The Problem and Blessing of Desire

The scripture for today comes from John chapter 4. Please follow along in your own bulletin, your own Bible, or up on the screen.

John 4 · chapter mention

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and 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 of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

Jacob's well was there, so Jesus, worried as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

A woman from Samaria came to draw water.

Jesus said to her, Give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

The Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman from Samaria? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

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.

The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob?

He gave us that well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.

Jesus said to her, 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 said to him, Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.

Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband, and come here.

The woman answered him, I have no husband.

Jesus said to her, 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.

What you have said is true.

The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.

Jesus said to her, Women, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem would you worship the Father.

Father, you worship what you do not know.

We worship what we know.

For salvation is from the Jews.

But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.

For the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ.

When he comes, he will tell us all things.

Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he.

Just then his disciples came back.

They marveled that he was talking with a woman.

But no one said, what do you seek?

Or why are you talking with her?

So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people,

Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did.

Can this be the Christ?

Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat.

But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about.

So the disciples said to one another, Has anyone brought him something to eat?

Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

Do you not say, There are yet four months, then comes the harvest?

Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest.

Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life,

so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.

For here the saying holds true, One sows and another reaps.

I send you to reap that for which you did not labor.

Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony.

He told me all that I ever did.

So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.

And many more believed because of his word.

They said to the woman, It is no longer because of what you said that we believe,

for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.

This is the word of God.

Great. Thank you, Justin and Annabelle, for a long reading, but a great story.

Let me pray for us briefly, and then we're going to dive in.

Father God, once again, as we come to your word, we want to hear you speak to us.

The amazing thing about your word is, though it's thousands of years old, it is still living.

It's active. It's real.

It speaks to us even today in 21st century Hong Kong.

God, I pray that you will speak to us from your word, by your spirit, God.

Show us ourselves, show us you, and call us to life, God.

We want to experience fullness of life.

We do that when we come to you, so help us, I pray, God.

Lord, you know the obstacles of our hearts.

You know where our hearts are at.

Jesus, come and help us today.

Spirit of God, we pray, help us to understand your word and to apply it to our lives.

In your great and wonderful name, I pray.

Amen.

Okay, many years ago, I was involved in helping to start a church in downtown Cape Town in South Africa, where we were from.

And as part of kind of getting this church going, a bunch of us were doing kind of very grassroots, informal survey, trying to understand the culture and the people that we were wanting to reach out to.

And so a bunch of us would walk the streets, maybe on a Saturday morning or I guess throughout the week, and we'd kind of interview people and ask people questions.

And we'd ask questions like, how long have you lived in the city?

What do you like about the city?

What do you not like about the city?

Et cetera, et cetera.

Trying to get to know what is the makeup of the people and what gets the people thinking and their hearts moving.

And the questions would start off kind of pretty generic and then we'd go a little bit deeper.

And one of the final questions, the questions that I always found very interesting, was the question, what could you not live without?

And people kind of started off, you know, how long have you lived here?

What do you like about it?

And then when you get to, what could you not live without?

There's always a pause.

Some people maybe would deal with it, you know, superficially, my pet or my job or the weather or my surfboard or whatever it is.

But some people would stop and think, wow, what could I not live without?

Maybe another way of asking that is, what if it was taken away from you, would make you question whether life is worth living?

It's an interesting question, is it?

What could you not live without?

Now, as a church, we are working through John's gospel and Justin Anvil read to us this long chapter.

We've been in it for seven or eight weeks now.

And in John's gospel, the passage we come to today, Jesus and his disciples are traveling from the south of Israel in Judah up to the north in Galilee.

And in order to do that, they need to pass through this area called Samaria.

Now, Samaria is famous for the Samaritans, the people of Samaria.

And for a whole bunch of historical and cultural and religious reasons, the Samaritans, the people of Samaria, don't get along at all with the Jews, the people of Judea or Israel.

They don't like each other.

And the main reason is because the people of Israel consider the Samaritans to be kind of half Jews, half breeds.

A couple of centuries before, some people moved into the area of Samaria.

And the Samaritans intermarried with them and they adopted their culture and their practices and their religious idols and their worship.

And eventually built their own temple.

And so the Jews who consider themselves thoroughbreds, genuine, real worshippers of God, look at their neighbors and they say, you guys are kind of half Jew, but you're also half something else.

Both culturally, ethnically, but most importantly, religiously.

And so they look down on the Samaritans with disdain and kind of disgust at these people that aren't really part of them.

But in order to get to Galilee, Jesus and his disciples must walk through this area of Samaria.

And so they do that.

And they're on their way.

And it's the middle of the day.

They're tired.

They're hungry.

Jesus stops at a well and the disciples go into the village to get some food.

And it's midday.

They don't really expect anybody to come out in the heat of the day to come to the well.

But when the disciples come back, to their astonishment, Jesus is having a conversation.

A conversation with a woman, with a Samaritan woman, a woman of the village.

And this kind of blows their mind for a whole bunch of reasons.

And one of the reasons is Jewish men were not allowed to culturally talk to women in everyday culture.

Especially if you're a rabbi.

A rabbi would not even look at another woman in the eyes, never mind engage her in conversation.

Never mind a Samaritan of all people.

Rabbis, Jewish men would never do this.

But here is Jesus and he's talking with her.

In fact, Jesus initiates the conversation.

He starts the conversation.

He reaches out to her.

And Jesus crosses all sorts of cultural barriers and breaks all cultural and social etiquette to engage in this conversation.

And she's actually surprised.

Look at verse 9.

Jesus asks her for a drink of water.

And the Samaritans said to him,

How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?

And then John, the author, says,

For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

Not only is he talking with her,

he now wants to share like a drinking cup with her.

I mean, this is just outrageous.

But Jesus is willing to do it.

And she can't quite understand why this man would do this.

But Jesus has something on his mind.

And so he presses on.

Look at verse 10.

Jesus answered her,

If you knew the gift of God and who it is that's asking you for a drink of water,

you would have asked him.

He would have given you living water.

The woman said to him,

Sir, you've got nothing to draw water with.

And the well is deep.

Where are you going to get this living water, this flowing water?

Jesus said to her,

Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again.

But whoever drinks of the water that I give will never thirst again.

The water I give will become within him or her.

Will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

Now, what's going on here?

Well, again, in John's gospel,

is usually the case is a little bit of play on words.

The word living water could also mean flowing water as in streams.

I think the lady here thinks that Jesus is saying,

Listen, I have worked out where the source of this well is.

There's the underground source.

And if you follow me, I'll take you to the source.

And you won't need to keep on coming back to this well,

which is 500 meters from the village.

I will show you where the source is.

And she says,

Show me.

Then I won't need to keep on coming back every day to this well

and drawing up this water.

I'll just go straight to this source.

But of course, that's not what Jesus means at all, is it?

Jesus is using this as an analogy.

He's not talking about physical water.

He's using it as an analogy.

And the reason is because obviously water,

especially in a time like that,

in a dry and arid climate,

it's one of the most important things for the people of that day and age.

It's the most basic and essential element of life.

Even still today, if you think about it,

scientists are constantly looking for sources of water on other planets,

on Mars.

Because if we can find a source of water,

then maybe, just maybe,

we can find other life sources.

I don't know what you believe about that.

But anyway, but the point is,

we all know that water is the most basic and essential ingredient

to sustaining life.

And that's why Jesus here,

even in that day,

everybody knows you can't live without water.

And just as any life form needs water,

Jesus is saying that as human beings,

we need something to sustain us and keep us going.

Something that we cannot live without.

Something that we must go back to again and again and again.

You can't just have a drink of water when you're a child and say,

okay, I'm good for life.

I'm set.

I'm done.

Every day you've got to be hydrating yourself.

Jesus says as human beings,

there's something,

all of us were designed,

the way we built,

we've got to go back to some source

that's going to animate us,

hydrate us,

that's going to keep us living.

And so just like this woman intuitively knows,

she must get water every day if she's going to live.

Jesus says that every human being

needs something,

some hope,

some reason to live,

something outside of ourselves to sustain us,

not only physically,

but metaphysically.

And this is where Jesus makes a remarkable claim.

Like he does throughout John's gospel,

Jesus says that what water is for our bodies,

sustaining,

life-giving,

he himself is for our souls.

That in order to truly live,

not just in a material,

physical way,

in order to truly live and flourish

and be a flourishing human being,

we must come to him

and depend on him

and drink deeply

and have our souls drink deeply of him.

You know,

throughout John's gospel,

one of his favorite phrases

is the word eternal life,

the phrase eternal life.

Eternal life doesn't just mean

one day when you die,

you can live forever.

Eternal life in John's gospel means

full,

flourishing,

existential life

in this world,

in this day and age now,

when you go to work

and then you're home,

you're married,

you're parenting,

you're being a son or a daughter

of elderly parents,

fully flourishing life

in this world

that continues

past the grave forever.

And Jesus says

that the key

to that kind of life,

not just physical existence

in a material sense,

existential flourishing,

the key is to know him,

to drink on him,

to depend on him

as your only source

of hope and life

in this world.

Much like anyone

in the desert

is walking,

scouring the landscape.

Where is a water well?

Where is a water well?

Where can I find

my source of hope?

If you're walking

through the desert

and you don't know

where water is

and the children

are languishing

and they're asking

how much further

and you're constantly saying

not much further,

there's water

just over the hill,

there must be water

because you know

if there's no water

you will die.

Jesus says

as human beings

unless we come to him

and find him

something in our souls

will die.

We cannot live

without him.

Friends,

if you're not a Christian

this morning,

this is one of the main claims

of Christianity

that Jesus Christ

is the source

of all life,

real life,

existential life.

Later on in John's Gospel

in chapter 7,

Jesus very famously

says this,

he says,

if anyone thirsts,

let him come to me

and drink,

whoever believes in me

as the scripture said,

out of his heart

will flow rivers

of living water

and that's what

Jesus is saying here.

He's saying to her,

I am water

for the soul,

I am life.

Now,

why is Jesus saying this

to this woman?

I mean,

what's the reason?

Well,

there is a reason

and the reason is

because this lady,

like all of us,

is searching.

She's searching.

Although she's been

somewhat religious

throughout her life,

it seems that she's been

searching for the meaning

of life for a long time

and Jesus knows

something about her.

Here is a lady

that's been looking

for the wrong sources

for joy,

for peace,

for hope,

for rest,

for security

and as a result

of looking in the wrong places,

she's suffering.

And so Jesus comes to her

like he comes to all of us

and he comes to this lady

that has this deep

existential thirst

in her heart

and just like her need

for water,

she knows how to quench

her need temporarily

but it never lasts.

And so she keeps returning

to the source of water

for her soul

again and again and again

but it never lasts.

And so what is the well

that this woman

is drinking from?

Well,

look at what Jesus says.

Look at verse 16.

Jesus says,

he says to her,

go and call your husband

and come here.

The woman answered him,

I have no husband.

Jesus said to her,

you are right in saying

I have no husband

for you have had five husbands

and the man you're with now

is not your husband,

is he?

Now that seems like a rather

sudden change of subject,

right?

They're talking about water

and wells

and it's a bit philosophical

and suddenly Jesus

sharp turn to the right.

Go call your husband.

Change of subject.

But actually,

what's going on here?

Jesus is using

her need for water

as an analogy

to show her

where her heart's at.

What is the well

that she's been drinking from?

What is the water source

that her heart returns to

again and again

and again

in order to satisfy

her search for peace,

for rest,

for security?

Well, it's men,

isn't it?

It's marriage.

It's relationships.

Just as she returns

to the well

day after day

because the water

in her bucket

isn't going to last,

so she returns

to the altar

or to Tinder

or to the dating app

or to the local bar

again and again

and again

after each relationship

as one relationship

dries up

after another.

And how is this

well that she's drinking from

working out for her?

Well, evidently

not so well.

We don't know

the exact reason

why she's been married

five times,

but the fact that

Jesus says,

listen,

you're with someone now

who's not really

your husband

suggests that she's

not just an unlucky widow.

It's not just that

she's had a bad choice

of husbands

and they've all died on her.

There's something else

going on here, right?

No, friends,

here is a lady

that goes back

and has tried

one relationship

after another

and they do not

satisfy.

And so she keeps

on going back

to the well.

I'm not sure

if you picked up

verse 6.

Verse 6,

there's a funny little

sentence at the end

that says this,

and it was about

the sixth hour.

In that day and age,

time was measured

from 6 a.m.,

from sunrise,

the beginning of the day,

right?

And so when is

the sixth hour?

Well, the sixth hour

is midday.

It's 12 noon.

We know from

historical records

that in that day and age

nobody would go

to the watering well

at the midday.

It was the heat of the day,

the sun was right above you,

it's baking hot.

You'd always go to the well

early in the morning

when the sun is not up

and also said

you've got water

for the day

or at the end of the day

in the cool of the day,

right?

To walk a kilometer

and back with heavy water gels

in the heat of the day,

no one would do that.

We also know

that women would typically

go to the well in groups.

They'd never go alone

because there's safety

in numbers.

But here is a lady

that goes to the well

in the middle of the day,

in the heat of the day,

all on her own.

Why is that?

Well, commentators tell us

the reason is

because she's a social outcast.

She's avoiding

the other people of the town,

the other people of the village.

Here she is,

she's shunned,

she's rejected,

maybe she's called names,

maybe she's taken

some of their husbands,

we don't know.

But here is a woman

that has gone through

a bunch of the men

of the town

and everybody knows it

and everybody is

despising her for it.

How has it worked out for her?

Well, not very well.

Friends, here is

everybody knows her

and yet nobody wants

to be seen with her.

And here is someone

whose desire,

whether it's for romantic love

or acceptance

or maybe it's financial security

or whatever it is,

something is driving her

to one man after another.

And just like the bucket

in her well,

after each trip to the well,

it's not long

before she finds

the relationship

dry and empty.

They cannot last.

They cannot satisfy.

Jesus says here to her,

everyone who drinks

of this water

will be thirsty again.

He's not just talking

about the physical water,

he's talking about

the wells that we

sink our hearts into

and we try to plummet

in order to find hope

and peace

and rest

and joy in this life.

Everyone who drinks

of this water

will be thirsty again.

But Jesus says

there's another option.

But whoever drinks

of the water

that I give,

whoever comes to me

will never thirst again.

In the Old Testament,

the language of water wells

was familiar

to God's people.

And God's often

describing his people

to those that

are looking for water.

And he says to his people

over and over again,

if you follow me,

that means you depend on me,

you drink of me,

you hope and you trust in me,

just like someone in the desert

hopes and trusts

in the watering well.

And so,

in Jeremiah 2,

there's this very famous passage.

Let me put it up

on the screen for us.

God says this,

he's been calling his people

to trust in him,

to hope in him,

to depend on him,

but they do not.

And they go after

other gods

and other idols

and other loves

and other hopes

and he says this,

be appalled,

O heavens,

be shocked,

declares the Lord.

For my people

have committed

two great evils.

They have forsaken me,

the fountain of living water

and they have cut out wells

or cisterns for themselves,

broken cisterns

that hold no water.

See what God is saying?

He's saying,

my people,

they reject me

and they go looking after,

looking for other wells,

other hopes,

other joys,

other things to find peace

and security

and life

and joy in,

but these things are broken.

They can't hold water

and they are toxic

and they make my people sick.

They trusted in lifeless idols

and they become lifeless themselves.

And so Jesus comes to this lady

and he's pointing out

exactly what Jeremiah said,

that in a spiritual sense,

she's drinking from a broken well.

She's looking for something

other than God himself

to fill her,

to satisfy her,

to give her hope

and peace and rest.

But what she's consuming

is not just unsatisfying,

it's deadly.

It's toxic.

Jesus says,

you drink of this again

and again and again,

it's not going to satisfy.

It's not going to make you well.

So friends,

here's the question

this passage asks of us.

What well are we returning to

again and again and again?

Where do we keep on returning?

Hoping or believing

it'll give us life.

It'll give us peace.

It'll give us security.

Friends,

what do we believe

we must have

in order to be fully alive,

fully human,

to flourish?

For myself,

about two years ago,

maybe a year and a half ago,

I went through

a strange period

in my life

where I'm not

like very

financially savvy person.

I'm not

a complete idiot,

but I'm not,

you know,

like an investment banker

or something like that.

But about,

probably a year and a half ago,

partly because of conversations

with friends and family

and,

you know,

the stock market is flying

and the Magnificent Seven

are doing their thing

and I felt this pressure

like,

hey,

I've got to get in

on the game,

right?

And so,

I kind of started thinking

a bit about stocks

and investments

and thinking about my future.

Okay,

you know,

I'm getting old now,

I'm over 40,

I've got to start thinking

about these things

and I started to,

to kind of follow

a little bit of stocks

and investments

and trading

and that kind of stuff.

And at first,

I told myself,

you know,

I'm just being a wise steward,

just taking care of my family

and just thinking about these things.

But pretty soon,

if I'm honest,

it got its hold in me

and I got sucked in

in a big way

and so,

I would find myself,

I'm sure none of you

have ever found yourself

doing this,

but I find myself

waking up

and the first thing

I do in the morning

before I'm even out of bed

is I'm looking at my phone,

right?

And there's this stupid little app

that tells you

what's happened

in the stock market

overnight,

right?

In the US.

And so,

I'm in bed

and the first thing I do

is I'm looking,

hey,

what happened overnight?

And then I find myself,

the last thing I do

before I turn out my light,

before I close my eyes,

you know,

just final check before,

just want to see what's happening

in the markets open

in the US.

And I find that

my waking up

is the first thing

and the last thing

before I've even said

hello to my kids,

before I've got out of bed,

before I've even considered

my Bible,

Jesus,

or any of that,

I'm thinking,

what's happening?

What's happening?

How are my investments doing?

Now,

friends,

is it wrong

to follow your investments?

No,

of course not.

I think the Bible

actually says it's unwise

to not know

what's happening financially.

You can get yourself

in a lot of trouble like that.

So it's a good thing

to be aware

on top of your finances.

Don't be not on top

of your finances.

But for me,

if I'm honest with you,

it wasn't about wisdom

or planning,

it became about seduction.

It was a well

that I was returning to

a couple of times a day.

First thing in the morning,

last thing at night,

because in a sense

it promised me freedom.

It promised me joy,

it promised me security,

it promised me peace.

In a word,

it promised me life.

Now,

here's the scary part,

is that during all this time,

for probably six months

or a year or so,

I was still worshipping,

still reading my Bible,

still leading Bible studies,

still preparing sermons,

preaching sermons.

Still,

I wasn't a heretic.

I didn't deny the gospel.

I wasn't living a double life,

one life to you

and then another life

on the side.

I wasn't visiting

places in the city

that I shouldn't be visiting.

But friends,

if I'm honest with you,

something else

had gripped my heart.

Something else

was more real to me,

more vivid to me,

more precious to me

than the person

of Jesus Christ.

Something else

was giving me

a sense of hope

and peace

and the prospect

of security and joy

more than God Himself.

And if I'm honest,

it wasn't black and white,

it was a little gray.

If I'm honest,

I could sense it.

There was something

inside of my heart

that wasn't quite alive.

Friends,

Jesus says to us,

everyone who drinks

of this water

will be thirsty again.

It cannot quench

the craving of the soul.

Only the God

who made us for Himself

and to know Him

and to love Him

can give us this peace.

And many of us

would have heard,

it's a very famous quote,

many of us would have heard

of David Foster Wallace's

commencement address,

Kenyan College,

2007.

Very famous.

You might have heard

this before.

But I want to read this to us.

David Foster Wallace,

if you don't know him,

was an American novelist

and writer.

He was an agnostic.

He wasn't a Christian.

He unfortunately

took his own life

in I think it was 2013.

But before he died,

he gave this commencement

address to Kenyan College.

I want to read this to us.

This is profoundly insightful.

He says,

In the day-to-day trenches

of adult life,

there's actually no such thing

as not worshipping.

Everybody worships.

The only choice you get

is what to worship.

And the compelling reason

for maybe choosing

some sort of God

or religion

is that pretty much

everything else you worship

will eat you alive.

If you worship money

and things,

if they are where you tap

real meaning

in this life,

then you will never

have enough.

Never feel

you have enough.

Worship your body

and beauty

and sexual allure.

You will always feel ugly.

And when time

and age start showing,

you will die

a million deaths

before your loved ones

finally plant you

in the grave.

Friends,

worship power.

You will end up

feeling weak

and afraid.

You will need

ever more power

over others

to numb you

to your own fear.

Worship your intellect.

Being seen as smart

and you will end up

feeling stupid,

a fraud,

always on the verge

of being found out.

The insidious thing

about these forms

of worship

is not that they are evil,

but that they are

unconscious.

Isn't that profound?

Whatever you worship

will control you.

It will eat you alive.

So friends,

again,

ask us the question,

what is it

that we are worshiping?

What is the well

we're returning to

week after week,

day after day?

Where does your mind

drift

when you're feeling

anxious and worried?

What fantasy

do you go to

that can give you

a sense of peace?

Friends,

what do you think

if only you'll gain it,

you'll find freedom

and joy,

security,

life.

Maybe for some of us

it's our investments

and our portfolios

and we're checking

our portfolios

all the time.

Friends,

maybe for some of us

it is like this woman,

it's romantic relationships.

We bounce from one

relationship to the next

to the next,

never feeling like

we can be alone,

be ourselves.

Always need somebody

to affirm us

or build us up.

Friends,

maybe for some of us

it's our children's

accomplishments

accomplishments

and so we're sending

them to one exam,

one accomplishment,

one accolade

off the other

and as soon as they

get their one accolade

we're rolling them up

for the next one,

right?

Because we've always

got to keep

their portfolio growing.

Friends,

maybe for some of us

it's a hidden addiction,

pornography,

prostitution,

substance abuse.

On the side

we return there

again and again

and again.

For some of us

maybe it's social media,

always posting,

always checking

who's liking my post,

what's the response,

what are they saying?

For some of us

it's our work life,

always online,

never switching off,

always responding

to our boss,

our clients,

compromising even

our values,

our ethics

in order to win

that client,

advance our careers.

Friends,

what is the well

we keep returning to?

Where do our hearts

and minds go to

to give us peace?

And I know this is

something we talk about

in a lot of churches

and so it's easy

to roll eyes

and say yes,

yes,

I know,

okay,

I know,

I know.

But friends,

I've preached this message

hundreds of times,

I know this stuff

and yet for me

it's easy to stay

in my head

and my heart

to drift.

And Jesus doesn't

just want our heads

to know it,

he wants our hearts

to own it,

he wants our hearts

to be transformed,

which is why

he takes the conversation

where it goes.

And so look at the

last section here.

Where does Jesus

take the conversation?

Well,

he takes it to worship.

And so look at

what happens here.

Jesus directs

the conversation

towards worship,

he says,

he tells the lady

about herself

and she says,

sir,

I perceive

that you are a prophet

and she then says

this really interesting thing.

She says,

listen,

I have tried,

let me just find it here.

It says,

our fathers worshipped

on this mountain

but you Jews

say that Jerusalem

is the place

where people

ought to worship.

I think she's saying,

listen,

I've tried to worship God

as our fathers

have told us

here on this mountain.

You Jews say

that we Samaritans

are not really

very orthodox

or real.

You say we've got

to go to Jerusalem

to worship.

Listen,

I don't really know

what's going on.

I've tried to follow

what God wants for me.

The Samaritans

don't believe

in most of the Old Testament,

only the first five books

of the Bible.

And so when they read that,

they say,

on Mount Gerizim,

that's where God

wants us to worship.

But the Jews say,

no,

well,

David,

God promised David

that he would build

him a house in Jerusalem.

So they say,

you must go to Jerusalem.

And she's saying,

there's a bit of,

who's right here?

Are you guys right?

Are we right?

What does God want for me?

Does God want me

to go worship here?

Does God want me

to go worship there?

Must I believe

the whole Old Testament

or just this?

I don't really know.

What does God want for me?

And look what Jesus says to her.

What God wants for us

is a good question to ask

if God is a moral policeman

who simply wants us

to obey the rules.

But God is not

a moral policeman.

He's a father who loves us

and he wants us to be free.

We sang earlier,

what is the line?

Something about

the God who needs

nothing from us.

Jesus doesn't want

anything from us.

He wants life for us.

And because Jesus loves her

and he wants her to be free

and he wants her to come

and draw from the living water

of the living God

so that she can be free

from the false gods

that she's worshipped

and the false hope

she's put her hope in

and the false worship

she's giving herself to,

he offers her a lifeline.

And he says this,

woman, believe me.

Verse 22.

The hour is coming

when neither on this mountain

nor on that mountain

will he worship the Father.

Verse 23.

Indeed the hour is coming

that the hour is now here.

The time has come

when true worshippers

will worship the Father

in spirit and in truth

for the Father is seeking

such people to worship him.

What's Jesus saying?

Jesus,

for the Samaritan

there's this big debate.

Who's right

and who's wrong?

Are the Jews right?

Are the Samaritans right?

Maybe that clan over there's right.

Actually maybe we're all wrong.

Maybe those guys are right.

Who's bringing right worship to God?

And Jesus says

the hour has come,

the time has come

when all people,

religious, rich,

elites like Nicodemus

or poor Samaritan outsiders

like you,

all people,

no matter their cultural background,

their religious background,

their ethnic background,

their social standing,

their family background,

all people,

whether Jews or Samaritans,

whether Asians or Africans

or Americans,

all people,

the time is coming,

God has made a way

where all people can come to him

and find life.

And what do you need

to be included

in this community of people

that worship God

and find life?

Do you need to go to Jerusalem?

Do you need to go to this mountain?

Do you need to wear a certain garb?

Do you need to speak a language?

Do you need to be educated

like Nicodemus?

Do you need to worship this God

and find life?

And Jesus says,

there's one thing you need.

It's genuineness.

It's sincerity.

That's what he says

by worshiping in spirit

and in truth.

Spirit and truth

are not two different things.

They're one thing here.

Jesus says that

the only thing you need

is to come to him

and to worship him

from your heart

in sincerity

and genuineness

and to trust in Jesus.

Jesus is showing her

that the reason

for her struggles

with men

and relationships,

the reason why

she keeps going back

for more and more and more,

it's probably the same reason

why these relationships

don't last.

And it's not a social problem.

It's not an EQ problem.

It's not a psychological problem.

It's a heart problem.

She's been worshiping

at the altar of men

and relationships

and it hasn't satisfied.

And Jesus says

there's one thing

that satisfies.

Come to me.

Come to me genuinely.

Come to me sincerely.

Come and worship me

from your heart

in spirit and in truth

and you will be set free.

And Jesus says

that if you do that,

if you will worship God,

if that's,

sorry,

Jesus says that

if you will worship

at the altar of relationships,

if that's where your heart is at,

if that's what you sincerely

and genuinely give yourself to,

if that's what you functionally think

that you can't live without,

it'll never satisfy.

But I've come to change that

and I've come to change you.

And this lady does change,

doesn't she?

Because look at how the story ends.

Jesus reveals himself to her

and he helps her see

that he is who he's been saying that he is.

He really is the Christ.

He's the Messiah.

She says at one point,

listen,

I don't know about all this stuff,

but when the Messiah comes,

he will tell us all things.

And Jesus says,

I who speak to you am he.

Or another translation says,

the one who speaks to you

is I am.

I am him.

I'm God.

I'm the Messiah.

And she puts down her jar of water

and she runs into the village

and she goes and calls everybody

that up until now

has been shunning her

and rejecting her.

And she says,

they've all been,

they've all nothing to do with her

because she's this pariah.

She's maybe been taking all their men

or whatever it is.

They've been rejecting her

and she calls out to them.

She says,

come everybody,

come listen to me.

And she says,

I just met a man

who knows everything about me.

And they say,

yeah,

so what?

We know everything about you anyway.

What,

you know,

this village is a small village

and people talk,

we all know about you.

And she says,

no,

no,

this man is different.

This man knows everything about me,

but he's not rejecting me.

He's not shunning me.

I met a man who knows,

who knows me fully

and yet he's welcoming me.

He's accepting me.

The people of the village,

even though she's part of their village,

they want nothing to do with her.

Jesus' culture says

you should have nothing to do with her

and Jesus moves towards her.

He starts the conversation.

He initiates.

Jesus knows everything about her,

her sin,

her shame,

her past,

everything about her

and he welcomes her.

And that blows her mind,

but it also changes her.

And she runs back to village

a different person.

Friends,

here is a lady

that came to the well

a different person

from the one who left the well

because she encountered Jesus.

So friends,

what about you?

What could you not live without?

What if it were taken from you

would make you question

whether life is worth living?

What do you keep giving yourself to

again and again and again?

Friends,

what or who are you worshipping?

Two weeks ago,

we looked at Jesus' conversation

with Nicodemus

and today we've listened in

on a very different conversation

with a different conversation partner.

And despite all their differences

in culture,

education,

background,

religion,

socioeconomic status,

rich,

religious,

Nicodemus,

poor,

uneducated,

Samaritan woman

whose name we don't even know,

despite their very stark differences,

these two stories

are actually very similar

in some ways.

In both these stories,

Jesus comes to these

very different people

and he approaches them

not as an idea

but as a person.

He speaks honestly.

He speaks frankly.

He speaks genuinely

to their hearts.

In both of these stories,

Jesus calls them

to trust in him.

He doesn't just give them

a religious data

or dogma.

He doesn't just give them

a theology.

He calls them

to trust in him,

in him alone.

And in both of these encounters,

Jesus points himself

as the solution.

And it's amazing,

John is telling us

that the deepest longings

of the human heart

transcend culture.

They transcend ethnicity.

Friends,

whether you are Asian

or African like me,

whether you're American,

whether you're Chinese

or Caucasian,

whether you're Australian,

it doesn't matter

what your culture,

your background,

whether you're rich

or whether you're poor,

you're uneducated

or you're a professor,

the deepest longings

of the human heart

are all the same.

Both of these people

need Jesus.

To both of these,

Jesus is willing

to come

and save them.

And friends,

that's true for us as well.

All of us need Jesus

and to all of us,

Jesus is coming

and willing

to offer himself

as the hope

that we need

and the hope

that he wants

to give us.

Why don't we come

to him now in prayer

and let's ask him

to do that.

Lord Jesus,

thank you so much

for the gospels

and thank you

for the Bible.

Thank you for John's gospel

that just again

and again and again,

week in and week out,

show us who you are

and call us

to trust you.

Jesus,

you are so gracious.

You're so beautiful.

You move towards

our mess and our shame.

God,

the areas of our life

that we feel most shame

are the areas of life

you love to move towards

and bring healing,

redemption,

and freedom.

Jesus,

we love you.

We need you.

God,

come and help us,

I pray.

Come and help us,

God,

to drink of the well

of living water.

Come and help us

to drink of you,

God.

You will satisfy

and never,

never run dry.

God,

through all the economic

upturns and downturns,

the market turmoil,

God,

and everything that's going

on in our world,

you are the one

consistent source of life

that never disappoints.

Come and help us,

I pray.

In your great

and wonderful name,

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.