AltspaceVR Critic - #10 -
Category
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CreativityTranscript
00:00A verse, it's not a verse, it's more than one verse, that I would like to read, and after listening to this morning's message, it seems very apropos that, you know, this was put on my heart to share.
00:24And it's amazing how God works, because, you know, I had decided what I wanted to share for encouragement, just off of my contemplations over the past couple of days or so, but I don't, I'm not going to take up a whole lot of time.
00:42And I wish that I could get into commentary, but time does not permit for that. But this would be a great one to dissect. So I encourage everyone to read Chapter 4 of the Book of John in the Gospels, the Gospel of John, the Gospel according to John, and read the entire chapter.
01:09Because I'm going to have to, you know, give the abbreviated sort of version. So this chapter deals with Jesus's talk with the Samaritan woman, which is the woman at the well.
01:28That's what we normally hear. So He was on His way back to Galilee, and He had to go through Samaria, and He stopped, you know, at a place, and He was tired, and He stopped at a well, you know, catching His breath, getting some rest, you know, because He was walking a lot.
01:54And I'm going to skip down to verse 7. I'm going to kind of skip through some verses because I want to get to, you know, the good part. Oh, and also one of the takeaways, I want you to imagine when you go through this chapter, I want you to imagine you in the place of the woman at the well.
02:17I want you to imagine what it would feel like to have Jesus stand there in front of you, and you, and all of your experiences in life, all of your sin, all of the things you've done, everything good, bad, ugly, and indifferent.
02:47And He sees you, and He offers Himself to you anyway. And just put yourself in that place. Okay, so here we go.
02:58When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, will you give me a drink? His disciples had gone into town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to Him, You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?
03:20But Jews did not associate with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is to ask you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.
03:39Sir, the woman said, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?
04:02Jesus answered, everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.
04:24The woman said to Him, sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to come, have to keep coming here to draw water. He told her, go, call your husband and come back. I have no husband, she replied.
04:45Jesus said to her, you are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.
05:01Sir, I can see you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem. Woman, believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
05:23You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.
05:46God is Spirit, and His worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth. The woman said, I know that the Messiah called Christ is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.
06:05And Jesus declared, I, the one you speaking to, the one speaking to you, I am He.
06:14And to abbreviate the rest, she goes back into town, excited, and tells people what happened.
06:29And they start to believe because of her experience. But again, I do encourage you all to read chapter four and to not just read it, but study it and break it down and understand all of the cultural background that's involved in this.
06:49And even the woman herself, understand her probably more than anything.
06:57And with that, I would like to carry on and we can begin our sermon from Mr. Ralph Douglas West, and I hope that you all enjoy it.
07:10Oh, and a quick word of prayer. Father God, thank you for your words, your encouragement. Thank you for seeing us just as we are in all of our brokenness and still offering yourself to us anyway.
07:25I pray that you illuminate our minds and unburden our hearts so that we can have room for your word to take root in our very souls and to flourish in our souls and become a part of our everyday experience.
07:49Let us live from your truth and walk in your truth each and every day, knowing exactly who you are to us, our Lord, our savior, our redeemer, our refuge, our healer, and our sovereign king. Thank you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
08:13Amen.
08:18This is an invitation to a celebration, a celebration of discovery.
08:30Take your Bibles this morning and open them to the gospel of Luke chapter 15.
08:35And I want us to begin reading at verse 8 and concluding at verse number 10, Jesus telling the story of a lost coin.
08:46But those of you who have not been with us, Jesus told a story about a lost sheep.
08:51And this morning he says something to us about the significance of celebration of discovery, the lost coin.
09:03Hear the word of God this morning.
09:06For the people of God, beginning at verse number 8, suppose a woman has 10 silver coins and loses one.
09:16Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?
09:24And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, rejoice with me.
09:32I found my lost coin.
09:35In the same way, I tell you, there's rejoicing in the presence of God and of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
09:45This is the word of God.
09:47You may be seated.
09:48You may be seated.
09:50A celebration of discovery.
09:53There are discoveries that can cause celebrations.
09:58This happened, some of you may have saw it, over the last week and days.
10:03Just cleaning up grandpa's house in the south, the family came across, in Georgia, seven in mint condition, seven century old baseball cards, two by six by one.
10:25And that is of Ty Cobbs, the Georgia Peach.
10:29Those seven baseball cards have been authenticated as being originals.
10:38And they are selling now, if you want a good deal, just north of a million dollars.
10:45There are higher bids per card by certain collectors because of the mint condition that these cards are found in.
10:55They were not looking for these cards.
10:57They were just found in an old brown crumpled up bag.
11:02And yet, looking for or not, searching or not, and just finding causes for celebration.
11:11Some celebrations are the result because we were searching and we found it.
11:16And then there are other celebrations that we just celebrate because we find it.
11:22But searching or not is an occasion upon finding there ought to be a celebration.
11:30Is that not what Jesus is saying to us in Luke chapter 15?
11:34That there ought to be joy in finding some things?
11:38Here once again Jesus finds himself with audience, not of the morally fit, but of the morally unfit.
11:46Men and women that have made a mess out of their lives.
11:51And this group has gathered around Jesus and given him their strict attention and Jesus is talking to them.
11:59He talks of these men and women whose hopes have been deferred.
12:05Dreams have turned into nightmare.
12:08And now he's trying to rebirth hope that has died and gone.
12:13Sitting down talking with them are the religion scholars in the backdrop eavesdropping and they make their accusation.
12:22And they're right, this man receives sinners.
12:27They underscore the very reason why Jesus Christ has come to planet earth to seek and to save that which is lost.
12:36And there as he engages in conversation with these moral misfits and he receives them into his presence he begins to tell them a story.
12:50In fact he tells them one big story that includes a sheep that wanders away into the wilderness.
12:59Of a woman whose corn is lost in the house.
13:03Of a father whose son wanders into a strange land.
13:09And depending if you want to keep telling a story of a brother that is lost and he too like a coin is lost in the confines of the house.
13:20In each case there is finding and there is joy in finding.
13:27And the great joy is that this God of ours receives people like you and I.
13:35I may not get past that very line right there but that's enough to rejoice over.
13:41That when we look at our lives and consider who we are and what we have been through.
13:49God still seeks and then receives.
13:53Look with me for just a moment at the contrast that Jesus makes when he gets to verse number eight.
14:00Before he delves into the whole condition look at the condition of lostness.
14:06Look at how he takes us on this journey.
14:09He makes a contrast doesn't he?
14:11You see it.
14:13In the previous story he talks about a man.
14:16Now he talks about a woman.
14:19In the previous story Jesus talks about a shepherd losing a sheep by heedlessness.
14:27Here he talks about a woman losing a coin in the confinement of a house because of carelessness.
14:35He talks about that which is animate and then that which is inanimate.
14:42He speaks of that which is of prosperity and now a word of poverty.
14:49Here he makes this grand contrast to show us up or down and how every being is special to God.
14:58Several years ago some of you may have been rather close followers of that program that came out weekly called Lost.
15:08How many people have been in here?
15:10Already it's about 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 people in here.
15:32Nice job.
15:34I want to talk to him but I don't want to talk him in the church.
15:38That's the one who made this, created it.
15:44Excellent man.
15:46A nice place to get away to.
15:48The reason I'm not staying is because I'm going to visit a few other churches today.
15:53I'm going to church hop.
15:59Who would have ever known buddy?
16:02All the way in this place.
16:05You have a church right here.
16:08That people are attending.
16:10While the rest of the world don't have any idea.
16:15Alright guys, thanks for watching.
16:17If you're part of this church, your first minute church, you can put a like, make a comment.
16:22Subscribe.
16:24Every Sunday I'm going to try to put something with the church in here.
16:29That'll keep me on track.
16:33Okay, thanks a lot guys for everything.
16:35God bless you and keep you strong.
16:36Amen.