Satisfaction

Good morning, local. How are we today? Good,

good. So good to be here with all of you. If

I haven't had a chance to meet you yet, I'm Paul

Ballington, and I get to be a lead pastor here

at local and church. Really just going to start

us off strong today. I got a confession to make.

I like waiting a little bit. It really builds

attention. My mom and my bonus mom are in here

right now, so they're sweating bullets right

now. All right? All right? Hey, this is my confession.

You guys can relax. It's nothing too crazy, okay?

This is my confession, though, is that there

is a whole lot of things in life that I enjoy.

If you've been with us for any amount of time,

you know quite a few of those things, okay? I

enjoy public skate, enjoy the Raiders, the Florida

Gators, hunting, World War II history, surfing,

my awesome, wonderful wife, Nicole, our four

beautiful, healthy children, and lasagna, all

those things. That pretty much covers it. Publix

cakes was at the top of the list, though. There's

a lot of things I enjoy in life. And I feel like

most of us can make a pretty decent list of all

the things that we enjoy in life. We got our

hobbies. We got our sports teams. We got our

families. We have our interests, and we enjoy

them. And there's nothing wrong with that whatsoever.

But I want to ask you this, church. Do any of

those things bring you satisfaction? Think about

that for a second. All those things and those

places and those people that we enjoy, do they

bring us satisfaction? Maybe it'll help if we

clearly define satisfaction. This is what the

dictionary has to say. Satisfaction, fulfillment

of one's wishes, expectations or needs, or the

pleasure derived from this. Honestly local? That's

the dictionary's definition, and we should throw

it in the trash. It's watered down garbage. Here's

what true satisfaction really means. Biblical

true, which is the truth, always has been and

always will be, to be truly satisfied, it means

that something fills your soul. To really have

true satisfaction, your soul will be filled to

the brim. You get so filled with joy, peace,

hope, and love that you are truly satisfied.

And that is satisfaction local. And it's a wonderful,

beautiful way to live. And here's the reality.

All those things that I just listed that I thoroughly

enjoy. All those things that you listed that

you thoroughly enjoy. They will never bring true

satisfaction. Sure, we enjoy them, but those

things, those places, and those people, they

will never bring us true satisfaction. Now, don't

get me wrong, local. Sitting in my living room,

eating Publix cake next to my awesome, incredible

wife, watching the Florida Gators, I love it,

and I enjoy it, and it makes me happy. But, there's

only one way to have true satisfaction, church.

There's only one way to truly fill our soul.

And here's the great news local. It's available

to every single one of us that truly wants it.

And that one way to have true satisfaction is

exactly what we are going to dig in today into

our scripture that we're going to study in our

time together. And not only Well, we see and

experience the real source of true satisfaction

today, but we're also going to see how God creates

spiritual momentum out of that satisfaction once

we have it. So local, if you're ready, if you

got your Bibles or devices with you, we're going

to be in John four verses one through 42. You

can also track along in the program you should

have received on your way in. And what we are

doing today. today is week six of our Momentum

series as a church and what we have been doing

so far this year as a church is we've been looking

at different scriptures and verses in our Bibles

of how God moved in these massive ways through

cities and people and he created monumental spiritual

momentum that changed the world and still is

to this day. And what we're doing as a church

right now is we are just humbly recognizing that

God has blessed local with momentum. And what

we're trying to do as a church is we do not want

to get in the way of what God wants to do here.

We want his momentum to keep flowing through

us as individuals into our families and into

our community. And today we're going to be studying

and we're going to be looking at an awesome interaction

between Jesus and a woman. And that interaction

and what Jesus does and how it leads to an entire

region being forever changed. And even though

this happened 2000 years ago, This scripture

is going to do the same thing today in Mims,

Florida that it did 2 ,000 years ago. Church,

here's how it starts. John 4 verses 1 through

John 4:1–6

6. Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard

that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples

than John. Although, in fact, it was not Jesus

who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea

and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had

to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in

Samaria called Sikkar, near the plot of ground

Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob's well

was there and Jesus, tired as he was from the

journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

So here's where we're at scripture. We're in

the Gospel of John. John was a disciple that

lived with and he walked with and he experienced

all that Jesus did in his Ministry while he was

here on earth and God inspired John to give us

this account of Jesus's life and John was inspired

by God to specifically write this account in

a way so that we would know when we read and

we study it, we would walk away knowing for sure

that Jesus is the Savior of the world. And up

to this point in John's account, Jesus is pretty

early in his ministry. Jesus had been baptized,

he starts gathering his 12 disciples, he performed

his first public miracle at the wedding by turning

water to wine, and then he's even started to

cause some trouble. Believe it or not, Jesus

actually caused quite the disturbance in his

time here on earth. Actually, the biggest disturbance.

So for all my men here this morning, Jesus was

the strongest, toughest man to ever live. And

when you follow him and you give him your life,

you don't have to check your testicles at the

door. You don't gotta do it. Okay. All right.

I know some of you guys need that encouragement

this morning. If you want to know more about

that man, you need to get on that QR code for

that men's breakfast, February 27th, and you

need to register right now. All right. So. Right

before chapter four, Jesus had fashioned a whip

and he drove some people out of the temple. And

then he also confronts a bunch of religious people

that know all about him, but they actually can't

recognize Jesus when he's standing right in front

of them. And right after that is where we pick

up in chapter four, and as we just read, Jesus

is back on the road. Jesus and his disciples,

they've left Jerusalem in this area known as

Judea and they're headed back to Galilee where

Jesus grew up. And it gives us an important detail

and it tells us that he had to go through Samaria

and he comes to a town called Sakar. This place

has some history. It tells us that Jacob, whom

God used in part of his plan to create the nation

of Israel back in the Old Testament, this is

where Jacob had gifted some land to his son Joseph

and then there's a well there. And it tells us

that Jesus was tired. He sat down to drink from

the well. It's the dead middle of the day. And

then remember, it tells us that Jesus had to

go through Samaria. It's an important detail

that we're going to see more about here in a

second, okay? Verses 7 through 10 tell us this.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus

said to her, will you give me a drink? His disciples

had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan

woman came to him and said, You are a Jew and

I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for

a drink for Jews do not associate with Samaritans?

Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God

and who it is that asked you for a drink, you

would have asked him and he would have given

you living water. Local, these 42 verses that

we're walking through today are so incredibly

gospel rich. Right here what we just read. Jesus

is being very, very intentional. None of this

is happening by coincidence. Jesus is the only

perfect one to ever walk our planet. Everything

He did had purpose. He's doing every bit of this

to create spiritual momentum, and He starts all

of this off by Him going and speaking to the

Samaritan woman, and He's right outside the town

of Sakar in Samaria, and it's in the dead middle

of the day. As we just read, It says, for Jews

do not associate with Samaritans. Now, this is

a big deal. If you got your paper Bible with

you right now, you're going to see a footnote

down at the bottom of the page, and it says,

or do not use dishes Samaritans have used. Point

being, church, Jews and Samaritans, they absolutely

despised each other. This hatred, it goes all

the way back to 722 years before the birth of

Jesus. And it's this racial, political, religious

rooted kind of hatred, like really putting it

lightly this way. It was, it was gnarly. It was

gnarly between the Jews and Samaritans. Like

that's putting it lightly. It's like Gator fans

and Seminole fans times a million church, okay?

Times a million. And what we see with Jesus,

he totally breaks the cultural norm of his day

and he is the first to speak to the Samaritan

woman. This would have been very, very radical

in the time that Jesus does it. So much so that

even the decision Jesus makes to intentionally

travel this way is a big deal. Most Jews back

in Jesus's day Making their way from Jerusalem

to Galilee. They would have taken a completely

different route to go there that would have taken

two days longer Just because they didn't want

to come that close to Samaria, but not Jesus

Everything he does has purpose And then also

that point that the scripture tells us about

it being in the middle of the day and when this

woman is there getting water It's a big deal

tells us a lot about this woman and more about

her that we're gonna find out real soon But what

we see is Jesus starts this dialogue with her

He's doing this to lead to a point. He asked

her for water and then he just straight up tells

her He says if you knew who it was that was asking

you if you knew the gift of God Which is Jesus?

Then you would ask him and Jesus would give her

living water See Jesus is building up to this

powerful powerful moment. But as we're about

to see this woman, she's still not tracking with

him This is how she responds, verses 11 and 12.

Sir, the woman said, you have nothing to draw

with and the well is deep. Where can you get

this living water? Are you greater than our father

Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it

himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?

So this woman, she's still thinking about the

actual physical water. Her mind is on satisfaction,

but not the right kind of true satisfaction.

Just like a whole lot of us right now We want

satisfaction, but we're looking in all the wrong

places for it We're either taking the things

and the places and the people that God places

around us and we're trying to fill our soul with

them Which they can never do or a lot of us right

now We're taking this to the even next level

and we're trying to find satisfaction in sin

and local We're chasing a lost cause Because

on the other side of sin, there is never satisfaction

If that sin goes undealt with, all sin actually

leads to death, is what scripture tells us. See,

Jesus, he is driving all this dialogue to a climax,

to this big massive point. We're going to continue

to see this unfold in the text, but Jesus is

trying to help us see that real, true, soul -filling

satisfaction only comes one way. We will only

find true, soul -filling satisfaction in our

Savior, not sin local. That's our first takeaway

here today. Satisfaction in our Savior, not sin.

Now we're going to completely unpack this point

and this truth here in a minute, but before we

do, I want us to first read these next words

from Jesus. Verses 13 through 18, they say this,

Jesus answered, everyone who drinks this water

will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the

water I give them will never thirst. Indeed,

the water I give them will become in them a spring

of water, welling up to eternal life. The woman

said to him, sir, give me this water so that

I don't get thirsty and have to keep coming back

here to draw water. He told her, go tell call

your husband and come back. I have no husband,

she replied. Jesus said to her, You were right

when you say you have no husband The fact is

is you have had five husbands and the man you

now have is not your husband What you have just

said is quite true So Jesus He speaks to the

physical water, but just like he's been intentionally

doing this whole time He's working this way to

speak to her about true satisfaction biblical

satisfaction soul Filling satisfaction and there's

only one way to have it local and that's through

Jesus now before we really break this down It's

very very important that we notice Jesus does

not start all of this by calling out her sin

He first starts by telling her about his grace

the living water Now Jesus, as you study his

life and you read the Gospels for yourself, you

will see that he perfectly towed the tension

of grace and truth at all times. And after he

tells her about this living water that he has

to give her, of course she responds and says

she wants it. So Jesus uses this opportunity

to tell her, hey, you've been looking for true

satisfaction in all the wrong places. Jesus is

using physical actual water in the well to point

to the greatest truth in all of existence, church,

that he is the savior of the world. And if we

place our trust in him as savior, we will have

true satisfaction. See, Jesus knew exactly who

he was talking to. He knew exactly how this conversation

was gonna go. This woman was at the well in the

heat of the day. Because she was ate up with

sin from her past shame that she had been carrying

on She didn't want to go to the well early in

the morning with the rest of the women because

she knew she wasn't welcomed But then here comes

Jesus He's meeting her right where she's at Not

to shame her but to offer her grace There's somebody

here that needs to hear this truth this morning

You've walked into here carrying some shame You've

got some sin in your past, maybe you've got some

sin right now that's undealt with. And somehow

you think the enemy's got you twisted up, making

you think that you're never ever gonna get past

it. Do not believe that lie, church. Jesus wants

to offer you true satisfaction. You can never

disqualify yourself from the gospel. In fact,

me and you, the only thing we bring to the table

with Jesus is our sin necessary for his sacrifice

that he had to go to the cross for. Me and you,

We can have this living water. Listen to how

the rest of their conversation plays out. Verses

19 through 26. Sir, the woman said, I could see

that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped

on this mountain, but you Jews claim the place

where we must worship is in Jerusalem. Woman,

Jesus replied, believe me, time is coming when

you will worship the Father neither on this mountain

nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what

you do not know, we worship what we do know,

for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is

coming and has now come when the true worshipers

will worship the Father in the Spirit and in

truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the

Father seeks. God is Spirit and his worshipers

must worship in the Spirit and in the truth."

The woman said, I know that Messiah called Christ

is coming. When he comes, He'll explain everything

to us. Jesus declared, I, the one speaking to

you, I am He. Jesus is Him, church. He's the

Alpha and the Omega, the beginning of the end.

He's the source of salvation, and He is the source

of true satisfaction. Neither sin nor anything

else that we try to fill that hole with will

ever get us there. It's only through Jesus. We

see here that this woman, she finally realizes

something's different about Jesus. She thinks

he's a prophet. Then she brings up some legalistic,

like religious stuff, talking about the difference

between temple worship and the worship that Samaritans

do on the mountain. And then Jesus brings her

to the truth that yes, salvation comes through

Jewish lineage, which is Jesus. who's standing

in front of her, speaking to her. And then Jesus

is saying, hey, it ain't about the temple. It

ain't about the mountain. It's all about Him.

And we can worship Him anywhere, at any time,

at any place. And because of Him, we can have

not just salvation, but we can also have true

satisfaction local. True, soul -filling satisfaction.

We find it in Jesus. Not in the good things that

He allows us to enjoy, and definitely not in

sin. This is what Jesus is telling the woman

and it's what he wants to tell every single one

of us right here, right now. Here's how this

plays out in our lives today. We're going to

first, we're going to talk about how we try to

find true satisfaction in the good things that

God allows us to have. And then we're going to

talk about the sin that we try to find true satisfaction

in as well. And every single one of us, every

single one of us is guilty of this in some way,

shape or form. Here's what this looks like. With

the good things that God allows us to have I'm

gonna use a Jesus centered marriage as an example

a Jesus centered marriage is a wonderful beautiful

Life -giving blessing from God. He invented it.

It's his idea He gifts it to us and good Lord

church like if I start talking about my wonderful

wife Nicole enough up here I promise you I'm

gonna start crying like a baby. Okay, but I'm

gonna share a few things with you real quick.

Okay She's awesome She loves Jesus with all of

her mind, her heart, her soul, her strength.

She loves me and puts up with every bit of my

stuff. And some of you know that's a lot of stuff.

She's a, easy mom. She's a wonderful mother,

wonderful mother, right? All the things. She's

a launch pad for me, church. There's no way that

I'd be the man that I am today without her in

my life, okay? But. It's a big but. She's not

Jesus. And I cannot look to her to do for me

what only Jesus can do for me. Lord knows Jesus

absolutely uses her to help sanctify me. That

happens every day. But she cannot save me and

I cannot save. her. If I start looking to her

as my source of true satisfaction, and if she

starts looking to me as her true source of satisfaction,

we are in the fast lane to some real trouble,

and it ain't going to work for long, local. If

me and her are actively drinking from the living

water of Jesus, it is not going to go well. There's

going to be a whole lot more disappointment and

tension than there already is, and now it ain't

going to get resolved. until we start drinking

from the living water of Jesus. Husbands, this

is what this looks like. It looks like this,

you go to Jesus daily and you ask him to help

you to be the husband that he's called and created

you to be. It looks like us as men and husbands

reading God's word and doing what it says and

loving our wives as Christ loved the church and

he gave himself up for her. That's us. That means

her needs become come before mine that means

I am to be the chief servant of my household

And if I don't have the living water of Jesus

steadily flowing through me I am gonna be so

off the mark. It is absolutely gonna lead to

destruction church wives same thing You are to

submit to your husband's leadership just as the

church submits to the leadership of Jesus and

you are to respect your husband's and Submit

to his godly leadership and what happens is church

is when both of us are looking to Jesus and where

both of us are fully submitted to him and his

plan and his will for our life the true source

of soul -filling satisfaction one it leads to

incredible marriage and two those Jesus centered

marriages They are one of the most powerful forces

that God uses on this planet to advance his kingdom

and stomp out the darkness in our community.

This is one of the good things that God allows

us to have. Now you could take all these other

good things and you could put them in the place

of marriage and it's the same, same deal. You

can do this with our kids. We can do it with

our careers. We can do it with our hobbies. All

of those things are good local, but they are

not the greatest. Jesus is, and he is the only

way to have true satisfaction. See, I could even

put Publix cake and lasagna in this place, okay?

Sure, it's gonna be great in the moment. But

if I try to find true satisfaction in that, like,

it ain't gonna be long, church, before I can't

get off the couch, okay? All right? Like, you

can do it with anything, okay? Here's the second

trap that we fall in with pursuing true satisfaction

outside of Jesus, is when we start to try to

replace Jesus with sin. And it's a massive truth

that Jesus is communicating to the Samaritan

woman and to every single one of us today. Now

Jesus uses the actual physical water as an analogy

to first tell this woman about the grace that

he offers. But then he also brings the truth.

Remember church, a grace that saves us is a grace

that absolutely changes us. And what has this

woman been doing? She's been looking for true

satisfaction. through relationships outside of

a relationship with Jesus, the text tells us

she's had five husbands that didn't work, and

now she's cohabitating with another man that's

not her husband. Jesus is telling her and he's

telling us true satisfaction is never found in

sin. It's only found through Jesus, our Savior.

And here's how it always works with sin. It's

gonna come through three ways. The enemy always

works the same three ways. It's gonna come through

the pride of life, The lust of the flesh or the

lust of the eyes, okay? To make it real simple

for us today, a lot of times it's gonna look

like money, stuff, and sex. The enemy is always

trying to get us to place those things in place

of our Savior Jesus in our lives. And church,

it will never ever truly satisfy. If you try

to do money the world's way, and all you will

do, you'll end up doing, is you will chase, chase,

chase, and you're gonna get, get, get, and if

you never look to Jesus, For your true soul -filling

satisfaction, what's going to happen is you're

going to die on your deathbed completely empty

with a full bank account. That's what's going

to happen. You try to do it with stuff. Same

thing. The enemy will dangle those carrots all

day long. You really should get that giant house

that you really don't need, that you can't really

afford. Why have one side by side when you can

have one for each member of the family? Even

though you got to finance every single one of

them and you can barely make the payments each

month, sure, it'll absolutely be fun in the moment

when you're out riding. But eventually you're

gonna be completely empty the side -by -side

is gonna break down and it's gonna be in the

garage and it's gonna stop getting used We can

do it with sex local Probably the most prolific

false satisfaction of them all the enemy is gonna

throw this at us all day See we have this God

-given desire to be sexually fulfilled, but we

don't want to do it God's way Instead we're gonna

let the world dictate us to us how we should

do sex And we have no idea the destruction we

are causing in our own lives and the lives of

others. And all of it, any bit of sin that we

look to for true satisfaction, it always leaves

us empty. And if we don't get to Jesus in time,

it'll absolutely lead to death. Matt Carter,

awesome pastor out of Texas, he put it like this,

the root of sin is pursuing happiness in something

other than God. sin produces an ever -increasing

craving for an ever diminishing pleasure. Pursuing

sin for our true satisfaction will never ever

work church. It'll never fill and all it does

is just produce this stronger craving that will

never ever be met. Now I want to follow all of

that with this. Is it wrong to have money? Absolutely

not. God is the giver of every good and perfect

gift, and He allows us to have money to fit a

purpose in our lives. But it is not to take the

place of Jesus. And when it doesn't, and we honor

Him with the money that He allows us to have,

church, we can enjoy it guilt -free. Is it wrong

to have stuff? Absolutely not. Church, God has

blessed me and my family with a really nice home.

I got a hunt and lease in Georgia. I got a safe

full of guns at the house. Got all the things,

okay? But it's never to take the place of Jesus.

Is it wrong to have sex? Absolutely not. Sex

is a gift from God. He's the one that invented

it. And when it's done within the covenant of

marriage like God designed, it is an act of worship,

church. Praise God. We got plenty of married

couples worshiping at local. As you can see,

local kids is blowing up. Four babies born this

week. Awesome, right? But it is never to take

the place of Jesus. And let me tell you all this.

As your pastor, I am just as guilty as anyone

of pursuing all of these temptations and these

sins outside of the will of God at some point

in time in my life. And every time I did, it

left me feeling empty, may have been fun in the

moment, but at the end of the day, all it did

was drain my soul and it never filled it local.

If we look to Jesus, And we depend on Him for

true satisfaction. If we drink His living water

daily, we will have true satisfaction. We will

have full souls. We will live in the abundant

life that Jesus died to give us. It's what He

wants for us, church. It's why He died for us.

And when we find satisfaction in our Savior and

not in sin, Jesus takes it and He creates spiritual

momentum that cannot and will not be stopped,

church. Listen to how the rest of this event

plays out. Verses 27 through 30. Just then his

disciples returned and were surprised to find

him talking with a woman. But nobody asked, what

do you want? Or why are you talking with her?

Then leaving her water jar, the woman went back

to the town and said to the people, come see

a man who told me everything I ever did. Could

this be the Messiah? They came out of the town

and made their way toward him. Couple things

happening here in church. One, Jesus is breaking

the system. He's meeting the sinner right where

she is. The disciples can't believe it. They're

all Jewish men as well, and they would have never

talked to a Samaritan woman, but here we got

Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior

of the world. He's doing it, and they can't believe

it. And then what do we see this woman do? She's

experienced Jesus. She leaves everything to go

tell her people that she's met the Messiah. She's

found true satisfaction in Jesus and Jesus is

using it to create spiritual momentum. It goes

on, verses 31 through 38. Meanwhile, his disciples

urged him, Rabbi, eat something. But he said

to them, I have food to eat that you know nothing

about. Then his disciples said to each other,

could someone have brought him food? My food,

said Jesus, is to do the will of him who sent

me and to finish his work. Don't you have a saying,

it's still four months until harvest? I tell

you, open your eyes and look at the fields, they're

ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps

draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal

life so that the sower and the reaper may be

glad together. Thus the saying, one sows and

another reaps is true. I sent you to reap what

you have not worked for. Others have done the

hard work and you have reaped the benefits of

their labor." Basically, Jesus is saying to disciples,

he goes, look, he goes, here they come. They've

heard the truth that I can, I'm the only one

that could truly fully satisfy. I'm the only

one that can give eternal life. Jesus ain't worried

about eating. Jesus just revealed himself to

the Samaritan woman. She's experienced him and

Jesus is causing spiritual momentum that's going

to change the region. Why church? Because when

Jesus satisfied, momentum multiplies. That's

our final point together today. When Jesus satisfies,

momentum multiplies. See, what happens is when

people truly experience Jesus and they drink

His living water and completely rely on Him for

true satisfaction, Jesus is going to give it

to you. He's going to church. He wants to do

it. And when He does, and then we as God's people,

we all live this out as Jesus' church, His body.

He's going to create spiritual momentum that

cannot be stopped. Here's the rest of this event.

Here's how it ends. Verse 39 through 42. Many

of the Samaritans from that town believed in

him because of the woman's testimony. He told

me everything I ever did. So when the Samaritans

came to him, they urged him to stay with them,

and he stayed two days. And because of his words,

many more became believers. They said to the

woman, we no longer believe just because of what

you said. Now we have heard for ourselves and

we know that this man really is the savior of

the world. What happened local? The Samaritan

woman, she found true satisfaction in Jesus.

She goes and tells everything because that's

what happens when you truly experience Jesus.

You're going to tell people about him. You experience

that kind of true soul -filling satisfaction,

you will not be able to keep it to yourself.

And Jesus takes the work that he's done in her

and he multiplies the momentum and many more

became believers. They were saying, now we know

for ourselves that this man really is the savior

of the world. Jesus, he took the time to meet

a woman right where she was. She's in this sinful

mess. He pours out grace and He offers her living

water, eternal life. And when Jesus satisfies,

momentum multiplies local. Here's the deal. What

Jesus did in Samaria, a little over 2000 years

ago, He wants to do right here in Mims, Florida,

in Norpervard, right now, local church. Will

you let Jesus give you true satisfaction? He

wants to do it local. You got to stop looking

for the good to the good things and you got to

stop looking to the sin and let Jesus do it See

as I as God allows me to preach and teach you

guys every week And I think about I do what preachers

call like kind of setting the table Like who's

gonna be here? I? Know I'm gonna have typically

you know when I'm preaching a message like this

There's probably about three different people

represented like where we're at where we're at

in our walk with Jesus, where we're at in our

life. And I feel like with a message, any message,

there's a response we can all respond to in some

way. But as I was preparing this week and preaching

the first service and now being able to preach

and teach to you guys, I still feel like there's

three people represented in this room. And after

hearing the Word and God working through the

worship and everything, there's three different

responses here. The first is this. Some of you

have been following Jesus for a long time. You've

confessed Him as Lord and Savior of your life.

You believe that God raised Him from the dead.

You believe that His blood has covered your sin

and makes you righteous in the sight of God.

And now when God looks at you, He does not see

sin. He just sees Jesus and you've been faithfully

following Him for years and praise God for it.

Praise God. And for years you've been going to

Jesus and you know that true soul -filling satisfaction

only comes from Him. That's awesome. I want to

ask you, are you allowing that true soul -filling

satisfaction? Are you allowing Jesus to fill

you up with it? And are you allowing Him to use

it to multiply momentum? This is something I

think about all the time. You can never get over

the gospel. You just can't. Because what I know

is all of us, no matter how long we've been walking

with Jesus for habit, I still need Jesus just

as much today as the first day I met him. Every

day. And if we continually seek Him as His people

and ask Him to fill us up and tell Jesus, I want

this living water. I want the abundant life.

And I don't just want it, Jesus, because I want

to enjoy it for myself. I want it so that you

can use me to reach others with a life -changing,

life -saving message of Jesus. That's our first

people here. I want to encourage you, as Tyler

and the team, as they lead us in praise and worship.

Worship. Worship your tails off. As we're worshiping,

you can pray right there in your seat. God, fill

me up. Fill me up, Lord. It's the first day of

the week. Send me out of this building just ready

to take on the world, ready to influence anyone

and everyone I can for the kingdom of God. Do

it. Pray and ask Jesus every day. Would you give

me the living water? See what he does. See what

he does. The second person I feel like I'm speaking

to this morning is this. The second response

is maybe you've been following Jesus for some

time. Maybe you've been following him for 25

years, maybe a year, maybe six months, but maybe

over the course of time, something's changed

and you've grown distant and you don't feel like

you've tasted the living water for quite some

time. I want to ask you, what good thing? that

God's allowed you to have, or you placing in

place of Jesus in your life, or maybe what sin

have you allowed to come in and put up a barrier

in between you and Jesus and your intimacy with

Him? There's a whole lot of us that are in that

place right now. I want to encourage you, your

response as we worship and we conclude our services

for the day, is you just need to come up here

and do some business with Jesus. For those of

you that have been with us for some time, we

got these carpets up here. We've tried to make

it really, really comfortable. And I just want

to encourage you, whatever anxiety or fear or

doubt you have that's maybe keeping you from

responding up here to the front and placing yourself

in a posture to really just be you and Jesus,

that's from the enemy. Don't believe that lie.

Nobody care why you're coming up here. That's

between you and Jesus. You don't got to share

that with anybody else. You just come up here

and do some business with Jesus. Let Tyler and

our team. sing worship and praise over you as

you just come up here and spend some time repenting.

Remember church, this is a prayer Jesus answered

100 % of the time. You come to Him and you repent

and you turn from that sin and you turn towards

Him. He's going to answer it 100 % of the time

because forgiveness is always there, church,

always. The last person I want to speak to is

maybe you came into this place and maybe it took

everything in you to finally show up to a church.

For years, you've been battling. You've heard

about Jesus. You've heard about church. You're

like, man, let me try it today. And you came

in here and you're carrying some sin. You're

carrying some shame. And right now, it has been

so hard to just sit through this. But I hope

and I pray that God through His Word and the

power of the Holy Spirit that you felt comfort

in knowing that there's nothing you could ever,

ever do to disqualify yourself from receiving

the love. of Jesus, the grace that He freely

pours out day after day after day. If that's

you, friend, and you've never ever tasted the

living water of Jesus, today is the day of salvation.

Do not leave this place without coming to Jesus

and saying, Jesus, I want you. You're my Lord

and Savior. My life is no longer mine. It's yours.

Use me how you want to use me. I want the living

water. Friend, do not walk out of this place

with that sin and that shame. Jesus did not create

you for you to walk with. Amen, church. We all

got a response. Again, I know how it is. I didn't

become a pastor until I was 28 years old. I didn't

start getting plugged back into church until

I was in my mid twenties. I grew up in church

a little bit. I remember sitting in the seats.

I remember hearing the pastor being used by God,

trying to help people respond. I'm not trying

to manipulate anything, but I just want to encourage

you as a church, us as a church, do not let fear

and anxiety keep you from coming and responding.

Today is the day. Stop putting it off. There's

a reason you're here. God will ordain this moment

for you to hear His word, to be a part of His

church. because He wants to do a work in you

today because He wants for you to taste this

living water today, church. I'm going to pray

for us. The team is going to lead us in worship.

We're going to respond. Would you stand with

me as we pray? Dear Lord, we love you. We're

so grateful for you. Your never ending love and

grace, your word that is perfect. the plan that

you have for each and every one of our lives.

Thank you for all the things that you were doing

in and through our church, the baptisms, the

babies being born, Lord, the salvations, all

the things, Lord. It's all because of you. Jesus

Local is your church. We do not want to get in

your way. Lord, would we respond the way that

you were calling us to respond this one? Lord,

we love you. We thank you. We pray all this in

Jesus' name. Amen.