Sermon Series: No Rope and No Bucket

Sermon theme: Connected to God

Part 1

John 4:1-15

Ways to connect to God:

Reprogram your thought process

Do you want to feel closer to God?

The Big Idea: Look at your life the same way you should read your Bible: It is all about Jesus.

Opening Illustration:

Flight 19- It began as nothing more than a routine training flight. At 2:10 p.m. on December 5, 1945, five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers took off from a Naval Air Station in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The planes—collectively known as “Flight 19”—were scheduled to tackle a three-hour exercise known as “Navigation Problem Number One.”

Lt. Charles C. Taylor was acting as the flight's leader. Taylor was a seasoned naval aviator with some 2,500 flying hours and multiple World War II combat tours in the Pacific. The group of aircraft, dubbed Flight 19, were to execute Navigation Problem No. 1, which was to fly to the east from the Florida coast, conduct bombing runs at a place called Hens and Chickens Shoals, turn north, then proceed over Grand Bahama Island.

At approximately 3:45 p.m., Fort Lauderdale’s flight tower received a message from Taylor, who reportedly sounded confused and worried.

“Cannot see land,” Taylor said. “We seem to be off course.”

“What is your position,” the tower responded.

Communication was lost then picked up again then lost again. The final transmission was: “It looks like we are entering white water… We’re completely lost.”

POINT: If the planes could have just connected with the tower, they would have known that they were close to the Florida coast. Their fears could have been calmed and they could have turned west and came home. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, and the incident remains a great mystery because there was never any wreckage found.

In many ways, our lives are similar. Going through life without a connection to God can make you feel uncertain, scared, and lost. Conversely, being connected to God gives us peace, assurance, and direction. So this new series is all about being connected to God. Through it, we will do an in depth study of John 4.

Samaria- “Under the microscope”

1. Solomon dies in 931 BC shortly after the kingdom of Israel divides into Northern and Southern kingdoms.

a. Northern tribes call themselves Israel and make Samaria (a city at that time) capital.

b. Southern tribes call themselves Judah and keep Jerusalem as the capital.

2. Assyria conquerors Northern Israel (723 BC).

a. King Sargon II (721-705 BC)- King of Assyria

b. 2 Kings 17:24-31

i. Many Jews were exiled

ii. Many different people groups were transported into the towns to resettle them.

iii. The remaining Jews and new people groups lived together and eventually intermarried.

3. By the time of Jesus, the relationship between Jews and Samaritans had deteriorated. They were seen as “unclean” by the strict Jews.

4. By Jesus’s time, the polytheistic ways of the past had mostly faded, but the religious views of Samaria were unique. They only accepted the five books of Moses (Pentateuch) as scripture. They rejected the prophets and pretty much everything else.

5. The tension between the Jews and Samaritans was so great that they avoided interaction. Samaritans were often unwilling to shelter Jews who needed overnight lodging.

The encounter:

1. The woman could not have been more disconnected from Jesus, at least in her eyes.

a. Man and woman.

b. Samaritan and Jew.

c. Social outcast

d. Immoral behavior

2. Yet here Jesus sits.

The problem:

1. Disconnected, but why?

a. Nicodemus was disconnected (his expert status still left him disconnected).

b. The woman at the well is disconnect.

c. What do they have in common?

MAJOR POINT: Jesus and this woman have different concerns:

APPLICATION: One of the major disconnects this woman has is she doesn’t understand connection to God. There is a metaphorical part to this story with the water and the well.

Having connection to God is the point of life. All other waters leave you thirsty.

HOW DO I CONNECT:

1) Relationship

a. Trust

b. Honesty

c. Communication

d. Support

e. Unity

2) Aligned values:

AVOID DISCONNECTS

Application:

Sin always prompts a spiritual disconnect. Think of SIN as a Betrayal to a relationship.

1. This is one of the reasons why I believe the enemy likes to see believers in continual sin because he knows they will feel spiritual disconnect from God bringing two things:

a. A Christian who is ineffective for the kingdom

b. A soul that is experiencing inner turmoil