Sharing your faith with an unbeliever

John 4:10 (NASB)

Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

John 4 is the classic example and model of how Jesus witnessed to another person.  He first found a convenient place to engage in conversation about spiritual matters (John 4:3-8), then He aroused the woman’s curiosity (John 4:9-15), then He confronted her and her sins (John 4:16-26), and finally He enabled her to make a commitment (John 4:27-29).  My pastor, Scott Luck, used another four-step model to take a conversational risk with an unbeliever as Jesus did with this Samaritan woman:

1.   Capitalize on common ground

2.   Accept people where they are

3.   Risk sharing your spiritual story

4.   Expect God to do His part

What is the gift of God?  Romans 6:23 gives the answer—“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”.  Other gifts from God:

§ Children are gifts of the Lord (Psalm 127:3)

§ The Holy Spirit is a gift from God (Acts 2:28 and I Corinthians 2:12)

§ Every perfect gift is from God (James 1:17)

What is living water?  You can find the answer in John 7:37-38.  Jesus is the living water.  Water is needed to sustain life--think of crops, your yard, your garden, your plants, etc—without water they will die.  We know that humans will die physically without water.  Humans will die spiritually without Jesus, the source of living water.  The key for all human beings is to be able to discern their need for this living water and not confuse literal physical water for spiritual water.  Both the Samaritan woman in John 4 and Nicodemus in John 3 represented the natural human view and response of confusing the spiritual for the physical.  Spiritual growth and maturity, indeed, is the transformation of a Christian’s thought life from the physical to the spiritual.

Unbelievers in your life right now need your help, as the Samaritan woman needed Jesus’ help, to see the difference between the physical and the spiritual.  They need to see how they can be transformed from a life unsustained and unnourished to a life that is filled with the living water of Jesus Christ.  Who can you help to see their need for the gift of God?  Write that person’s name now:

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Name                                                                                                                   Date