Lent: Living Water for Our Souls

Well, good morning.

We're uh so happy that we can be uh together and teaching and even in this setting.

And I'm preaching in our small group room to an iPhone, but we're so happy that we can just throw this together and be together on Sunday morning.

I know for a lot of us the last few days have been uh a a feasting on news and information and ongoing emails and text messages of what's canceled and what's not, what's going on, and uh all of that.

It can be overwhelming.

It can be overwhelming just because of the amount of information overwhelming because it's incredibly sad.

It can be overwhelming because there's disappointments built into a lot of that, of things being canceled that meant something to you.

And our conversations, right?

Our conversations have been dominated by the coronavirus.

Uh, how quickly any conversation just bounces right back into COVID-19 over the last few days.

And our church, uh, as we've been emailing you and communicating to you guys, and thank you for your patience with us in that our church is so happy to suspend services for the next two Sundays in hopes for our state and in hopes for our country to resist a spike in COVID-19, especially for those of us and our friends and our family and in our state and our country or community that uh have lower immune systems or uh they're in the most more at-risk age demographic.

And so uh we are happy to suspend and to worship together like this.

We'll be in more communication about different ways uh for us to worship together, even though we can't physically be together.

So it's an overwhelming issue, is what I'm saying.

And at the same time, we're still in the season of Lent.

The season of Lent is the 40 days leading up to Easter.

Um, during the season of Lent, Sundays are feast days, is what they're called.

So, yeah, we've been feasting on information and news and all of this COVID-19 that's so overwhelming for us, but we get to, on Sundays, feast on the goodness of God.

We get to pause and rest and feast on his goodness to us in a world where these circumstances, right, we're seeing it more now than ever, these circumstances and the fragility of the world will not satisfy our souls.

And yet, on a Sunday through Lynn, every Sunday, we get to gather, we get to remember, and feast and fill ourselves on God's goodness that is secure and is stable in and out of any circumstance.

I was out walking this morning and up the hill from my house, and the walk I was taking, I saw Kenestone Hospital, and very sadly this week, just this very week, a man died of COVID-19 in that hospital.

Uh he had other medical underlying issues as well.

But he passed away this week.

That's incredibly sad.

And this morning I saw that, I remembered that, I remember how sad that was, and at the same time, I remembered babies are being born in that hospital today.

Today, babies are being born.

And I'm pretty sure over the course of the next two weeks, with a lot of us working from home, babies are gonna be made in the next two weeks.

There's gonna happen a lot, right?

I mean, there's happy, amazing things going on amidst sad and disappointing things, which is my point.

Yes, people are getting sick.

Uh, people will have increased loneliness.

That will happen.

At the same time today, somebody's getting married today.

People are getting married, children are laughing.

The flowers in my yard are still rising up out of the ground and they're blooming.

People are loving each other.

People are finding ways to serve each other and reach out to each other.

And so that's just a way to say that, yes, we live in a fragile world.

We live in a fragile world that has both beautiful and broken experiences inside of it.

And yet this morning we get to feast on the abundance of God's love for us.

We see that in our passage this morning.

Our passage this morning is John chapter 4, where Jesus comes and approaches and talks to this woman that nobody would have thought that he would have been talking to her.

John 4 · chapter mention

And so if you have a Bible in your home or around you, or maybe on your phone or computer, you can just pull it up while I talk and we work our way through.

I'll read a little bit of the passage and then I'll make a point and I'll talk.

Read a little bit and make a point and I'll talk.

That'll be how we work our way through it.

So, John chapter 4, Jesus is headed to Galilee.

John 4 · chapter mention

He goes through this area called Samaria.

And we have to remember that when the Jews went into exile, some of them stayed behind and they married these other people, these Canaanites.

And so the Jews married these Canaanites, and when they married, they produced children, a new race called Samaritans.

And so the Jews considered these Samaritans to be racially inferior to themselves.

They were heretics, and yet as Jesus seeks this lady out, this Samaritan, that all the other Jews would have dismissed.

So we jump into the story there at John 4, verse 7.

John 4:7

A woman from Samaria came to draw water.

Jesus said to her, Give me a drink.

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

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

For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.

And the woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw water with.

So she's not, she's not picking up on what's going on here.

You have nothing to draw water with, is what she says.

And the well's deep.

Where do you get that living water?

Verse 12, Are you greater than our father Jacob?

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

Jesus said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again.

But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.

The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

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

So point number one is this.

Point number one is our souls thirst for God alone.

That's what our souls thirst for underneath it all.

Our souls thirst for God alone.

Other sources will always leave our souls thirsty.

So that's point number one, and these points will be in the text underneath this video, so you can look at those sermon notes.

That's point number one.

I love this quote.

This week I was reminded of this quote by the Christian faith writer Anne Lamont.

And she she gave this as an announcement, a commencement address at Berkeley, and then it was put into one of her books later on.

It's been passed all around the internet.

This quote's so great.

So here's what she says.

At some point I finally started getting published and experiencing a meager, knock-need standing in the literary world, and I started to get almost everything that many of you graduates are hoping for, except the money.

I got a lot of things that society had promised would make me whole and fulfilled.

All the things that the culture tells you from preschool on will quiet the throbbing anxiety inside of you.

Stature, the respect of colleagues, maybe even a kind of low-grade fame.

The culture says these things will save you as long as you also manage to keep your weight down.

But the culture lies.

So what Lamont was saying is what we all come to know and learn eventually.

These supposed paths of satisfaction that the world sells us on, while we participate with them a lot and we give our hearts to them a lot.

They can never ultimately satisfy our souls.

We need a different kind of water.

And that's what Jesus is saying.

That's why in verse 14 he says, But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.

The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

It's a different level and kind of satisfaction.

And yet at the same time, while that verse is so beautiful, that truth is so beautiful, and while we're tapped into it and aware of it, it's incredibly restful and satisfying, it has to be understood in the reality of humanity.

Meaning, Wednesday, I had a bad day.

I had a horrible day on Wednesday.

And you probably had a horrible day at some point this week.

I can guarantee you had a bad day.

I mean, a lot of us lost 10% of our net worth in one day when the stock market dropped.

And if that is our satisfaction, then we're so unstable.

And our humanity is we're going to have some bad days.

And we're going to realize, oh, my heart's being aligned with circumstances to fulfill me rather than God's faithfulness and love, and then I'll deal with my circumstances.

So I'm not always feeling verse 14.

You're not always feeling verse 14.

I think we can all admit and be honest about that.

Too often we use the world to satisfy our souls.

But the more that we grow in the grace of God and become aware of the very things we're placing our satisfaction in that don't deliver to us, the quicker we can confess of it and repent of it.

That's what growth and grace is it's quicker repentance and quicker confession.

As to remember again that satisfaction, our soul satisfaction, is then gonna be in God's love and Christ alone.

Point number two is this God knows you and he continues to pursue you and accept you and delight in you.

God knows you and continues to pursue you, accept you, and delight in you.

Look at verses 16 through 18.

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

So he knows something about her.

He knows it all.

He knows the storyline.

Verse 17, the story starts to come out.

The woman answered him, I have no husband, Jesus said to her.

Then Jesus said to her, You are right in saying, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands.

And the one now that you have is not your husband.

What you have said is true.

So what's Jesus doing here?

He's not opening this up to condemn her, he's opening this up for her to become aware of her own narrative.

This story is about Jesus lovingly leading this lady into her own narrative of sin and woundedness.

Because our present-day idolatry, trying to get our soul satisfied in the world, that present-day idolatry that I have or you have, that is always gonna be found at the intersection of our sin and our woundedness.

Look at this lady's life.

This is a life of woundedness and sin, and it's both.

It's not one or the other.

Our path to healing, the soul satisfaction that Jesus is talking about and that we want.

It's actually gonna be growing in the awareness of this and facing the very woundedness and the sin of our own narratives.

And processing through that in the presence of God that knows you, pursues you, accepts you, and delights in you.

So that in the kindness of God you feel free to repent and grow in the grace of God.

We get to know this lady some in this passage, but we don't get to know nearly as much as we would like.

Right?

I mean, we know she had five husbands, she's living with another guy.

We don't know how she grew up.

We don't know what happened to her along the way, we don't know what these husbands were like.

We don't know if these things, how much they were his fault or her fault.

We don't know what her dad was like or her mom was like or her childhood was like or her teen years were like.

We don't know a lot in this story.

But we do know that Jesus doesn't hold condemnation for her.

He's inviting her to stop running from facing her narrative of sin and woundedness.

But to face it and feel it and process it and confess it and repent of it so that she might know freedom, that she might know this soul satisfaction that's found in him, in him alone.

There's a story about a mom who writes to C.S.

Lewis.

A mom writes to C.S.

Lewis because she's so worried that her son loves Aslan more than Jesus.

So remember, Aslan's the lion and the lion, the witch in the wardrobe.

And that lion, Aslan, in that story and in that movie, I don't know if you read or you saw it.

Aslan is this powerful, loving lion.

And he is powerful and he's mighty and he is loving and he is endearing and gentle with the children.

And then here is C.S.

Lewis's reply to this mom's concern that her nerve boy loves Aslan more than Jesus.

Here's her reply.

Lawrence can't really love Aslan more than Jesus.

Even if he feels that's what he's doing.

For the things he loves Aslan for doing or saying are simply the things Jesus really did and said.

So that when Lawrence thinks he's loving Aslan, he's really loving Jesus and perhaps loving him more than he ever did before.

See, Lawrence and you and I, sometimes we just we need a metaphor to open us up to the reality of Jesus' delight in us.

Sometimes we need that metaphor, we need that story, we need that parable.

That's why Jesus is always teaching parables.

We need these stories to invite us in and break down the walls we have, this resistance, this allergy to grace.

That it could be possible that God actually fully knows me, like that lion knows those children, and still snuggles up to them.

That God would know me and still delight in me.

So the woman finally says to Jesus, I see that you're a prophet.

And they get into this conversation about worship, and finally Jesus says in verse 22, You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.

So he's talking about himself being born to the Jewish people.

So he is God incarnate that is headed toward the cross, the fulfillment of the law.

Our sin is put upon him, his righteous is given to us, so we're forever beloved, forever beloved with God.

And that came through the Jews, but it was for all people.

Verse 23 but the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, but the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

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

Now we could have a whole series on worship at this point, but we'll keep going.

Verse 25.

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

When he comes, he will tell us all things.

And Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am He.

Here's point number three.

Last point.

Our worship and evangelism, our worship and evangelism, so our giving worth to something, God, hopefully, and our evangelism, the speaking of a good story.

Our worship and evangelism is empowered by our belovedness in Christ.

So let me explain it this way.

Two weeks ago, Christy and I, we went on an incredibly romantic date.

I took her to the fly fishing film festival in Cartersville, Georgia.

She wanted to go so badly, so I took her up there.

She loved it so much, and I can tell you the demographic that was there.

We walked into this pub, and it was about 50% older white men in flannel, and then 50% young white men in flannel with beards.

And then there's Christy and I.

That's the demographic at the fly fishing festival.

Very romantic date night on a Thursday night.

Fly fishing festival.

I was in heaven, right?

I mean, we're watching, Christy was there.

I don't think she was in heaven, but she was there, and we're watching these 20-minute short films and just short films with these different people, guys and ladies fly fishing in Alaska catching salmon, and they're off the coast of Baja catching Marlin and Jackson Hole catching trout.

I mean, I mean, I was in heaven.

I could not worship more, is my point.

This this is my Billy Graham crusade, my passion conference.

I could not have my heart more towards something more willing to spend money or time or energy or talk about, right?

Because I love this.

I love it.

I could give my life, truly, I could give my whole life to this, to these pursuits and these trips and just entertaining myself with it.

It could be my church, it could be my worship.

Because that which we give our ultimate worth to, that's our worship.

That's our worship, where we're pulling worth from and what we're giving worth to.

And fishing's wonderful.

Fishing is wonderful.

Standing in the middle of a river and casting a line for a day.

I mean, there's that is so it can give me such rest.

It can give people and offer people peace.

But it can't love you.

It's like every other water in this world.

It doesn't ultimately satisfy it, it gives us a taste.

It's a taste.

It can offer us some peace and rest, but it can't ultimately love us or forgive us.

It doesn't ultimately satisfy us.

The creator behind it that can do that.

Here's my second point: worship and evangelism is from our belovedness in Christ.

Here's our second point talking about this fly fishing film tour festival that we went to.

I don't have to be demanded, you don't have to be demanded or obligated to talk about something you love.

I couldn't wait to fit in the fly fishing film tour into a sermon.

I can't, well, I've told so many people about it.

Because I love it.

I've stood in that river and cast that line, that perfect cast that's upstream and then mend it as it comes downstream, and then you get that drift with no drag and a trout that grabs it and then pulls the line tight.

And so when I go to a film festival, I get to see that over and over again.

People catching fish and exciting their own church.

I can't wait to tell people.

I don't have to be obligated, I don't have to be demanded, because that story is so good for my soul.

I love that story.

So of course, the lady says her reaction to this whole situation with Jesus, where Jesus comes, offers her this living water that satisfies her soul, you know, pushes her back into her life narrative of sin and woundedness and still accepts her and pursues her and delights in her.

Of course, her reaction is come and see a man, right?

She leaves Jesus, goes and runs into the town.

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

Could this be the Christ?

And the answer, of course, is yes.

The Christ is the living God for us to know.

This God of love that saw her, knew her, and loved her.

Nothing will satisfy our souls more.

Church, God really loves you.

God really loves you.

Not only loves you, he likes you, he delights in you.

He forgives you of all of your sin and gives to you his own righteousness.

Our growth is going to be a growth in the grace of God and quicker confession, repentance of our sin.

That's going to be our growth.

So may the Holy Spirit speak into your heart the gospel in deeper and deeper ways, this good story of this loving God that is powered, mighty, and yet endearing and loving.

That you are fully known and you are fully loved.

Let's pray together.

Father, help us to behold such love.

Help us to behold such love and taste such love and feast on it this morning as this is a feasting Sunday in Lent.

As we close in one more song, God, would you create in our hearts, would you create in our hearts worship to you in Jesus' name.

Amen.