I Know THAT Messiah

Good, feel like this side's doing well. I like you, I like you. You're gonna learn one day that if I ask you a question and you don't answer, I'm gonna ask you again, so you might as well just do it the first time. Are we doing okay today? Yeah, don't make me do what the youth minister has to do to the youth group.

You guys are full grown adults, let's just do it right the first time. How we doing? You know, remember that? Anyone been in youth ministry before, you're growing up, it's okay. If not, I went to youth ministry when I was in high school, that was like right after I became a Christian, and every week someone would come up, "How we doing today, guys?" I think they're just trying to get us hype and ready, but anyways, just waking y'all up this morning.

Guys, we're going to be in John chapter 4, and we're going to begin in verse 19 and we're going to go through verse 26. I'm going to go and read it for you, and I'll give you my message title, and we're going to go through some things that, and I'll set you up up front, I think this could be really helpful for the culture of this church, but really, the place where you are in life, I think this can be very applicable. So, chapter 4, we'll begin in verse 19. "Sir, " the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped him on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." Woman, Jesus replied — which is a normal thing back then, it's not like some chauvinist thing — "Woman, " Jesus replied, "believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

John 4 · chapter mention

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 worshippers will worship the Father in the spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship him in the spirit and in truth." The woman said, "I know that Messiah, " called Christ, "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." Then Jesus declared, "I, the one speaking to you—"

And I'll give you my message title, it comes directly from verse 25: "I Know That Messiah." "I know that Messiah." I think we all have an impression of who Jesus is.

This woman did. She started off with this passage, she said, "I perceive that you are a—" anyone remember? "Prophet." But by the end of this passage, she starts bringing up the conversation about the Messiah that would come, and he is able to disclose himself to her in a way that formerly she might have been inhibited from understanding. Let me give you context if you weren't here over the past couple of weeks. We've been going through this passage in John chapter 4, where Jesus goes through Samaria on his way from Jerusalem back to Galilee, where he did the vast majority of his earthly ministry.

John 4 · chapter mention

He didn't have to go through Samaria, but he did. That's where we got our sermon title, or series title, "Some Areas." He's going through Samaria, he didn't have to, but he did, because God had a plan that was bigger than what his disciples would have perceived. So he goes through Samaria, right outside of a town called Sychar, he sits by a well, and a woman comes in around noon. This is a Samaritan woman. Now, Jews and Samaritans, they don't interact on a regular basis because of historical, geographical, and theological differences between the Jews in Jerusalem and the Samaritans.

Long story short, they are half-breeds who believe differently about Yahweh, or the Jewish God, than the Jews down in Jerusalem would. Now, history goes to show us, and Jesus says it right here, that Judaism had it right. Samaritans had kind of made adjustments to the first five books of the Bible in order to fit their preference and style more effectively, and they were worshiping on Mount Gerizim versus the Temple Mount. There are a lot of differences, like, so many, but those differences are significant. Jesus goes there, interacts with this woman, and we find out that this woman is not only a Samaritan woman, but she is a woman who has lived some life.

She has had five husbands, and she's with a person who is not currently her husband. Now, you might think that's negative today — way back then, way worse. Jesus talks with this woman and shows her that he can be bold and say the quiet part out loud, while also being gracious, not judging her for what she's done, but pushing her forward to what he might call her to. And this is where we enter into this conversation where the woman says, "I perceive you're a prophet." This is right after he told her what she had done with her life. Now, she could have responded with offense and frustration, but she responds with kind of this comment, "I perceive that you are a prophet."

And so, when I say "I know that Messiah, " what I'm communicating to you is that there is — there is the truth about Jesus that many of us have missed.

And there are a few reasons, and I'm going to talk to you about three main reasons. There are others, but three main reasons that we miss Jesus in his truth. The first one would be tradition. Tradition. Look at your neighbor, ask him a question, say, "Are you too traditional?" Yes, some people are too traditional.

I know it's not you, though. You guys came to a new church, started here in February, on February 25th. You guys are fresh, flexible, and open to tons of new things. You're not traditional. It's all those other people who've been going to churches that have been established for years.

There's no tradition in your life. What I found is that we are all, to some extent, naturally traditionalists. What do I mean by that? I mean that we have ways that we do things on the regular, and when we become accustomed to those things, those things are officially in our lives — traditions. Now, those traditions are, most of the time, rooted in something true and good, but when we allow those traditions to pervade every aspect of our lives, and we don't often, or don't sometimes at least, question the meaning behind those traditions, that's where we find ourselves in a place where we are not able to connect with God.

I think you are all traditional in some form or fashion. I'm very traditional, . When I develop a habit, I don't like it when that habit changes. When I grew up a certain way doing things, I don't like it when things unnecessarily change. And I could give you the same thing that I give everybody else, but you'll hear this teaching like five million times, I'm just going to go ahead and repeat it, I'm not going to feel bad about it because it was so meaningful to me in my life.

Do y'all remember when they took out the home button? Do y'all remember that? Y'all know — you laugh because you know how it felt. Aren't you glad they took out the home button? If you're not still glad, you're really a traditionalist.

Fifteen minutes in I was like, "I'm glad they took out the home button." Now — now I do this, I don't have to press a button to do anything, I just swipe, swipe, swipe. It's good, it's good. But I realized how traditionalist I am, or how traditional I am, when they change the home button, or when they change the charger, or when they make me update, and something different comes in, and now text messages look different. I like the way they harded and laughed and all that stuff, back when it was just all gray, and now it's colored, and I don't like that, it feels different to me. I didn't want to send color in my text messages.

I like just harding it and being done with it. Every time they make a new update, I'm like, "Why they got to change it? Who asked for this?" I'm a traditionalist. Many of you are in the same boat. I don't know what traditions you've built up over time, but you probably are traditional in some ways, and when those traditions are — like when there's an abrasion against those tradition — you're gonna get frustrated.

This woman says, in verse 19, she says, "Sir, I perceive you a prophet." Verse 20, "Our ancestors, our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." What she highlights here, probably without intending it, is that she is rooted in some form of tradition. You help yourself significantly, at least at this church, if you can recognize that you are traditional in some way. It'll help you a lot. Can I be bold with you today? We started a brand new church, like I said, February 25th, we're about eight months old at this point.

In February we'll be a year old, we're going to have a big anniversary, it's going to be awesome. But we're brand new, so in a lot of ways we're forming new ways of doing things. But the people who come to the church weren't born yesterday — except for a couple of them, we just dedicated a few, I'm sure — but none of you were born yesterday. You have lived some life. Some of you have never been to church, some of you have been to church your entire life.

You have built traditions over these years, and when you come to a new venue or location or church, there are going to be things we do or don't do that are different than what you did or didn't do at your other church. I'm not trying to stress you out, I just want you to know — I feel like the Lord was giving me a situation this week where, I was also going through the text, and I was like, this just makes sense, because I have been hit super hard this week with other people's traditions. Now, that doesn't mean there's no validity to their traditions, it just means that some of us have traditions, and when something different happens, we get really frustrated about it. I'll give you a couple — can I give you a couple? I'll give you one big one: communion.

The Bible tells us about communion, but it is very vague in the way that you take communion. Yet, when we started this church, I want to tell you this really up front, we have a real posture behind the way that we do communion. We actually do communion during our volunteer rally currently, . Our volunteer rally is at 8:15 before both services. We do communion once a month during our volunteer rally, and the reason we do it that way is because when we started this church, the vast majority of people who were coming had not been to church before, or they hadn't — I mean, they hadn't even trusted in Jesus yet.

Now, Jesus makes it pretty clear, and early church tradition makes it pretty clear, that those who take communion are those who are baptized believers. So in starting this church, what we wanted to do with our communion was to do it in such a way that we don't put people in a position where they're doing something that they don't understand what they're doing. So when we started, we would do it during our volunteer rally, where we can very clearly explain it. Now, we are going to shift at some point to where we move it into the service more frequently. However, when people came, they're like, "Why are you withholding communion from everybody?" I'm just being real — some of you are thinking like, yeah, why are you withholding communion from everybody?

And I'm like, you — I've read the Bible a few times, I've looked at early church tradition, and, the Bible actually doesn't prescribe exactly when you're supposed to do it. It says "as often as you meet, " which means if you're not doing communion at your home, every single time you break bread together with your family, or if you're not doing it — these places, if you're going to take it that way, you're probably not practicing it well either. But the way that we interpret that is we say, "As often as you meet, do so in remembrance of me." And so when we take communion, we intentionally remember the body that was broken on our behalf, the blood that was shed for the forgiveness of sins, we take communion together. But I've been having these conversations, and I'm like, "Yo, you did it as a Lutheran a certain way, you did it as a Catholic a certain way, you did it as a Baptist a certain way, you did it in your non-denominational church that I've never heard of your theology before in a certain way, you did it in a way that was really sentimental and emotional, you did it in a way that was super formal, " and everyone's coming to me like, "You do it wrong." And I'm like, hold on, can we break from tradition for a second, understand what the Bible actually tells us about this? When he says "in spirit and in truth, " he's not talking about your tradition.

Your tradition should be built on what is true and what his Spirit guides us into. So I'm going to give you a couple quick points on tradition. I didn't know I was going to go that far into communion, but there are others. Some people celebrate Halloween, some people don't celebrate Halloween — people have different views on what that looks like. Some people celebrate Christmas, some people do Santa in their house.

Some people vote differently when it comes to politics and things like that. We all have our different traditions, and when tradition gets in the way of your connection with God, that's where that tradition has become a The first thing I want you to prioritize: relationship over your rituals. Relationship over your rituals. Rituals are things we do without thinking about it. And so I would encourage you, if you're coming in here week in week out because someone told you a long time ago that you're supposed to attend church, and that's the way that you come into your relationship with God and go to heaven, I want to encourage you, step back, process through that.

Are you coming to church because you feel like you're supposed to, or are you coming to church because you're trying to develop a relationship with the God of the universe? So one's ritual, one's relationship, you know what I'm saying. You've heard "religion, relationship." I don't really like that one, because technically, by believing in Jesus, you're in a religion. So don't fault it, you know, it's just part of it. We just believe a religion that includes a relationship.

But rituals are things you do without thinking about it. Relationship over your rituals. How about this one: substance over style. I'm going to go into this one, substance over style. Did you know you can go to a liturgical church, meaning stand, sit, chant, do all these other things, read the Apostles' Creed, all that, you know?

Did you know you can go to a liturgical church and still worship God in spirit and in truth? "I know, it's so boring though, Pastor." Hey, you can worship Him there because it's about substance, not about the style. Did you know when tracks and things screw up once in a while, you can still worship God? Do you know when you're praying and the worship cuts off for a second, you can still worship God? Did you know when things are going haywire everywhere in your life, you can still worship God?

Because we're seeking a faith of substance, not one of style or of form. It's like, I don't like it in a gym — you can still worship God in a gym. So I don't like it at a big church — you can still worship God at a big church. I'm not talking about us, we're not big yet, you know, it's too small, I feel, still, too exposed — you can still worship God at a small church. You can worship God anywhere, at any time, if you're seeking to move beyond your traditions and looking at the substance of what you are doing.

In fact, I love it when sometimes everything is just stripped back, we open God's Word and trust that the Spirit of God can move in us when we open it, read it, and try to comprehend it. That's good. I mean, there's some people in this room, you enjoy church and everything, but your time with God when you're reading God's Word is when you're really worshiping. I would encourage you, don't get caught up in the style or the form of something, focus on the substance. Now, that's not to say that there are some churches that kind of fit your style a little bit more than other churches.

Clearly, we started a church and we have a particular style of doing things. If that's not your style, go somewhere else. But if you're going just because of the style, and you would prefer a church that has good style regardless of the substance, you're going to miss out on a connection with your Creator. I'm not saying this church is for everybody, but I am saying that you need to spend some time focusing on the substance. Here's another tradition that we have.

I would encourage you to prioritize inclusivity rather than exclusivity. Inclusive over exclusive. I think our tradition can often be a hindrance when we're focused on this list of things that we like to do as a church, to the point where when somebody else comes in, they're confused or they feel like they're left out. I'll give you an example. I want to talk about worship specifically.

Did you know, if you stand there like this in the room, there are going to be people that come in and they're like — maybe not a style thing — it's like, "I feel like people don't want me to be here." Right? Like they come in, maybe you're in a circle. One thing I do when I walk out, I'm telling you, I shouldn't tell you this, I should just do it, but if I see a circle where it's closed off and someone couldn't easily jump into it, I'll walk right into the middle and say, "Hey, what are we doing, guys?" Because I'm trying to break up that circle. I don't want a church that looks exclusive and cliquey. We want to be a place that is open.

What's happening here? You see this woman who is in the margins of society. She's coming at noon because she's done things in her life that have caused her to be an outcast in that community around Sychar. That's why she's coming in the middle of the day by yourself. And so Jesus is speaking to this woman who has been cast out, because we are in a faith that is inclusive, that if we trust in Jesus, confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved.

That salvation is not contingent on our activity or on our work. We serve a God who has made Himself accessible. And our traditions, though, they can make us really easily exclusive, because if they don't know your tradition, they're not going to feel connected to you in your walk with God. Often, your tradition will keep you from the people that God wants you to reach. In the Old Testament, that's one of the biggest kind of arcs of the Old Testament, is that God's people, who were called to be a people that would bless the entire world, developed traditions that they internalized.

They became a nation that didn't really concern themselves with the call of God. They concerned themselves with things like going to the temple and practicing very specific items. They were being ritualistic, they were focusing on style, and they were thus exclusive. They were preventing people from actually coming to hear about God. I'll give you my last one on tradition: God's Word is greater than your ancestors' word.

Y'all remember Waterboy, who's seen that movie? That's been my perpetual illustration, I'm sure I'm going to use it ten times in the next two years. It's a good one, because dude grew up in a specific way, they had their traditions, they ate what they ate, they did what they did, they knew what they knew. And he goes into this college classroom where there's more information, and this guy's talking about like real science, and what's his name — I want to say Ricky. Bobby?

I don't even know his name. Some of y'all remember. What's his name — Bobby, Bobby Boucher — I lived in New Orleans for a while. Bobby, they said, "Mama said alligators are ornery because they got all them teeth and no toothbrush." And the guy that looks like the KFC dude, he's like, "Well, Mama's wrong, " and then he tackles him in the room. Y'all should go watch it — maybe you shouldn't, actually, it's probably PG-13 and totally inappropriate.

I was a kid, I didn't know Jesus at that point when I saw it, but I remember that constantly. Because there's nothing inherently wrong with listening to what your ancestors say, or what your family members say, what your mommy or your daddy says. There's nothing inherently wrong with listening, if it's wise. But we have to gauge what we receive in line, or see if it aligns with what God's Word says. As a pastor, I come into it all the time where someone says, "Hey, you're not supposed to do this, " and I'm a challenger, I'm working on that personality defect where I challenge things that people say.

Sometimes I do it when I shouldn't, sometimes, you know, it's a good thing. But someone will say, "We shouldn't do this, " or "We should do this, " and the first question I'm like, "Why, or why not?" And the answer very regularly comes, "Well, my last church didn't do this, " "I grew up doing it this way, and so that's wrong."

My wife grew up as a pastor's kid, and I didn't — God bless me significantly — she grew up as a pastor's kid, and she had ways of thinking about things. Well, I came into faith, not too late, but I was still in eighth grade, so I'd learned a little bit, you know, I'd listen to some rap music at that point, and so I was learning about the world. And I have this natural tendency to be like Thomas in the Bible, where I ask questions, and even sometimes I doubt things that other people say. And regularly, we'll be having a conversation and she says something, and I'm like, "Well, why is that the case?" Because she knows more how to run a church than I do — I'm just going to be real.

So if you have a question about how to run the church, go talk to her, you know, talk to me. But she'll tell me things, and then I ask the question why, and then sometimes we'll go into God's Word and we'll say, "Well, what does God's Word say about this?" And it becomes such an amazing conversation, because she might not believe what I'm saying and I might not believe what she's saying, but we both believe what God's saying. And when we look at it, sometimes we come to grips and say, "Oh, you know, they were right, that's a good thing for us to do, " but now we understand it at a deeper level. And sometimes when we go look at God's Word, we're like, "Well, they just did that, and maybe they had a reason for doing it, but that doesn't mean they had to trade it down to us, because it doesn't make sense for us to do it currently."

What other people say may be wise, but if you don't compare it and confirm it in God's Word, you're going to miss out on what God has for you. But that's tradition, that's tradition, she was stuck in tradition, they worshiped in certain places.

That was my first point. The second point is position. Often our position can inhibit us from worshiping God at the level that we could. Our position — I'm not talking about necessarily your position at work, I'm talking about, maybe even, in this case, you've got a geographic position that prevents this woman from connecting at a deeper level with God. But here's what she says, verse 20: "Ancestors worshiped on this mountain" — that would have been Mount Gerizim — "but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." And then what he goes to do, Jesus, is he tells her that in the future we're going to worship in spirit and in truth, it's not going to be on this mountain or this mountain.

Now, he is clear to say that where the Jews worship is more legit than the Mount Gerizim situation, so he's clear with her about where she's incorrect in her assumptions. But what he says is, he recognizes that that position — she didn't choose to be born into Samaria, it wasn't something that she chose. Jesus recognizes that your position can inhibit you. That's why he went through Samaria, because there's a group of people in Sychar who needed to know the God of the universe at a deeper level, they were missing some things, so he went there. Our God is accessible, but sometimes our position prevents us.

And so I'll give you a couple points from this. I would encourage you to think this way: that your posture is more important than your physical location or your place. Your posture is more important than the place. How many of you know people who have gone to church their entire life, and you're like, "How? You went to church your entire life, " you just look at them and you're just confused that they went to church their entire life.

We all know them, we all know them, let's be real. I know people, and you might be one of those people, I might be one of those people, and the Lord's yet to convict me of it, goodness gracious. But we all know those people who have been in the right place their entire life. This is the Pharisees and the Sadducees, this is the people who are in Jerusalem, they've had the right texts, the right documentation, they've had the right location, they've had a lot of the right things, but their posture is all off. Which is why Jesus came, and he is preaching in a lot of ways against what the Pharisees and Sadducees are saying, because posture matters more than place.

You can come into church week in, week out, and never benefit. I mean, yeah, I'd like for my sermons to be as good as they possibly can, so that they can, you know, break apart some of the hardness of some of your hearts and get you to the place where you might be accepting of Jesus, but I don't put that much pressure on myself. The worship can continue to improve, our kids' situation can continue to improve, we can make sure we remove the cracks in the pipe and drape right there so you don't see through it and see that — I don't know if there's bathrooms over there — like, we can do everything that we can to make it as distraction free as possible, but it can be as bad as possible, and if you shift your posture, you can still connect at a deeper level with God, because your position or your place, it is not as important as the posture you choose to have. This is why Paul says, in Philippians chapter 4, he says, "Think on these things" — the things that are true, right, honorable, pure, lovely, and. Of good repute, and the peace of God will be with you.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

Paul recognizes that when we choose to have a posture of openness to God, that it changes our entire — not just perspective — but it changes the way that we connect with God and with others. This woman is in the wrong place when it comes to worship. She's going to the wrong mountain to sacrifice and worship. She is living the wrong lifestyle. But when she shows up at a well, somewhere off in the margins, at noon, Jesus is there, and she's able to connect with Him.

And I think had she been more stubborn, she wouldn't have received what she received, because she had a posture of openness. And I'll joke around sometimes and I'll say, "Sir, I perceive you're a prophet" is more of a sarcastic response from this woman because he just called her out. I think that's a possible response, but I think she — the fact that she didn't close off the conversation and remained open — she had a posture of openness to receive from the person who was offering her living water at this well. What's your posture? Did you come in here with a posture of openness to receive from the Lord?

When you had that conversation with somebody last week, did you go into that conversation with a posture of openness? You can have the right physical venue, you can have the right location, the worship can be perfect, you can be distraction free, but if you do not make the choice and choose this day to adjust your posture, you're still going to miss it. Your posture makes a difference. Here's another one: I would choose flexibility over a fixed mindset. I mean, studies show — everywhere, read a leadership book — and studies will show that those who are flexible and malleable and teachable find themselves in much better situations than those who have a fixed mindset.

They might compare it — they'd say it's a fixed mindset or a growth mindset — but I called it a flexible mindset, because there are so many areas in your faith that God wants to teach you in, but if you have this fixed, traditional mindset, then you're going to miss out on the very thing that He might teach you. This is me — anytime I enter into a conversation, sometimes I have a fixed mindset. When someone corrects me on something, and it's been years and years and years of me trying to be less stubborn, that when I go into a conversation with someone and they say, "Hey Matt, you said this, it came across this way, maybe you should consider making an adjustment, " my initial response used to be to be like, "Man, whatever, you don't know what you're talking about, you don't know what I've been through." But now I'm getting to this place — I mean, you run into a brick wall enough times, you start making an adjustment, or you don't, in which case you're super traditional, you're in the wrong position, and you're missing out on so many things you could glean from. But I'm now at this place where when someone says that, I try to pause for a moment and say, "God, maybe there's truth to this, let's find the sliver of truth." And I say this — I said I'm going to eat the fish and I'm going to leave the bones. Just because it came from someone I don't respect doesn't mean I can't be flexible enough to learn from that situation.

Just because it hits up against some things that I've done my entire life doesn't mean I can't learn from this. Just because it's not comfortable to me doesn't mean I can't be flexible enough to see what God might have. One thing we say every time we lead a team overseas to go on — like we call it a mission trip — is we say this: be flexible. Why? Because an airline might make you get there later — I told you guys a story about that a couple weeks ago.

When you get there, someone might not understand something that you're saying, and you have to say it ten times through the translator, and then you got to figure out how to do it in such a way that they would receive it. Somebody's going to frustrate you. Somebody on the team is going to mess up in a way, and you're going to be inhibited from reaching your goals for a full day — I'm being very vague here, but something happened a couple years ago where that happened. Maybe the team leader doesn't have their stuff together — you're still supposed to be flexible, because when you're fixed in your mindset, you are not putting yourself in a position of openness to God. Now, I'm not just saying be so flexible that you keep changing — yeah, you got to have some things that you're fixed on.

I'm fixed on the Gospel of Jesus. I'm fixed on what God's word says. But there are some things that are just not as important. If anyone in here has heard of this thing, we call it doctrinal triage, and what we say is that there are primary things, secondary things, and tertiary things. The primary things are the things I'm not going to flex on — this is the understanding of the Trinity, this is Father, Son, Holy Spirit, right?

This is the understanding that it's by grace we've been saved through faith, not that of our own, that no man may boast, right? These tenets of our faith. But then there's secondary things — some of these secondary things are, or even tertiary things, and it's tough to determine which is which sometimes. But it's like, hey, this group — this group of people in the church are speaking in tongues, this group of people in the church doesn't think speaking in tongues is legit, this group of people celebrates Christmas, this group of people doesn't celebrate Christmas — they think it's some pagan thing from winter solstice way back in the day that the Catholic Church took, and that's what they think, right? Like, these are things that may be a personal conviction, but they're not primary doctrine.

And if you're not flexible, you're going to avoid fellowship with other people that God has placed in your life because of that inflexibility, and you're going to hop from church to church to church to church trying to find that perfect venue, and you'll never find it. So I'd encourage you, shift that posture, have one of flexibility. I would say that you need to consider things — the spirit, you need to consider spiritual identity more important than racial, ethnic, gender, or political identity. Spiritual identity first — those other things come later. This is what Jesus is proving to us even by talking to this woman at the well — that he doesn't care that she's a Samaritan and he's a Jew.

He didn't care that she's a woman and he's a man — back in the day, that mattered a little more than it does today. He didn't care that she worshiped in a way that was different than the way that he worshiped. He didn't care that she had lived life in a way, sexually, that was much different than God would have preferred for her. Like, those things were not going to separate him from the main thing he was trying to do, which was spiritual in nature — he went to her to offer her living water. And what I've learned in my life is that if I allow political, racial, gender — all those things — to come above the spiritual identity that we hold, I'm going to argue with people all the time, I'm going to leave churches all the time, I'm going to be frustrated all the time.

But here's the truth: if you can prioritize spiritual identity — and here's what spiritual is — have you confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, believed in your heart that God raised him from the dead? Are you someone who is loved by God and has a purpose in Christ? Are you someone who has found the peace of God? Are you someone who opens God's word and has the capacity to understand what it has for you? If so, then I'm not going to let these other things detract from my conversation with you about spiritual needs.

In fact, what I always say is: my Christlikeness matters more than my whiteness, blackness, or all these — like — femaleness. All that stuff is secondary or tertiary to this spiritual truth. And this brings me to my final point on position: you got to seek truth over vibes. Truth over vibes. I get so frustrated because a lot of commentary that comes to me in the church has to do with vibes, not truth.

And I already said, you know, you got to choose substance over style. But I would love us to get to the place where how we feel doesn't dictate what we do unless it lines with God's truth for us. So let's move forward recognizing — I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with people where they feel a certain way, but then we have a conversation about what's true, and they're like, "But I feel this way." Like, people that will agree with the truth that you're communicating, but their feelings detract them from it. Feelings are important — they're given to you by God, and there's something to them — but it's important for us to measure truth in the process of feeling things, and that works for each of you in different ways. And so I'm going to move on so that I get to my final point, because what happens here is: this woman, she brings up her ancestors, she talks about where different people worship.

Jesus communicates to her the importance of worshiping in spirit and in truth, and what matters to him is not the position — he's willing to move beyond her tradition. But in order to worship God in spirit and in truth, there is something that is extremely important for us to recognize, and it has to do with our condition. You've seen the people who come to church week in, week out — nothing benefits them. You've seen the people who read the Bible — nothing benefits them. You've seen the people that pray all the time, and it doesn't seem like it's had any impact on their life.

You've seen the fact that they love raising their hands in worship, or they like certain ways of doing things in life, but for some reason it seems like the Spirit of God is evading every one of their actions that they perform. Like, something's not clicking — they're doing the stuff ritualistically, traditionally, they're in the right place and position, but there's something about their condition that makes it to where they're not really connecting with God. And I think the Bible talks about our condition. It says this: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." It says that we are all fallen human beings, and we are in a condition that, without help on the outside, we're in trouble. And so I tell you all these things because I think that if we can adjust our condition the way that the Bible tells us to, then these things — like your tradition and your position — won't matter as much.

I'm not going to tell you that it doesn't matter — actually, don't want to go too far with that, because there's something to be said about position, there's something to be said about building traditions — they're not all bad — but sometimes, sometimes they screw us up. And here's a couple things I want to give you on your condition, because He says He wants us to worship in spirit and in truth. In fact, "the Father is seeking worshippers who will worship the Father in the spirit and in truth" — that's the kind of worshippers he seeks. "God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship him in spirit and in truth." So I'll give you four things. First: working from is more important than working for.

If you do not have Christ in your heart, if you have not accepted him as your Savior, then you can come to church week in, week out, you can do all the things, but it's not going to connect at the level that it should — you're just checking the box. So what we would say is, sometimes when we do these things — like go to church, or give, or go to small groups, and all this other stuff — we're doing it because we think that's what's going to get us to the place where we're going to heaven for all of eternity. But what I would tell you is, you're not doing those things because you think that's going to get you to eternity — you're doing those things because Jesus is in you, and he has already promised you eternity. We're working from the perspective of having a connectedness with God, not so that we will eventually have a connection with God. You got to work from your salvation, not for your salvation.

The next thing is: grace is more important than guilt and shame. This woman probably lived a life that was full of guilt and shame because of what she had done — that's probably one of the reasons that she found herself content going at noon to the well, and she probably did not have a perspective of grace on her life. Many of us feel guilty for the things that we did — and that is part of the human condition without Jesus, that we feel guilty. But the Bible says there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit has set us free from the law of sin and death. And so I want you to know that even if you feel guilty for something that you have done, if you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, he offers you a grace that is more important than the things that have happened to you, so you no longer have to live in guilt and shame.

Peace is even greater than the issues of pain. The Bible tells us that when we. Think on the things that are true, right, honorable, pure, lovely, and of good repute. That helps us have a reinvigorated perspective where we see Christ Jesus. Yet, when we have grown up in life, we allow pain to guide our perspective and cloud it.

But peace can actually fill your perspective and change it if you keep seeking Jesus. And then the final thing is, you need to seek what God's Spirit would do in your life, over and above all of the things that cause you dread and fear. And I tell you all these things because when I look at Christ Jesus, I see somebody that I didn't see when I first started going to church. Like, the Messiah many of us hear about is not the Messiah that is actually in the text. We've missed out.

And so, without belaboring this point, I've talked to you about tradition and how it can inhibit you, position and how it can inhibit you, and even how your condition, from birth can inhibit you. But there is salvation for those of us who trust in Jesus. And when we turn our lives over to Him, everything changes from that spot. So, I want us to all bow our heads and close our eyes. I'm going to take a moment, give you an opportunity, if you have not yet, to allow God to change your condition.

It's not an immediate thing—He does it from the inside out over time—but that decision can be in one moment. So let me pray for you guys. Father God, I thank You for everyone in this room. I pray that those people who have never trusted in You would do so. I pray that they would recognize that those traditions that they have need to be measured up against Your word.

I pray that they would recognize that, no matter what position they are in life, whether they're in a job that they hate, whether they're in a location that makes it difficult for them to serve and worship You, I pray that neither tradition nor position would prevent them from knowing You. And I pray that their condition, that fills them with guilt and shame, would no longer inhibit them from coming to You. God, speak to them right now. Tell them, not everything's okay, but even then, God still loves you. Even when you screwed up, God still seeks you.

Just like this woman, even when you're outcast and alone, God still cares, and He seeks you out. He sought this woman out. He knew she was going to show up. He knew she was going to be someone who was open and flexible enough to receive what He had. He knew that she would go to that city and start telling everybody what He told her.

And He knows the same things about you—He knows what He can do in you and through you. And so, I pray that you wouldn't let your condition prevent you from coming to Christ. So, everybody's heads bowed, eyes closed, I want to give you an opportunity to trust in Jesus right now. We're going to pray this prayer out loud together, for the benefit of those who are praying it for the first time. Repeat after me.

Say: "God, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe He died on the cross and rose from the grave. Father, forgive me of my sin, and I will follow You all the days of my life. Today is my new beginning."