Monday Invaders

Hey everyone, this is Charlie from Encounter

Church Henley and thanks so much for tuning into

our podcast. Our prayer is that through this

podcast, you can have an encounter with Jesus

that will change your life. And now, get ready

for an inspiring message from our preaching team.

Hi everyone, my name is Emma. For those of you

who don't know me, I am the kids coordinator

here at Encounter Henley. Just a precursor, ignore

my voice. I had a end of term dance concert on

Wednesday and our little friends were not the

best listeners, so there went my voice. So if

I sound like a boy going through puberty, just...

Leave it there. Can we pray together before I

start? Heavenly Father, thank you that we can

gather here today. Thank you that whenever we

come together, you are already here, ready to

meet with us. And what a gift it is to worship

you, to open your word and to grow together as

your people. And as we open your word today,

we pray that you would speak to us, help us to

hear your voice, and shape us to become more

like Jesus. Lord, I pray today that the words

I speak are yours and yours alone. Use them to

encourage us, to challenge us, and to draw us

closer to you. In Jesus' name, we all say, amen.

Today we are into our last episode of our core

value series and today we are exploring the value

of Monday Invaders. Now when I first found out

that I was preaching on Monday Invaders, I have

to be honest with you, I wasn't exactly excited

and I immediately started making a list of reasons

why this message clearly wasn't meant for me

and it was meant for some …somebody else, someone

better. You see, I'm an introvert. I don't like

being the centre of attention. And I actually

don't really naturally start conversations with

strangers very easily. And surely I thought to

myself, that's why God created extroverts. He

just missed that when He was making me. He missed

the sprinkle of extrovertedness in my make. And

maybe I thought, maybe there's people sitting

here today that are thinking the same thing.

You've heard stories of people boldly sharing

their faith, praying for someone at work, and

you think, that's amazing for them. But that's

not for me. So then, as my brain always goes

to, it goes somewhere very random. The bathroom.

Just stay with me. It always goes there but we've

all heard of the great philosopher and theologian

Shrek who once said, better out than in, I always

say. And now Shrek was talking about a burp but

I think the principle here applies more broadly.

Now imagine if someone decided that everything

that was meant to happen in the bathroom should

stay there forever. Inside. No flushing, no letting

go, keeping everything locked up inside. It's

gross. It's uncomfortable. It's also unhealthy.

And eventually everyone around you is going to

notice that something isn't right. Why? You ask.

Because some things were never designed to stay

in. They were meant to flow out. Overflow. And

as ridiculous as that sounds physically, I actually

think that we do it spiritually all the time.

Now there's a very Aussie rule that we've all

absorbed without anyone teaching it to us. And

it is this to leave politics and religion off

the table, especially at a dinner party. Controversial

umpire ring decisions in footy, though fair game.

Everyone talk about it. We're all happily argue

about that umpiring decision that was uncalled

for for 20 minutes. But somewhere along the way,

we took that same agenda. and we applied it to

our faith. We treated faith like a topic that's

too risky for polite company, something best

kept for Sunday and to never be brought up over

the family barbecue. Now our culture encourages

us to keep our faith suppressed. like something

that surfaces up on a Sunday morning and then

gets tucked back away again the moment we walk

out those doors. We're taught that it should

stay private when really, like a burp, it was

never meant to be held in. And it's not just

culture that tells us to keep it quiet. The main

culprit is actually ourselves. We are the ones

that are silencing ourselves. It is the fear

that if I mention Jesus to my friend the friendship

gets weird, the conversation ends. It's telling

ourselves that we're not the type because that

type has all the answers, the right gifting and

the right tools and we just don't feel like that

person. It's the quiet belief that who we are

or who we were disqualifies us before we even

open our mouths. And those are all real reasons,

but none of them change what God has already

commissioned us to do. Tim Keller said it like

this, you are never called into a new relationship

with God without being radically sent out into

the world to live for others. Every Christian

man and woman is a man and woman in mission.

And yet, for a lot of us, that mission goes completely

quiet the moment we leave this building on a

Sunday. Now, Monday Invaders the Value has been

a part of Encounters DNA for a long time. I mean,

we did a whole series on it, with merch included.

And you know that if there's merch, that it is

important. Monday Invaders speaks to this idea

that the church is not a place that we come to

hide from the world, that we are God's people,

we are called out people sent back into the world.

Not the confident ones, not the extroverts, not

the one with all the answers, all of us. Now

don't get me wrong, our Sundays, they still matter.

They're for worship and celebration, they're

for welcome, for testimony and for rest, but

they are not the destination. They are just the

fuel stop. We gather here to be refuelled and

refocused for our week ahead with eyes towards

our family, to our friends, our neighbours, the

strangers, the poor and the world that is beyond

these church walls every day, every week and

every Monday. So what does it actually look like

for someone to be a Monday invader, for someone

to go? For just another ordinary person who's

encountered Jesus and can't keep it to themselves.

How do they go and take that into their Monday?

We see exactly that play out in John 4 in the

teaching text today. Now a little bit of a background.

The Gospel of John It's believed to be written

by the Apostle John and the text refers to this

John as the author being the disciple whom Jesus

loved. And I thought to myself, wow, that's a

way to sign off your message. It's like I'm sending

a message to grandma being like, dear grandma,

thank you for the birthday money. Love Emma,

your granddaughter who you adore and has always

been the favorite. a super humble brag. And whether

it was Apostle John or not, he definitely made

sure to make it known who Jesus' favourite disciple

was. Now John writes his gospel later than the

other three gospels. which meant that he had

time to write it with intention and reflection.

He says it himself near the end of his gospel,

but these are written so that you may continue

to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the son

of God, and that by believing in him, you will

have life by the power of his name. Every story

that John includes in his gospel is deliberate.

And John is the only gospel writer who includes

this encounter of the woman at the well at all.

Mark, Matthew and Luke don't record it, but John

chose it specifically. And that's a detail worth

paying attention to. Now a quick recap of the

teaching text. We have Jews and we have Samaritans.

We have two groups. I'm so divided. that the

Jews would purposely walk the long way around

Samaria just to avoid any interaction or association

with them. But Jesus made the deliberate decision

in this story to go through Samaria. And he stops

at Jacob's well at midday, the hottest, the quietest

hour, the time nobody in their right mind would

be collecting water. Most women in the time they

came early together in the cool of the morning

like sophisticated people. But this woman comes

alone at noon in the heat of the day and she

did that for a reason. Earlier on in the chapter

it says that Jesus reveals that he knows her

past. He says you have had five husbands and

you aren't even married to the man you are living

with now. I thought, five husbands? Wow. I'm

still surprised that I managed one. My mum wasn't

convinced that I would. Her mum must be thrilled.

No, but seriously, five husbands. That's not

just a statement meant to grab your attention,

but it's actually her life. By the time she gets

to number five, she isn't just unlucky in love,

but she is someone who the community has formed

an opinion about. She's someone that the community

has judged and she knows it. She isn't avoiding

the well because she's busy or because she prefers

being out in the hot. She's avoiding the people

who would recognize her. She has built her whole

day around staying invisible, around managing

exactly what people get to see. Doesn't that

sound a little bit familiar? That's the same

quiet calculation, the same questions that we

named earlier. She had her own version of a faith

that is kept hidden, except for her it was shame,

locked away where nobody could reach it. And

then Jesus comes. He sits down at her well with

the wrong ethnicity, the wrong gender, the wrong

hour and yet he stayed with her anyway. And I

think that says something important about the

people who Jesus chooses to send out into Monday.

Because the disciples come back in verse 27 and

they're stopped cold not by a miracle but by

the conversation with this woman. The woman nobody

would have picked. And the teaching text it says,

just then his disciples came back. They were

shocked to find him talking to a woman, but none

of them had the nerve to ask, what do you want

with her? Or why are you talking to her? And

those two questions that are hanging in the air,

what do you want with her? And why are you talking

to her? That's not curiosity, that's judgment.

And the whole town had already decided who she

was and what she was worth. And the disciples

agreed. But those aren't just questions about

her. I mean, those are the questions most of

us have already asked about ourselves. What does

Jesus want with me? Why would he bother with

someone like me? Because most of us are carrying

something like the woman. A past we've managed

carefully, our own version of our noontime walk,

and that becomes the internal voice that we've

already accepted before Jesus has even spoken

a word over our lives. I'm too messy, I'm too

broken, I'm too far gone to be a Monday invader.

I'm too far gone to be sent. And yet in this

story, confronted with her past Jesus doesn't

even flinch he doesn't ask her to go and saw

herself out first he names everything about her

broken past and keeps talking to her like the

conversation was never in danger of ending he

sees her and he sees her fully and he sends her

exactly as she is back to the town the mess and

all that back to the town that she'd already

been hiding from Now most of us are waiting to

be ready. We're waiting to be sorted enough,

put together enough. But Jesus never asked her

to be ready. He just asked her to go. And what

he did for her, he does for us too. He looks

straight past every reason for us not to go.

Every verdict we've ever placed upon ourselves

and he chooses us anyway. Not fixed, not perfect,

just chosen and sent. And that is the type of

person Jesus chooses to send out. Jesus chooses

who the world overlooks. Now we move into the

next part of the text. And it says the woman

left her water jar beside the well and ran back

to the village. Now notice the detail about the

woman leaving the jar. It is an easy miss. But

the Jai is the whole reason she was there. She

arrived at the well with a practical problem.

She needed water and yet she walked away from

this encounter with Jesus having completely forgotten

it, leaving it at the side of the well. Because

something so much more important happened to

her at the well. John actually gives us the contrast

of the woman's encounter with Jesus one chapter

earlier, and we meet Nicodemus, a religious ruler,

someone who has spent his whole life studying

scripture. He comes to Jesus at night, privately,

carefully, and making sure nobody sees him. And

he hears some of the most profound words ever

spoken, and then he quietly slips back into the

dark. He came and got something. But we never

see him run anywhere Then there's the woman at

the well no religious credentials a complicated

history Yet she leaves her job and then runs

towards the town and it wasn't because her practical

need was met or fulfilled but because she had

an encounter with Jesus and was given so much

more than just physical water and these two comparisons

show us that Whilst a transaction is informative,

an encounter is the thing that transforms us.

And that's not just her story, that's why we

exist at Encounter Henley. We believe that people

from city to beach need more than anything else,

isn't a better program, or a louder Sunday, it's

an encounter with Jesus. And because we've seen

what actually happens when people meet Jesus

We've seen people walk in carrying something

heavy and walk out having left it at the well

But it goes to say that you can only give away

what you've actually received if Sunday becomes

our routine rather than a place to go for encounter.

If we're showing up, if we're going through the

motions, leaving the same person we arrived as,

then we are doing what Nicodemus did. He got

something, but he didn't run anywhere. We are

coming to church for a transaction instead of

leaving this building transformed. We don't share

Jesus with the outside world because we have

something to say but we share about Him because

He has changed us. You can keep a transaction

to yourself but you cannot keep an encounter

with Jesus quiet. A transformed person cannot

stay hidden and not because they've got it all

figured out but because they are no longer who

they were. Now we moved on into the last part

of the teaching text. It says here that the woman

left her water jar beside the well and ran back

to the village telling everyone, come and see

a man who told me everything I ever did. Could

he possibly be the Messiah? So the people came

streaming from the village to see him. And catch

this detail, she ran. She didn't walk. She didn't

wander back to the village. She ran back to the

village. The woman who came alone quietly at

noon to the well to avoid everyone ran back to

those very people that she had been hiding from.

Something happened to her that made staying hidden

impossible. And I think with the whole Monday

Invaders value, I think we've made it sound like

a big thing. Like it needs to be a new season

for us or a new strategy to try or a new version

of you that you need to go out and show the world.

But look at what Jesus actually does. He doesn't

send her to a platform. He doesn't send her to

a new ministry. He doesn't send her with a plan.

He actually sends her back. Back to her town.

Back to her neighbours. Back to the people who

knew her name and they knew her shame. Jesus

didn't remove her from her world. He put her

back into it. Those same streets, those same

faces, with the same history. But watch what

happens when she gets there. Come and see a man

who told me everything I ever did. That's it.

That was her whole message. She had no theology

degree. She didn't have the perfect answers.

She just had something. that happened to her

and she said, come and see. And that was enough

for the whole town. It says in verse 39, it tells

us that many of the Samaritans from that town

believed in him because of that woman's testimony.

And here's what that means for us. Our Mondays

are so much closer than we think. The calling

for us isn't somewhere new. It's back to where

you already are. The office, your street, your

dinner table, the group chat. the school gate.

You are already there. You have already been

placed where God is going to use you. And that's

what Monday Invasion actually looks like. It's

not a program. It's not an event that we put

on. It's you. walking back into the same Monday

morning, the same workplace kitchen, the same

school gate, but this time differently, with

your eyes open, with the presence of God with

you, willing to stop, willing to ask, willing

to see. We're just ordinary people in ordinary

places. We are living from the overflow of a

Sunday encounter that we just can't keep hidden.

But here's the question worth asking, is how

do we actually live like that? Where does that

kind of overflow come from? And like we've said

before, we can't give away what we haven't received

and we can't be sent the same way she was sent

without understanding who sent her and who sends

us. Because before she was ever a Monday invader,

there was one who went first. Jesus is the original

Monday invader. God looked at a world that didn't

want Him, people that wouldn't accept Him, a

culture that had its own rules about who was

worth reaching, and He came anyway. He didn't

stay in heaven where it was safe. He crossed

every boundary to get to us. He went to the Samaritan

woman. He went to the tax collector. He went

to the widow. He went to the leper. He went to

the beggar on the side of the road. He went to

the ones whose society had already written off,

the ones with nothing to offer back. He didn't

wait for them to clean themselves up and he came

to them. He went to where they were. They didn't

come close to him. He went to them. He was sent

and He went. And here's why. Jesus knew that

being fully known and fully loved creates an

overflow that you can't contain. He couldn't

stay silent about that His Father's love. He

couldn't distance himself from broken people.

Every time he crossed a boundary, the disciples

thought he shouldn't cross. Every time he stopped

for someone the world had decided wasn't worth

stopping for, he was overflowing with the Father's

love. Not performing, not following a strategy,

overflowing. And that overflow led him all the

way to the cross. Because Jesus understood what

it meant to be fully exposed. He came in human

vulnerability. He was seen completely. His suffering,

his shame, his death, laid bare in front of everyone.

There was nowhere to hide on that cross. And

yet he stayed. He went through with it. He didn't

manage what people got to see. He let it all

be seen. He paid the price. He absorbed every

reason we should be disqualified. Every afternoon

walk, every jar left at the wall, every version

of ourselves we've kept hidden. He took it all.

And He went to that cross anyway. So here is

what that means for us. Jesus doesn't ask us

to do anything that He hasn't already done. He

was fully exposed. He was fully sent. He went

to the spaces where culture said he didn't belong.

He overflowed with grace, with seeing, with choosing,

choosing the unchosen. And when exposure came,

when shame came, when death came, he went through

it for us so that we wouldn't have to hide anymore.

That's the only thing that moves people from

hiding to being sent. From going from a Sunday

into your Monday From the well to the village.

It's not a good sermon that makes you go through

back out those doors It's not a fancy alliterated

series that we do It's an encounter with Jesus

who knew everything about you before you even

showed up and chose you anyway He went first

so that you could go he was sent so that you

could be sent He overflowed all the way to a

cross so that you would have something to overflow

with. That woman at the well didn't manufacture

her own courage. She didn't talk herself into

going back into that town. She had an encounter

with Jesus. And that was enough to change everything

for her. The same Jesus who sat down with her

at the well. who crossed every boundary to get

to her, who saw everything she had been through

and stayed anyway. He is the one that is sending

you. Now, we've walked through the text and we've

seen this woman's story, but their sermon isn't

called Sunday Invaders. It's called Monday Invaders

and Monday is well, it's tomorrow. So the biggest

barrier to everything we have just talked about

isn't out there in the world. It's actually here

in this room on a Sunday afternoon. If we never

let ourselves be actually encountered here, you

will never flow out there. If our Sunday stays

a performance, the right songs, the right responses,

the right version of ourselves on show, we will

leave this room the same person as we arrived.

And a transaction we know doesn't move anyone.

It won't move you, it won't move your neighbour

and it won't move your street. So before we talk

about Monday, we need to talk about right now.

What are you hiding? What have you been managing

behind the scenes? What shame have you carried

into this room today that you thought would disqualify

you? Jesus already knows it. He knows all of

it. He knows every version of yourself that you've

kept hidden, every noontime walk that you've

taken, every reason you've told yourself that

you're not the type. He sees it and he names

it. And instead of walking away, he stays. He

goes to the cross. He absorbs every reason. You

should be disqualified and pays the price for

it all. And that's the gospel. That's a God who

sees everything about you and chooses you anyway.

So just for a moment, Stop performing, stop managing

and let him see what you actually brought in

here today, because that's where encounter happens.

Not when we have it all together, but right here,

right now, exactly as we are. That encounter

being completely known, completely forgiven,

completely chosen, that's what overflows on Monday.

Not out of obligation, not out of guilt, just

the overwhelming reality that you have been fully

seen and are still fully loved. That's what sent

her running and that's what will send us out

into our Monday. So this week... I challenge

you, go and find, go and serve, go and sit with,

feed someone who's hungry, listen to someone

who's lonely, see someone the world has already

walked past, the person sleeping rough on the

way to work, the family that's doing it tough

on your street, the one with nothing to give

back, the gospel in one hand and the meal in

other to anyone God places in front of us. And

sometimes it doesn't feel like a big moment.

Sometimes it won't feel like a mission. Sometimes

it will just feel like an ordinary Monday. Bonhoeffer

puts it like this. We must be ready to allow

ourselves to be interrupted by God who will send

people across our path with their demands and

requests. We can then pass them by preoccupied

with our important daily tasks. When we do that,

we pass by the visible sign of the cross raised

in our lives. That last line, the visible sign

of the cross is what he means. The cross is the

moment God chose radical love over convenience.

Jesus didn't walk past anyone, not once. He stopped

for the inconvenient ones, the ones who needed

too much, the ones who would cost him something,

and it ended up costing him everything. So every

person God places in front of you on a Monday

is a cross -shaped moment. And when we walk past

them too busy, too preoccupied, too focused on

where we're going to stop, we're not just missing

an opportunity. We're walking past the very thing

the cross was for. The person in the checkout

line, the coworker eating lunch alone, the neighbour

you wave to, but you never stop for. Jesus died

for that person. Sometimes being a Monday invader

is just refusing to walk past them. And being

a Monday invader doesn't always look the same.

Sometimes it looks like the woman at the well

running, actively seeking people out, going back

to the town, going first. Sometimes it's just

being the one person who actually saw someone,

because that's what Jesus did at the well. Sometimes

it looks like slowing down, enough to notice

who God has already placed in front of you. And

sometimes, It's an invitation to come and see.

All are the same overflow. All are the overflow

of the same encounter. All are the same cross

-shaped love. The posture might look different,

but the source of the sending is the same. So

go and invite someone. to come and see not because

you have to not because what happened to you

but because what happened to you is too real

to keep hidden the woman at the well didn't prepare

a fancy sermon for her friend she didn't have

all the answers to tell the town people she just

said come and see that's a whole invitation but

just what is she actually asking them to see

i wondered She's not asking them to come and

see our building, though it is very nice. She

didn't ask to come and see a service. We've got

good people here. She didn't ask them to come

and see our program. She came to ask them to

come and see a person. Come and see. Jesus. Come

and see someone who knew everything about me

and didn't walk away. Come and see someone who

sat down at the well when nobody else would.

Come and see someone who saw me fully and chose

me anyway. That's what she's pointing to. Not

an idea, not a religion. Jesus. And that's still

the invitation for us to take. When we say come

and see, we're not selling a church. We're pointing

our people to a person. The same person who sat

down at the well is the one who's sitting with

you in this room today and wants to be sitting

out there with those people. Come and see what

he could do for you. Now your mission field isn't

somewhere you need to go and find. It's already

around you, it's out of those doors. You're already

on the doorstep to your mission field. You're

already placed where you are needed. She invaded

her own town with nothing but an encounter and

an invitation. That's Monday Invaders. Not a

value on a wall, not a series with merch. A decision

that you make when you walk out of here today.

Like a burp, an encounter with Jesus was never

designed to be kept in. It was meant to flow

out, back onto those streets. No longer do we

stay hidden. We give a simple invitation, come

and see. That is enough. It was enough for her

and it's going to be enough for us. Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we just thank you that you show us

an example of what it means to be a Monday invader.

We thank you for the work that you did upon the

cross for us, that you took our shame, that you

took our disqualifications, that you chose us

and you went on the cross anyway. Lord Jesus,

we just ask that this week that you give us a

fresh reminder of the people who the world overlooks.

Lord, speak to us as we go about our day. Help

us to see the people that we walk past, the people

that are in front of us, the people that need

to hear about what you could do. Lord Jesus,

as we worship today. May you put upon our hearts

about having an encounter with you. Don't let

us perform. Don't let us stay the same. Meet

us here. Meet us as we are. Transform us so that

we can go back into our Mondays with an overflow

of what you have done, of your love. would love

to hear from you on Instagram, at Encana Henley.

Or if you're interested in how you can support

this ministry, please go to our website, EncanaAdelaide

.com .au. Thanks again for listening. God bless

you.