From Sunday 02/13/2022
If you could talk to anyone dead or alive for one hour, who would it be? Some would mention family members, particularly one who has died. Others mention famous celebrities such as Oprah or Denzel. Who would you choose?
First what is a conversation? Conversations are very important in sustaining and building relationships. Is there an art to conversations? Yes there is an art to the way one has conversations with others. One must know how to talk with people. The conversation must be interesting and inviting with mutual respect. Finally the topics can be selective there are some things you can talk with your best friend that you wouldn't with your parents and vice versa. Some conversations can be "small talk" but then there are serious life-altering conversations. Examples include but not limited are
· Serious Conversation with your doctor on how to proceed after being diagnosed with cancer
· Serious Conversation with someone you love about marriage and being a family
· Serious Conversation with your child about making good choices in life --- to abstain from drugs and unGodly morals.
· Serious conversations with a youth who lost their relative like a sibling to a shooting or COVID. It takes empathy….undivided attention.
Conversations can be uplifting. Think about the blessings from a conversation you had recently. Who did you speak with yesterday? Who were you a blessing to?
No matter who you talk with there must be a certain amount of trust. So again, who is that person that you would like to have an in-depth conversation with? Have you considered Jesus? Jesus had conversations with multiple people; HE didn't discriminate, it didn't matter gender, age or status.
One such conversation is found at John 4:3-26; Jesus and the woman at the well.
3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 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.
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.)
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.[a])
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.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 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. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
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.”
Important Conversational Points
Jesus will go anywhere - HE went into Samaria; a place Jews avoided.
Jesus is right on time - HE was there when she needed Him
Jesus will listen - HE did not interrupt her
Jesus will teach - HE taught her about worshipping in spirit and truth. If you speak with Jesus you will be taught since HE is the best teacher in the world.
Jesus can be trusted - you can talk to HIM about anything
Jesus will remind you that HE is the Christ - HE is our intercessor
Jesus knows everything about you - HE revealed HE knew everything about the woman
Jesus will make you whole again - HE will ease your burden and forgive you of your sins
So what was the result of that conversation? John 4:39-42
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
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.”
The effect of a conversation with Jesus - you can engage in a lasting, intimate and meaningful conversation, it will change your life by guiding you to peace and eternal life.
So again who would you like to have an in-depth conversation with?
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