Finding A True Breakthrough - Leaders' Talks

How many of you want to write?

I'm telling you now, God is gonna ask you a question.

God is gonna ask you for something.

I don't know what he's gonna ask you for, but he's gonna ask you for something.

And usually there's a rub when he asks you for something.

And that'll be the moment that you have to decide, am I gonna get a breakthrough or not?

Every time God asks you to do something, what he's really doing is inviting you into a breakthrough.

At the road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.

For more information on the road, visit theroad.org.

We hope you are encouraged by today's message.

So at John chapter 4, I want to be uh talking about a true breakthrough.

John 4 · chapter mention

We've been talking about a breakthrough for for this whole beginning of the year.

Breakthrough has been our theme, and I want to talk about a true breakthrough, where it comes from, how you get it, and what John chapter 4 teaches us about that breakthrough that we're striving for.

John 4 · chapter mention

So in John chapter 4, we pick up with Jesus moving into Samaria, and he's gonna stop there, and he's gonna meet a woman at the well.

John 4 · chapter mention

It's a very, very well-known story in the church.

And so we're gonna just dive in.

We're gonna pick up in chapter 4, verse 1.

Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though he himself did not baptize, but his disciples.

See, Jesus does the same thing we just said.

We love other people baptizing.

So your kid, you want to baptize your kids?

We want to honor that.

So Jesus did the same thing here.

He just had his disciples do his work.

So he left Judea and he departed again to Galilee.

You notice that he's kind of moving away from the Pharisees.

Because John's already made too much noise.

So now he's in prison.

And now Jesus is starting to make noise.

And so the handwriting's on the wall.

And you would think, you would think that the Pharisees are some bad people that hate God.

It would be counterintuitive to understand that the Pharisees were actually people in the church at the time.

And some of our greatest obstacles to breakthrough is going to be people in the church.

When God starts really moving, for whatever reason, the church gets uncomfortable.

It gets super weird.

I remember back when I did music and I was a rapper, and I showed up at this church, and someone forgot to inform the lead pastor that the guy that was doing music was a rapper.

This was 20 years ago.

And so I show up and they have this big flatbed trailer in front of their churchyard.

And they were like, hey, you're going to have to do your concert here.

I was like, why?

They said, because our pastor found out you're a rapper, and he doesn't want to do that in the church.

And I was like, that's okay, because the church is not in there anyway.

It's out here.

Come on, let's just get it on.

And so I got done with that.

And a family said, hey, can you can you come?

Or some people in the community said, hey, can you come visit a family?

They just lost their son, their teenage son.

Can you come pray over that family?

And we went and prayed over that family.

And then I went and did another concert just on the fly because they were doing a fundraiser for that family.

So I did another concert.

And by the end of the week, the pastor was in tears.

He apologized for his stupidness.

And he said, Can you come to a concert on Sunday morning in the church?

Sometimes it takes some time for the religious people to catch up with the breakthrough that God's trying to do.

And we have to be okay with that.

Guys, now, church, church, you don't have to be okay with that.

You need to wake up.

But as individuals, we can't let that bother us.

We got to go after what we're going after.

And so Jesus is going after it.

So now he's got to go through Samaria.

In verse 4, it says, but he needed to go through Samaria.

So he came to the city of Samaria, which was called Sichar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

Now Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, therefore, being wearied from his journey, sat thus by the well, and it was about the sixth hour.

Now, as you began to look at this, and you began to understand that Jesus is getting ready to encounter one of the greatest opportunities that a person can encounter when they're trying to make an impact for the kingdom, which is God is doing something that they could not have imagined doing on their own.

God is doing something.

You're just open to it.

You're just open to what God is doing.

But but I want you to look at how he came about doing this.

He listened to his body.

That sounds so carnal.

Says, the only reason why he did this was because he was weary.

He was so exhausted from the journey that he told the guys, hey, you go in and get some food.

I've got to sit here.

I've got to rest.

My body has to rest.

Listen, some of you just need a breakthrough in understanding you don't have to do it all.

Like God is working even when you're too tired to work.

God is doing, He's working.

And it's okay to sit down.

Sometimes it's okay to rest.

Some of you need to rest.

We're so exhausted, and you just need to rest.

Just take a minute.

And so a woman of Samaria came in verse 7.

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

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

Now look at this in verse 9.

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

For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

Notice that she didn't say Samaritans have no dealings with Jews.

She said, How is it that you would even ask me for something to drink?

Because you guys don't like us.

In order for the church to break through into the culture, we have got to somehow be known for more than what we don't do.

The culture knows what we don't like.

They know what we don't approve of.

They know what we don't do.

They even know who we don't associate with.

But what do we do?

What do we stand for?

What do we care about?

Who do we love?

If we're going to get a true breakthrough, we need to expand our vision and our boundaries for where breakthroughs can happen.

Breakthroughs don't just have to happen under this roof.

Breakthroughs can happen in your living room.

Breakthroughs with your neighbors could happen on your front lawn.

Breakthroughs could happen on the football field.

Breakthroughs could happen at work.

Breakthroughs could happen at the coffee shop.

Breakthroughs could happen by inviting people on vacation with you.

Breakthroughs can happen when we stop trying to project where God will and will not move.

And when we stop believing who God is going to work through and who God's not going to work through.

Who's deemed worthy of being anointed and touched by God and who God would never go to and talk to those people.

One of my favorite artists of all time is LeCrae.

And years ago, my wife and I had the privilege of going to Memphis, to his home, and doing ministry in his neighborhood.

And his neighborhood is a mess.

I mean, it is the ghetto.

It is a mess.

And you gotta understand something.

When I was doing music, I made so much money that if I wanted to stop at McDonald's and get a happy meal, I could do it.

Anytime.

Almost anytime.

Maybe a couple weeks, I couldn't.

But almost anytime, if I wanted to get a happy meal, I could get it.

And me and my wife could share it.

And I remember one time I was working a second job.

It was this little thing called the fun company where we work with little kids.

And uh I remember this kid asking if he could walk with me out to my car because I had to take some stuff out to the car.

I said, Yeah, come on.

And I was driving an old station wagon.

And he just like, his mouth dropped and he had the shock look on his face.

He's just little cute little kid.

He said, Mr.

Bobby.

I said, Well, he said, I thought you were a rapper.

I said, I am.

He said, What's up with your station wagon?

I said, Oh, oh, oh, my Esquiles at home, man.

I can't get that scratched up.

And he just like relaxed, like, whew! I thought you were an imposter for a minute there.

Listen.

But LaCrae, that's a different story.

And I don't know how many of you know pop culture, but when Jay-Z asked you to be on his rap label, you're doing pretty good.

And this man had the integrity and just the conviction to say, no, I don't want to be on your rap label.

But he still had plenty of money.

So when you show up in the ghetto and you look at his house in the middle of the ghetto, it is a little conflicting to think this guy could live kind of anywhere he wants to live.

Why is he living here?

And you show up and you go into his house, and the front part of his house, that's usually a dining room for everybody else, is has like a whiteboard, a big whiteboard, and a lot of chairs facing the whiteboard.

And you come in at five o'clock in the morning and you sit there, and there's a guy, an old guy.

His name is Soup.

We call him Soup.

His last name is Campbell.

I don't know what his real first name is, but we call him Soup.

And he's sitting there and he's just making disciples.

And Lecrae is one of the disciples.

And he's just sitting there taking notes while he's teaching.

And so Soup's house is here, Lecrae's house is here.

And I remember asking Lecrae, like, dude, you go into this ghetto area and the yards are just trash, windows are busted out, houses are spray painted, except for these two houses.

Perfectly manicured, flowers, everything works on the house.

And you're like, dude, what's up?

And he said, Bobby, if I don't do this, who's going to do it?

If this community doesn't see that living like this is possible, then how are we ever supposed to expect anything from these kids?

Who's going to be an example for these kids?

And what he did was he went and sat at a well that nobody else wanted to sit at.

I mean, this lady is coming out way after watering time.

People come and get their water early.

They don't come get their water in the heat of the day.

They come get their water early.

Why do you think this woman came and got her water in the heat of the day?

Because she didn't want to look at all the church people that were judging her.

She said, I'd rather burn up in the heat than have to face the church.

I'd rather burn up in the heat than have to be judged by this community one more day.

So I'll just come out here in the heat of the day and get my water.

And so Jesus is able to sit down and he's able to talk to her, but he doesn't only talk to her, which is a big shock to her that he's even talking to her.

Jesus asked her for water.

And she's like, Why would you ask me for water?

And then Jesus says in verse 10, Jesus answered her and said, If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.

How many of you want breakthrough?

How many of you are actively praying for breakthrough?

Just raise your hands right now.

I'm telling you now, God is going to ask you a question.

God is going to ask you for something.

I don't know what he's going to ask you for, but he's going to ask you for something.

And usually there's a rub when he asks you for something.

And that'll be the moment that you have to decide am I going to get a breakthrough or not?

He may ask you to go apologize to your wife.

He may ask you to let your wallet be baptized along with the rest of your body.

He may ask you to surrender your career.

I don't know what he's going to ask you to do.

He may ask you to put the bottle down.

He may, I don't know what he's going to ask you to do, but he's going to ask you to do something.

Every time God asks you to do something, what he's really doing is inviting you into a breakthrough.

Every time God asks you for something, what he's really doing is he's setting you up to do something in you.

So when you think about him telling Moses, hey, Moses, I want you to go back to Egypt.

That's what I want you to do.

And then look at the wrestle that Moses had and how much Moses did not want to do that.

And look at the person Moses was before the question, and then look at the person that Moses was after he gave Jesus, after he gave God what he asked for.

Two different people.

Look at Noah.

When God shows up and says, Noah, I want you to build a boat.

And Noah says, What is a boat?

It's huge.

Everybody's gonna laugh at you.

It's massive.

And it's gonna rain.

And Noah says, What is rain?

Just trust me, it's coming.

And so Noah starts doing this.

He doesn't know that what God is really saying is, Noah I want to do something for you.

I'm gonna wipe out all of humanity.

I want to save humanity through you.

But first I need you to say yes to my request, then I'll say yes to your request.

First, I need you to say yes to me, then I'll say yes to you.

See, God said something to me a couple weeks ago while we were all praying and walking around.

He said to me, Bobby, on the measure that you pour out your worship, that's the measure in which I'll pour out my spirit.

So if what happened was I imagined the alabaster jar.

I imagine the woman who just literally broke a year's worth of a living over Jesus so that he smelled of her worship while he was hanging on a cross.

Have you ever been in a place where somebody broke a bottle of perfume?

It's like it's strong.

Well, Jesus would have smelled like that at the crucifixion.

In all of its ugliness, the crucifixion still would have smelled like her worship while he was hanging on a cross.

Because it was too strong.

It was a lot.

It was a whole lot.

It actually prepared him to not stink at his burial.

So the smell of worship, because she just broke it.

And I heard the Lord say to me, Bobby, at the measure that you will worship, you're going to worship half, then expect me to pour my spirit out half.

If you're going to worship a 10%, expect me to pour my spirit out 10%.

But if you want to break and just worship and just give your all, I'll give my all.

That's where I'll pour my spirit out.

And so the level at which we pour our hearts out is the level at which we can expect God to pour his heart out.

Look at verse 11 and 12.

The woman said to him, Sir, we have nothing to draw with, and the well you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.

Where do you get that living water?

Are you greater than our fathers, Jac our Father Jacob, who gave us the well and who drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?

And Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water I shall give him will never thirst.

But the water that I shall give him will become a fountain of wet of water, springing up into eternal life.

Where are you gonna get?

You don't have anything to draw with.

And look at how she's just focused on the human capabilities.

She's focused on human limitations.

And so often we look at what God's gonna do and we think of it in the flesh.

We think of what God's gonna do, we think of it in the flesh.

We think of things like behavioral modification.

And we think that that's breakthrough.

Okay, well, I'm gonna change my behavior in this way.

And I'm really what you're trying to do is try really hard.

And there's nothing wrong with behavioral modification.

Modifying your behavior is going to be a part of breakthrough, but it is not breakthrough.

It is a result of breakthrough.

It is because the Spirit of God is doing something in your life.

The Spirit of God is giving you the ability to come alive in Christ, and then you're gonna look up, and your behavior is gonna be different.

Because it has to be different, because you are new.

The Bible says He's making all things new.

But not doing those things, that's not breakthrough.

The Spirit of God making you alive is the breakthrough.

And then you will modify your behavior because of what the Spirit of God has done in you.

Does that make sense?

But now I want to dive deep into what this means because this happens at a spiritual level, not at a physical level.

Flip over to Matthew chapter 19.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

Hold your place here and flip over to Matthew chapter 19.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 19, I'm just gonna read really quick in verse 16.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

Now, behold, one came and said of him, Good teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may enter eternal life?

Did you see that?

What good thing shall I do?

Good teacher.

And Jesus says in verse 17, why do you call me good?

No one is good but the one that is God.

In other words, you know what he's saying here?

He's saying, Do you actually know who I am, don't you?

There's only one who's good, and that's God.

Do you realize you're talking to God?

If so, then you're at step one.

You understand that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God.

He is God Himself, and that's who you go to.

There is no other name by which men shall be saved.

None.

There's not another name.

You go through Jesus for salvation.

So he's like, Man, men, you're doing good, you're doing good.

And then he says to him, Keep the commandments.

Jesus says, Keep the commandments.

And I love this in verse 18.

He says to him, Which ones?

You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

And the young man said, All these things I have kept from my youth, and then I love this.

What do I still lack?

He's correcting Jesus.

He's saying, No, that can't be the answer.

That can't be all there is.

Because my spirit bears witness that I'm still dead.

I'm miserable.

I've been doing all these things.

I've been doing them so much that I've come to the conclusion.

That doing all these right things, this is not the answer.

And he says, I've done all these things since I was a kid.

What do I still lack?

And then Jesus says, if you want to be made perfect, go, sell what you have, give it to the poor, and you'll have treasure in heaven and come follow me.

But when the man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

What's happening is God's saying, okay, okay, you've tried the physical, you've tried the physical, your spirit is bearing witness that just going through the physical motions is not getting the job done.

So now we're going to go to the spiritual.

Now we're going to get down to the heart of man.

Now we're going to get down to the hole in your heart.

Listen, the physical alone will not bring breakthrough.

You're going to have to tap into allowing the spirit to get into your business.

You got to let the spirit get into your business.

And what does that look like?

Let's keep going.

Go back to John and let's look at verse 15.

The woman says, Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.

Then Jesus said, Go call your husband and come here.

Now we're getting ready to get into it.

Now we're getting ready to go below the level here.

The woman said, Sir, I have no husband.

And Jesus said to her, You have said well, you have no husband.

For you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband.

In that you have truly spoke.

I love this because she has three options.

She has three options.

So she's sitting here, she's talking to Jesus, conversation's warming up.

Now she's beginning to be interested.

And she says, I need this breakthrough.

This breakthrough that you're offering.

I need it.

I need it in my life.

How do I get it?

And Jesus said, I'm going to give it to you.

Go get your husband.

Have you ever been talking to a sales rep, and the sales rep is telling you about something, and you say something like this, hey, this sounds really good, man.

Sounds like something I might really be interested in.

Let me go talk to my wife, and then I'll come back.

But you know you're just leaving.

You know you're not coming back.

This is what Jesus was doing.

He said, Go get your husband.

You know what she could have done?

She could have grabbed her water and said, That's a great idea.

Just wait right here.

I'm gonna go get my husband.

We're gonna come back.

And then Jesus would have had enough sense to know she's not coming back.

And then she leaves and she knows she's not coming back, and then there's no breakthrough.

That's the end.

The other option was she could have just been gut level honest and said, you know what, sir?

I'm probably not a candidate for your living water.

And let me explain why.

I have had five failed marriages, and you're telling me right now to go get my husband, you have no clue who I am.

I don't even have a husband.

The person that I'm with right now is my sixth candidate.

And he's just a live-in right now.

So I'm a mess.

And she chose not to do that.

Jesus would have met her there too.

But she chose not to do that.

You know what she did?

She did what most of us do.

She said, sir, I have no husband.

That's a person who wants breakthrough but doesn't believe in grace.

That's a person who can't bring themselves to just walk away.

So they'll say something small, and they're hoping that God will just give them some grace in that moment.

And you know, you can always hear it.

When someone comes to you and they're like, hey man, could you just pray for me?

Yeah, yeah, what's going on, buddy?

I'm just struggling.

What does that mean?

Well, I just struggling, man.

You know, girls.

So, pornography?

Yeah.

Okay, well, that's different than struggling.

But God is here for you.

God has grace for you.

It's a person who just can't say, This is where I really am.

The good news is, God reads through that.

He knows your heart.

He knows you won't break through.

He will meet you where you are.

So when you say, I have no husband, look at how much he affirms her.

In verse 17, you have said well that you have no husband.

You have had five husbands.

And the one you now have is not your husband.

In that you truly spoke.

He didn't say to her, you know you, I, you, and he didn't rip her up.

He said, You did a good job.

Good job.

That had to be hard to say.

You could have just walked away.

But you didn't walk away.

You said, I don't have a husband.

So listen, this is what I want to say to you right now.

And this is, usually when a pastor says, bow your head, it's over.

It's not over yet.

I want you to just bow your head for a minute.

And I want you to just say, God, this is what's keeping me from a breakthrough.

God, this is the truth.

The best I can share it.

And just let the Spirit of God tell you whatever He's going to tell you right now.

And He loves you.

He wants you to have a breakthrough, but you can't hide what you're doing.

You can't hide where you are.

It's not just sin.

It could be a lack of faith.

It's not just sin.

It could be brokenheartedness.

It's not just sin.

It could be fear.

But you gotta say, God, this is where I am right now.

I think this is probably the thing that would keep me.

And you gotta let him minister to you.

You've got to let him talk to you.

Okay, pick your heads up and let's let's finish this thing up.

So in verse 15 through 18, he begins to dig into her life.

I had a uh I had a friend who was explaining to me that he has a friend who founded an area of Scottsdale, Arizona that was considered inhabitable because you could not get water there.

And so what he did was he hired someone to come and explain and do a survey and tell him where he thought water was.

And this guy does a survey and he says something like at 12,000 feet, you'll find water somewhere in this acreage.

And so he brings in all these trucks and he starts drilling at 12,000 feet, and he gets nothing, nothing, just dry land, nothing.

And he begins to pack it all up and say, okay, we're done here.

And the guy that did the survey said, no, no, something's wrong.

Something's wrong.

Let me go back to my math.

And he goes back to his math and he says, you actually have to keep drilling.

Because at 14,000 feet, I think you're gonna find water.

And he drills down and he finds water at 14,000 feet.

And he says, This is great, man.

Let's just get all these trucks out of here.

We're gonna buy this land.

And the survey guy says, No, no, no, no, no.

You can't do that.

You can't do that.

You have to keep the trucks here.

And he said, Why?

He said, Because everybody is watching you.

They have to believe that you haven't struck water.

If they think you struck water, they're gonna go buy your land.

You're gonna put in all the work and they're gonna get paid.

So he kept drilling, even though he already knew he had water.

And everybody is mocking him like there's no water there.

Meanwhile, he's buying up all the land.

He pulls the what the once he buys all the land, he gets the trucks out of there, and he is a billionaire today.

Listen to me.

Church people will drill, but most of them will only drill at 12,000 feet.

If you really want breakthrough, you have to let God be the survey guy.

You have to let God do the survey and let God say, keep drilling.

Most of us will drill by showing up to church.

Some of us will even drill by raising our hands.

Some of us will go so far as to drill that when it's the best, when it's the first good weather on a Sunday, you'll still come.

But God says, no, you gotta drill through confession.

You gotta drill through vulnerability.

You gotta want water so bad that you'll go to a brother and say, Let me tell you my junk.

This is my junk, and I don't want it anymore.

I've been given a lot of good words lately from people.

God is doing a crazy work in my life.

I'll talk about it more in the weeks to come.

God is doing a crazy work in my life, and I'm getting a lot of good words from people, but somebody had the integrity to come to me and even give me a hard word.

A hard word.

And it was a word about something that I am keeping a breakthrough from happening in my life.

And so I had to call someone and say, hey, can you help me?

I just got to confess to you, this is where I am, this is where my fears lie, this is where I need breakthrough.

And an hour later I'm just bawling.

But you have to go that level.

You have to dig down there, or you have to say, I don't want breakthrough that bad.

And then the whole world is watching you.

And once you strike water, they'll want what you have.

Now I don't have time.

I've got to get, I've got to be done with this.

But let me explain it to you.

Jesus says, Go and get your husband.

She says, Sir, I don't have any husband.

And he says, You've said right.

And then he begins to talk to her about all her junk, and she said, Sir, I perceive that you're a prophet.

And he's like, You bet you're a sweet dollar I am.

And he begins to call her out on her junk.

And then she goes into the city and she tells the whole city her junk.

Come see the man who told me everything I ever did.

People that say you cannot judge, you can't judge me.

Don't that Bible say don't judge?

Those are people that don't want breakthrough.

The Bible doesn't say, don't judge.

The Bible actually encourages you in the right way to correct your brother.

Well, what it does say is don't cast your pearl to swine.

Don't throw your judgment to people who will just step on it.

If they're wise enough to know that you love them and that will turn them, you've done a good thing.

Otherwise, just hold on to it.

But she goes in town with her new song.

Come and see.

Come and see this man who told me everything I ever did.

Everything I ever did.

Now she's going to the church.

She's going back to the community and saying, look at this.

I'm going to wrap this up as the worship team comes up.

Look at this.

And she says, come see the person that's told me everything I've ever done.

You know what happened?

She has a new song in her heart.

She has a new song now.

In Psalm 40, you should go and read it.

Psalm 40, verses 1 through 3 says this, says something like this.

Psalms 40:1–3

I waited on the Lord.

So I'm in the presence of the Lord.

I'm hungry for the Lord.

I'm seeking the Lord.

And he heard my cry.

He took me out of the miry muck, and he set my feet on a rock.

And then he put a new song in my mouth.

The song had to be about how I was in the mud.

And God took me out of the mud.

And now I'm on solid ground.

And the psalmist says he put a song in my mouth.

But then he said this: many heard it and turned to the Lord.

Many heard my song and feared the Lord and turned to him and trusted him.

Listen, Brian.

Brian is going to do an evangelistic class.

Starts today in room 224.

It's going to go for about six weeks.

He's going to go through a book on how to share your faith.

You should be a part of that if you can.

That's a great thing.

But let me explain this to you even more.

Your song is your evangelism.

If you're not effective in evangelism, it's because you lack a song.

You don't have a song in your heart.

Some of us have a song in our heart for our football team.

And some of us have a song in our heart for hunting.

And some of us have a song in our heart for our time with our friends or for our children.

When God puts a song in your heart, that's when others will have an effective breakthrough.

God wants to give you a breakthrough, and your song is your breakthrough.

We hope you have been blessed by today's message.

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If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.

Go to the road.org, click on the ministry tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer requests.

Thank you for tuning in today to be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road.