What Time Is It? Time To Live Out Loud For Jesus
What is it that compels someone to live out loud for Jesus?
A changed life will do the trick every time. People live out loud for what they believe in. And that belief usually had some life-altering or life-impacting ramifications that they can’t contain.
Today we take a deeper look into the life of one of the great evangelists in Scripture, and I love that she happens to be a woman. John 4 tells us her story. If you missed last week’s blog post, What Time Is It? Time For God To Fulfill His Purpose, you might want to read it as well.
Last week we looked at the specificity of her divine appointment with Christ, how He sought this thirsty woman with a messy life to offer her the gift of abundant and eternal life. This divine appointment was bigger and broader than this one woman, but without a doubt, God chose this woman because He knew she would live out loud for Him.
Quick Synopsis of The Woman’s Story in John 4
She came to the well to get a physical drink and encountered Jesus who offered her a spiritual drink. Curious, but not understanding who this Man was, their conversation continued.
Jesus abruptly addressed her messes and told her He knew the details of her broken past and present.
Stunned and fumbling for something to say to this possible prophet, she brings up the topic of worship. Jesus clarified true worship.
She responded with two statements of faith,
1. I know the Messiah is coming.
2. When He comes He will tell us all things.
Jesus then introduced Himself as IAM.
In that divine moment, an interruption happens.
And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or, "Why are You talking with her?"
John 4:27
Before we move further into the story, I want to step outside her story to think about the heart of this divine encounter. In last week’s blog post, What Time Is It? Time For God To Fulfill His Purpose, we recognized this encounter as a divine appointment. The divine appointment was absolutely, 100% about this woman’s salvation. However, it was also, 100% about something more.
This interruption shifts the story so that we see the “something more”.
Back to her story.
Notice that her response to this encounter with Jesus was to live out loud for Jesus.
The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men,
"Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?"
John 4:28-29
I believe the interruption was as much a divine appointment to teach Jesus’ disciples, i.e. the “something more”, as was the divine appointment for the woman’s salvation.
While the woman ran around her town telling everyone about her encounter with the Messiah, Jesus and His disciples simultaneously discussed food, God’s will, and harvest time. Jesus tied the three together in John 4:34-35.
Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me,
and to finish His work. Do you not say, 'There are still four months
and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes
and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!
John 4:34-35
Jesus went on to tell them that He sent them, His disciples, to reap the harvest. Then a crowd of Samaritans that came to meet Jesus because of the woman’s testimony stood before them. Another “something more” of this woman’s divine appointment. Jesus knew she would live out loud and the lives of others would be touched and transformed.
I absolutely love what the Samaritans testified to the woman after their own encounter with Christ!
Then they said to the woman,
"Now we believe, not because of what you said,
for we ourselves have heard Him and
we know that this is indeed the Christ,
the Savior of the world."
John 4:42
Her words got them to Jesus, but Jesus’ words completed the work of redemption for them.
Dear Sister in Christ, it is time for us to live out loud for Jesus!
Jesus’ words to His disciples so long ago, speak to us even louder today as we see time slipping into the future.
Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes
and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!
John 4:35
We, God’s people were divinely appointed for such a time as this, that we would live out loud for Jesus in our world, in our day and time.
But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel,
even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts.
1 Thessalonians 2:4
Live Out Loud for Jesus because He Placed The Harvest in Our Hands
We are His reapers. Being a good Christian, going to church, praying, reading your Bible, and living a good clean life is good, but is it the whole will of God for our lives? We are here to share what we have been given & impact lives.
Remember that our work, our calling, is to live out loud for Jesus. We tell others about Jesus and His work in our lives. We get them to Jesus and He does the rest.
