Divine Appointment

Text: John 4, Title: Divine Appointment, Date/Place: NRBC, 10/21/12, AM

A. Opening illustration: Demographic information. THRIVE Team long term planning.

B. Background to passage:

C. Main thought: Divine Appointment—an appointed time and place for God to unfold His plan to reach the

world through a particular group or individual.

A. Divine Compulsion (v. 3)

1. Why did he go through Samaria? Why did he speak to a Samaritan woman? 1) Jesus had a clear sense of

calling. He knew the reason that he had come. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross. He knew

he was to seek and save the lost. He had a Joel 2 vision of creating a people who would know the Lord,

and follow Him with reckless abandonment. 2) He knew the Father, and was constantly in submission to

His will, i.e. garden prayer. He knew the greatness of God. He knew the satisfaction of soul that comes

from God. He knew the love and patience of God. He knew the desires of God. 3) He was at times the

hardest preacher, not budging an inch from the word regardless of the degree of difficulty, but at the same

time, he was so full of compassion that the wept, healed, comforted, and raised the dead. Jesus wept over

Jerusalem as it was full of people like sheep with no shepherd.

2. Acts 18:9,

3. Illustration: “…the Lord was compelled to pass through Samaria and stop in a certain village, not to save

time and steps, but because He had a divine appointment there.” –MacArthur,

4. We MUST have a sense of divine calling. God has called us individually and corporately to spread His

message, His word, His gospel all over the world, in every land, in every situation, in every language. As

David Platt says, we are Plan A and there is no Plan B. We must have a clear and compelling vision of

where we are to go, of what we are to be and become. Without that we will perish. And this vision is not

for the leadership, but for everyone. We are to be of one mind and one spirit, with solidarity and unity

of heart, striving to accomplish the purposes for which God has given us in His word and in a diligently

sought vision. This is not to say that we are in a bad place, just simply that maintaining is not where

we want to stay. Continuing to exist is not an admirable goal. 2) Not only has He called us, but He has

commanded us, and we submit to His authority. We purpose in our hearts to do the things in our flesh that

in and of ourselves we would not do. 3) We are compelled not only because of our calling, and because

of His command, but because of His great love by which he loved us. And by the satisfaction and joy that

comes to our souls because we drink at the fountain of living water that will never run dry! But we are

called to come together as a church and be the church, be the hands and feet of a compassionate God who

desires to have a relationship with people. There are things that we must do alone in our lives, but there

are things that we cannot do on our own, and that is why the church exists: to put on display the manifold

wisdom of God to the world.

B. Divine Opportunity (v. 5-7)

1. So what does all this mean on a day like today, when we are dedicating the new building and taking up an

offering? We have a divine appointment! The providential hand of God has dealt us a hand in order for us

to advance against the gates of hell and overcome them!

2. Today we are about to go into this new building that God has blessed us with and share a meal together.

This is something that some of you have been waiting on for many years now. Something that we

have been working on now for over a year. Many of you have put much time and effort into it from

the destruction of the parking lot to the laying of the carpet. But it’s too big. We will now be able to

completely do Wed night supper and church over in this one building. We did not need to build a building

just so we could have variety. God has given us this building so that we can fill it up. Wouldn’t it be

great if we had to have all the main building’s space plus the new building’s space.

3. You, the church, has great location. We are not right it downtown, but not way out. We can reach people