A Life of Truth and Worship

Father, we ask that you help us to be a people who lifts Jesus high,

that, Father, that we're prepared to be people who go to bless and ascend.

And not, Father, to be self-centered, but to be a people who lift Jesus high

and go into our city, go to the ends of the earth,

to tell people about Jesus, to make a difference for you.

Father, now we gather around your word,

and we ask that your Holy Spirit would move mightily in our hearts, Father,

because there's much darkness in our minds and in our emotions and our will.

There's much darkness, Father, and we get accustomed to the darkness.

So, Father, shine the light of the glory of the gospel of Jesus deep into our hearts

as we read your word, so that we will be disciples of Jesus

who are living for your glory in our day-to-day lives.

And this we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Please be seated.

So, I'm a first-generation Canadian.

So, I grew up in an immigrant family.

My folks were immigrants from Northern Ireland,

and they immigrated to Montreal.

In fact, if it had been a simple twist of fate,

I wouldn't be speaking to you this morning.

When my parents got married, they were working-class kids.

They wanted to leave Northern Ireland.

They wanted to go to where there was more opportunity,

especially for working-class kids.

They both only had a grade-8 education.

And when it came time to start to prepare to immigrate,

they couldn't decide between Australia and Canada.

But, like many immigrants, they knew one person in Canada

and nobody in Australia.

And that one person they knew was in Montreal,

so they came to Canada because there was a man there named Joseph McCartney

who ended up becoming my Uncle Joe

because he ended up marrying my mother's sister.

Anyway, so we come.

There's a group of other Irish immigrants.

My parents, eventually, my mom's siblings also moved.

And one of the things we did, they didn't have much money,

so when it was holiday time, we'd go camping together,

three, four, five, six families.

And, you know, the kids would play throughout the day,

and then they'd all go into the different tents and sleep.

And at night, the adults would all gather around the campfire,

you know, whatever, 10, 12 people, the different couples.

And as I got a little bit older,

I discovered what it was that the adults all did around the campfire.

They didn't hold hands and sing Kumbaya.

They argued.

Boy, did they argue.

One of them, at least one of them, was a Roman Catholic.

The rest were Protestants from Northern Ireland.

They argued.

They didn't just argue about Northern Ireland.

They argued about labor unions.

They argued about, you just name it, politics, culture, shopping, clothing, everything.

They argued.

And every once in a while, I discovered,

the people, their voices would get pretty loud,

and somebody would go, shh, the kids are sleeping.

So then they would continue their argument like this.

You're really bleep, bleep, bleep, stupid.

And on it would go.

And that's what they did.

So I mention this because what we see today is we see a story about Jesus walking into an 800-year-old argument

that had often been violent on both sides.

That's sort of the backstop to this story.

It's a very common human problem.

Those of you who are more leftist inclined, you might remember the USSR.

They hunted Trotsky down to kill him.

I think it was in Mexico.

Because certain types of communists would fight the Maoists, would fight the Trotskyites, Irish and Protestants.

Sunnis and Shias have been killing each other for over 1,300 years.

Trump and Clinton, red and blue states.

In fact, Rachel Harder, who was here this morning in between,

her simply getting put on a committee of the status of woman on earth,

a lot of violent conversation.

It's a common human problem throughout the ages.

And Jesus walks right into the middle of it.

For 800 years, the Samaritans and the Jews had been in argument sometime

and taking up arms against each other as well.

So if you take your Bible, it'd be great if you turn to John chapter 4

John 4 · chapter mention

and let's see what happens when Jesus walks into an 800-year-old argument.

And it says John chapter 4, and we'll begin reading at the first verse.

John 4 · chapter mention

Now, when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John,

and just sort of, oh, sorry, although, that's John the Baptist,

although Jesus himself did not baptize but only his disciples,

Jesus left Judea and departed again for Galilee.

And just sort of pause here.

The Pharisees were the biggest sort of denomination of Jewish people at the time.

We would call them religious fundamentalists.

And they were the biggest sort of most powerful grouping,

them and the sort of the Sadducees.

They had a lot of the power.

And Jesus was no fool.

And as you know, if you go and read to the story to the end,

Jesus had a well-founded suspicion

that the religious and social and cultural and intellectual and political authorities

were not looking favorably upon him.

And so he becomes aware of the fact that the governing groups were starting to become aware of him

and his growing popularity.

And so he becomes a semi-fugitive.

He decides that he's going to lead.

You know, it's really, really interesting.

You know, if you think about this,

just compare this to a lot of other religious founders and types of figures,

is that Jesus becomes a semi-fugitive.

All his life, Jesus is powerless.

All his life, Jesus is powerless.

And it's not because he doesn't have a type of power that he could use.

You know, this isn't a miracle story this week, but he can do miracles.

But he's powerless.

So he's a semi-fugitive.

He's going to leave.

And that's what sort of launches this story.

Verse 4.

And he, that's Jesus, had to pass through Samaria.

Now just sort of pause here.

I didn't know this until I did the research.

But the word had is a very interesting word in the original language.

What it's really saying, it's a significant word because it's a word in the original language

which is only used when God makes it a necessity for something to happen.

So what we see here is that God has laid it upon Jesus' heart that he has to go right into Samaria.

And like, isn't that very interesting?

What's interesting is that the way that God is being introduced here by Jesus,

because ultimately this is all, Jesus would have been the one who tells the disciples about this.

They're the ones who come to understand it,

is that God is sending Jesus into this 800-year-old argument.

Not away from it, but into it.

And this is also just really significant, I didn't organize this,

but after the sermon, we're going to have Jess Cantillon make a bit of a presentation

about how we believe that he has to go to Jerusalem to plant a church.

We as a congregation, we're considering whether we should be starting another congregation in Kanata.

We believe that it's God that we have to do it.

We're discerning it, by the way.

We're discerning this because we're not Jesus.

So you take steps of faith to discern it.

But God sometimes says, you've got to do this.

You've got to do this.

And that's what's going on.

Jesus has to go into Samaria.

And so let's continue reading.

Verse 5 and 6.

So Jesus comes 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, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well.

It was about noon.

Just pause here.

One more little pause.

One of the problems, there's a lot of nonsense that goes out in the world.

I mean, there's all sorts of problems with the Christian faith.

You know, we get that.

In fact, you know, I was just thinking this week, Christians know the problems in the Christian faith better than non-Christians know the problem in the Christian faith.

I mean, we live with it.

If you read the Bible, you become aware of different problematic things in the Bible, often far more than non-Christians, you know, do.

But in this particular thing here, which is very, very interesting, is the area that Jesus is going into, Jacob, he has another name in the Old Testament.

The other name for Jacob is Israel.

And his sons are the 12 tribes of Israel.

So Jesus is going into an area that Israel established and the tribes of Israel established.

It's now where Samaritans live.

Samaritans are semi-pagan.

They're half pagan and half Jewish.

And so they also are claiming that they go right back to the founder of Israel, the founder of the Jewish people, that they can trace their lineage back.

But they're half pagan and half Jewish.

And that actually is the source of so much of the conflict.

Going back to the same ancestors.

I went and when I was 11 years old, I went to Northern Ireland with my family.

And we were in a small town in Southern Ireland.

And there's like a big wire mesh over the railing of the bridge, over this nice, you know, river.

And my dad started chatting to the guy who was there.

This is in Southern Ireland.

And my dad said, are there any good fish in there?

And this crusty old Irish guy says, I'm not going to try to imitate his accent.

We haven't been able to fish in there since King Billy crossed the boing.

And if you know anything about Ireland, that's sort of the start of the whole Northern Ireland.

King Billy is William of Orange.

Protestant from Holland.

He comes.

That's where all the Protestants come from.

And my dad kept chatting.

And my dad, as he was walking away, said, you know, that's the problem with this country.

It's been their own bloody country for over 100 years.

And they're still blaming the lack of fishing on a Protestant king.

Memories can go deep when there's lots of conflict.

And it's going to keep rearing its head in this particular story.

So verse 7.

Jesus is going to now meet a Samaritan.

Verse 7.

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

And then in brackets, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

In fact, for many Pharisees, for many Jewish people, they would have thought that the second

Jesus took a drink out of her container, they had become ritually and ceremonially unclean.

And this, by the way, is a common human problem.

I think it's still the case in many parts of India that if a dalit, the lowest caste,

if they were to get a drink from somebody, they would give them a drink in a,

if they even were able to get a drink of water at all, they would get it in like a clay pot,

almost like a flower pot.

And they would get the drink in that so that the drink, the container could be smashed afterwards

so that no non-dalit would be contaminated by drinking the water.

It's a common human problem to view people as being ceremonially unclean.

But what we see here, which is so interesting, is that Jesus walks towards the woman.

He's the one who initiates the conversation.

She probably would have ignored him.

But Jesus, who has not only intentionally gone into Samaria,

now in a sense he walks across the room and begins the conversation with the woman by asking her,

in a sense his enemy, the one that many Jewish people would say is deeply unclean,

and he asks her for a drink of water.

Now, one of the things, whenever you read a narrative in the New Testament,

you have to always sort of pause at every juncture.

You don't have to, but a way to get more out of it is to pause at these little junctures.

Sometimes stories can become so familiar to Christians that the answers and how the responses come,

they're obvious, but it's not obvious how the story's going to go.

So, like the woman could have said, like, how dare you do that?

Or she gives this smart answer to Jesus about, you know, you normally people don't,

you Jewish people don't ask, like, from an unclean Samaritan like me.

And it's not in a sense obvious what Jesus' answer is.

Jesus could say, oh, come on, woman.

Like, I'm trying to be friends.

Like, work with me.

Like, why are you being so?

And then, you know, maybe use the B word about her or something like that, you know?

He could be arrogant.

Like, there's all sorts of possible responses that he could have to the woman after she's been,

she hasn't been angry at him, but she's been very cool.

Sir is a bit of a formal title, and she's just bringing the problem up front.

For 800 years, you folks, you, you, for 800 years, you have been looking down your noses at me.

People like me, my people, in my country.

So why are you asking me for a drink?

Now, what's going to follow here?

When I have a counseling degree, I know people always are surprised at that.

They wonder why I'm not nicer.

But I have a master's degree in counseling, believe it or not.

And one of the things that we did for two of the, the two years in the master's program

is every term I'd have a, something called a practicum.

And one of the things that we had to do in the practicum, I had a cohort,

a group of people who were traveling through it with me.

And every three weeks, I had to present a verbatim.

I don't know if they still do that.

Now they probably just tape it.

But a verbatim is that throughout the three weeks of practical stuff that we were doing,

I had to think of a particular counseling encounter.

And I was to try to, on just in two pages, write it down in terms of I said this, they said this.

And then we would come and discuss it in terms of what was going on,

different ways that we could have approached it.

They encouraged us to bring times when we don't think we handled it very well,

and also to bring times we think we hit a grand slam with it.

And it's really, it really struck me this week as I was preparing this,

is what we're about to see is a verbatim.

That's what it is.

Jesus must have used verbatims to teach his disciples.

Like, they walked everywhere.

It would take a long time.

He would have been on these long walks.

And I could just see now Jesus saying,

because none of the disciples were there for this.

So they'd only know about it if Jesus, in a sense, gave them a verbatim.

He looked at him what happened, and then helped to unpack it and use it as a teaching thing.

They're walking down the thing.

I met this woman.

I said this.

She said this.

I said this.

She said this.

I said this.

She said this.

I said this.

She said this.

And then I can easily see that he'd have a bit of a conversation with him,

unpacking what's going on, why he said what he said.

It was a very effective teaching practice and counseling.

And this is what we're actually seeing.

And one of the things that we did sometimes, especially when we were first in our practicum,

is that there were either verbatims that the professor had from previous students,

or occasionally there would even be books of verbatims,

because it can be a very powerful way to learn, to enter into a conversation.

So what we have here is a verbatim between Jesus and this woman.

So how does Jesus respond?

Verse 10, 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.

So Jesus, what does Jesus do?

So Jesus has been led by God to walk into Samaria and through it.

He's been led by God to walk into an 800-year-old argument.

And what he's doing now is he's pressing into her heart.

I mean, that's what Jesus does with all of us.

And by the heart, I don't mean the emotions.

Right? Those of you who have been here for other Sundays,

what the Bible means by the heart is the command center of our lives.

The command center of our lives from which our will operates,

our mind operates, our emotions operate, our memory operates.

That deep part of us where, in a sense, will and mind and emotions and memory

and all of those things, they all meet.

The understanding, the knowledge, they all meet that command center of our lives.

And Jesus always walks towards our heart in the context of the living God.

That's what he does.

He does it with the Samaritan woman.

He does it with us.

He walks always towards our heart.

And in here, he introduces three ideas.

And because John is a book, I mean, this is the Bible, so it has 66 books,

39 that tell people how to be prepared for Jesus,

in a sense, and 27 that sort of unpacks who Jesus is.

But this particular part that we're looking at is part of a larger book.

And Jesus is introducing three ideas that those of us who know the rest of the story

have a bit of a sense of what they are.

And it's going to continue to be teased out as the story proceeds.

But right now, he introduces three ideas.

And the three ideas are very, very interesting.

The gift of God, who Jesus is, and what that who is, Jesus,

what their heart is and their power is.

Three different ideas.

And, you know, this again reminded me, this is, I guess this is, at least for me,

one of the big learnings that I have as I'm reading through John's Gospel

and face-to-face with Jesus,

is that I'm increasingly under conviction that I have to tell Canadians

that I don't believe in God.

At least I don't believe in God as Canadians understand God.

That what I need to tell people is, in terms of the God of Canadians, I'm an atheist.

I believe the God that's introduced by Jesus.

And the God who's introduced by Jesus walks towards people.

He walks towards people with a gift.

He walks towards our heart.

That's the God I believe and not the God of Canadians.

Part of my counseling, I was in this one workshop that I had to do when I was doing counseling,

and by coincidence, everybody in this particular workshop,

they were all either nuns, like nuns with habits, you know, like the singing nun.

That's an old joke.

But like nuns, parts of religious order,

were people who were training to become Roman Catholic priests.

I was the only one in the group that wasn't one of these people.

And we had to do a role play.

And I wasn't part of it.

Some people, three people did a role play,

and the rest of us then were going to talk about it.

And the role play involved how a mom and her kids were interacting.

And they do the role play.

And the first two or three comments about how insightful and moving it was,

and then I said,

time out.

That's not how moms and kids work.

That's not, given the context,

that's not how a kid's going to talk to their mom.

Like, that's just not the way it is.

I have three kids.

Trust me.

That's not how it works in a family.

So here we go.

We have this story.

Jesus has just introduced this very,

very interesting idea about the gift and this power, etc.

So how does a Samaritan woman act?

Well, she acts like a Samaritan.

That's how she acts.

Because it's a real story.

Look what happens in verse 11 and 12.

How does she respond to what Jesus says?

The woman says to him, verse 11,

Sir, you have nothing to draw water with,

and the well is deep.

We know that it's at least 100 feet deep.

Where do you get that living water?

And now, minefield.

Minefield.

Are you greater than our father, Israel?

Or Jacob.

Are you greater than our father, Jacob?

He, Israel, gave us this well.

And drank from it himself,

as did his sons, the 12 tribes.

Aaron.

I'm not sorry, not Aaron.

It's wrong.

Wrong.

But, you know, the 12 tribes.

This is their well.

She responds like a Samaritan.

So how does Jesus respond?

He says this.

Verse 13.

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.

Will never be thirsty again.

The water that I will give him will become in him or in her a spring of water,

welling up to eternal life.

And 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.

Now, just pause.

If you're here today,

you've come with a friend,

or maybe you've just come in by yourself,

and you're not a Christian,

I want to tell you a secret

about the majority of the people here in this room.

And the secret is this.

Verses like this terrify Christians.

Why does this terrify Christians?

Look at that again, what it says.

Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,

but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him

will never be thirsty again.

And Christians,

I mean, it doesn't terrify them all the time,

because most of the time we just say it,

but when we actually look at it,

if we thought we had to do a sermon on it,

if I had to say,

come up to the front and speak four minutes

on how you've never been thirsty again,

the fear comes to us.

I'm depressed.

I struggle with anxiety.

I'm struggling with loneliness.

I'm tired.

I feel like a failure.

I feel like I'm defeated.

I definitely feel thirsty.

I really need God.

I don't feel like I'm very strong or well-watered.

And for many Christians,

when they see a text like this,

it terrifies them that a non-Christian would ask them,

really?

Like, you never thirst?

Like this,

like whatever that means,

some type of spiritual type of sense

that never goes on with you anymore?

And so,

we get terrified about texts like that.

So,

we need to sort out some confusion around this text

and what's going on.

Let's look at it again.

Verse 13,

So,

the first thing in here

is that Jesus isn't talking about an emotion.

He's not talking about an emotion.

There's no Christian emotion.

I don't care what they say

in all sorts of biblical,

all sorts of websites.

I don't care what they say

on all sorts of TV stations.

There is no Christian emotion.

It isn't that joy is a Christian emotion

and other emotions aren't.

Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for they shall see the kingdom of God.

Who said that?

Oh yeah,

it was Jesus.

Maybe Jesus knows more than that television teacher

who seems to talk as if

joy is the only Christian emotion

because he said,

blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,

for they shall be comforted.

There is no Christian emotion.

In fact,

one of the things that happens

as you come to know Jesus

is that Jesus will start

to heal

your emotional life.

He's going to work

on your emotional life.

And one of the things

that he does to heal it

is that you feel

the full range

of human emotions.

You'll feel all of them.

Jesus wept

at the grave of Lazarus.

He was,

at the grave of Lazarus.

He wasn't being,

he wasn't sinning

when he weeped.

He was being human.

He was feeling

a human emotion.

And when the Holy Spirit

comes into our lives,

it doesn't come

like a type of drug.

It doesn't,

the Holy Spirit

is an oxycodone

that only makes you

feel one thing.

You'll,

you'll,

you start to get

your emotions healed.

And that's a whole other topic,

but that's what happens.

It's not one emotion.

So what's going on here

in this text?

There's a bit of a mix up.

We now have

three dozen roses

at the church today.

I originally was just

going to have one,

but after the service,

this just works out

good for all of you folks.

Everybody here,

well,

obviously there's too many

for all of you

to have a rose,

but take,

take everybody

who wants a rose

after the service,

take a rose.

We have some newspapers

over there

and you can wrap it up

so it doesn't get destroyed

in the cold.

But here we have

some roses

and this,

these roses

will help us

to understand

what Jesus is saying here.

The thing you can notice

about all of these roses

is that they're cut.

And this rose

illustrates

what it means

to be human.

Every single one of us

is a cut rose.

We've been disconnected

from the source of life.

Some of you might say,

George,

I sure wish

I'd been as pretty

as one of those roses.

I've always been

more of a wilted rose.

And some of us

might be sitting here

thinking,

George,

I look like these roses

are going to look

in about a week and a half.

Pretty dried

and withered.

And maybe we can look around

and see some other people

and they really do look

like a beautiful rose,

but in God's sight

in a sense,

every one of us

is like a beautiful rose,

but every single human being

is cut,

separated from God.

And in a sense,

what Jesus is saying here,

see,

it all goes back

to Genesis 3.

God makes us

to have a relationship

with him

and he makes us perfect

and he makes us

to have this relationship

with him

and we are now,

in a sense,

in Adam

and what happens

in Adam

is that Adam

decides to not believe God,

not trust God,

to want to be like God himself

and so he and Eve

turn from God

to become like gods themselves

and they disconnect themselves

from the source of life,

which is how

first there becomes sin

and then death comes in

as a sign of sin.

And so what Jesus is saying here

is very, very, very powerful.

Remember he said earlier,

if you knew the gift of God

and if you knew

who was speaking to you,

then you would ask him

for living water.

She pushes back.

She acts like a person

who's in an 800-year argument

and she pushes back

and Jesus is undaunted.

Why?

Because he's walking

towards her heart

and he gives her this image

of,

and it's this powerful image

in a sense

if you drink in Jesus,

it's this sense

that whatever this gift is,

it's not just something

which is out there.

Jesus uses a variety of images,

both in terms of images

of believing,

of eating bread,

of drinking water,

of drinking wine.

He does these different images

to illustrate this basic

spiritual truth

that Jesus

is going to do something

that only God can do

that we cannot do ourselves

that is going to have

as its fundamental property.

It is going to reconnect us

to God

so that we are reconnected

to the source of life.

And the image that he uses

is that

when we drink him in

to receive what only he can do

and what he is going to do

for us upon the cross,

the very center

of who I am,

apart from Christ,

it's as if

in the center of who I am

there is a cup

with a limited amount of water

and every day

that water

is being poured out

and death is when

the water is all gone.

And Jesus is saying

at the very center

of who you are

there is now a spring

of living water,

of fresh water

that will flow in you

and through you

for all eternity.

For all eternity.

I will connect you back to God.

I think I've gotten out of my order.

Could you put

my first point up there?

Here we go.

Points are just to be a help

even if I get carried away.

From birth,

every human being

is like a beautiful

cut rose.

From birth,

every human being

is like a beautiful

cut rose.

And the second point,

if you could put it up,

when you drink

in Christ,

he creates

an eternal spring

of living water

at the center

of who you are.

When you drink

in Christ,

he creates

an eternal spring

of living water

at the center

of who you are.

Now,

some of you

are probably

a little bit surprised

about what happens next.

I have to do this

all very briefly.

But,

Jesus does something

which is very

un-Canadian.

You see,

for Canadians,

we would like it

if the story

stopped right here.

In fact,

as Canadians,

we would go,

aww,

a spring of living water.

Aww,

that's so nice.

Aww,

that could be

like a greeting card.

And the people

in our culture

who don't like Christians

would say,

yeah,

just give me a jack

and a beer.

Like, you know,

that just stuff makes,

that just,

I get sick and tired

of that stuff, right?

But we'd like to stop

right here.

And in fact,

Canadians get

profoundly uncomfortable

about what happens next.

In fact,

the typical Canadian question

is,

why is Jesus

being so mean

next?

Well,

what happens?

Look what happens.

It's verse 16,

right?

Verse 15 is,

sir,

give me this water

so that I will not

be thirsty

or have to come here

to draw water.

End of the story

if it was Canadians.

But this is a Jesus story

and he's going

towards our heart.

What does he say?

Jesus said to her,

go call your husband

and come here.

The woman answered him,

I have no husband.

There's,

in English,

just four very,

very,

very powerful words.

I have no husband.

Hasn't gone into

a lot of detail,

but it's very clear

and frank.

Jesus said to her,

you are right in saying,

notice he says,

you are right in saying,

I have no husband.

For you have had

five husbands

and the implication here

is that it's not

that they've died.

She believes in a sense

in serial monogamy.

She's had many husbands.

They've all ended in divorce

and then he continues on

and the one you now have

is not your husband.

What you have said is true.

And for many of us,

we say to ourselves

as Canadians,

Jesus has just promised

living water

and now he is,

like,

why is he turning away

from living water?

But the thing is,

he's not turning away

from living water.

This is all part of him

giving her

living water.

You see,

the God who really exists

isn't the God

that most Canadians worship.

Jesus is introducing God

and so he points out

her sin

and he commends her

for honest answer

and then she responds

in a very,

very powerful

and personal,

you know,

in a very,

very powerful

and personal way

in verses 16,

17,

and 18.

Sorry,

I should have kept reading.

The woman answered him,

I have no husband.

Jesus,

okay,

back up to,

yeah.

So,

he is giving her

living water.

That's what he's doing.

He's giving her

living water.

You see,

the fact is

that God is good

and earlier on

Jesus has said

that God is light

and in him

there is no darkness

whatsoever

and the whole problem

in Genesis 3

began

because

human beings

didn't believe God

they didn't trust God

they didn't trust

that he was good

and when they had done

something which was wrong

if you go back

and read Genesis 3

God comes

and Adam and Eve

are hiding

and when God

speaks to them

Adam doesn't say

you know God

I did something

which was wrong

instead what he does

is

he blames

his wife

and won't acknowledge

that he's done

anything wrong

you can already see

how

the problem

of sin

is breaking him down

and pushing him

even farther away

from God

and

God calls us

God is true

God is good

God is beautiful

and there are things

with

and he's made us

for himself

he's made us

for goodness

he's made us

for truth

he's made us

for beauty

he's made us

for wholeness

and as the eternal water

spring of water

comes into our lives

it's not going to be

amoral

it's not going to just

be a spiritual comfort

it's not just going to

bless whatever we do

it's going to work

within us

to prepare us

to live with God

everything that Jesus

is doing

is doing

something so that

at the end of the day

we can once again

walk with God

in the cool of the day

and feel his arm

around us

as we just spend time

with God

and so the things

within us

which are not good

which are not true

which are not beautiful

which are dark

and idolatrous

and hiding

the water

is going to have

to bring it out

because God

is true

so she responds

in verse 19

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

what she does

here is

in the presence

of Jesus

she

in her mind

the only thing

she can think of

is I

I need to somehow

do something

to atone

I need to go

and offer

some type

of a sacrifice

my sin

has been revealed

I need to offer

some type of sacrifice

to try to take

this away

and she's a little

bit worried

that because

Jesus is talking

about all these

things

she's going to

have to become

Jewish

and she doesn't

realize that

Jesus is in fact

the Lamb of God

who takes away

the sin of the world

that he is not

going to only

defeat death

and create the

conditions whereby

when we put our

faith and trust

in him

we can share

in his defeat

of death

but he also

deals with that

which causes

death

which is our sin

which is our love

of idols

our love

of lies

our love

of things

which are not

good

and our shame

and Jesus

on the cross

deals not only

with the defeat

of death

to reconnect

us to life

but he deals

with guilt

he deals

with shame

he takes on

himself

the guilt

that I can't

deal with

by myself

he

you know the

Bible as I've

said before

never tells us

to forgive

ourselves

the Bible

tells us

to learn

to accept

the forgiveness

which has been

offered in

Jesus

because he

has paid

it all

he

has

paid

it

all

the story

continues

his response

to her

verse 21

woman believe

me the hour

is coming

when neither

on this

mountain

nor in

Jerusalem

we worship

the father

your father

you worship

what you do

not know

we worship

what we know

for salvation

is from the

Jews

he doesn't go

to comparative

religion

he goes to

revelation

but the hour

is coming

and is now

here when the

true worshipers

will worship

the father

in spirit

and truth

for the father

is seeking

such people

to worship

him

the god

that I know

that I'm

introducing

to you

is not a

god

who's too

busy

for you

who is

always angry

at you

or is too

distant

he is the

god who's

seeking you

your human

problem and

mine is that

we hide

from god

we never

truly seek

god

we hide

from god

but the

god who

does exist

is a

god who

seeks

and god

is spirit

and those

who worship

him must

worship in

spirit and

truth

and here

it's not

talking about

a particular

emotion

sorry I

keep walking

where I

shouldn't

because there's

no light

there

what he's

talking about

is it's a

very very

simple thing

you know if

you have a

down syndrome

person

low IQ

if you ask

them to

know all

sorts of

complicated

things

they can't

know all

sorts of

complicated

things

you ask

a child

if they

can know

sort of

all

complicated

theology

they can't

know

complicated

theology

but you know

what in

themselves

they can

give themselves

to people

little children

give themselves

to their mom

or their dad

down syndrome

people can

give themselves

to somebody

and little

kids can

know what's

real and

what's true

you don't

have to be

a genius

and what

Jesus is

saying

here

is

I'm not

calling

for people

if you

have a

high IQ

praise God

use your

IQ

for the

glory

of God

if you

have an

unbelievable

willpower

praise God

use it

for the

glory of

God

if you

are unbelievably

strong

or beautiful

praise God

use it

for the

glory of

God

that's

fine

but what's

happening

here

is that

I know

your heart

Jesus knows

that these

things

this woman

has had

all these

issues

but he

came to

die for

her

knowing

who she

was

he came

to die

for her

he knows

you

he came

to die

for you

why

he comes

to you

the father

seeks

you

and what

he's asking

for you

is for you

to drink

in

his provision

for you

at the level

of your

spirit

to say

Jesus

give me

this living

water

be my

savior

and my

lord

it's

something

which even

a child

can do

is to

give at

the level

of their

of who

they are

just give

themselves

and that's

what the

father is

seeking

for us

to no

longer run

and no

longer

hide

but to

stop

and turn

and say

father

you have

been

seeking

me

all my

life

I am

yours

may

Jesus

come in

and do

the work

he needs

to do

that I

might be

yours

and that

that spring

of everlasting

water

might flow

in my

life

into all

eternity

please stand

if there's

anyone here

who hasn't

given their

life to

Jesus

there is

no better

time

than right

now

in fact

what I

would just

say

if you

you know

I'm not

you know

the problem

I grew up

in churches

where

the pastor

always had

a formula

that you

had to

pray

and that

was

terrifying

because

as a

little

kid

I

thought

I

had

to

memorize

the

formula

and

figure

out

how

to

say

it

perfectly

there

is

no

formula

all I

would

say

is

just

take

the

words

of the

Bible

and

just

just

copy

the

words

of that

Samaritan

woman

sir

give me

that

living

water

give me

that

Jesus

tells

you

how to

respond

to

him

that

he

might

be

your

savior

and

your

Lord

and for

those of

us who

are

Christians

who have

been

Christians

for a

long

time

it's

you know

maybe the

Lord is

saying to

us

that yeah

the spring

of living

water is

going on

there

but what's

going on

in my

life right

now is

I'm getting

so caught

up with

idols

and I'm

getting so

caught up

with running

from him

that I

need

to

this

before

God

I stand

and turn

and face

him

again

and say

father

forgive me

from running

for you

thank you

that you

never

stopped

seeking

me

thank you

that the

spring of

eternal

water

living

water

never

stopped

flowing

even

though I

have been

living

in rebellion

against you

and I

come and

surrender

before you

once again

because you

are my

father

I give

myself

into your

hands

no better

time than

now to

do such

work with

God

let's bow

our heads

father

pour out

your

holy

spirit

upon

us

father

we

thank

you

for

Jesus

we

thank

you

that

he

died

upon

the

cross

for us

we

thank

you

father

that

he

is

your

gift

we

thank

you

father

that

when

we

believe

him

and

put

our

faith

and

trust

in

Jesus

that

we

are

no

longer

cut

roses

separated

from

life

but

that

you

create

what

only

you

can

do

you

create

a

spring

of

eternal

life

of

living

water

in

the

center

of

who

we

are

that

will

take

us

through

our

death

into

an

everlasting

life

with

you

father

thank

you

for

the

great

gift

of

Jesus

and

father

make

us

sensitive

to

your

leading

and

your

guiding

and

help

us

to

surrender

more

and

more

to

who

you

are

and

we

ask

all

this

in

the

name

of

Jesus

your

son

and

our