The Gospel Changes Everything Week 2

                                    John 4:1-42  

Theme: When we look in the Bible no one has ever come face to face with Jesus and walked away from Him the same! It is impossible to experience the Gospel and it not change your life completely! The Gospel changes our Hearts and Heart change brings life change! This is a 3-week series looking at how the Gospel truly changes everything!

Major Points:

1.. Jesus is the living water!

The main point of this passage is: Only Jesus can satisfy the thirst of your heart.

You were created by God for God. Nothing else will do it!

We all fall into wells that leave us thirsty again and again and again! 

What well are you running to?

A.. The Pride of Life

For some of us, our well is the pride of life! Were Just looking to life to fulfill us.

But true life is found in Jesus! He is the way the truth and the LIFE.

Don’t Look to this life (world) to satisfy you.

Don’t fall for the Merry Go Round of Normality.

Where you just wake up, eat something, go to work, sell something, come home, eat something, drive something, watch something, go to sleep. Repeat. Again and Again and Again and Again.

Don’t allow the biggest prayer in your life to be “think God it’s Friday.”

You’re looking to the world to give you “rest” and satisfaction and it hasn’t done it yet so what makes you think it's going to ever?

B.. The Lust of the eyes

For some of us, we get sucked into the lust of the eyes!

We see some stuff and we say… if I can just get some more of that, then I will be satisfied.

Some call this the cul-de-sac of stupidity. (Round and round we go) 

We think, if I could just get a new house… move into that neighborhood… get some new clothes… get that car… get that boat… get that TV… then ill be satisfied! Then we actually get the thing that we wanted and boom it lets us down. Or maybe it holds us up really high for a few days, a few weeks, a few years, and then boom it drops us on our heads leaving us thirsty and wanting more of what we already had!

C.. Lust of the flesh

For some of us, we fall into the lust of the flesh.

This is where we want to feel a certain way. This can be pornography or popcorn and everything in between. It can be a relationship with someone that you think will complete you or fulfill you. It could be seeking fulfillment at the end of a bottle. You can pour yourself into drugs or pour yourself out in the gym. It is all the same! It’s one thing to enjoy God’s good gifts for his glory and it’s another to try to find glory in those gifts!

Questions:

Q1- What are some ways you fall into the marry-go-round of normality? The routine of life.

Q2- What is it right now that has your eyes fixed on it for satisfaction other than Jesus?

(Give some examples of past ways you’ve experienced the lust of the eyes)

Q3- Are there things that your flesh lust after that lead to emptiness? Name some.

2.. The Gospel is personal

The Gospel isn’t just an intellectual message we receive. It’s a 1 on 1 encounter with a person! The Grace of God! An encounter with the God of the universe that leaves us changed forever! This is what we see in John 4 with the woman at the well! She was changed forever.

A.. Jesus made a divine appointment with this lady

The text says that “He had to go through Samaria.” The truth is He didn't have to do anything! The truth is He didn’t have to go through Samaria by route, He had to go through Samaria by divine appointment.

Jesus seeks her out!

Jesus cares about the 1!

Jesus leaves the 99 and goes to find the 1.

This lady is a picture of that 1. 

B.. Jesus meets her exactly where she is.

He wasn’t scared of her sin.

He wasn’t interested in the opinions of others about her.

He didn't want the cleaned-up version of her.

He met her in her brokenness.

He met her in her shame.

And this transformed her life! 

C.. Jesus didn't condemn her, he saved her!

In love, He confronted her sin and led her to repentance and salvation.

That’s what love is! That's what love does! 

There is no salvation without a right view of our sin. (Without it, we don’t need Jesus)

D.. Jesus doesn’t do fake! (Go get your husband)

Jesus wasn’t satisfied with fake easy believism.

He isn’t interested in saving the fake version of you.

Honesty is the prerequisite of God doing a work in your life.

You can try to fake him out but Jesus knows the real you. And it's in that space that He loves you! And it’s that Love that changes us into whom he wants us to be!

For some of us, the reason the Gospel isn’t doing a transforming work in our life is that we keep trying to Jesus juke God! STOP! 

Tim Keller says it like this.

The gospel is this: “The gospel says you are more sinful and flawed than you ever dared believe, but more accepted and loved than you ever dared hope.”

Questions:

Q1- How did Jesus make a divine appointment with you?

Q2- Why is it important that we understand that Jesus meets us exactly where we are in our sin? (This is diff from any other religion, and different than anything our world is used to.)

Q3- How does Jesus’ response to her sin different than anything she’s ever experienced before in her life? How does that change everything?

Q4- How did she try to Jesus juke Christ? What are some ways we try to Juke Jesus when he is dealing with our hearts personally? (She brought up religion)

3.. The Fruit of true salvation

This lady's life changed completely after her encounter with Jesus! Because that is what the Gospel does, it changes and transforms our life! The Gospel doesn’t just save us from something in our past, it brings us into something in the present and the future! God begins to shape and mold us into the image of His son! This work doesn’t stop until we breathe our last breath and go to be with Jesus!

It is impossible to encounter the Grace of god salvificly and walk away from it the same! 

A.. She left her water jar! Vs 28-29

The text doesn’t give us much here, but one thing is for sure, she left what she came for behind because she found something better! She left behind her old life of sin and went in a new direction with her life.

B.. She embraced the mission! Vs 39-42

She went and told everybody about what Jesus had done for her.

God used her to basically start a revival in her city! You never know how God will use our obedience! Here He uses it to save lives!

Questions:

Q1- What did you leave behind when the gospel changed your life? (What’s your water jar)

Q2- How has the gospel compelled you to live on mission? (Has it?)

Closing Prayer:

Pray for life change for everyone in your group! Pray that we would encounter Christ in an all-new way this Easter season!