nothing open on a Sunday. However, as businesses and social mobility grew, more and more facilities were staying open seven days a week and many have gone to a 24/7 policy. This has been strenuous on minds and bodies as well as machinery; there has been a servere price to pay on the family front as well. We definitely do "Reap what we sow."
We have paid the price of our seven day work week with high blood presure, heart trouble, and an asortment of repedetive motion injuries. There has been a plague of broken relationships in the home and a tremendous rise in divorce and promiscuity among both adults and children.
In all this it seems that even if we do have a day off from work, we fail to find time for our relationship with God.

3. But I have to work on Sunday!

Yes! There are some services that need to be open around the clock on a 24/7 basis and there might even be a need for some of the gas stations and pharmacys to be open. While we're at it I suppose that abourt any business might be capable of finding justification for being open seven days a week. The resposibility for worship and rest then lies on the Christian's who are working and on those who are capable of providing meaningful worship settings for those who need to worship on another day or time.
What time or day do you have? Can I, or another pastor, or perhaps even you organize a worship setting so that you can communicate with God and other believers on your day or time off from work?
Think about it!