FBCPS
Sermons, teachings, and podcasts from First Baptist Church in Powder Springs, Georgia.
FBCPS
What Are You Feasting On? | John 4
Join us for a spiritually uplifting conversation with Jonathan Dimanche the local missions pastor at Liberty Live Church, as we explore the depths of spiritual nourishment and growth. Through the timeless story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4, Jonathan guides us in understanding the profound joy found in doing God's work and embracing His will. Imagine seeing the world with spiritual eyes, recognizing fields ripe for harvest, and savoring the immense satisfaction that comes from sowing and reaping for eternal life. As we feast on more than just physical sustenance, we are inspired to move beyond mere acts of kindness, focusing instead on the greater reward of spiritual fulfillment.
Our journey continues as we draw enriching parallels between spiritual growth and culinary experiences, discovering the joy in serving God and transitioning from spiritual milk to the solid food of a mature faith. Jonathan leads us in a heartfelt prayer for transformation, encouraging us to engage actively in our divine calling. We reflect on the message from Pastor Grant, seeking forgiveness for past inaction and reigniting our passion to serve fervently. This episode is a call to action for all who wish to contribute to the growth and anointing of our community, emphasizing the importance of being proactive in our spiritual journey and sharing the gospel with others.
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Praise the Lord. How's everybody doing today? All right. Praise the Lord. How's everybody doing today? All right. So, as Pastor Chip said, my name is Jonathan DeMont and I have the privilege of being the local missions pastor at Liberty Live Church in Hampton, where our senior pastor is Dr Grant Etheridge. It's where Chip and Michelle came from and we miss them a lot. It's where Chip and Michelle came from and we miss them a lot, but we see the work that God is doing here and how can we not just rejoice with them and be so proud of them? We really are proud of them and excited about what God is doing in Powder Springs.
Speaker 1:So my wife, melissa DeMont, who just sang up here, she's a worship director and I love her a lot, and we have three beautiful girls named Emma, ava and Micaiah. They're with their grandparents this morning just enjoying. I think they said, yeah, there it goes. They're precious and we love them dearly. They're so smart and so bright. We know Chip and Michelle love them also and we love all their kids.
Speaker 1:I remember I forgot to say this in the last service, but I remember when we were just kind of helping them move a couple things and we were asking so how was it? How are things in Powder Springs and all that. Are you excited? And they were thrilled. And there's two things I remember that they said. They said that they described it as a match made in heaven and they said that it fit like a glove. So we're excited about what God is getting ready to do here, and the title of the message today is what are you feasting on? What are you feasting on?
Speaker 1:The true heart and catalyst behind this message came when I was looking for a word of encouragement to bring to our life team volunteers to just really kind of help them connect the dots. As the outreach guy at our church, I have the privilege of leading our campus to serving hundreds of families, thousands of people, to experience God in receiving food like whether it's a meal or gifts for Christmas and Thanksgiving and it's such a privilege to do that and through that I wanted to show my volunteers that it wasn't just about giving gifts and food, that there's a much deeper cause in what we're doing here. It's really about sharing the gospel and some of those other things. They're just really a leverage point so that you can have a platform or you're meeting someone's need, and I love the fact that this is something that Chip told me once, many moons ago, when he was in Virginia. He didn't even remember.
Speaker 1:This morning he gave me this point as a young pastor. He said even Jesus used bait on his hook when he was fishing for men right? So when you do something for someone and it brings you a kind of satisfaction, as long as your heart is in the right place, there's nothing wrong with that. It's quite natural, actually, and I just want to communicate to us this morning that there is such a greater reward and such a greater blessing when we nourish someone, not just physically but spiritually. So it's not just about the physical food but the spiritual food. And when I was thinking about that, it brought my mind to John, chapter 4, when Jesus was at Jacob's well with the Samaritan woman and he told her all that she's ever done and he offered her to drink from the eternal water, and she went off to share that good news with everyone else in her town. And that's what we wanna talk about today. We wanna talk about sharing this good news and feasting on Jesus as a part of the work that he's called us to.
Speaker 1:So let's pray again real quick. Thank you, heavenly Father, for this awesome day that you've given us. God, I thank you so much for First Baptist Church, powder Springs. I thank you that your Holy Spirit is here. I thank you that, god, you are working in this place. I pray, god, that you would take over this morning and that you would lead us to all truths in your word, god. I pray that you would lead us to all truths in your word, god. I pray that you would move me out of the way and that your spirit would lead and guide us today. We thank you so much and we love you. It's in Jesus' holy and matchless name. We pray. Amen, all right.
Speaker 1:So John, chapter 4, verse 31 through 39. Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, saying Rabbi, eat. But he said to them I have food to eat that you do not know about. So the disciples said to one another has anyone brought him something to eat? Jesus said to them my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say? There are yet four months. Then comes the harvest. Look, I tell you. Lift up your eyes and see. The fields are white for harvest Already. The one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life. So the sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored and you have entered into their labor. Many Samaritans from the town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me all that I ever did. So the first thing we need to know if we want to truly feast like Jesus, because he said I have food you know not of. If we want to know, if we want to truly feast like Jesus, because he said I have food you know not of, if we want to know about this food and partake in that with him, the first thing that we need to do is to look deeper. We need to look and see with our spiritual eyes. Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest.
Speaker 1:I love in 1 Samuel, chapter 16, verse 7, when the prophet is in Jesse's house and he's looking for the next king of Israel, and as he's doing this, as he's searching, he's going through all of Jesse's sons and none of them seem to be it. So he says do you have another? He's gotta have another son if God sent me here. And Jesse was like oh yeah, I have a dirty nose, ruddy old boy that's smelly and tending to the sheep out back. And Samuel said bring him in. And I love what God said here. He said, for the Lord sees not as man sees. Men looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. See, jesus took the opportunity to cross multiple boundaries because he was looking with his spiritual eyes, and that's what we need to do today.
Speaker 1:Some of the boundaries that Jesus crossed were ethnicity and culture. See, the Jews. They hated the Samaritans a lot. They despised them. Matter of fact, going in Samaria was kind of like going to the wrong side of town, and they would double or triple the length of their trips if it meant not going through Samaria, which was extremely inconvenient. That's like saying, when I go back home to Virginia, I hate the Carolinas so much that I'm going to cut my way around through Tennessee, through the hills of West Virginia, and take the six-hour long stretch all the way through Virginia. It would make no sense. I would literally be tripling my time that I could make at home. But see, the reason they didn't like them was because they began to intermingle with other cultures and marrying them and whatnot, and the biggest issue with that was they also took upon their values, so much so that even when they wanted to go back to God and do godly things, the Jews still weren't having it. They called them half-breeds and they stayed away from Samaritans. But I'm so glad that Jesus looks past our ethnicities and our cultural differences in order to reach us, because he sees us with our spiritual eyes. He sees the potential in who we can be, in him, amen. So because Jesus looks through with his spiritual eyes, he crossed the boundaries of gender and socioeconomic status.
Speaker 1:At the time, a person like Jesus wouldn't be caught dead at a well with a Samaritan woman. Nonetheless, that was married five times, and he looked past all that. It didn't matter. It wasn't that he condoned her sin or the lifestyle. It wasn't that he did not condone the sin and the lifestyle that she was living in, but it's that he took a chance to see a little bit beyond that, into what she can be as an evangelist, what she can be who she would become if truly she had the living water. She would spread the word, and Jesus knew that, so he knew it was worthwhile sharing with her.
Speaker 1:Jesus looked past the boundaries of reproach and uncomfortability. I could just imagine that woman saying you, a Jew, asking me a Samaritan for water. Do you know what year it is? It's circa 32 AD. You're at the well of Jacob buddy. I'm a woman, you're a man. Come on right. I could totally imagine her saying that because even when Jesus wanted to forget and look past all those things, she reminded him.
Speaker 1:How many times do we throw our insecurities and our imperfections right in God's face, right when he already knew? Don't forget, he died over 2,000 years ago and he's calling us to himself today, so he already knew all that we would be and all that we would become. But he still calls us to himself. He still calls us to work and labor in the field, so it really didn't matter. You know what made matters worse. You know what made things even more awkward. God could read their minds, and he knew how awkward it was for the disciples could read their minds, and he knew how awkward it was for the disciples, but he didn't care because he saw past that.
Speaker 1:So we sometimes have difficulties seeing with our spiritual eyes and crossing boundaries. So that's why we have to pray for God to help us and to give us spiritual eyes and to feel as he felt. See in Matthew 6, 22,. It says the eye is a lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If, then, the light in your eye is darkness, how great is that darkness? So not only do we need to see people differently, so not only do we need to see people differently, but if we don't see them as God sees them, we'll continue to view people worse and worse, and instead of viewing all that is wrong with other people, we need to begin viewing ourselves in light of what God wants to do with us and how he wants us to reach those people.
Speaker 1:Psalm 121 says I lift my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. We have to lift our eyes to God and ask him to give us a heart of compassion. Matthew 9, 36 says when he saw the crowds, and he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. When you see people that are harassed and helpless, when you see people that appear as sheep without a shepherd, do you feel compassion on them? Does that move you like it moved Jesus Church?
Speaker 1:We have to pray. We have to pray that God would open up our eyes, like he did the two men on the road to Emmaus, that when they communed with Jesus and remembered his passion by the nail prints in his hands, they remembered and their eyes were opened and they wanted to share with everyone that Jesus is alive, as their hearts burned with that passion. We have to pray that God would move the scales from our eyes, like he did Paul after seeing his glory, and that he would heal us from anything preventing us seeing as he sees. We have to pray that, like the Samaritan woman, the revelation of the Messiah preventing us seeing as he sees. We have to pray that, like the Samaritan woman, the revelation of the Messiah would make us want to share the gospel with everyone. This is what happens when we view people with eyes of compassion like Jesus.
Speaker 1:Next, if we want to feast like Jesus, then we must work in the fields by sowing and reaping. Jesus said to them my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work Already. The one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life. So the sower and reaper may rejoice together. We have to sow and reap the harvest.
Speaker 1:I have a question today, several questions really. What satisfies you, what brings you pleasure? Is it the things of God? Is it God himself? What are you feasting on? Is it God himself, what are you feasting on? These may seem like really pointed questions, but the truth of the matter is, I had to ask myself this many, many times. I love how, in Matthew 4, 4, jesus says that men shall his daily bread, what keeps him alive, what he feasts on, is accomplishing God's work, church.
Speaker 1:Let me break it down for you this way. See, I'm not a chef but, as you can tell, I know my way around food and when you want to eat right, when, like, you, really want to throw down and you're putting a meal together with all the fixings as you guys like to say in the South, fixings you don't just slap some rice on a plate and hand it to somebody here. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean you can have rice like that, but you gotta at least make it like jambalaya rice, like they do in Louisiana, right? Like adding the shrimp and the andouille sausage and the crayon seasoning, mix it up real good. You know what I'm talking about, or maybe some I'm not sure if you're familiar with African culture, but they have this thing called jollof rice and it's so good. They add tomatoes and onions and all kinds of meats and mix it with the rice. It's so good.
Speaker 1:Indian cuisine has their own version. It's called chicken biryani. You mix the seasoned chicken and you cook it up with the rice. Delicious.
Speaker 1:So you can't just have it like that and like maybe rice is not your thing, right? Maybe you're more of like a meat and potatoes kind of person. You can't just have some bland potatoes and hand it to somebody. You know you got to mix it up a bit Like maybe some baked chicken and then you pour the sauce all over it and you have the asparagus on the side. You know what I'm talking about. I know you can see it. You can probably smell it. Go ahead and shut that door for me, because some people might leave early for lunch. Or maybe you're more of like a steak person, right? You like steak with the grill marks on it. You know what I mean Not too blue and not too well done, but just right. And you have also the steamed broccoli, and we're supposed to be the salt and light of the world. So you got gotta sprinkle some of that salt on it. You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:It's so good, but what I'm trying to convey to you here is that the fixings of the Holy Spirit necessitate that we be doers of the word and not just hearers. In other words, church being nourished by God isn't just feasting on his word, but it's doing his work. Furthermore, working for God should bring you pleasure and joy. We ought to be passionate and excited about it. It's just like when the prophet was eating the scroll. He said first it was bitter and then it became sweet. Maybe for some of you stretching your faith in this way, at first it might be bitter, it might be a lot. Maybe you have real disgruntled neighbors, or you might not have shown the best side of your Christian self around your work peers, or you're afraid of how somebody might respond to you. But after a while it will become sweet. So I encourage you to serve the Lord in that capacity.
Speaker 1:Powder Springs, god didn't just give you a fresh, young, energetic, experienced pastor, just for you to glean from him, with all the nourishing, delicious things that he has for you spiritually. God gave you Pastor Chip so that you would also work in the field too. I'm gonna say that one more time. God didn't just send Chip and Michelle here for them to nourish you spiritually. Only God sent them here so that you would work and labor beside them. Can I get an amen for that? God is good. And guess what? If you don't engage in the Lord's work in this capacity, you will actually stunt your spiritual growth. There will actually be areas in you spiritually that will remain immature and that won't produce any growth. I'll prove it to you.
Speaker 1:In 1 Corinthians, chapter 3, paul tells us that they need to move on from the spiritual milk to solid food of the word. And Paul knew that they were spiritually immature and still on milk, based upon their behavior, based upon what they did and also what they said. I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Chip. I like the way things used to be done around here. Well, you guys don't say that here, right? That's just in Corinth, right, let's leave that in Corinth. Just in Corinth, right, let's leave that in Corinth. But see, in Galatians 2, paul actually reprimands Peter and he told him that he stood condemned His words, not mine. And he says, I quote not acting in line with the truth of the gospel.
Speaker 1:You see, spreading the gospel and sharing the goodness of Jesus with the nations has been in the plans and in the works since Genesis. And even after Jesus came, died, resurrected and ascended, he was telling us all throughout that we need to spread his word, and it took persecution for the disciples and many others to finally leave Jerusalem and begin spreading the word, like God has totally expected us to and told us to in the first place. Even then, peter still wasn't looking with his spiritual eyes. God sent him the same vision three times, three times. He sent him the same vision of a heavenly smorgasbord of delicious foods, all kinds of jollof and biryani and gumbo and jambalaya and all these kinds of delicious things that you could imagine. But he still told the Lord that he couldn't eat, that he couldn't partake eat, that he couldn't partake, and he couldn't see that this food was a direct connection and representation of our work among Gentiles, of our work among the nations. See, even after God, I'm sorry. So I'm going to tell you about my daughter Micaiah. I'm sorry. So I'm gonna tell you about my daughter Micaiah. My daughter Micaiah. She's of the age now where she's transitioning from eating or from just drinking milk to also eating solid foods. And not just that, but now the milk is just kind of supplementary. Watch this If we kept feeding her milk and we didn't transition her to solid food, we would be malnourishing our child because she wouldn't have the necessary nutrients that it takes for where her body is growing, for how she's developing and growing in this stage of life.
Speaker 1:I know for some of you it may be difficult. You may be wondering or thinking to yourself man, I want to do more in church. I know I come every Sunday, I tithe, I help out, I do this and that and I worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. But maybe you still feel like there's a cap or like a ceiling in your life. I want to encourage you to do two things. One is fast and Pastor Chip will have to talk to you about fasting another day, because today we're talking about feasting. And then the second thing is to work. It's to sow and reap in God's harvest. I want to encourage you to do that and see if the veil that is over your eyes won't begin to thin, if not be completely lifted off. It will change your life.
Speaker 1:Pastor Grant, our senior pastor, just shared a stat the other week of how it's scientifically proven that when you help people, you feel better and you do better, and I feel like God designed us that way for a reason. Not only that this church is designed, there are many ministries here that you could jump right in. I'm no prophet, but something tells me that your next gen ministry is about to blow up in all the right in. I'm no prophet, but something tells me that your next-gen ministry is about to blow up in all the right ways, and God is about to move in amazing ways. So if you want to see the Lord move, I encourage you to volunteer for the next-gen ministry. Or maybe it's more outward, maybe it's partnering with a school, or maybe like a little league team or something Better.
Speaker 1:Yet what has God gifted you with? What kind of gifts are lying dormant on the inside? What have you not used to serve God with yet? Pastor Chip, do you remember Dr Carmen? She finally opened her clinic. Dr Carmen was a woman who. She was born without a mother and father and was in the foster care system, pregnant at 19 with a special needs boy, and she managed to become a doctor and she was doing great, making doctor money, and she sold one of her houses. She sold her house so that she can open up a clinic and a practice so that she can not just take care of people medically but take care of them spiritually. She sold her home so that her practice can emphasize and help those who are marginalized and fall between the cracks, those who have no home.
Speaker 1:You may not take it that far this morning, but what are the gifts that are lying dormant inside of you? What has God called you to do? Maybe it's going on the mission or giving to the mission. Spain, madagascar, uganda, clean water efforts in Nigeria. God is doing all those things through First Baptist Church, powder Springs. How are you going to get involved and engaged in what the Lord is doing here?
Speaker 1:One thing that Chip helped to build a culture around at Liberty was the life of personal evangelism and discipleship. He was always it's roll tide and discipleship. Those are probably the two things that you heard most out of Chip. So who are you discipling? Who are you working on bringing closer to God. Who are you feeding? Working on bringing closer to God? Who are you feeding? And third, you have to abide with Christ if you want to feast with him. When you abide with Jesus and his word, you begin to grow and you begin to display the fruit of the spirit. What is fruit? It's a food that is nourishing, that usually nourishing, that usually is sweet and that you consume, correct. Now, what's the fruit of the Spirit? The fruit of the Spirit is character virtues that you live by. In other words, it's what you do. It's the evidence and sign, the true evidence and sign that the Holy Spirit is living inside of you.
Speaker 1:I want to jump over to John, chapter 4, verse 40. It says so. When the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them and he stayed there two days and many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman it is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard ourselves and we know that this, indeed, is the Savior of the world. Isn't it funny how, when the Samaritan woman went to the well, she brought with her a water jar or a pitcher to fetch some water, but after she received the true living water. She left her pitcher there and, trust me, she was a lot more full leaving than when she came.
Speaker 1:Would you leave what you felt like you needed in order to receive Jesus, in order to work in his harvest? I share this with the other service Again. Maybe you've been a bad witness thus far. Service again, maybe you've been a bad witness thus far. Maybe there's a guy in our old connect group. He said he was in a time in his life where he was really on fire. He was really enjoying what the Lord was doing in the life of him and his family. But he said I just can't bring myself to share the gospel at work because I cuss a little and they know it. But we encouraged them. We said, hey, let them know that God is doing something different in your life today and the person that they knew then is not the same person now and he's transformed them and you want them to meet God and experience them like you are. So maybe that's your story, maybe that's your testimony today. See, we need to teach people how to abide with Jesus, to be cleaned and nourished by the watering of the word. We have a little saying at Liberty it's not just church, it's life. What have you given your life to? What defines you?
Speaker 1:Earlier, in the passage of John 4, verse 10, jesus tells a Samaritan woman if you knew the gift of God and who it was saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Someone greater than Jacob is offering you water today. Jesus said to her everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never be thirsty again, because this water is eternal life. You see, she had a revelation of who Jesus was. The Samaritans they didn't even really believe in the prophets in the first place. That was more so the Jews, but they did believe in Moses. That was more so the Jews, but they did believe in Moses. They saw Moses as a prophet, and most of the others they skipped over. And Moses spoke of one that would come, that was similar to him, but that would be greater. So when she says I behold you to be a prophet, or when she goes to her village and says, come, I've met a man who told me everything that I've ever done, that was a cue, and they understood that the person that Moses foretold was here. They understood him to be the Messiah.
Speaker 1:And not just that. Sometimes we put too much of ourselves in the way. Sometimes we need to move out of the way and just let God move. You just need to be a witness to what God has done in your life. You see, she said come, I met a man that told me everything I ever knew, and they believed her. But then afterwards it says that hey, we don't believe you because of your story anymore. We believe because we've experienced him ourselves. Don't stand in the way of someone else believing and seeing and experiencing Jesus for themselves.
Speaker 1:So I want to pray today. I want to say two different prayers. One I want to pray for those who may have never drunken from this water before. Maybe you're thirsty and your soul is thirsty, and if you don't have a drink of this eternal water, you know that you won't be in heaven to see Jesus. You know that your soul will perish. I wanna pray for you and encourage you, because it's nothing that I can do or say. It's not shaking the preacher's hand or anything. It's just literally believing and trusting in Jesus, believing that he is who he said. He is just like the Samaritans. They knew he was the Messiah, the Savior of the world.
Speaker 1:If you believe that, today I wanna pray with you. I wanna encourage you to say a prayer of your own. It doesn't have to be exactly my words, there's no magic in it. But if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, then you will be saved. So just pray a little something like this Dear Jesus, I come before you today confessing my sins.
Speaker 1:I know I'm not perfect, but I know you are God. I pray that you would save me. I pray that you would give me of your living water. I pray that you would transform my life. I pray that you would be my life. I pray that you would be the Lord over my life. Allow your Holy Spirit to live inside of me. It's in Jesus name we pray amen. And maybe you're saved. Maybe you've been here a while, but you just haven't put your hand to the plow. You haven't begun serving or sharing or doing anything in that capacity. Maybe you haven't taken your next spiritual step after salvation.
Speaker 1:I wanna encourage you today. You know Pastor Grant often says we're here for those who are not yet here, and that is true. So I want, as you are praying today, as I'm simply leading us in a prayer and you're gonna continue on with that prayer, I want you to think about who you want to share the gospel with, or what the Lord would have you do for him. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for today. God, first I just wanna say sorry.
Speaker 1:I pray, god, that you would forgive us for not dedicating ourselves and working in the harvest as we should. I pray that you would lead us and guide us to what you want to do. I pray, lord, that you would awaken the Holy Spirit within us and that we would begin to serve. Lord, I pray that you would give us zeal to serve. I pray that you would give us passion, lord, serve. I pray that you would give us passion, lord, if there's anything that's in our hearts to do, I pray that we would get with the staff member and share with them and begin to do it. Lord, god, Lord, I pray that two services wouldn't be enough. I pray we'd be busting out the seams. God, lord, I pray that the same anointing that's on Pastor Chip will begin to spread throughout both services and every member here. Please, god, allow us to engage in your work. We thank you, lord, and we love you so much. It's in Jesus' master's and holy name we pray Amen.