The One Story God Loves To Tell

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Yes, yes, Lord.

When we say nothing but the blood of Jesus, what we're saying is we don't trust anything else to make us right with you.

Nothing else has efficacy.

There's a big church word.

But the simple word is nothing else has the capacity.

So religion's not going to save us.

We're not here to get more determined, more guilty, more driven.

We're here to open up the Bible and to get more free.

Because the Son of God is sets if we know the truth, it'll set us free.

And when the Son sets you free, Jesus, you said we're free indeed.

So help us to understand.

You didn't come to bind us up with a bunch of rules and regulations.

You came to set us free to live the lives we were created to live.

When we say things that don't sometimes don't make sense, like being washed by the blood, what we're saying is we don't take a bath in order to come take a shower.

We don't have to cleanse ourselves because we can't, God.

We can't make ourselves right.

We can't do good stuff that way, our bad stuff, because our bad stuff is not just bad stuff, it's sin.

And the wages of sin is death.

And somebody has to die to pay for my sin.

And Jesus, you died.

And the blood that was shed was sufficient for our sin.

So I pray for anyone in this room today that just thinks, man, I've screwed it up really bad.

There's no way.

No, there's a way.

Matter of fact, there's one way, and his name's Jesus.

So we come today, Lord, to surrender our intellect and our appetites to all that you are.

So speak, Lord.

Your people are listening.

We pray and we listen in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You can have a seat if you've got a Bible.

I invite you to take and open it up to John chapter 4.

John 4 · chapter mention

John chapter 4.

John 4 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, if you've got your kids with you and you've got your hands full, uh, it'll come up on the screen.

You'll be okay.

Uh, if you're our guest today, uh, we are preaching through the Gospel of John.

Through the Gospel of John.

And one of the things that we uh starting chapter 1, going all the way through, and today I want to talk to you uh about this, the one story that God loves to tell.

The one story that God loves to tell.

When you it's it's if you're not careful, it's easy to read the Bible and think, man, there's like 644 stories in there.

And I remember some of them, and I think some of them are good and right and true, and these other ones, I mean, how can that happen?

I mean, that dude lived in the belly of a woman.

Come on, man, what in the world?

But here's the reality God's really telling one story.

He uses different situations and scenarios, but he tells one story, and I'll demonstrate that toward the end.

So uh so if you just stay with me this morning, and I want to read 10 verses, uh, because John chapter 4 is rich and it's thick.

John 4 · chapter mention

My wife and I went to dinner with some friends on Friday night, and for dessert, we got cheesecake, I mean, we got brownie cheesecake, and they set that thing down with a thud, like thunk.

And I was like, that's going home in a to-go box.

Got about two bites of that.

It was like, ugh, it was so rich and so good.

John chapter 4 is the same way, so I don't want to try to dump the whole thing on you.

John 4 · chapter mention

I just want to get just a little taste in your mouth this morning, and then we'll get another bite next Sunday.

Amen?

All right, John chapter 4, starting verse 1.

John 4 · chapter mention

Here's what the Bible says.

Now, when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had had heard that Jesus was making, baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples, he left Judea and departed again for Galilee.

And he had to pass through Samaria, so he came to a town in Samaria called Sikar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

Jacob's well was there, so Jesus, weird as he was from the journey, was sitting beside the well.

It was about the sixth hour.

A woman from Samaria came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, Give me a drink.

For his disciples had gone away to the city to buy food.

And the Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?

For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

And Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.

And we'll just stop right there.

Whether you realize it or not, God just kind of set the brownie cheesecake down on the table with four forks, except in this cake case, it's like 400 forks and said, Y'all take all you want.

There's gonna be some left over here, okay?

I just want to make three simple points this morning, and I want you to wrap your head and your heart around this.

When I say your head, I mean your mental capacity, your attention.

When I say your heart, I mean your affection.

Because the Bible informs how we think and what we feel.

It's not a made-up story that we're trying to convince everybody really is true.

No, it's a liberating truth that you were created to experience.

First thing that the Bible tells us this morning is that no one outgrows the gospel, and no one outsends the gospel.

No one outgrows the gospel, and I'll unpack that in just a minute.

And by the same token, no one outsends the gospel.

Now, you say, what do you mean?

In John's gospel, the purpose of his gospel is it comes in towards the end in chapter 20.

He says, I've written these things so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

He sums it up.

And so John writes his gospel to explain and to point to these realities.

Like when I say no one outgrows the gospel, that means you're not too good for it, you're not too mature for it.

There's some of you in this room that if you don't think this, you've been tempted to think this.

Hey, that God and Jesus and church and Christianity, that was good when I was a kid.

But now I'm 40 and I know better.

I would say to you, that's not the gospel.

No one outgrows the gospel.

No one's too good for the gospel.

Hey, I'm basically a good person.

Because what you see in John, John chapter 3, 4, and 5, you see three people.

John 3 · chapter mention

The last chapter you saw a guy named Nicodemus, very religious, memorized, first five books of the Old Testament.

Great guy, very moral.

Jesus said, Hey, you got to be born again.

So in chapter 3, you see a guy that's spiritually incapable.

Chapter 4, this woman, she's morally incapable.

Next chapter 5, you see a guy that's physically incapable.

He's paralyzed.

He's been laying by this pool for 38 years, and he ain't gotten any better.

And so, what am I saying?

I'm saying that no one outgrows the gospel.

You're too not too smart, too mature, too moral, too good.

By the same token, no one outsends the gospel.

This woman, and we just read about, I stopped in chapter and verse 10, but we'll get into it a little bit further.

Uh next week we'll read more because Jesus starts talking about this living water.

He sets the brownie cheesecake down, and she's like, Sir, give me some of this water so I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.

And Jesus says to her, and his mind is like, Hey, this is so good.

Call your old man.

He needs to get in on some of this.

But Jesus says, Call your husband, and she says, Well, see, uh, uh, I don't have a husband.

And Jesus said, You know what, you're right.

Matter of fact, you've had five husbands, and the man you're shacked up with right now, he ain't your husband either.

Uh-oh.

Now, by the way, you do know that God knows you and I that intimately, right?

You know that?

Because it's easy to look at her and go, Oh, she's been passed around like a bong at a Dave Matthews concert.

What kind of tramp is that?

Yeah.

By the way, kids, that's what your parents do when they go see Dave Matthews in concert.

They go get baked and come home in the buick.

We gotta eat cheese.

Yeah.

I mean, this woman's washed up.

Five marriages?

I mean, after three, just quit.

Just quit.

Hey, I'm gonna live with you until this thing gets off the rails, then I'm gonna pack my stuff and get out.

You're gonna come home to a note.

It'd be like an Allison Krause, Brad Paisley old song.

She put him out like the burning end of a midnight cigarette.

Oh, that's so good.

It makes your dog weep.

This woman lives with this reality.

Now, the Bible's subtle, by the way.

If you don't read the Bible a lot, hey, look at me.

Relax.

The Bible kind of just kind of nudges us every once in a while.

It doesn't pound us over the head, it just kind of bumps up against you, like, hey, did you see that?

What do you mean?

When the Bible says she comes to the well at the sixth hour.

That's not six o'clock in the morning or six o'clock at night.

That's noon.

Because their day started at six in the morning.

They had two 12-hour periods.

Six in the morning to six at night, six at night to six in the morning.

So if it starts at six in the morning, she's at the sixth hour.

It's 12 noon.

She's hung over.

She smells like cheap liquor and bad cigarettes and bad choices.

And she's at the well, and Jesus knew she was gonna be there.

That's why he said in verse 4, I must go to Saga.

I gotta go to this place.

He didn't have to, and I'll show you that in just a minute.

He chose to because he knew she was gonna be there.

And so he gets there, and and the Bible just kind of just kind of winks at us and says, Hey, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, hey, Jesus wasn't the only person who was tired from his journey.

She was tired from her journey too.

And the Bible reaches out and nudges you this morning and says, Hey, are you aren't you tired of your journey as well?

You're tired of doing it your way and thinking that you got it all together and your way is the only way?

See, no one outgrows the gospel.

You're not you're not too good for it, you're not too mature for it, but also no one outsends the gospel.

No one's too bad for it.

This woman said to him, Jesus said, Give me a drink.

Verse uh nine, the Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you a Jew asked for a drink for me, a Samaritan woman?

For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is, is saying to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

Now, it's just ten verses.

You'd like, what's the big deal?

Here's the second point I want to make this morning that the Bible makes.

Secondly, is this is that God doesn't take his cues on how to treat you from the way people treat you.

Let me say that again.

God doesn't take his cues on how to treat you from the way people treat you.

Note this.

If you remember anything, get a piece of scratch paper and write this down.

It's a dangerous switch that we flip when we start allowing our experiences to become our belief.

It's a dangerous switch that we flip when we start allowing our experiences, the way people treat us, to become what we believe about ourselves.

See, it goes like this people don't show much interest in me, therefore I must not be interested.

People don't like me, therefore something must be wrong with me.

And by the way, when I say that God doesn't take his cues on how to treat you from the way people treat you, he also doesn't take his cues on how to treat you from the way you treat yourself.

Because some of you are sitting in this room right now and you're just unconsciously trying to prove to God how unworthy you are, so he'll go away and leave you alone.

My man, you are a one-legged man in a kicking contest.

You are not gonna win that.

Because, and I'll show you that in the Bible in just a minute, because here's what happens.

See, uh, one of the hardest things to do is to believe the gospel and apply that to yourself.

And yet one of the most necessary things for all of us to do is to believe the gospel and apply that to yourself.

That's why we sing the songs we do here when we sang a minute ago, and I will preach the gospel to myself.

Gospel means good news.

I will remind myself of the good news of Christianity.

Why is that so important?

Because we live in a world that's full of bad news.

And everybody that comes to you is not bringing good news.

And the Bible says sometimes you gotta preach the gospel to yourself.

You say, I don't get, because see, when you refuse to believe the gospel and all of its ramifications for our lives, we obligate everyone around us or something else to make us feel what only the gospel can make us feel.

Now you're like, dude, you just recited the Declaration of Independence.

Would you just shut up?

Uh now hear it again.

When you refuse, when I refuse to believe the gospel and all of its ramifications, that I'm loved by God, that I'm forgiven, my past doesn't have power over me, my future doesn't have fear for me.

When I refuse to believe the gospel and all its ramifications, then I obligate everyone around me, my wife, my kids, my friends, my employer, my my co-workers, I obligate everyone around me or something else.

That's called addiction.

Fentanyl ain't gonna fix it.

Some of you go to the doctor and lie, I got this shoulder, I got this bad knee.

I tell you, I played football in high school.

Yeah, it was 1971.

What's your excuse now?

Some of you lie to the doctor because you depend, you have this chemical babysitter that takes the edge off of life.

And here's the sad part about that.

When you refuse to believe the gospel, you obligate people around you or something else to make you feel what only the gospel can make you feel.

The sense of peace, the sense of contentedness, the sense of, you know what, my life matters and it has purpose.

Now, why do I why do I go blathering on about all that?

Nobody had this buzzing in their brain more than the Samaritans, this Samaritan woman who's sitting into whale.

Not because she's had five husbands and she's shacked up right now, no, but because she was a Samaritan.

You say, Well, what do you mean?

I brought a map to show you what I'm talking about because I want you to demonstrate something.

Uh, and not only do I have a map, but I have a laser pointer.

I'm gonna go home today and torment my cat with this.

So don't call me because I'll be busy.

Uh but last week we talked about here's one thing, write this down to the side if you're a note-taking person.

The life of Jesus is historically verifiable.

Jesus is not some figment of our imagination that religious people made up.

Last week we talked about, see that little place right there?

We talked about how John and Jesus were baptized in a place called Anon, near Salem.

That's that little town right there.

And now it begins, at the beginning of chapter 4, it begins and it says that um, in verse 3 says, He left Judea and departed again for Galilee.

Judea is right there.

And the Galilee is way up there.

So Jesus is leaving here and he's going to there.

Now, right there is Sychar, the town we're talking about in the Bible.

You see that little dot right there, that's a road.

It goes right up there, straight, straight shot to Galilee.

But also, you see right here, here's another road right here.

If you take that way, you've got to listen to a Ronnie Millsap eight-track that has a song on there called Let's Take the Long Way Around the World.

Remember, the woman says, Why are you even talking to me?

You're a Jew, and I'm a Samaritan.

We hate each other.

Now, what's the background for that?

Here's the background for that.

Centuries ago, Jerusalem got ramsacked, got got captured by a foreign army because they didn't obey God.

And so God raised up an army, they took them captive, and they moved them all to Babylon.

It's called the Babylonian exile.

The Jews that remained looked around and they said, you know what?

It's hard out here.

We're riding a struggle bus, God.

They said, We're Jews, but we're surrounded by these Canaanites.

Canaanites were pagans.

Canaanites, them suckers had fertility cults.

They worshiped anything.

They worshiped money, fertility, sex, drunkenness.

They were the people your mom said, don't go out with, don't even talk to, okay?

Just bad people.

All right?

The Jews said, we got to get along.

We got to give in.

We got to give a little to give a little.

So they took Judaism and they mixed it with these Canaanite fertility cults and they intermarried.

God said, Hey, don't marry these people.

They'll turn your heart away.

But they didn't trust God.

They said, We got to survive, we've got to pay the bills.

So they sold themselves out.

And they began to intermarry these Canaanites.

They took Jewish religion and they took some of these Canaanite fertility cults.

And these people that intermarried, they created this race of people referred to as Samaritans.

Now, why do I say centuries before?

Because it's been hundreds of years that Jews and Samaritans cannot stand each other.

Okay?

Matter of fact, brace with me, ladies.

Do not overrespond to this.

An Orthodox Jew would get up in Jesus' day and age, and he would say this prayer every day.

I thank God that I'm not a Samaritan, a dog, or a woman.

Yes.

Horribly offensive.

So now don't go like that's it, the Bible's misogynistic.

No, no, no, no.

Jesus is the guy that talks to a woman.

That's one strike against him, who happens to be a Samaritan, that's two strikes against him, who happens to have a pretty bad past.

She's a sinner.

Oh, that's three strikes against him.

I mean, if you read in Luke's gospel, there's one time Jesus is standing in the guy's house having dinner, and he's just laid it down at the temple.

He killed it, okay?

Like they had karaoke, and Jesus went berserk, and he goes to the house for dinner, and a woman is so moved by what he said, she comes in and she's behind him, just white washing his feet, and they're all standing there looking like, well, if he was a prophet, he would know what kind of a skanky woman she is.

He's a woman about town, you know what I mean?

And the Bible says this, and Jesus, knowing their thoughts.

You know he knows your thoughts, don't you?

He's gonna get up in your business.

And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said this to them Simon, I have a story to tell you.

Oh master, tell me a story.

What a religious pig he was.

And Jesus tells a story that just indicts this weasel right there.

Why?

Because nobody, hear me, ladies, nobody bestowed more dignity on women than Jesus Christ.

Nobody.

Nobody.

Matter of fact, our missionaries, Bart and Heather Cartier here from Costa Rica.

Marcia had lunch with them on Friday, and we said, How's it going?

And he said, one of the ways you can tell that men are converted is they start holding the hand of their wife.

They don't make their wife walk behind them like she's property.

They let their wife ride the horse and they walk.

I walked out of P.F.

Chang's going, dude, I gotta start letting my wife ride the horse.

All this pressure on me.

Back to the map, okay?

Relax.

If you're visiting today, I don't have a map and a pointer every Sunday.

That's a Bible church.

We don't do that here.

It's just a joke.

Relax.

Look at me.

Jesus is here.

He's going up here to Galilee.

The straight shot is right here.

There's where the woman's hanging out.

Jesus, everybody goes this way because they don't want to be contaminated by sinners.

Jesus says in verse 4, he says, I must go.

And he said he left.

And he had to pass through Samaria.

He didn't have to.

He's got another road he could go.

He had to, look at me, because he knows there's a woman in a well who has taken all the experience she's had and flipped the switch and said, This must be true about me because everyone treats me this way.

And Jesus says, No, no, no, no, no.

I gotta go.

And all his disciples are kind of like, matter of fact, that's why they ditched him at the well.

Hey, we're gonna go get food.

Jesus is like, okay, you go get food.

I'll hang out here with the sinner.

Why?

Because God doesn't take his cues on how to treat you from the way people treat you.

And so I don't want you to miss it.

I brought the map and you can take the map down.

I didn't want you to miss that the life of Jesus is historically verifiable.

It's people, places, and things that could testify to the fact that He did live, He did these things, and Jews considered uh uh Samaritans racially inferior heretics.

Couldn't stand them.

I mean, they just avoided them at all cost.

And so God didn't send his son into the world to remind you what you already think is true.

He sent his son into the world to rescue you from thinking wrongly about yourself and more importantly, from thinking wrongly about him.

Let me give you two questions to think about this morning.

The first one is this what do you know that God doesn't know?

Because see, sometimes in church we make it too profound, like, well, uh interesting.

No, it's real simple.

What do you know that God doesn't know?

Secondly, what does God know that you don't know?

Now, by the way, that's not a contest, that's an invitation.

He's not trying to establish the fact that he's smart and you're not so smart.

That's not God.

He's not put off by that.

He wants, there's brilliant people in this room.

Brilliant people in this room.

And God's not like, hey, hey, people might start thinking more of them than me.

No.

No.

Who do you think gave you that intellect?

When I say, what does God know that you don't know?

Here are a few things that that I have in mind.

Number one is this God cannot be surprised by anything about you.

God cannot be surprised by anything about you.

That's not to say, oh, just do it anyway.

What that is to say is that is who else is capable of loving me this way?

That he's not surprised.

So when this woman says, when Jesus says, go call your husband, and she's like, Well, you just made it awkward.

And Jesus is like, Why?

Well, I've had five husbands.

She doesn't volunteer that information.

Jesus reads her mail, and it doesn't change.

The reason he does that is not to expose her and embarrass her, but to let her know that's not an obstacle for me.

That's not a deal breaker.

Second thing that God knows that we need to know is that every sin you've ever committed and will commit were paid for on the cross.

Every sin you've ever committed and will commit was paid for on the cross.

You have you have to stop trying to make it look big.

Let me give you a definition for forgiveness.

Forgiveness is giving up all hope of a better past.

That's how you know you stop trying to whitewash it and say, Well, uh no, you just honestly say, Hey, yeah, this is my second marriage.

And by the way, in case you're wondering, my first marriage failed because I was a selfish jerk.

That person is that's a freed up person right there.

It doesn't have power over them.

You do not have to live with this fear.

And by the way, over the past six weeks, a lot of men in America have been living with fear that something's gonna come in their past and get them.

A lot of them like, oh, it's a great environment for the gospel.

Every sin you've ever committed was paid for on the cross.

Now, by the way, look at me.

I know I run the risk of when I say ever committed and will commit.

Some of you are like, well, if it's paid for on the cross, why not commit some more?

Here's why.

Look at me.

When you understand the price of something, it changes the way you handle it.

Let me say that one time and I'll demonstrate.

When you understand the price of something, it changes the way you handle it.

I was traveling, speaking in North Carolina one time, and they said, Hey, we've been killing you.

We had you speaking everything.

You got the afternoon, you got the day off.

Just sleep in.

So I slept in, I was right outside Charlotte in a little community called Hickory.

Uh slept in, got up, uh, had breakfast in my hotel, read, and I just went dorking around.

I said, Hey, I want to get something for my wife.

And the lady said, Is she into antiques?

I said, Yeah, kinda, not overly.

She goes, There's this great little booty.

I should have known when she said that.

I'm like, what is a boutique?

I stop at stores.

So I go in this little boutique and I'm looking around and it's just cool.

It looks like it's copper, but it's kind of like it looks like it's glass or bright.

I can't quite figure it out.

And I just grabbed it.

It's about as big as a Coke bottle.

And I just grabbed it and said, Excuse me, how much is this?

And the lady went, Oh my gosh.

I should have known.

That response says to me, What you're doing, waving that thing around.

She's like, Oh my gosh.

And I said, What?

What?

She goes, That's 750 or 800.

I can't remember.

And I went.

And then she said, I'm sorry, my reaction.

That's not supposed to be that's supposed to be in that glass countertop up there by the cash master.

Someone must have looked at it and set it down.

And I just set it down and I said, Let the record show that I set it down, it was still in one piece.

Because here's why.

I walked into the boutique with fear all over me because there's a sign right you walk in that said, pretty to look at, lovely to hold, but if you break it, we consider it sold.

A spirit of fear came on me right there.

And when she said 750, I was like, I don't have a whole lot in my house.

And I was just like, oh.

And then she put gloves on to come pick it up.

I was like, I gotta go.

I gotta go.

I can't be.

Why?

Look at me, hear me now.

I'm not talking about a vase.

When you understand how much something costs, changes the way you handle it.

The cross changes the way you think about your sin.

Here's another thing God knows that we need to know that God's heart towards you is unchangeable.

His heart towards you is unchangeable.

I just demonstrate right out of our culture.

There's a if you have a TV, you've probably seen this.

There's a Subaru commercial on right now.

And what it is, it's it's the recordings of kids calling their parents to tell them they wrecked the Subaru.

And one of them's like, oh dad, he just came out of nowhere.

And the girl's like, Oh, I didn't see him, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And the parents, you could tell one of the kids is African American, one of the kids is white.

It doesn't matter.

The parents have the same response.

Are you okay?

Are you okay?

And the kid can't hear that.

It's like, oh, I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry.

I wrecked the Subaru.

And the dad just keeps saying, Son, are you okay?

And the mom says, Oh, sweetie, are you okay?

Are you okay?

Why?

Because the heart of a parent cannot be changed about its kid.

It just can't.

That's what I mean when I say that the heart of God towards you is unchangeable.

It just is.

It's never going to change.

And so you've got to do one of two things.

You have to choose to live apart from this all-loving, all-forgiving reality that is the heart of God, or you have to learn to live in a relationship with a God that cannot have his mind changed about you.

That's really what it comes down to.

The last thing that God knows is simply this is it's never too late.

Never too late.

Okay, what now, now I'm not trying to say, therefore, hey, no.

I think there ought to be a sense of urgency when you think about God.

I went to see a man in the hospital.

There's some people that attend here, their grandfather, and uh they said, My grandpa's kind of he's a great guy, he's a great grandpa, he's not a Christian, he's not a very religious man.

He was in the war, kind of got some, he's kind of mad at God and stuff.

Would you come talk to him?

I'd be glad to.

And they said, I got there to the hospital, they're outside the door.

They said, Now get ready.

He's a character.

I said, Those are my favorites.

I walk in, we're chit-chat, and I said, Well, how's the coffee here?

He goes, Well, it's about the same.

Now, you you, the holy man, come to put some holy water on me.

Yeah, and I might have to put my boot on your behind when we're done here.

He looked at me and he said, What?

And I said, Hey, let's just cut to the chase scene.

Now, I said, You you've you got your affairs in order.

Yeah, I got a will.

My kids know what they're gonna get, and blah, blah, blah.

And I said, You made your peace with your family.

Have you made your peace with God?

Grandpa, the character, kind of popped up and said, I didn't know we were at war.

Ho, ho ho, ho, he's an educated man now.

I know I hate him.

It's a line from Tombstone.

Never mind.

He said that and I thought, oh, we're going there.

And he said, I didn't know we were enemies.

I said, actually, you've been enemies since before you were born.

He went, What?

And I said, Yeah.

The Bible says we were born God's enemies.

You were not born on God's side.

You're born as enemies.

That's what the Bible says.

And it just segued right into the gospel.

And you know the thing that this man, 87-year-old, no, no, he's 91 years old.

You know what just blew, no, he's 87, excuse me.

What blew his mind was and led him to faith right there in his hospital bed was this.

He said, I don't get how a God could care about someone like me.

I mean, doesn't he have a lot of other things to do?

I said he has a lot of things to do and he doesn't lose his place.

And he's got a highly functioning bipolar like me on his payroll, okay?

So I give him, I take up a lot of his time and he never loses track.

You know what?

The Bible even says that the hairs on your head are numbered.

That's how intimately he knows you.

And he said, Well, how can it be?

I said, Because he's transcendent, he's holy other than, but he's also imminent.

He's right here.

So I can be right here with you, but I can't be transcendent.

I can't be bigger and better and beyond all of your circumstances.

And God can do that.

And he said, Well, I guess I could believe in a God like that.

I said, That's the only God who is.

Standing right there beside his hospital bed, watch this man come to faith.

It's never too late.

Some of you in this room, you think, oh, well, you know, I've done blah, blah, blah.

I say the same thing to you.

It's never too late.

Now, let me say this last thing to you, and we'll get out of here.

How many of y'all awful getting out of here?

Say amen.

You quitters.

I'm gonna go work for the Presbyterians next week.

Here's the thing I want to say to you.

Look at me.

Knowing the right things changes everything.

Knowing the right things changes everything.

Now, some of you English people look at the slide going, everything should be one word.

No, it shouldn't.

Because I purposely wrote it that way so it uh it would scrub your little brain and you would go, everything, every single particular, particular participle thing.

Yes.

The Bible says it like this.

1 Corinthians chapter 10 about verse 31, whatever you do, whether you eat or you drink, do all for the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

Everything.

Everything.

Knowing the right things changes everything.

You say, what do you mean?

Jesus points to two things.

He doesn't say, hey, uh, I want to give you Jesus' pop quiz and see if you pass it.

No, no, no.

Look at me, by the way.

If you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, you're like, I think this is crazy and you drink too much caffeine.

Okay?

I'm great on one of those.

Uh, look at me.

What Jesus comes to do is not turned you into some religious uh spiritual guru who knows all the answers to the question.

What Jesus comes to do is to turn you into such a person that God is so at work and flow so freely through that you're the most refreshing cat anybody knows.

And they don't come to you and go, hey, uh, that story in the Bible about them six brothers that married the same woman in the resurrection, whose wife will she be?

Now they come to you and they're just kind of like in your office, like, hey, what'd you do this weekend?

And you're like, uh, mowed the yard, took my wife to dinner, had a glass or two of wine, read a little bit, took a nap, went to church, and I'm here.

Wow, what's up?

I don't know, but for some reason I just enjoy being around you.

I got a text from a friend of mine in Missouri this morning at 7:34, and he said, Neil, I remember you from years ago, and I remember you fondly.

Dudes don't say that to other dudes.

I was just kind of like, and he went on, he said it was so refreshing.

It kind of I was like, Whoo, this is almost uncomfortable.

But I read it again just to make sure, and it said that exact same thing.

That's that's what God's driving towards.

Not you become some re some guy that believes the Bible and you're mad about it.

No, you're just refreshed.

That's what Jesus said.

Hey, if you taste this water I give, it'll become in you a well springing up to eternal life.

So, what do you mean?

Knowing, look at it.

Knowing the right things changes everything.

Two things Jesus says you got to know.

Number one, the gift of God.

And number two, he says, and who it is that asks you for a drink.

If you knew the gift of God.

And secondly, who it is.

So let's start with number one, the gift of God.

You could come up with a lot of answers to that.

Well, it's forgiveness, it's heaven, it's salvation, it's a second chance, blah, blah, blah.

All of those fall short of the glory of God.

Look at me.

The gift of God is God.

That's the gift.

That's why Jesus incarnate is setting it the well, is because the gift of God, God so loves broken down women who intermarried and sold out their religion at one point just to get acceptance, who set it a well.

He so loves them, he says, You know what, guys, I gotta go through this town.

They're like, No, we don't got to.

Yes, I got to.

I do.

I do.

Why?

Because there's someone there who's never experienced the gift of God.

And as you read into chapter four, you'll see that there's this dawning in her because after she asks Jesus some question about, oh, he's he lays it down.

She goes, Well, I can see that you're a prophet.

Her progressive understanding of Jesus goes from him being a prophet to a priest who can deal with her sin to a king who's worthy of worship.

Matter of fact, her whole town comes to him.

They beg Jesus to stay two more days.

Who begs the preacher to stay two more days and keep preaching?

I know y'all are thinking right now, I wish you would never shut up.

Let's just order some chicken strips and stay here all day.

No.

What's the gift of God?

It's God.

How else do you explain God with skin on him sitting there by the well?

Second thing you gotta know is this is who it is that asks you for a drink.

There's no greater insult than when you're trying to help people and they insult you.

Jesus is trying to help this woman and she's like, Oh, are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us this well and drank from it himself?

I said his sons and his livestock.

Jesus is so comfortable in his own skin.

He says, he answers her uh offense with an observation.

He says, Everyone who drinks this well will be thirsty again.

And all of a sudden it drops from her head where she's defending herself into her heart where she has no defense for the gospel.

And she's like, Oh, give me some of this water.

Why?

Because she's dug five wells, five marriages, and they didn't work out.

And so she just kicked some dirt and said, Hey, let's just move in together and just make life out of this little mud hole here.

All of a sudden it just comes on.

Who who it is that asks you for a drink?

Now I said to begin with, uh, that hey, God tells the I'm talking to you about the one story God loves to tell.

Remember that?

I said the Bible's not 643 single standing stories have nothing to do, no cohesion.

In the book of Jeremiah, don't turn there and we'll be done.

You still with me?

In the book of Jeremiah, which is the Old Testament, written 700 years before the gospel of John, God spoke in chapter 2 and verse 13, and he said, My people have committed two sins.

They've dug themselves, they've forsaken me, the well of living water, and they've dug for themselves wells that hold no water.

The incarnation of that, a new expression of that is this woman at the well who's dug for herselves relationships, marriages that hold no water.

And Jesus comes along, he starts talking about not just physical thirst, but spiritual thirst.

Now, why does God been telling us one story all along?

He's been telling this one story to people who are weary from their journey and they're looking to be refreshed, not just temporarily, but forever.

And I just wonder if that's any of you in this room this morning.

You're just weary from your journey.

You're just worn out, you're tired of lying to your doctor to get prescriptions so you can self-medicate.

You're tired of being deceitful to try to meet your needs.

You're just tired.

Here's the good news of the gospel there's a God in this world, and He can relate to you, He can forgive you, accept you, and change you to where this reality wells up in you to such a point that it satisfies you, and other people come seeking what you know, what you have.

That's what you were created for.

Ask yourself this question today do you have that?

Let's pray together.

If you're our guest today, relax.

We like to teach the Bible and then give you some space to think about it.

So just take a moment if you would.

Just to give you some soul space and ask yourself, hey, what had my name on it this morning?

What wells have you been digging and they don't they don't satisfy?

He doesn't take his cues on how to treat you from the way people treat you.

I promise you, God has not looked down and kind of said, hey, she kind of gets the business at work.

She must be a piece of work.

I'm not gonna have anything to do with her.

No.

The God of the Bible, who's the only God, he says, you know what, I gotta go to that, I gotta go to where she works.

And sometimes he shows up in the form of a new employee that has just a little bit more joy, a little brighter countenance.

And sometimes you're that employee.

So just take a moment.

God doesn't make it hard.

He said, hey, there's just a couple things you gotta know today.

You gotta know the gift of God.

That's me.

If your greatest need is God, how much would God have to hate you to give you anything short of Himself?

He doesn't give you religious assignments, He doesn't give you duties, a to-do list.

He gives you Himself.

And He says, Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Let's savor that flavor for just a moment this morning.

Father, I pray for my friends here in this service.

Uh, I pray God they would realize that you're a God that makes it available, simple, and accessible.

This is not for smart people, this is for willing people, this is for people who put it in the ditch, people who knew better and did it anyway.

You just kind of come to us and just kind of nudge us and say, Man, are you tired of digging those whales?

And our confession today is, God, yes, yes, we're gonna put our shovel down and we're gonna come to you.

Because the Bible tells us that you have what we deep down need, you have what satisfies and slakes our deep down body thirst.

It's not just forgiveness, it's relationship.

That's what we want, God.

Pray for this in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

Uh let me make you aware of a few things by way of announcement, and then we'll get out of here.

Uh, first of all, Group Connect is happening this morning right after the service.

So, as a part of your getting out of here, I'm gonna ask if you would to just flow out these doors on either side.

And back behind me is a big room called the Fellowship Hall.

And all of our community group leaders, community groups are small groups from our church that meet, most of them on the first and third Sunday night, for a couple hours, and they did their discussion groups and they talk about the sermons that you hear on Sunday mornings.

There's questions.

Uh, it's a great way to meet other people from the church, and so all of the people that lead community groups are back there waiting for you to come by and meet you.

There's snacks back there, there's all kinds of stuff.

If you play your cards right, men, you don't have to buy lunch.

You can go gorge on snacks and then go home and get ready for the Pittsburgh game.

Amen?

Yes, I hear you back there, redneck.

Easy.

But listen, here's the thing.

We just want you to see, you can meet people and kind of see, hey, are these our kind of people?

Could we fit in with these folks, okay?

That's the first thing I want to tell you.

Second thing I want to tell you is that our men's breakfast, uh, we have one a month.

It's the next one is this Tuesday at 6 o'clock out in the warehouse, which is our student ministry building.

We meet from 6 to 7.

I talk for about 15 to 20 minutes, and then we gather around tables, we have discussion questions.

You don't have to talk.

You can sit and observe.

Breakfast is free, uh, and you're more than welcome to come.

All of you are welcome, okay?

Third thing I want to remind you of is that we practice full disclosure here.

And so we've been saying to you, hey, uh we started back in 2006 when I started here, and kind of long-range vision for our campus was to fortify this building and then build a student ministry building, a children's ministry building, and then the last step is this green space out here, a new sanctuary.

But we have to pay down our debt for that.

We believe in manageable debt, not crippling debt.

Some people say, Well, I think our church ought to be debt-free.

I'm fixing to show you what to make the checkout for, okay?

And we can all be happy today.

Uh this is where we were October of 2016.

We owe this much money.

Uh, and because of your faithful giving in October of 2017, we owed this much money.

Uh, and now we I told you a couple weeks ago we take the excess giving and put it towards the debt.

We did that recently, and now we owe this much money.

Uh if you're our guest today, that means nothing to you.

We're not trying to shake you down, but it's not my church.

Me and the elders don't meet in the honeycomb hideout and come up with plans.

Uh, we don't do that.

Uh we are the church.

And so when you give, we do with what you give what we tell you we're going to do with it.

It's crazy that way.

Uh, and so when I say we practice full disclosure, that's full disclosure.

That's that that's what we do, okay?

I have one last announcement.

Uh, most of you know that for a while that we have been uh we have not had an executive pastor.

Our former executive pastor was a guy named Rick.

He stepped out of that role about 10 months ago.

We've been waiting, asking God.

Uh my say William, I mean the elders and I, and we believe we have found God's person for that role.

And his name is Wade Burgess, and I want to introduce you to him right now.

Well, thank you.

Uh much warmer reception than the first service.

Three people already left, and uh we've got a line to start a new church out back.

But um so so I just wanted to to say uh three things about what I'm not doing, uh accepting this position.

Number one, uh I I'm not running from the IRS with some kind of special tax breaks to be uh uh executive pastor, so we're not doing that.

Uh number two, uh I didn't have a this as a backup plan because my job was downsizing, or they said, hey, I had to find some other line of work.

And the third thing I'm not doing is I'm not taking the job thinking that it'll be easy.

Well, what I am doing is responding to a call though.

Uh uh several months ago, God ignited something in me where when the elders and Neil came to me and asked me what I consider this position, no, was an answer that I couldn't give.

And uh I wrestled with that for a couple of months, and it just kept becoming clearer and clearer through a small voice, and and maybe we'll talk about that uh in April.

I told Neil I may have a sermon rising up in me one a year, but um maybe I could share more about that then.

But but it ended up where I couldn't say no.

And so uh I come to you today to say I am excited about being on staff here, about serving you all, and I'm privileged that God would call me to do so.

We're uh we're very excited.

So if you're visiting today, Wade and his wife Amy and their son Alex have been a part of our church longer than I have.

And so uh most of the people in this room know him.

Uh he's a solid guy.

Uh let me just because somebody asked me after the first service, when can he start?

Uh he cannot start here until April the 1st because Wade's a man of character and integrity.

He wants to leave.

He's in senior management with the company he works for.

He's very good at what he does, he's very well respected.

Uh and he asked us elders, he said, Hey, can I have 90 days to train my replacement and then to train that his replacement?

And we said, Great.

We want it to be a win-win situation.

And so he will start here on staff April the 1st.

Uh, and in the meantime, I'll look to get some free labor out of him before he gets on the payroll.

Amen?

Uh I'm gonna ask Wade if he would to make himself available down front.

Uh, if you have any questions about anything you heard today, or if you want you have something in your life going on, we can pray for you.

We would love to do that, okay?

So just come up and introduce yourself and let us know how we can serve you and be your pastors, all right?

Stand to your feet.

Let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

Because the well is deep and it never runs dry.

You don't need a shovel.

So lay your shovel down today.

Stop being so determined and just become willing.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.

You're dismissed.