A New Beginning
A New Heart
January 9th, 2022
Montgomery Campus: Pastor Mike Rippy
Prattville Campus: Devon LeMaster
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Isaiah 43:18-19
Three Qualities of a Heart for the Lord
A Listening Heart
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.” John 4:10-15 (NIV)
Life sometimes blinds us to the most important things, work, meetings, “getting the water” kind of things!
Jesus gives an invitation to the one thing that will bring ultimate satisfaction -- Living Water.
A Prioritized Heart
. 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.” John 4:16-18 (NIV)
With wrong heart priorities, we make decisions based on our feelings rather than our commitment to God.
A Pattern of bad decisions leads to brokenness.
Jesus calls us to prioritize him out of everything else in our lives!
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33 (NIV)
A Connected Heart
“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.” John 4:19-24 (NIV)
A Real connection isn’t made by because of a location, but through faith in Jesus.
The Samaritan woman needed her heart to connect with the Father; genuine connection happens spiritually
"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh" . Ezekiel 36:26 (KJV)
MY NEXT STEP TODAY IS TO:
Begin a Relationship with Jesus today.
Be Baptized in Water January 23rd
Plan to be in a Life Group when they begin in a few weeks