“Count conversations, not conversions.”
Sermon Title: COUNTING CONVERSATIONS
Scripture Text: JOHN 4:4-26
Sermon Series: HERE I STAND: BUILDING A STRONG FAITH
Sermon Notes:
JOHN 4:4-14 NIV
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 the sixth hour.
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. )11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?”
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 flocks and herds?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
What scares you?
PELADOPHOBIA
Fear of bald people
ENTHRERAPHOBIA
Fear of mother-in-law
ABLUTOPHOBIA
Fear of bathing
OSMOPHOBIA
Fear of body odors
CHROMETOPHOBIA
Fear of money
EVANGELOPHOBIA
Fear of Evangelism
“On average, 30% of the people who approach me after weekend services … have one thing on their minds: how to get one of their lost friends or family members found. Whether it’s a dad or an uncle or a neighbor or a boss who is spiritually adrift, countless numbers of Christ-followers … express their heartfelt concern for someone far from God.”
“Each time, I offer the same question in response … ‘Why don’t you help point them to God?’ I ask. Almost to a person, the idea itself seems ludicrous: I could never do that! I just wouldn’t know what to say. That’s really not my gift. Not my personality. I would screw it up. And anyway, that’s what you [professionals] are for!” – Bill Hybels, Just Walk Across the Room
MARK 1:17 NIV
17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”
LUKE 5:10 NIV
10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men.”
ACTS 4:19-20 NIV
19 But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. 20 For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
Count conversations, not conversions.
1 CORINTHIANS 3:5-7 MSG
5 Who do you think Paul is, anyway? Or Apollos, for that matter? Servants, both of us--servants who waited on you as you gradually learned to entrust your lives to our mutual Master. We each carried out our servant assignment.
6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow. 7 It’s not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow.
Count conversations, not conversions.
Sharing the gospel simply means talking about our faith in simple, everyday conversations.
JOHN 4:5-9 NIV
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 the sixth hour.
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. )
I. BE OPEN TO OPPORTUNITIES, NOT CLOSED
But Jesus saw opportunity, not the reasons.
“The longer a person attends church, the fewer evangelistic discussions they engage in with family members and friends. Fewer presentations of the life-changing plan of salvation are given, and fewer invitations to events that attractively present the message of Christ are offered, mostly because Christ-followers have fewer friends outside the faith to whom to offer them.” – Bill Hybels –
II. BUILD BRIDGES, NOT BARRIERS
JOHN 4:7 NIV
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”
Relationships thrive on small talk.
BRIDGING BARRIERS
TAKE INITIATIVE
BRIDGING BARRIERS
DON’T BE JUDGMENTAL
BRIDGING BARRIERS
BE YOURSELF
III. POINT TO JESUS, NOT RELIGION
JOHN 4:19-26 NIV
19 Sir, the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, 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 spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in 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 who speak to you am he.”
Jesus brings the conversation right back around to her response to God.
Ultimately it’s about each person’s response to who Jesus is.
“No life is great that does not point to Christ.” – Vance Havner
Count conversations, not conversions.
The Christian life isn’t just about what happens between life and death. It’s how God uses all of what’s in between for the sake of something that’s eternal.