Ned Brown 12-14-2025 | Gospel Gun Safety, ”You’ll shoot your eye out!”; John 4

In the classic Christmas movie, "A Christmas Story," young Ralph's one desire for Christmas is to receive a Red Rider BB Gun.  But throughout the movie, the grownups, including the department store Santa, chastise him, "You'll shoot your eye out, kid!"  Someone once likened sharing the Gospel with having a "Gospel gun."  The problem is, we often get caught up in all the little details we fail to take the shot when it comes.  Do we have the right ammunition?  I don't know how to handle this "gun."  Is my sight properly calibrated?  I just don't know what to say.

In John 4, Jesus has a divinely appointed "chance" encounter with a Samaritan woman at the well.  Through her exchange with Jesus, not only is her whole life exposed, but her falsely held theology is exposed as well.  And yet, as we see, even with all her wrong ideas, she had one thing right, in John 4:25, "The woman said to Him, 'I know that Messiah is coming' (who is called Christ). 'When He comes, He will tell us all things.'”  To which Jesus responds, "I who speak to you am He."  And with just this single bullet in her "Gospel Gun," she leaves her waterpot at the well and hurriedly runs into the city, calling out to the men of the city, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”  She took the shot.
The question for believers today is, what keeps us from taking the shot?  Join us as we examine this story of Jesus' encounter with the woman at the well as we consider what we need to share the Gospel; and the answer may surprise you.

Thank you for listening to today's lesson.  We pray you will be encouraged through the teaching of God's Word to share the Gospel message with those around you.