SAMARITAN WOMEN
JOHN 4: 4-26
Speak Up.......
There was a time in my life that I would preach to you in a heartbeat. I would give the 5 steps to success and if you will do this and say that and be this or be that, then whatever it is troubling you will go away. I did that, and I did that with a smile on my face. As a newly born again person, I was outspoken and a bit brass. I was still in the refining fire you see, and those days were days of my upbringing so to speak. I was going to save the world and you had better not get in my way. I had arrived and Jesus and me was all that the world needed. I sure can laugh at that now, but I am sure that I offended many a person during those childhood days. It was not that I thought that I knew everything, it was that I had just found Jesus and wanted every one to know Him but had no knowledge of the word of God and left myself wide open for failure. And fail I did. So, to say to me “Denise, stop preaching” was applicable back then, but today, well I think not. There is an interesting statement in the New Testament made by the apostle Paul.
1 Corinthians 2:1-2 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
2. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
Now Paul had spent many years being taught by the Holy Spirit, and when he revealed himself to the other disciples he was well learned from the Master. However, the apostle Paul was careful to only preach Jesus and Jesus crucified. In other words, it is not what I know; it is not what I think, or what I think I know. It is the knowledge of Jesus Christ that I share with you. It is in the knowing of the man called Christ. It is at the name of Jesus that demons tremble, it is at the name of Jesus that sickness and disease flee. It is in His name that we approach the throne room of God. It is in the shadow of that name that we proclaim freedom to the enslaved and speak joy to the brokenhearted.
There were times in my past that I was full of self and I sat upon the throne of my life. I took control and went out of control at a rapid rate. My conversation would be full of I’s. It was not hard to see who was sitting upon my throne. BUT, I was a student in the school. Christ had begun a good work in me and He would see to it that He finished what He started.
Php 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
He had started a work in my life, but my life was a mess and He had to tread through some stuff. I am here to tell you there were piles of stuff. But He is faithful to finish what He has started, and I think a lot of those years it was just He and I. I am sure that I ran some people off; I am sure of that, and just when I thought that the stuff was cleaned out, along came another dark place in the road and low and behold there was another pile of stuff. There is not a one of us that call Jesus Lord that did not have piles of stuff for Him to sort through, not a one of us.
However, if we give in to the leadership of the Holy Spirit and we surrender our lives to the one that made heaven and earth, then He will begin to mold and refine us, making us into the image of His Son. It is at this place that our hearts cry out to be; it is the image of Christ that ever so gently nudges us forward. It is in the forward motion in the early years that I became a bit, should I say, mouthy? There, I have said it, and there are those of you out there I am sure that were waiting for that very confession.
Now, today, I profess to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I am not saying that all my piles are gone, I don’t think so. What I am saying is that through the years I have found that it is Jesus, It is Jesus, and it is Jesus.
If you have a question, the answer is Jesus, if you have problems with money, the answer is Jesus, if you have shame and disgrace in your life, the answer is Jesus. You see, there is no question that you can ask me and the answer not be the same, Jesus.
In the past I would have offered you fancy words and quoted you my 12 steps to getting all your prayers answered. I would have relied on my knowledge (or the lack thereof) and in doing I would have left you with nothing but empty words void of the spirit of God. Jesus was not exalted, grace was not applied and that person was left with many an unanswered questions.
Today, I say to you that I do not have the answers, I only know the one that has, and His name is Jesus. I can tell you of the depths of darkness that He has delivered me from. I can tell you of the brokenness of my heart and my spirit that He somehow healed. I can tell you that I once cried all the time because I hurt inside and now I cry all the time because I do not hurt.
I cannot stand silent and listen to what is being said and not share with you Jesus. If you choose to pour out of your heart and all those things that burden you, then I will give you Jesus. Every time I tell of the Love of God in my life, every time that I share with you that He has taken me from a very dark pit, every time you desire from me sympathy I will point you to the giver of life, and His name is Jesus.
Jesus does not alter our personalities when He saves us; He removes from us the residue of the world and refines us to be the creation that He has made. I am very very extroverted; and in my new birth, that did not change, but over the years it is being refined. I am more aggressive with the gospel now than I ever have been, but I no longer have any answers for you, I only point you toward the one that does.
When the woman at the well left her water pot and headed to the city, what do you suppose that she said to those men? I am pretty sure that she was not filled with fancy words and long speeches. She did not have a 5-part plan for salvation to give to those men of the city. Fancy words were not even in her vocabulary, yet she evangelized an entire city, how? John 4: 29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? 30 Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.
Come and see this man, He has told me all that was wrong in my life. I can almost promise you that there were no fancy words, and most of all there were no I’s in her testimony. She pointed them to Jesus and in few short verses in John chapter 4; an entire city was won to Christ.
I say to any man or woman that stands of abuse to look up and see Jesus headed their way, to any man or woman that has spent night after night alone crying tears over lost love only need to look up and see the lover of their soul standing with arms outstretched. I say to men and women who have stood at the well of depression and despair that there is a Savior that is touched by their heartache. He is the Master as He speaks death to the depression and gives hope for the despair. We live in and amongst a lost and dying world, and they need Jesus. They do not need fancy words or long sermons that leave them thirsty and dry. We do not need to come with excellency of speech or of wisdom, but only the knowledge of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
1Co 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
1Co 1:21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
If you have met the Savior and your life has been changed then you are commissioned by Him to spread the gospel......... We have been given all power to take the good news to the lost and the dying............. so I say to you........... where you live in your world ...........Speak up.......... There are those within the sound of your voice that need the Savior..................
