Turning Religious Reluctance-14

TURNING RELIGIOUS RELUCTANCE-XIV—John 4:21-42(:1-42)

Turning the Religious Lost

Attention:

Pointless Note(Wrong/Useless/Accomplishment/Timely/Efficiency/On the Job/Good Worker/Taking Care of Business)

Soon after a high-tech company moved into a new building, there was trouble with the elevators. A manager got stuck between floors &, after some door banging, finally attracted attention. His name was taken & rescue promised.

It took two hours before the elevator mechanic arrived but had no trouble getting the manager out no worse for the wear.

When he returned to his desk, he found this note from his efficient secretary: “The elevator people called & will be here in two hours.”

The secretary, though efficient, needed to be turned from her ‘oblivious’ ways so her manager would have received some degree of comfort for his limiting situation!

The Church exists to turn the world away from it’s errant way!

Everybody lives by a ‘religion’—a set of spiritual & secular values that they hold to. These may be right or wrong.

Everybody has a belief system to which they subscribe—right or wrong.

Even atheists live by their atheism! Thus they are a religious people too.

All of these may be ‘reluctant’ to turn, But by the power of God, they are turnable nonetheless!

*We are all called as God’s witnesses to turn those who headed for disaster...“Go therefore & make disciples of ALL the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father & of the Son & of the Holy Spirit, teaching THEM to observe all things that I have commanded you; & lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.”!(Matthew 28:19-20)...

Jesus bore witness of His Messianic identity to a reluctant/hesitant but religious woman.

God’s people bear witness of Messiah’s/Jesus’ identity to reluctant religious people.

How/When will God’s people turn the reluctancy of the religious?

OR--What will turn that religious reluctancy around?

Some insights toward turning religious reluctance to God.

Previously as we looked in these verses we found that,

Turning religious reluctance to God requires...

1. SERVICE Insight(:1-3)

2. CONSEQUENTIAL Insight(:4-6)

3. COMPASSIONED Insight(:7-8)

4. BLIND/UNHINDERED Insight(:9)

5. POSSESSIVE Insight(:10)

6. TRUTHFUL Insight(:11-14)

7. LIFESTYLE Insight(:15-18)

8. PLACE Insight(:19-20)

9. DECISIVE Insight(:21-24)

10. IDENTITY Insight(:25-26)

11. INTERRUPTIVE Insight(:27)

12. the INTERRUPTIVE Insight of...?a.--SUSTENANCE(:31-34)

13. b.--HARVEST(:35-38)

After having delved into the lessons of an interruptive aside(:27, 31-38), NOW...we return to the woman at the well with whom Jesus first began sharing God’s truth beginning in :7...

14—Turning religious reluctance to God requires...

PRECEDENCE/PRECEDENTIAL Insight(:28-29)

Explanation:(:28-29)Expedience

:28—“The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, & said to the men,”

PRECEDENCE(momentary emphasis here)=The condition of temporally considering something to be more important than something else. Priority in importance, order, or rank.”

She forsook—(:7)—1)“her waterpot”, 2)her original task, 3)& the well completely.

•She then entered “the city” from where she had come(?).

The fact that the woman “left her waterpot” tells us that she had discovered something of much greater importance than mere physical water, even though water is absolutely necessary to physical life.

Once in “the city”, the woman specifically spoke “to the men.”

•The woman first approached those with whom she was most familiar. She ‘probably’ approached “the men” because she was obviously exposed as a woman given to male accompaniment, as she had had five husbands & was currently living with a man in a non-committal relationship(:17-18). She ‘may’ have had no true female friends.

The Messiah took precedence in the life of the woman at the well...

*What takes Precedence in your life?

What keeps you from your commitment to Jesus? What REALLY takes Precedence in your life?

•Does your ‘QUIET TIME’ with God in the STUDY Of HIS WORD suffer, because something or someone else has taken it’s ‘rightful’ place?

•Does your ‘QUIET TIME’ with God in PRAYER suffer, because something or someone else has taken it’s ‘rightful’ place?

•Are you DEPENDABLY INVOLVED with your local CHURCH(other believers) to an appreciable degree?

•Are you incorporating the LIFE Jesus offers into your everyday life?

•Do you EXTEND GROWTH to & INVITE GROWTH from your brothers & sisters in Christ?

•Are you DESIROUS OF SHARING every aspect of Jesus’ blessing...His eternality, His love, His salvation, His abiding presence, His encouragement, His growth, His confidence, His promises, etc..

OR...

*Are you still ‘at the well’ working hard to gather earthly/worldly things(‘water’), when you should be drawing & sharing the ‘water’ that is available in Jesus?

“Woman”(See :7, 9, 11, 15, 17, 19, 21, 25)—gunh—

“Left”—afihmi—1Aorist Active Indicative 3rd Sing.—Lt.-=-‘Send off / away from’—1) To send away—1a) To bid going away or depart—1a1) Of a husband divorcing his wife, 1b) To send forth, yield up, to expire, 1c) To let go, let alone, let be—1c1) To disregard, 1c2) To leave, not to discuss now, (a topic) 1c21) of teachers, writers & speakers, 1c3) To omit, neglect, 1d) To let go, give up a debt, forgive, to remit, 1e) To give up, keep no longer; 2) To permit, allow, not to hinder, to give up a thing to a person; 3) To leave, go way from one—3a) In order to go to another place, 3b) To depart from any one, 3c) To depart from one & leave him to himself so that all mutual claims are abandoned, 3d) To desert wrongfully, 3e) To go away leaving something behind, 3f) To leave one by not taking him as a companion, 3g) To leave on dying, leave behind one, 3h) To leave so that what is left may remain, leave remaining, 3i) Abandon, leave destitute. Strong—To send forth, in various applications.?From—apo—Preposition—a primary particle; “Off,” i.e. Away(from something near), in various senses(of place, time, or relation; literal or figurative).—&—ihmi—To send; an intensive form of eimi, to go.