Pastor Griffin: Small things can lead to Jesus

Photos by Ralph Freso/Slideshow/Livestream

Dr. Tim Griffin, pastor at Grand Canyon University, shared how little things, such as his son, Taylor's, tryout at an open volleyball workout, would lead to a spot on the Lopes men’s volleyball team and, indirectly, to his own path to GCU.

“I want you to think a little bit today about the little things that happen sometimes in our lives that lead to really big things, transformative things,” Griffin said Monday at Chapel, following a visit to Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, Georgia, where he met faith leaders.

In continuing this year’s theme of “Jesus Stories From the Gospels,” Griffin referenced John 4, in which Jesus travels from Judea to Galilee and makes a stop at Sychar, an ancient town in Samaria where residents “weren’t all Jew or Gentile,” Griffin said.

Jesus stops at Jacob’s Well at noon and asks a woman for a drink of water while His disciples went into town for food. The woman is surprised at Jesus’ request because of ethnic, religious and gender barriers, especially during an exchange involving a Jew to a Samaritan at noon instead of in the morning or evening, during cooler temperatures.

The woman was surprised that Jesus would talk to her, but the conversation is engaging and lengthy. In John 4:13-18, Jesus says, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman replies, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty for having come here to draw water.”

The woman was drawn in by the words of Jesus, who calls out her sin and tells her to call her husband. The woman responds by saying she has no husband.

Jesus replies: “You are right in saying ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband.'”

The woman observes in John 4:19: “Sir, I perceive that you are prophet.”

Griffin smiles after reciting her response, especially after the way that Jesus knows her secrets and brokenness but engages her during a slow time at the well. That also affords them a time to discuss theology, where she tells Jesus that another state of worship exists.

Jesus replies in John 4:23-24: “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.”

At this point, the woman knows the Messiah is coming, and Jesus tells her, “I who speak to you am He.”

Griffin senses that many students in the packed Global Credit Union Arena believe they have given their hearts and lives to Jesus.

“But there's some of you in here that may be wrestling with: "Is He the Lord of my life?” Griffin said. “Is He going to be the Lord, or are you going to run your life? Are you going to be the king of your affairs, or the queen, if you would, who is it that's going to be in charge, and who are you going to follow?”

“And here Jesus says, ‘I who speak to you am He.’“

Griffin hopes that those, particularly students who are away from their youth pastor or their Christian schools for a few weeks, surrender their lives to Jesus as their only Lord and savior and king of their life.

And the disciples, upon returning, try to get Jesus to eat but are rebuked in their efforts. Jesus reiterates He is about His Father’s business and what is more important is that the woman, who is broken and thirsty, finds life.

“There's nothing like Jesus to intersect our lives in these small moments and do something profound,” Griffin said.

In John 4:39, many Samaritans from Sychar believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony, stating, “He told me all that I ever did.”

Jesus granted the locals’ request to stay two more days and gained more followers because of His word.

Griffin cited several points before concluding his message:

“You may feel like you are broken beyond repair,” Griffin said. “There may be things about your life, your private life, your former life, your life before GCU, before two weeks ago where you (think), ‘There's no room for me in the community of Jesus followers, and you've kind of pushed yourself back. My hope is that you realize that Jesus, in His way, is to bring life to broken people.”

In the world of AI and social media, Griffin admittedly wondered what is actually real.

However, “the truth of God's word is where life will flourish her, and it was for that woman and for those in that village that heard about the gospel, heard about Jesus, heard the good news, went and found Him for themselves and saw that He was the Savior,” Griffin said.

“My hope is that you would realize that Jesus brings about transformation in us and in others,” Griffin said. “We can work all the kinds of systems, ideas and self-help routines that we think is going to make a difference, and the real, true transformation comes in the ways of Christ.”

In closing, Griffin said, “My prayer is that this year we would all engage in a personal commitment to following Him and the ways that He modeled for us with that woman at the well. That what He did there would be our ways with each other; that we would learn how to take the ways of Jesus into our communities, into our friendship networks, to the thousands of students that are not in this room today that need us to be like Jesus to them.

“Would you be that person? Would you be like that woman at the well who goes back to your village and shares Jesus with them?”

GCU News senior writer Mark Gonzales can be reached at [email protected]

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Next Chapel speaker: KJ Gould, Christ Church, 11 a.m. Sept. 28, Global Credit Union Arena

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