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Weimar University

Talking to Strangers

Don Mackintosh

01 Talking to Strangers

02 Talking to Strangers

Well, we've been in a little mini-series here on, entitled Talking to Strangers.

And there are 2 passages, or there's about 3 passages that I want to cover in this series.

And this is the second of those passages.

1 of the reasons we're spending time in that, and we did a survey of our students, found out that when they, several actually, NITS groups, have a problem talking to strangers, and they want to get better, So they actually indicated they want to improve.

And how many of you would like to get better at talking to strangers?

It's a little different, talking to strangers, a little bit different than talking about them.

So in light of that, you know, I did a little collateral reading and then this week went downtown and because of Ken, where'd Ken go?

Because of Ken I thought I'd go down to the rock shop, but I just ended up spending a few hours down there talking to a bunch of strangers in Auburn.

I'm gonna tell you a little bit about it during the message, but let's just pray again and ask God to bless us.

Father in heaven, Lord, thank you for opportunity.

We have to, again, study your word, and we thank you, we come in Christ's name, amen.

So, In our first part, we looked at Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, that's last week, and got I think 10 pointers, although someone corrected me that I missed a number, and thank you for paying attention.

10 or 11 pointers on how to talk to strangers in Acts chapter 8 and today part 2 John chapter 4 Now Jesus had just finished in John chapter 3 that famous exchange with Nicodemus Nicodemus looked like he was an insider, but he actually was a stranger to the gospel.

Sometimes you're gonna have strangers actually in the house, in the church.

He actually happened to be, you know, like he was a general conference vice president.

He was way up there, and he didn't even know what he should know and so he was counseled by Jesus to be born again of water in the Spirit to actually be rebaptized.

I don't know if Jesus came to a general conference today I don't know if he would make such an appeal.

How many think that he might make such an appeal even today?

And after that, after talking about a stranger who was actually in the church, then talks about this woman that's outside of the church.

And we just heard our scripture reading from Jordan.

Well, and this occurred actually right next to the Jordan River.

He left Judea and departed again to Galilee, but he needed to go through Samaria.

Now, this is a very interesting text because if you look at the geography, Jesus felt an intense need to engage with strangers and he went out of his way to do so.

Because normally people when they went from Judea, down there in Jerusalem, Judea, you can see that at the top of the screen, Judea's at the bottom, right there near Emmaus and Jerusalem and Jericho, to Galilee where Capernaum and Cana and Tiberias are.

Normally the Jew would take that road to the far right, that red road, go through Bethany, then on the other side of the Jordan, and would completely pass by Samaria.

Because everybody in Samaria, they had this stereotype that they were all very bad people and losers and idolaters and pagans and half-breeds and all kinds of names.

And so this text that says Jesus needed to go through Samaria is quite an interesting text.

It's saying Jesus wanted to meet with strangers.

He wanted to meet with people who were estranged.

He wanted to go exactly where people said you should not go to do something they should have been doing, but they weren't doing.

Verse 5, so he came to a city in Samaria, which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

Now Jacob's well was there, Jesus therefore being wearied from his journey, sat thus by the well.

It was about the sixth hour, Or in other words, right in the middle of the day.

So he gets there, the time, the location, smack in the middle of Samaria, where Jews never went.

What does this teach us about talking to strangers?

Number 1, he not only went out of his way to do it, number 2, he positioned himself where he could meet strangers, where many of them would come.

Everybody ultimately has to go by the well to get some water.

I remember once I got in trouble at a camp meeting.

I was a very young pastor and the conference president said, I'm putting you on bathroom duty.

It's another story for a children's story time.

Anyway, you are not fit to be with the group I was with.

I said, well, where are you going to put me?

I'm putting you in charge of the bathrooms.

I said, everybody eventually has to go to the bathroom, so I guess I'll be meeting everybody, not just the small children.

And he goes, I'm going to keep you right where you are.

But Jesus positioned himself where he could meet strangers, where many of them would come.

And he also positioned himself where there were built-in talking points.

There's ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

These are very, very important people in Jewish and Samaritan history.

He's like positioning himself the ultimate place where he has these props he can just point to, you know?

When I go to a store or anything, I'm talking to someone, I see if there's exit signs.

Because that's the story of Joseph, right?

Did that 2 times yesterday when I was talking to strangers.

So he positioned himself where there were built-in talking points.

Now yesterday, as I was walking in Auburn, I came across some ladies who were at, and some men who possessed themselves Right where, is it Lincoln?

And what's the name of that other street that comes right up there?

And they were right there and they had save the earth and environmental protection now.

And I said, wow, they're engaging with the community.

They were interested in how interested I was.

And you know, picketers are people that are doing this kind of stuff, don't normally think that someone's going to come right up to them and talk with them, right?

But I was talking with them, and 1 lady said, I've been out here since 1980.

I said, that's a long time, you look so well, Did you ever change your clothes?

And then the other 1 says, I just came out last week, and they were talking about this.

And they felt like this was an important enough issue, saving earth.

I mean, I'm gonna think saving earth It's a good issue and so we're talking to them and then I said well Elon Musk says forget it and Bezos and they say I just read that they want to take people to Mars And this lady with a sign says save the earth forget Mars because I read the same thing and I was like, wow So do you think there's any other place but the Earth?

I said, well, I can see why you'd be very interested in saving it.

And she goes, well, That's a very odd question you would ask.

And I said, it's not really that odd, really, given the fact that most Americans believe that there's like a heaven.

The lady next to her says, why don't we make Earth like heaven?

So then we kept talking, and you know, these guys were in the background, they even had a band in the back, so they had music, music going on with it too.

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Series

Talking to Strangers

02 Talking to Strangers

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

From Unbeliever to Great Achiever

50m

Callie Williams Weekend

How to be Offensive Like Jesus

40m

The Closet and the Prophet: Coming Out and Coming Home

51m

Why Settle for Less?

34m

Speak it in Love

49m

Practical Christian Living

Part 2 - Understanding Personal Problems

1h 14m

The Weight of Waiting

1h 10m

Why Jesus Can’t be Your Boyfriend

59m

Ministerial

Starting Bible Studies, Building Friendships and Gaining Decisions

1h 10m

Amazing Disciples

17. Christ-Centered Doctrine, Part 1

59m

The Divine Solution

1h 33m

Do you Want to be Made Well?

1h 16m

Sound Doctrine