Sunday Mornings | At Our Best | Part 2

Thank you for listening to the Kelowna Christian Center Podcast.

Our desire is that today's message will be fresh and encouraging to you.

For more information on Case DC and how to connect, visit us at KCT.net.

Good morning.

How you guys doing this morning?

Doing good?

Well, welcome to K.

My name is Malachi.

I'm part of the pastoral team here.

I'm excited to be here.

This is the first time I've preached in this church, so let's uh let's have some fun this morning, eh?

So this is uh this is the second week of our of our series that Pastor Brody kind of launched us into is is at our best.

And uh it's on the topic of when KCC is is at our when we're at our best, when when we personally are at our best, we as a church are at our best.

And so uh Pastor Brody he shared an amazing message about uh putting Jesus first.

And and the thought of when KCC is at its best, we're putting the gospel first.

The gospel's our primary message, the gospel of Jesus.

And and in my own life, when I put Jesus first, um my relationship with him is priority, and I I get to I get to see people like Jesus did.

So when we do that, we we get an opportunity to see like Jesus.

We get to we get to look at people and we get to to have that opportunity.

And so our focus needs to be Jesus first.

And so the method, uh Pastor Buddy was talking about the method might be different.

We might have all these fancy lights.

The guy on stage might be wearing a really tight leather jacket and tight black pants.

Um, the method might be different, but the message is the same.

So don't judge me for not wearing socks today.

They're there, they're there, they're just really small.

And and Andrew Green actually started a sock fund for me, so you can thank him.

That's that's not set in place yet, socks are expensive these days.

But I'm I'm really excited to be sharing this message with you guys this morning.

And the title of this message is called That Doesn't Belong There.

That Doesn't Belong There.

And so if you wanna go with me to John 4, uh verses, we're gonna start in verse 3, and uh it's gonna be on the Sky Bible, as we like to call it.

Um if you don't have a Bible, I'm sure you do, because you have a phone, and everyone has a Bible and a phone.

So if you want to just go with me, I'm just gonna, as I read it, I'll give you guys some context of where we are and what's happening in the scripture.

It's that it's Jesus and uh he basically is uh he's with uh his disciples at this point.

It's kind of early in his ministry, and uh and John the Baptist is essentially he's he's passed on the baton of ministry to Jesus.

He's baptized Jesus and he's kind of said, like, here you go, I've done my part.

John's whole mission was to make way for this Messiah called Jesus.

And so uh there's a dispute that kind of rises up in the in the chapter before this between uh John the Baptist's disciples and and Jesus' disciples.

They see Jesus' disciples, they're they're they're just uh they're baptizing people across the street.

And and John's disciples are like, hey, like that was that was our job.

What what gives?

Like who are these guys?

They didn't they didn't understand what was happening, and so John had addressed this idea or at this issue.

And uh, but Jesus sees that there's a bit of controversy happening, so he he actually he goes, he he has to leave, and it says in verse 3, he left Judea and departed again to Galilee.

And then it says in verse 4, but he needed to go through Samaria.

So he came to the city of Samaria, which is called a city of Samaria, which is called Sikar.

Hopefully I pronounced that pronounced that right, uh, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

Now Jacob's well was there.

Jesus therefore, being wearied from his journey, sat thus next to the well, and it was about the sixth hour, so it was about the hottest part of the day.

And a woman of 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.

Then the woman of Samaria said to him, with shock in her voice, she said, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask from me a Samaritan woman for a drink?

For the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

And Jesus answered her, He said, If you knew the gift of God and who it is and who it is, and who says to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked.

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 with.

The well is deep, and where do you get that living water?

Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gives us the well and drank from it himself?

And so at this point she's kind of confused.

She thinks, she doesn't understand what Jesus means by living water.

He I think she thinks that maybe there's a river or a stream or a fountain.

And Jesus says to her, Again, whoever drinks of this water, the well, will thirst again, this natural water, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.

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

And so at this point she's kind of she sees and understands that this man is a little bit different than the others.

And she says to him, she starts to understand a little bit.

She's like, Where does this where can I get this water?

This sounds really good.

Like this water sounds awesome.

I I don't want to thirst anymore.

It's pretty, it's pretty uh unpractical for me to come out of this well every single day.

I want I want this water that you're talking about.

And then he drops a bomb on her and he says, Go call your husband and come here.

And she says to him, I have no husband.

And Jesus said, You have said well, I have no husband, for you have five husbands, and the one whom you were with is not your husband.

And that you troks spoke truly.

And so she she kind of changes the topic at after this point because it got a little bit awkward for her.

It got a little bit uncomfortable.

And so she she she immediately said, Well, you're I think you're a prophet, but I'm gonna actually talk about worship.

So she starts debating uh this theological idea about what worship is and you know Jesus being Jesus in this story.

He he goes along with it and he's like, Okay, well, you want to go that way, we'll go this way.

And uh so she tried to she try to diverts the the conversation and talks about worship, and then but in the end of this conversation, this is what I want to look at here, is in verse 25, the woman says to him, she basically has this conversation, and then at the end of it, she's like, Well, you know what?

There's there's a Messiah coming.

And she says, I know that he's coming, his name is gonna be Christ.

And when he comes, he'll he'll tell us all the things, he'll tell us everything.

And and so at this point, Jesus says to her, I am I who speak to you and am he.

And so he he drops the second bomb on her.

He's he essentially he reveals himself as the Messiah that she's been waiting for at this well.

I don't know how long she's been coming to this well and drawing from this well and and drawing from this this this place of just trying to find herself.

But he in this moment says, I am I'm the one you're looking for.

And and at this at this point, exactly at this point, the disciples come back and it says uh his disciples marveled that he even talked to this woman.

Yet no one said, What do you seek?

Why are you with her?

Why are you talking to her?

Which is to say that they're cowards, because they were didn't know what to say to Jesus.

They just thought it.

But he knew what they thought.

Um so this woman, she I think she's scared at this point because she's she's a Samaritan.

She just talked about how the Jews hated the Samaritans, and so she sees these disciples, and they're a bunch of Jewish boys, and they're probably a little bit gruffer than Jesus looked.

And so they're coming, and she sees the dust cloud, and she she leaves her water pot, so she's running into town.

And she says, in verse 29, this is where I want to to end here is come see a man who told me all the things that I ever did.

Could this be the Christ?

Let's pray.

Father, we just thank you for your word.

We thank you for uh this morning that we can gather on a Sunday.

We're free to worship you, we're free to speak about you, we're free to express how we how you've changed our lives.

We're not controlled by anything else.

God, we live in such a free space.

We thank you, God, for this time.

I pray that your word would just come into our hearts and and we would leave never the same.

We wouldn't leave the same.

In Jesus' name.

Everyone said?

Amen.

So, how many of you remember uh as a kid, or maybe even a teenager or an adult, your mom saying to you, that doesn't belong there?

How anyone?

Is it just me?

Is it just me?

That like she said she would say this to you, that doesn't belong there.

That's not where that goes.

I'm sure Valas probably had to say this billions of times to her kids.

Um that doesn't belong there.

And you know, maybe you were like me, uh, as a kid, I would I would run home from the bus and I would be sprinting into my house and uh and I would kick down the door essentially, and I would just take off my backpack and I would throw it to the corner, and I would take off my jacket right where I was, and I would just kick off my shoes to the eight different corners of the room, and then I would sprint to the kitchen because I was hungry and I was a growing boy.

And so I would actually I would grab my mom's uh the biggest bowl that she had, which is the big salad bowl, and I would take my cereal, it was life cereal, which is terrible for you.

Um I just found out this, but uh, I would I would put a half a box of cereal in this bowl and then glug glug glug the milk, and I would sprint to the to the to the TV room, and uh I had a PlayStation 2.

I don't know if anyone you remember the PlayStation 2, it's a little bit old now, but PlayStation 4 kind of dummies it, but it's okay.

But I would run into my room and I and I was so excited, I just began playing and I was eating, and and and not even five minutes later would go by or maybe seconds, and I would hear this kind of shrieking voice.

And I'm sorry if this is loud, but that doesn't belong there.

Your your shoes don't belong in the middle of the room.

And I would hear this from my mom, and I was and I was I would get all scared, right?

I'd be like, oh, sounded like someone was trying to attack me.

And and so, but my mom was just she was like any other mom.

She was really just trying to keep the house clean, and I think this was the eternal struggle, struggle of anyone with kids.

Amen?

And I was the kid that was making her have gray hair.

Um so but one thing my mom, you know, she really didn't like, and I'm sorry I have to take some water, but she would say to me, or she she really didn't like me and my friends wrestling in the house.

And uh my dad would consistently make us weapons uh that were usually uh uh from Lord of the Rings or Star Wars, and we would battle in the house, or and if those broke, we would start fist fighting uh and things would break.

And she said this phrase, she said this phrase to me all the time.

She says, if you're gonna do that, do it up, do it outside.

You know?

Can you hear the mom?

I'm making my mom look bad, she's an amazing woman.

Um you know, for good for good reason.

It didn't belong inside.

Wrestling and fighting didn't belong inside because most of you know that when boys fight, things get broken, right?

All the moms, yeah.

Amen.

Preaching to the ladies this morning.

Too bad that most of them were here.

So it was a Sunday afternoon, and I remember this because it was painful.

Um and it was when I was a kid, it was a Sunday afternoon, it was sunny, it was hot, and so we didn't have AC in our house, and so I was in my shorts, and uh and uh and so I was just sitting there on the couch, and I was probably eating cereal because I really loved cereal.

And uh and so my dad, you know, he he liked to bug me, he liked to to poke and prod at me until I would eventually fight him.

And so he was throwing things at me and kind of like making fun of me, not in a mean way, he was just bonding.

And uh this is what I grew up with.

It's a little bit abusive, just kidding.

Don't report my parents.

Um and so uh my dad would, you know, he got me to this point where I'm just like it's on.

Like I got up from the from my couch and I kind of spilt my cereal to the side, and it was it was on.

Like you made me spill my cereal, we are wrestling, we are going to town, and and and we would start, and I remember he would I would run into him and he would grab me and kind of whip me around and throw me into the couch.

It was a soft couch, don't worry.

Um and uh and so this would this was going on for about five minutes, and my mom had enough and her OCD was kicking in, and she's like, breakables everywhere.

Um she said this phrase if you're gonna if you're gonna do that, go outside.

This doesn't belong here.

Stop wrestling in my house.

And as most of the women know, men are hard of hearing.

And so especially especially when they're fighting each other and where there's a task at hand.

And so the battle continued, obviously.

Before I go on uh in the story, I'll give you like the real reason why mom didn't like uh us wrestling.

And and you know, part of it was the breakables, and and she really liked westerns.

She really loved the western theme house.

And uh so she had John Wayne on the wall, she had uh Clint Eastwood, the good, bad, and the ugly, pictures everywhere.

And uh some of you have no idea who I'm talking about.

Um that's okay.

And so she had uh she had cowboy hats, you name it, like everything.

She had saddles, she loved horses, she loved the western theme, and I think that's why I resent country music to this day.

If you know me, I really don't like it.

But along, you know, along with the theme of of the Western kind of stuff that she had in the house, she had cactus as well.

But they weren't just they weren't just the cute little cactuses that we have out there with no sp like spikes or things like that that could actually hurt you, but they were like these four feet high, four foot-high cactuses around the house.

Like everywhere.

And and some of them were in in pods of like the big ones, and then they had like the really spiky ones that we stayed away from.

And they had like kind of like the sort of spiky ones, but then there was this big one, it was, I remember it, and I would always pick off the the spikes because I hated it.

I would stab myself on it all the time.

My mom would get so mad, she's killing my cactus, she would say, and I would just pick it away at it.

And and I remember that I seen this, this she had it was like her prize possession, it was big, it was a big cactus.

And uh and it was sitting in the living room where me and my dad were wrestling.

So most of you can probably figure out the next part of the story.

So back to the match, and I I remember my dad, you know, he was destroying me, so I I needed to win.

So I I had one last little play in the book, and I and I remember running and I leapt at him.

I leapt leapt from my feet as hard as I could, and he was kind of laughing because he so he just sidestepped me and grabbed me and started swinging me.

And so what he thought he was swinging me into was the couch, but it was no longer there.

The couch was no longer there.

For some reason, he he had he had turned his body so the the cactus was behind him, and I and I couldn't see the cactus because all I could see was victory.

I needed to defeat my father.

You know what I mean?

I needed to win, and so I didn't see the cactus, so I I didn't care.

And so he s he grabbed me and he swung me, and it was like slow motion.

And I remember his face turning from like like it was like happy and laughter and male bonding into like I'm gonna destroy my son and this cactus.

So he let me go before he could realize it, and I went butt first into this garden of cacti.

And you know, my my mother was right, right?

She was right.

Wrestling did not belong in the house, but as I was sitting there, that was not the case.

As I was sitting in this cactus, hysteria had broken out, and I wasn't getting help, and I couldn't call 911 because I was stuck to the cactus, and my parents were laughing, and my sister enjoyed it way too much.

And you know, I was sitting there thinking, you know what, mom?

Your cactus doesn't belong inside.

Your cactus belongs out there.

And uh so that that doesn't belong there.

Something's out of place.

You know, I think I think most of us in this room, you could say that you've probably said that phrase one or tw one or two times in your life, or maybe even just thought it.

Maybe as you were driving in, you saw someone's awful parking job in the parking lot, and you're like, man, that doesn't belong there.

That's oh, I can't believe someone would park like that.

Or maybe you were like me and you love cereal and you were tired some mornings and you would put the cereal in the in the fridge and the milk in the cupboard, and you say that doesn't belong there.

And so there's so many times that you know things happen and it doesn't it just doesn't fit.

There's so many things that we could look at.

And I think if we're if we're really honest, if we want to get really honest with me here this morning, I think it's really easy for us as humans and for ourselves to let our mentality let that shift to people and how we see people.

That they don't belong or a certain person doesn't kind of fit in.

And I think, yeah, if we're really honest, it's really easy for us.

And I, you know, you see someone walk through at the doors of the church and maybe they have like a swear word on their t-shirt, and you're like immediately your brain's like, well, that doesn't belong here.

And it's it's not necessarily wrong of you, but it's it's easy for us, right?

You see someone, uh you you have a coworker that you just can't stand, and they're really annoying, and they come into your office and you're like, Well, I just wish that they wouldn't be here right now.

They don't my their office and me, my office and and them don't fit.

They don't fit in this space.

I just wish that they would go back to theirs.

And and I think it's really easy for us to think this way, to judge first.

It's like a it's like a human, the human condition is to just judge first and ask questions later.

And so we hear we see here back in John, John 4, Jesus is in Judea and his plan is to go back to Galilee.

And in verse 4, he says, he needed to go to Samaria.

It was he had, I mean, he I'm sure he had choices.

He could have gone like anyway.

There was different routes to go to Samaria, but he he needed to go.

Something was causing him to take this inconvenient road.

And uh, and so historically, historically, the the Jewish people, uh when they were traveling from either Judea to Galilee or Galilee to Judea, they would actually travel two extra days to go around Samaria.

They would they they didn't go through Samaria, it was unethical, it was culturally uh unacceptable.

And the Samaritans uh they were hated by the Jewish people.

They they they considered them as half-breeds, they considered them uh they were half Jew, half Gentile, and they they would consider them actually, they would call them dogs.

They were mutts.

That's just the Jewish people hated the Samaritan people.

And and and partly because uh they would they would follow part of the they would they would follow the books of Moses, the five books of Moses, but then they would they would mix their their cultic practices within it.

So that the Jewish people couldn't, they couldn't stand them.

And it was and it was actually social suicide for these these uh Jews to go through Samaria.

People would excommunicate them if they went through.

And so for Jesus, it says he needed to go to Samaria.

So you see the the problem here is is Jesus is a Jew, right?

I mean, for him to even consider this is outrageous.

People were looking at him like, what are you doing?

And and you think it's not just Jesus going through, it's it's all his disciples that have to follow because they've they've chosen this life.

They've chosen this life to follow Jesus, and and you can imagine what they're thinking.

I mean, they just went through uh John's disciples being like a little bit chapped at them because they took their job, and so everyone's kind of looking at them like, Who are those guys?

They just kind of stepped in and and took over and and they're taking our job, and and so these disciples are not popular, right?

And they're looking at Jesus like, Who is this guy?

The Pharisees come in, they're stepping in, and they're kind of pointing fingers and being like, Who who is this guy?

I don't I don't know if I like this guy.

And so everyone's kind of looking at Jesus and the disciples, and then they make this decision to go to Samaria and you think, you know, like why do we why do we have to go to Samaria?

Jesus, like everyone goes around.

Why can't we just go around?

And you know, they're thinking all these things, but uh eventually they just go.

And uh and it says in verse 5, we read it earlier, verse 5 to 8, it says, So he came to the city of Samaria, which is called Sakar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

Now Jacob's well was there, Jesus therefore being wearied from his journey, kind of shows how uh human Jesus was as well.

He sat thus by the well, and it was the sixth hour, so it was the most inconvenient time of the day, it's the hottest time in the desert.

And and it says in verse eight that for his disciples had gone away.

So his disciples were actually already gone when this woman came in verse 7 to draw from the well.

And so this meeting, it wasn't by accident.

It wasn't like Jesus was like, I feel like I need to go to Samaria today.

Let's let's go, guys.

Let's just go and do this really uh outrageous, unpopular thing to do that would probably get us excommunicated.

That let's just go to Samaria.

No, he actually like had a had a plan, right?

It was on purpose.

And I and I think that everything Jesus did in the Bible is it was on purpose.

And you can see his heart in this.

If you kind of read between the lines a little bit, he's He's understanding that this woman is probably not super s like fond of Jewish people, probably a little bit scared, maybe a little bit timid because she's coming out to this well, and Jesus sends his disciples away.

And he sits and waits.

Right?

His intention was to meet this woman where she was at, to build trust with her.

He he immediately sends his disciples away because he's like, These guys are gonna make a fool of me.

They're gonna probably be a bunch of idiots.

I'm gonna send them, go get food, guys.

And he so he sits and he waits.

And you know, sometimes I think in order for us to get to people's hearts, it might be inconvenient.

It might be inconvenient, might be out of our regular scheduled program that we have to go and meet people, or we might have to miss that playoff game, or we might have to be late for a meeting, we might have to go out of our way a little bit.

Jesus' mission was, as Brody had said last week, is to reach the lost.

It was to come for He came for the sick, not for the healthy.

He came for the sick.

So if that is his mission, and that was his mission, isn't that ours?

Isn't that our mission as well?

And so I think me and Brody were talking about this.

We live in a culture of convenience.

You know, if it's if it's so con if it's convenient for us, we'll help someone.

And I'm not saying this is everybody, but this is kind of where we tend to live.

And we live in a culture of convenience.

We pay for convenience.

We pay money for things to be convenient.

And it's not necessarily a bad thing.

I'm not saying technology is a bad thing.

I think it's awesome we have devices that can sit in our homes and we can tell them to turn our lights on and dim the lights or turn them up or turn the music on, and we just have to sit on our couch, and it's like convenient because you don't have to move.

It's awesome.

I want one of those things.

My wedding registry is from Bed, Bath and Beyond if you guys want that, skitty.

But uh you can sit on your couch and you can say, Hey Siri, I want dominoes.

Order some.

And then the pizza arrives, and if you're like, Brody, you have one of those fancy Apple watches, you don't even have to type your pin in.

You just tap your watch on the thing, and it's the pizza's yours.

It's awesome.

But we I'm not saying that the world, you know, convenience is is is is being fed to us.

It's the world is being designed to be convenient for us.

And if we're not careful, we become addicted to convenience past what is okay.

Right?

And so for us to be counter-culture to this is unnatural.

It actually is way harder for us.

It's it's hard.

It's it's it's not easy.

And sometimes, you know, it's actually easy for us.

It's or it's it's better for us, sorry, to take the hard way.

It's better for us.

Like I I don't want to go to the gym, but I need to.

I I work in an office.

I I gained 15 pounds over like six months.

I need to go to the gym, and I'm also getting married, so um, that's another need.

That's not really my choice anymore.

Um I love cereal, but if I eat cereal all the time, I'm gonna be ingesting so much sugar into my body, and the gym is gonna be, it's not gonna work.

So I need I need to cut back on my lifestyle of unhealthy eating.

It's hard.

That stuff's hard.

I I don't wanna be I don't wanna be late for anything.

I don't want to be late for a meeting because maybe I'm talking with someone who actually needs my attention.

I'm actually I'm talking to someone who needs to know that they're worth more than the phone ringing in my pocket.

I mean, we we go to we go to a coffee bar, we go to a coffee shop with someone, we immediately we take our phone.

I don't even have it with me, that's good.

Um step one.

Yeah, Chris has got it.

Um we immediately we put our phones out and we put it face up.

And we talk to someone in a kind of our one eye is looking down to see if we're still connected with the world.

Yeah, right?

And you're missing that connection.

I I need to take the hard way, I need to take the inconvenient way, because it's not about me, it's about it's about them, right?

It's about it's about making people feel like they're worth something, whether whether worth they're valued.

Right?

I value them with my eye contact, with my attention.

And you see, Jesus did this, he was sitting when the woman came.

His posture was sitting, and he wasn't lording over her, he was making eye contact, and he was talking with her.

He didn't have a cell phone out, answering emails.

You know, you have like five husbands, right?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, just sent.

Now I can talk to you, right?

He was looking at her.

You know, if we want to see the church grow, and I think I think many of us do.

I think all of us in this room, I could say that we want to see revival.

We want to see Jesus move, we want to see people come back, we want to see Jesus' love shown.

We want to see the church expand and be the influence, not the influenced.

Right?

We're gonna have to take the hard way.

We're gonna have to go out of our way, and it might lead to awkward conversation.

And the Samaritan woman, she comes to draw from the well, and the first words of her mouth we read it, is how is it that you are talking to me?

You're you're a Jewish rabbi, and how are you talking to me, a woman who's a Samaritan?

And and Jesus is breaking some serious rules here.

We have to we have to look at this in the in the context of what's written.

It's this culture was very religious.

Jesus is breaking rules in this, in, in that saying that he's a rabbi, right?

He's a teacher.

He was it was completely unethical for him to even speak to women in public.

They were so looked down upon.

Even as if it was his own sister or wife, he couldn't speak to them because in public.

And so he's he's breaking rules here.

He's uh the second elephant in the room is that he's a Jew talking to a Samaritan, right?

And he's not just talking to her, he's proceeding to try and get to her heart.

And he's and he's talking about, he confuses her a little bit by talking about he's the living water.

You know, if you drink from this well, you'll go thirsty, but I am the one you've been waiting for.

And it takes her a while to get this, and eventually she asks, you know, where can I get this water?

Where can I get this water?

And then the conversation gets awkward.

I don't know why Jesus does this, but he says, Go get your husband.

She says, I have no husband.

And she says, he says, You have you're right, you have five, and the one you're with is not your husband, and it just got more awkward.

So you see, Jesus isn't simply just trying to point out her faults.

He's not in this to make her feel less than she already feels.

He's not in this to just read her mail and then send her hanging dr hang her out to dry.

Right?

He's not just in this to to push her down further than she is and heap on shame by saying, Hey, you're doing these things.

He's not doing that.

He wasn't he wasn't willing to let her sit in darkness, right?

He wasn't willing to let her just sit.

And he didn't he didn't come to the earth.

It says God so loved the world that he sent his son, but he didn't send his son just to to pat us on the back and be like, it's okay, it's it's fine, whatever you're doing is fine, it's alright.

Well, you know, I just I love you so much, I just love you, I just love you, it's uh it's okay, I don't want to offend you, I don't want to make you feel bad.

Uh I just gonna I'm just gonna make sure that I never say anything offensive to you.

No, he he wasn't willing to let you and me and her sit in darkness.

He wasn't willing.

And I'm not I'm not saying we need to go out and and and point out people's sin and and we need to go out and be like charging with like our flag saying you guys are worse than us.

I'm not saying that.

I'm not saying we need to go out and try to read people's mail and be like, you know what, you're in sin and you're in sin and and you're doing that thing wrong, and I'm not saying that.

You see, Jesus, you you have to see it, his process, he he built the bridge, right?

He was waiting for her, sitting.

His posture was love, his posture was hope.

He he gave her the answer before she even could figure it out.

He says that you draw from me, you're not gonna go thirsty.

You draw from me, you're you're not gonna have to come to this well anymore.

Right?

He didn't he didn't just say, hey, you're a bad person.

See ya.

Right?

It's not our job to just point out people's fault.

We have to build that bridge.

But we can't be afraid.

We can't be afraid to to pull people out of darkness.

We can't be so afraid to tell someone that, you know, I love you, but I I don't think the way that you're living is is gonna be good for your your long-term goal of your life.

And you you you don't just point out the sin, but you you you pull them out of darkness and you point them to Jesus.

Right?

And so you see, this is a big statement that Jesus is making.

This woman, she was so disconnected and disenfranchised from her own culture, from her own people, not just the Jewish culture, but from her own people.

Right?

She was she came out to this well that was outside of town.

And there was actually there were wells inside of town.

And they wouldn't, the women wouldn't go to the well by themselves.

And so she's going to the well that's outside of town.

She's forced out of her own community, she's forced out of her own culture to come to this well in the hottest part of the day, and she finds Jesus.

And so this purposeful encounter is kind of telling us that it doesn't matter where you are, it doesn't matter where you're at, it doesn't matter what you've done, it doesn't matter what your past looks like, it doesn't matter what your track record looks like, God can come in a moment.

Jesus can come, he comes in a moment and sets her free.

It doesn't matter, he'll use anyone.

It doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter your color, it doesn't matter your size, it doesn't matter your age, it doesn't matter how many times you screwed up in the past.

So Jesus is saying, He says, I'll use the worst of the worst to get to the town.

I'll use I'll use this woman and I'm gonna set that town free through her.

So Jesus, he comes and he and his posture is hope.

His posture is love.

At the end of the conversation, we saw, he says, I'm the answer you're looking for.

I'm the hope that you've been waiting for, I'm the well that won't run dry.

We sing that all the time.

You draw from me, you'll never go thirsty.

It doesn't just leave her stranded, it doesn't leave her out in the open.

We need to be able to do that for people.

We need to, we need to do as Jesus did.

We need to build the bridge.

We need to go where people are at.

It's gonna get inconvenient.

And it might even be awkward.

You might have some awkward conversations with people, you might be uncomfortable.

But this woman, you know, we can we can see, you know, the conversation is interesting, but we can see at the end of it that she doesn't leave in shame, she doesn't leave in pain, she doesn't leave hopeless, she doesn't leave worse off.

She actually leaves running.

She leaves her water pot.

You can see she's running into town.

She has unexplainable hope that just hit her.

She has hope.

She's running into town and she's she doesn't care who sees her.

Everyone knows who she is in this town.

Everyone knows that she's been doing the things that she's been doing.

She's shouting in the streets, hey, come come see a man that told me everything I ever did.

Come see a man that knows every sin I committed, every fault that I've ever done, every wrong thing, and still loves me.

And still sees me.

He accepts me.

He he he came and sat where I was at.

He came and met me.

I was just going out to do my chores and he came and met me.

He came to me.

I didn't have to find him somewhere.

He came out to meet me.

His posture was love.

He looked at me in the eyes, he sat down with me.

You can imagine this woman, how long, how long it's been for her.

How many years she grew up, maybe she made one bad choice and it turned into another, and it turned into another, and it turned into another, and then eventually she was looking back behind her and she was just stuck.

And so the only way she could go anywhere is just to keep going the way she knew.

And how long did she was she waiting?

How long was she waiting for this Messiah?

She says it.

It's important to her.

She's been waiting, she's been coming out to draw from this well.

Maybe she was trying to draw from the well to find value.

She was trying to find worth from these these five men.

She didn't have any self-worth.

She was going out to draw.

And over myself, I mean, as weird as it is to say I'm like the Samaritan woman.

I started coming to this church a number of years ago.

It was almost by accident.

I didn't really mean to come, but I stayed.

I ran away from my hometown.

I was I was caught in this kind of double life, and I and I got in so deep that I felt like I was stuck.

I felt like I was stuck, and I everyone who knew me.

It was a small town, so there was a lot of a lot of judgment.

And I just remember just being stuck.

So I I moved away, I moved to Vernon, and and I kind of guess got worse and it got deeper and it got harder.

And uh I remember I met a few people that actually came here, and uh I was like, yeah, I guess I'll go go to church.

Because I'd gone to church my whole life, but I was just in this in this place where I was just so stuck.

And I remember just okay, I'll I'll come to church.

And I remember I came in and I met a few people, and uh I would kind of come off and on, and I wouldn't get too deep because I didn't want I didn't want people to know who I was.

I met um one of my best friends today, is Jamin, Ashley, and Joel.

I met a few people here, and then I would kind of keep them on a distance though, I'd like to keep a little poll out so they didn't get too close.

And uh and I remember this, it was in summertime, and it was just one day, and I remember I I had randomly kind of played guitar for this church at Young Adults.

I met Pastor Brody and uh and Trudy and a few people, and and uh and I remember I was just sitting there and and I Trish Brewer actually messaged me.

I don't know how she got a hold of me, and she said, Hey, uh, we got a new youth pastor coming in to our to our church.

We would we would love to actually have you come out to this youth meeting.

And I'm sitting there, I'm like, no, like no way.

Like, me?

Why would you want me?

Why would you want me to be a youth leader?

Like, do you know me?

Do you know how far I've gone in this wrong direction?

Do you they didn't no one knew me.

And so something in me made me go.

And it was it was 100% God because I started coming and I immediately started connecting with Sean and Val.

Pastor Sean has been probably one of the biggest influences in my life.

And uh I remember coming in and I just immediately connected with him and I I just started helping him.

I just wanted to help, and I was, and I still, but I still had this kind of shame sitting on me, really heavy.

But Sean was he was he went out, he went out to get me.

He went out of his way.

He went to meet with me.

It was inconvenient for him.

He didn't know who I was.

He was like, hey, I believe in you, I believe there's something in you.

I want you to, I want you to come, I want you to serve, I want you to be here, I want to meet with you.

And he he he did this, he started meeting with me, and we had some awkward conversations, we had some hard conversations.

He started to challenge me, he started to ask me the questions that no one else would, no one else had ever asked me before.

And I remember as this a couple months went on of this, and I was just feeling heavy, and I remember we went to this this conference, it's uh it's called Region, it's in it's in Chilliwack, it's an amazing youth conference we take our students to every year.

Um, and I remember it was the end of the conference, and I was the whole weekend, I was like, man, why am I here?

Why am I how am I here?

How am I in this place?

How am I serving this team?

How am I with these youth students?

They they love God so much, and you know, I have to say I love God because I want to look good, but I don't know if I do.

And and in this moment, this the preacher came up and it was the last service, and he he came out and the music was playing, and I remember just I just started to cry and he started to ask, he's like, hey, like, is there anyone who who have never you've never made that decision to follow Christ?

And then he went on to say, if you you know, maybe you've made that decision a long time ago and you feel like you need to come back, you need to turn around, you may may need to make a detour, come this way.

And I remember just coming out of my seat and I started walking towards the front, and as I walked towards the front, there was this love just kind of grabbed me, and I can't explain it other than a hug.

And I remember just like walking up and I was like, man, what is this?

And it was amazing, and I'd never felt it before.

It was the love of God just kind of holding me and and squeezing me.

And I remember just lifting my hands in the worship and started just crying, and I couldn't stop crying, and I remember I heard the I heard the words audibly in my in my my mind and my heart.

And it's reverberated to me every day every day since.

It's I love you.

I love you.

And it wasn't uh, I love you because or because of this, I love you.

It was just it kind of just cut through everything.

It was like I love you.

And everything, everything that was hurting me just kind of dropped.

Everything that was holding on just kind of fell off.

I remember my life literally changed in that instant.

I remember coming back, I I quit my job.

Some of you are like, Why'd you do that?

Um, I quit my job.

I just knew I needed to get out of that lifestyle.

I knew I needed to get out of that that space that I was in.

So I I quit my job and I moved from Vernon.

I moved as close as I could to the church, and I moved in with this amazing couple, Tanya and Robert.

They serve here at the church.

I remember they just loved on me and they just encouraged me through hard times, and I remember everything had changed in that moment.

It was like this woman, he just said, Hey, I'm the one you're looking for, and everything changed.

Everything changed in a second.

That's why I said at the start of the this message is when you sit in the presence of God, everything can change.

Shame can't be there, pain can't be there, death can't be there.

You sit in his presence, it can't be there.

So, to wrap this up, Jesus came so that we could belong.

He came so that we could belong before we even believed.

He didn't come so that with a with a with a checklist and be like, here, fill this out.

If you can fill all these check marks off, like you can be a part of the team, you can be part of the family.

No, he said, he came and he waited for the woman.

He waited at the well, he said, you belong.

You belong.

And then she believed.

And here at you know, KCC, we're at our best when people belong.

When we can we can help people into that space where they can feel like they belong.

We don't have to check off a checklist before they come in the door, that they can just come in.

And even in our spaces at work, that we would we would we would be people that that are inclusive.

I want to build that culture.

I want to build that with you.

I want to build that with this culture that people can belong.

When we go out of our way, might seem inconvenient, we might have to have those awkward conversations, but we get that opportunity to point them to God.

We get that opportunity to point them to Jesus.

Just gonna bow bow your heads and close your eyes with me.

As I close this message, I I just really wanted to give an opportunity to anybody who has never, if you've never made a decision to follow Christ.

And maybe maybe you were like me and you had made that decision years ago, and maybe you feel like you've gone on a detour a little bit.

And if you're in any of those two categories, I just want to know if you're here.

Just if you'd be so bold, just to just slip your hand up.

And I want to pray for you.

We want to pray this prayer.

If you're just here and you feel like you've you've you've gone off the mark, maybe you've never even made that decision.

Just want to give you a minute.

Just a second.

See, thank you.

The second group of people I want to I want to pray for is maybe you you feel like you have no value.

Maybe you've lost your worth.

Maybe you've been drawing from this proverbial well that the world kind of puts in our face.

It says, here, eat this, take this.

This is where your value comes from.

Maybe you're maybe you're surrounded by an unhealthy group of friends.

Maybe you you put your value in what you have in your bank account.

Maybe you put your value in your in your career, and that's where your value comes from.

And you're drawing from that well.

Or you're drawing from Instagram or Facebook and that social media that that tries to feed and tries to feed us, but it leaves us empty.

Maybe you've been drawing from that.

Well, I want to pray that you you turn to Jesus this morning, that you would, every time, every time you think about those moments where you feel undervalued, you feel worthless, that you would you would turn to him, that even in this moment that God would come and touch you.

I just want to pray this prayer for those first people.

If you could just, as a family, let's just pray together.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for sending your son.

For you so loved us that you would send him to die for our sin.

And Father, we acknowledge that Jesus is our Savior.

We acknowledge that he died on the cross, that he died for our sin, that he died for our shame, that he died for our anxiety, so that we could have new life.

And God, we just thank you for that in Jesus' name.

Amen.

For the second group of people, I just want to pray for you, just as we could just keep our eyes closed.

Just have a moment with God this morning.

Father, we ask that anyone in this room, God, that you you've seen the hands, you've seen the hearts.

Maybe some people in this room are feeling disvalued, undervalued.

Maybe they feel like they can't catch a break.

Maybe they just feel dry inside.

Maybe they feel like they just need a touch of heaven this morning.

And God, I just pray for your refreshing to come.

Your living water would come and flow in each and every person in this room, in their lives, and their families, God.

Maybe, maybe people in this room, maybe they know someone, and it's popped into the head right now that they would be, you would just pray for them, that they would receive that living water, that refreshing, that we would begin to draw from you.

We would draw from the identity that you have placed for us, that you have died for, that we would be children of you, we would be children of God, not children of the world, not children of what people think.

We would begin to draw from you, and from that place, we would help others get there too.

From that place of solid ground, that we would stand, our identity founded in you, we would help people.

We would help them to belong.

This week, as we go throughout our throughout our days, that we would we would think on that.

We would, how do I make people feel like included?

How do I make people feel like they belong?

And that would be our mandate.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.