Text: John 4, Title: Divine Appointment, Date/Place: NRBC, 10/21/12, AM
A. Opening illustration: Demographic information. THRIVE Team long term planning.
B. Background to passage:
C. Main thought: Divine Appointment—an appointed time and place for God to unfold His plan to reach the
world through a particular group or individual.
A. Divine Compulsion (v. 3)
1. Why did he go through Samaria? Why did he speak to a Samaritan woman? 1) Jesus had a clear sense of
calling. He knew the reason that he had come. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross. He knew
he was to seek and save the lost. He had a Joel 2 vision of creating a people who would know the Lord,
and follow Him with reckless abandonment. 2) He knew the Father, and was constantly in submission to
His will, i.e. garden prayer. He knew the greatness of God. He knew the satisfaction of soul that comes
from God. He knew the love and patience of God. He knew the desires of God. 3) He was at times the
hardest preacher, not budging an inch from the word regardless of the degree of difficulty, but at the same
time, he was so full of compassion that the wept, healed, comforted, and raised the dead. Jesus wept over
Jerusalem as it was full of people like sheep with no shepherd.
2. Acts 18:9,
3. Illustration: “…the Lord was compelled to pass through Samaria and stop in a certain village, not to save
time and steps, but because He had a divine appointment there.” –MacArthur,
4. We MUST have a sense of divine calling. God has called us individually and corporately to spread His
message, His word, His gospel all over the world, in every land, in every situation, in every language. As
David Platt says, we are Plan A and there is no Plan B. We must have a clear and compelling vision of
where we are to go, of what we are to be and become. Without that we will perish. And this vision is not
for the leadership, but for everyone. We are to be of one mind and one spirit, with solidarity and unity
of heart, striving to accomplish the purposes for which God has given us in His word and in a diligently
sought vision. This is not to say that we are in a bad place, just simply that maintaining is not where
we want to stay. Continuing to exist is not an admirable goal. 2) Not only has He called us, but He has
commanded us, and we submit to His authority. We purpose in our hearts to do the things in our flesh that
in and of ourselves we would not do. 3) We are compelled not only because of our calling, and because
of His command, but because of His great love by which he loved us. And by the satisfaction and joy that
comes to our souls because we drink at the fountain of living water that will never run dry! But we are
called to come together as a church and be the church, be the hands and feet of a compassionate God who
desires to have a relationship with people. There are things that we must do alone in our lives, but there
are things that we cannot do on our own, and that is why the church exists: to put on display the manifold
wisdom of God to the world.
B. Divine Opportunity (v. 5-7)
1. So what does all this mean on a day like today, when we are dedicating the new building and taking up an
offering? We have a divine appointment! The providential hand of God has dealt us a hand in order for us
to advance against the gates of hell and overcome them!
2. Today we are about to go into this new building that God has blessed us with and share a meal together.
This is something that some of you have been waiting on for many years now. Something that we
have been working on now for over a year. Many of you have put much time and effort into it from
the destruction of the parking lot to the laying of the carpet. But it’s too big. We will now be able to
completely do Wed night supper and church over in this one building. We did not need to build a building
just so we could have variety. God has given us this building so that we can fill it up. Wouldn’t it be
great if we had to have all the main building’s space plus the new building’s space.
3. You, the church, has great location. We are not right it downtown, but not way out. We can reach people
from all over the county. The rest of our facilities put us in a great situation to handle growth. We have
a nice sanctuary, good technology, well-kept grounds. We are not far off the main road. We have extra
property, vans, and soon to have an extra building to offer to another ministry. The hand that we have is
stacked in our favor, and in the favor of God’s advance.
4. It’s cliché in the business world, but the best resource that we have is us. We have talent, we have
diversity, we have geography, we have personality, we have innovation, we have special skills. We
have truck drivers, farmers, homeschool teachers, public school teachers, recently retired, not so recently
retired, college students, middle school students, dancers, ball players, contractors, grandchildren spoilers,
bankers, doctors, managers, laborers, fisherman, gardeners, some from Brookfield, some from Vanceville,
some from Ty Ty, some from Chula, we are everywhere and can do all things in Christ TOGETHER.
We can connect with about every kind of people there are. We can serve in a way that will impact the
community TOGETHER.
5. Illustration:
6. But we cannot take this opportunity lightly. We cannot wait. Blackaby says that when God speaks, you
go. The time to move is the time that God speaks. We are here for such a time as this! We have a perfect
storm for growth! We have a high calling from Christ! Picture yourself standing in the baptismal pool
beside that family member or friend who has followed Christ. Picture us running out of the space in the
new building. Picture us having dual services on Sundays. Picture us on the front page of the Tifton
Gazette because you were out serving the community and making an impact. But it will take long term
sacrifice and commitment. It will take risk and faith. It will take hard work and discomfort. Today is
a one day gift to complete a one year project that we have the opportunity to use primarily to reach or
primary to satisfy our needs and wants. But change that last for one week, or one month, or one year is
not enough. We need change that goes deeper than that, change that gets to the very core of who we are as
individuals and as a church. Not because things are bad, but because the world around us is changing and
we have to keep up in order to truly advance the gospel against the gates of Hell. And Jesus has promised
that we will advance. God has many people in this city who have not come to him yet. And it is our job
to find them, and the way that we do that is that we come together and serve them and our God, and we do
it joyfully, willingly, through suffering and hardship, giving and serving and loving those within and those
without. But it doesn’t happen automatically, we must be intentional.
A. Closing illustration: missed opportunity at Bonny Eagle to begin a transforming, darkness piercing group/
ministry.
B. Recap
C. Invitation to commitment
Additional Notes
Is Christ Exalted, Magnified, Honored, and Glorified?
