The Habit of Seeing Good



Dr. Ralph W. Sockman has said,
Habit must play a larger part in our religious life.

  • We worship when we feel like it;
  • we pray when we feel like it;
  • we read the Bible when we feel like it.
  • Leaving our religious exercises to the prompting of impulse,
  • we become creatures of impulse rather than soldiers of Christ.
  • An army made up of creatures of impulse would only be a mob.
  • Jesus always had the habit of seeing the potential for good in the people around him.

We´re going to look at 3 people that Jesus saw great potential.

Jesus saw the potential for good in Simon

read John 1:42

Jesus Knew Simon.

He knew Simon was an impulsive man.
He knew Simon was an unstable man.
He knew Simon would deny him 3 times.

Jesus Saw The Potential In Simon.

He knew Simon would stand like the Rock of Gibraltar on Pentecost.
To preach the Gospel.
To proclaim the significance of the Holy Ghost.
He knew He could build his Church on this rock.

Jesus had the habit of seeing good in others

Jesus saw the potential for good in Matthew the Tax Collector

read Matthew 9:9

Tax Collectors Were Not Very Popular In Jesus Day.

They were despised as representatives of a foreign government.
A government guilty of tyranny.
A government of oppression.
Jesus Saw In Matthew.
Matthew had the potential of writing the first book in the New Testament, The book of Matthew.

Jesus Invited Matthew Become One Of His Followers.

Jesus had the habit of seeing good in others

Jesus saw the potential for good in the woman of Samaria

read John 4:1-39

Jesus Knew The Samaritan Woman.

He knew of her heartbreak.
He knew of her rejection.
He knew of her 5 failed marriages.
He knew in the eyes of others she was worthless.
He knew she was living with a man outside of wedlock.
He knew she was treated as an outcast.
It is Impossible for us to imagine the despair that must have filled her heart and life.

The Woman At the Well Could Not Have Known Her Own Potential.

Jesus Knew Her Potential.

Jesus saw the woman at the well and loved her.
Jesus offered her the gift of Living Water.

The Samaritan Woman Became A Powerful Witness For God.

The scripture tells us Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman´s testimony.  John 4:39

Jesus had the habit of seeing good in others

Conclusion

Let´s Be Honest With ourselves Just For A Moment.
Our Tendency Is To See The Bad In People, Not Good.
We Become Hypercritical And Notice Other´s Flaws.
Actually We Are Practicing The Very Opposite Of What Jesus Teaches Us.
We Need To Change Our Attitudes And Try To See Others Through The Eyes Of Christ.
Isn´t That How We Desire People To See Us?
Because If All They See In Us Is Our Faults And Flaws, We Would All Be In Sad Shape!

We need to get in the habit of seeing good in others!  Like Jesus!



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John 1:42 And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jonah: thou shalt be called Cepheus, which is by interpretation, A stone.
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Matthew 9:9 And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him
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John 4:1 When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John,
2 (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,)
3 He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee.
4 And he must needs go through Samaria.
5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
6 Now Jacob´s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.
7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?
12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
27 And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?
28 The woman then left her water pot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,
29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?
30 Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.
31 In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat.
32 But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.
33 Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat?
34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
37 And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.
38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.
39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did.
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John 4:39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did.
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Last updated on October 21, 2005    page counter