September 14th and 18th, 2022
One More
The Skill of Noticing
67,048 that SOMEONE NEEDS TO CLAIM for JESUS!
Do not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest.
—John 4:35 (ESV)
Our ytd = 122 souls, 61 baptisms, 459 invites
Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.
—1 John 2:6 (NLT)
We are intimately linked in this harvest work…This is a large work I’ve called you into, but don’t be overwhelmed by it. It’s best to start small. Give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty, for instance. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice. You won’t lose out on a thing.
—Matthew 10:40-42 (MSG)
Today: The Skill of Noticing
…seeing the people around me and paying close attention to what God could be up to in their lives
Noticing is caring
Now he had to go through Samaria.
—John 4:4 (NIV)
“Noticing is a prerequisite to caring about others and serving them in tangible ways that smuggle the gospel into their hearts.” —Doug Pollock
Noticing involves wonderment
5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
—John 4:5-6 (NIV)
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.
—2 Corinthians 5:16 (NIV)
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
—John 4:7-8 (NIV)
Noticing has intention
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 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?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 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.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 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.”
—John 4:9-18 (NIV)
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
—John 4:25-26 (NIV)
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
—John 4:28-30 (NIV)
42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
—John 4:42 (NIV)
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
—John 4:34 (NIV)
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Next Steps:
1. Today, I accept Jesus in my life today.
2. I desire to notice what God is doing in others in my daily activities by paying attention.
3. I do not want to live a self-absorbed life that causes me to miss ministering to others.
4. I will practice the skill of noticing and invite someone to church this week.