Worshiping God for His Greatness

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Based on John 4:1 – 18 our response to the greatness of God should be exultation and praise.

Outline:

Who is it we serve? (1 – 10)

Who is it that can serve? (11 – 18)

¹The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, ²although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. ³When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

⁴Now he had to go through Samaria. ⁵So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

⁷When 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.)

⁹The 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.[a])

¹⁰Jesus 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? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”

¹³Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

¹⁵The 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.”

¹⁶He 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. ¹⁸The 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.”

Want to hear the verse in context? John 4 What is this about?

The prelude wasn’t recorded but can be read here.

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Built for a purpose

Click image to link to source.

As a kid I spent a great deal of time in the ocean swimming, sailing, snorkelling and surfing. Once, surfing about 50 meters out to sea, near a spot called The Pipe in Port Elizabeth, I looked up at the shoreline and saw my dad standing on the bonnet of the car frantically waving his arms, signalling to me.

Simultaneously I became aware that I was alone; all the other surfers had paddled out of the water and were standing on the beach, waving their arms, beckoning me to swim in.

An ice cold chill shivered its way up my spine and a paralysing sense of fear welled up inside of me. As adrenalin pumped through my body one word exploded in my mind, “SHARK!”

Listen to some of the features that fuelled my panic:

• Great whites grow to an average of 4.6 meters in length, though specimens exceeding 6 meters and weighing up to 2,3 tons have been recorded.

• Great whites can detect one drop of blood in 100 litres of water and can sense even tiny amounts of blood in the water up to 5 kilometres away.
• Great whites mouths are lined with up to 300 serrated, triangular teeth arranged in several rows.
• Great whites have organs that can sense the tiny electromagnetic fields generated by theor prey.
• And then perhaps most importantly to me at the time was I thought a great white was between me and the shoreline.

Well I got out of there as fast as I could. My friends later described my hasty emergence from the sea as if I had “walked on the very water itself.”

The great white shark is built for a purpose and it’s not to look pretty, whistle a tune or blend into the environment, it’s to kill. It is a ferocious killing, eating, slaughtering machine. One purpose, one function, one goal.

You and I friends are built for a purpose too, a singular function. God has put us humans together in such a way that we need to worship. Furthermore He requires us to worship, He created us to worship, He desires us to worship and ultimately those who worship Him on earth will worship Him eternally in heaven.

We’re built to worship the Lord.

In heaven this celestial tune rises up day and night,

“HOLY, HOLY, HOLY {is} THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME.”

Want to hear the verse in context? Revelation 4 What is this about?

The gaint fin gliding through the water turned out to be a Whale Shark. Maybe, for integrities sake, I should point out that I’m using the word surfing as a synonym for body boarding.

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Ministries of Mercy (notice for the Chapel Group Study)

Ministries of Mercy by Tim Keller. Click image to enlarge.

Hi there,

If you attended the Mercy Ministries short study on either Friday or Sunday this quarter you might like access to the study notes? I found these from Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Lynchburg. They’re really useful.













• Chapter 1 – The Jericho Road
• Chapter 2 – THE CALL TO MERCY
• Chapter 3 – The Character of Mercy
• Chapter 4 – The Motivation For Mercy
• ?
• Chapter 6 – CHURCH AND WORLD: A BALANCED FOCUS
• Chapter 7 – CONDITIONAL AND UNCONDITIONAL: A BALANCED JUDGEMENT
• Chapter 8 – WORD AND DEED: A BALANCED TESTIMONY
• Chapter 9 – GETTING STARTED
• Chapter 10 – PREPARING THE CHURCH
• Chapter 11 – MOBILIZING THE CHURCH
• Chapter 12 – EXPANDING YOUR VISION
• Chapter 13 – Managing Your Ministry
• Chapter 14 – MERCY MINISTRY and CHURCH GROWTH
• Chapter 15 – Meeting Needs

Hope this helps,

Mark Penrith

¹⁵ If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for {their} body, what use is that? ¹⁷ Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, {being} by itself. ¹⁸ But someone may {well} say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

Want to hear the verse in context? James 2 What is this about?

The group meets at Midrand Chapel, 151 Pitzer Road, Glen Austin, 1685. Wanna find it:

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You part of a small group study? Hebrews 10:25 says, “…²⁵ not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging {one another;} and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” This part a series of posts relating to a Bible Study group at Midrand Chapel.

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