This Week
Announcements
BRIDGE CLASSES
Sunday, May 22 @ 11:45a
The Bridge - Learning Center w/lunch
In Starting Point, learn why The Bridge Church exists, where we're headed, what we believe, and how you can be a part of it. In Discovering My Ministry, we’ll help you realize your spiritual gifts and talents to serve God and serve his people. Light lunch will be served. Sign up today for our next class using the Connection Card at https://thebridgereno.com/connect
You can support our mission using the Give Button in our App or online at https://thebridgereno.com/giving
Sunday, May 22 @ 11:45a
The Bridge - Learning Center w/lunch
In Starting Point, learn why The Bridge Church exists, where we're headed, what we believe, and how you can be a part of it. In Discovering My Ministry, we’ll help you realize your spiritual gifts and talents to serve God and serve his people. Light lunch will be served. Sign up today for our next class using the Connection Card at https://thebridgereno.com/connect
KIDS KINGDOM VOLUNTEERS
Your Help is Needed Now
Kids Kingdom sees more children every week, and we need volunteers! We want to bring our 9:00a kids program back, but we need enough people to make that happen. We need Greeters, Teachers, Room Helpers, and more. For more info, fill out our Connection Card here, https://thebridgereno.com/connect. Kids Kingdom sees more children every week, and we need volunteers! We want to bring our 9:00a kids program back, but we need enough people to make that happen. We need Greeters, Teachers, Room Helpers, and more. For more info, fill out our Connection Card here, https://thebridgereno.com/connect
Your Help is Needed Now
Kids Kingdom sees more children every week, and we need volunteers! We want to bring our 9:00a kids program back, but we need enough people to make that happen. We need Greeters, Teachers, Room Helpers, and more. For more info, fill out our Connection Card here, https://thebridgereno.com/connect. Kids Kingdom sees more children every week, and we need volunteers! We want to bring our 9:00a kids program back, but we need enough people to make that happen. We need Greeters, Teachers, Room Helpers, and more. For more info, fill out our Connection Card here, https://thebridgereno.com/connect
SUPPORT OUR MISSION
Message Notes
The "E" Word: The Main Thing
Pastor Phil Burdoin
June 5, 2022
Not many people get excited when they hear the word evangelism. Non Christians don’t get excited about the idea of people pushing religion at them. And Christians don’t jump at the chance to start telling people about Jesus. As Pastor Bill pointed out last week, it’s like “hey you don’t want me to tell you about Jesus? Great I didn’t want to do it anyway.”
But there’s more to it than that isn’t there? We have friends and loved ones that we want to see saved. And as we grow in our love for Jesus, we want to follow his command to make disciples. And when our hearts are in that right place, we begin to try to have conversations with people but we get easily distracted. It’s hard to focus on that “one thing.” The one thing that matters the most when it comes to sharing our faith with people.
Often times in these conversations people ask difficult questions. But we need to learn to point back to “the main thing.”
He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”“I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus 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.” “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that 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,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You 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 worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
Jesus Exposes Truth in Love
The Woman Changes the Subject-but Asks a Valid Question
We need to learn how to address these questions in truth and love. While at the same time pointing back to Jesus.
How does Jesus handle her asking this question?
Jesus Exposes Truth in Love
Tell the Message of Grace
Jesus Exposes Truth in Love
Keep the Main Thing, the Main Thing
Bottom Line: Keep the Main Thing, the Main Thing
June 5, 2022
Not many people get excited when they hear the word evangelism. Non Christians don’t get excited about the idea of people pushing religion at them. And Christians don’t jump at the chance to start telling people about Jesus. As Pastor Bill pointed out last week, it’s like “hey you don’t want me to tell you about Jesus? Great I didn’t want to do it anyway.”
But there’s more to it than that isn’t there? We have friends and loved ones that we want to see saved. And as we grow in our love for Jesus, we want to follow his command to make disciples. And when our hearts are in that right place, we begin to try to have conversations with people but we get easily distracted. It’s hard to focus on that “one thing.” The one thing that matters the most when it comes to sharing our faith with people.
Often times in these conversations people ask difficult questions. But we need to learn to point back to “the main thing.”
He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”“I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus 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.” “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that 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,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You 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 worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
John 4:16-26
Jesus Exposes Truth in Love
Jesus points out a very personal and sensitive issue in the woman’s life, not to shame her but to help her see that her approach to life was not giving her the life she was longing to live.
The Woman Changes the Subject-but Asks a Valid Question
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
John 4:19-20
We need to learn how to address these questions in truth and love. While at the same time pointing back to Jesus.
How does Jesus handle her asking this question?
Jesus indicates that she is asking the wrong question. This question will not help you get to “the main thing.” This question won’t help your standing with God.
But Jesus does not ignore the question. He answers her in truth and love and at the same time points back to himself as the answer.
You 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 worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
But Jesus does not ignore the question. He answers her in truth and love and at the same time points back to himself as the answer.
You 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 worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
John 4:22-23
Tell the Message of Grace
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.”” “Sir,” 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?” Jesus 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.” 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.”
John 4:10–15
The Woman Wants to Believe There is a Way to Become Right Before God.
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
John 4:25
Jesus Exposes Truth in Love
Jesus doesn’t berate over her past, he doesn’t condemn her for worshiping in the wrong way. He just says, “I am what you have been waiting for, I am what you need, I am what matters most.
Keep the Main Thing, the Main Thing
- Build relationships
- Expose the need
- Answer tough questions with truth and love
- Point back to Jesus
Bottom Line: Keep the Main Thing, the Main Thing
Small Groups Talk About It
- How do you feel when people ask you questions about your faith?
- Has someone ever asked you a theological question that you were not prepared for? How did you handle the situation?
- Read John 4:12-18. Discuss why Jesus did not give her the water when she asked for it. Why did he ask her to go get her husband?
- What are some ways we can expose the need for Jesus in people’s lives? How do we get comfortable doing this?
- Read John 4:19-20. Why do you think she asked Jesus about the proper place to worship? How often do you find yourself debating with people over faith issues?
- Discuss some creative ways that you can steer people back to what they believe about Jesus.
- Read John 4:21-26. What does Jesus do when he hears the woman’s question about the proper place to worship?
- How should we handle questions when people ask about theological details?
- What two people (non-Christians) will you try to have a conversation about Jesus with this week?