Come and See the Messiah | Does Jesus Have Something for Me?

Dr. Gregg Marutzky:

Well, good morning, church Good morning.

It is great to be together to worship.

It is great to be together with you as brothers and sisters in Christ,

as disciplers, disciples, and followers of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Don't ever take worship for granted.

Don't take for granted the privilege of coming together with other

believers and taking communion, and this, the, the importance of the

profundity, how important it is.

And thank you so much, Ian, for leading us.

You led me to a good place this morning.

Yeah.

Really good place.

I, I got choked up and teared up as I was taking my bread and my cup.

And so thank you, brother.

You made it come alive for us.

Mm.

And I pray that I can do the same for the whole congregation,

all of you this morning.

As we look at a familiar passage, and any time you look at a familiar passage,

you gotta be careful you don't tune out.

Yeah.

"Oh, I've heard this sermon.

Oh yeah, I've read this so many times, probably thousands of times.

I mean, what can he say that I haven't heard?"

Well, I, I, I think the Lord said some things to me this week from this

verse that I'd never heard of- Wow

and I'd never thought of.

Yeah.

And I think the Lord spoke to me in several ways.

I was at a scholars conference this week in North Carolina.

Our churches put this on every year.

And I went there to gain some depth, some real deeper truths of the scripture,

and all I heard were testimonials And I thought, "This is a different conference."

But it was so profound, and I'll share a little bit of that as

we get into the sermon, but I thought, "This is different."

But it helped me, it helped my heart, and it spoke to me in

what to say to you this morning.

And the more I went through the conference, the more I thought, "Oh, I

don't know if I wanna preach this week."

'Cause I'm gonna be getting in late, I was supposed to get in

at 10:00, I got in at 11:30.

Don't you love the airlines always being right on time?

You know?

And yet I think I'm prepared because the Lord's always discipling all of us.

Amen.

He's always working on our lives.

He's always speaking to us.

And so this morning we're gonna come and see the Messiah, the Anointed One,

the one spoke about for the ages, that they were looking forward to, to come

and save them, to bring them the answers to life, to bring them salvation,

to help this little bitty country that was just a gas station in life.

I mean, Canaan and the, the Promised Land was really just a highway for

the power countries of the world at that time, for Babylon, for Assyria,

for Egypt, for Rome, for Greece.

It was a country that was not respected, that was not honored.

They were a people that had been nomads.

They had been desert dwellers.

The Hebrew, that's what it literally means, means tent dwellers, all right?

The He- Hebrew people were just nomads without a home.

And sen- then God gave them the Promised Land, but it was just a

place that people passed through going to one of the big countries.

All right?

And so the Messiah was gonna make them somebody.

And, you know, I g- I always try to do some work on the plane and, and I

always try to reach out to the people around me, and, uh, I, I tried to do

that, and once I mention I'm a minister, people seem to put on their headphones

And so I put on my headphones and I watched a great movie.

It's called Flamin' Hot, and I'd never heard of it before.

All right?

And, and you know, I'd, I'd wa- I'd seen everything else they were offering,

you know, at least the cl- you know, the, the, the ones I wanted to see.

So I thought, "I'll try this."

It, they said it's his, uh, Hispanic h- Appreciation Month, and so

being, uh, part Hispanic, I thought, "I'm gonna, I'm gonna watch this."

And it's about a guy named, uh, Richard.

Uh, and let me get his name right, all right?

Had to look it up again this morning, okay?

But, uh, uh, Richard Montañez, and he was a janitor for Frito-Lay, and he's

really glad to get that job because he, he couldn't get a job for a long

time and he went into doing drugs and pushing drugs and that kind of thing.

Got in all kinds of troubles.

Then he ha- he, he, he had a baby, and he married his wife, and they had a baby,

and he wanted to turn over a new life, so he, he, he got a, finally got a job.

One of his buddies helped him get a job at Frito-Lay in, uh, Rancho Cucamonga.

And, uh, he loved the job.

He really worked hard.

But he was a thinker, and his dad had taught him how to fix engines and fix

things, and so he was always trying to learn what, what the process was

and w- w- how they were making these chips and all that kind of thing.

And, and the, the, the, the f- the chip industry went up and down and up

and down, and people were getting laid off, and he was always fearful of his

job, and, but he worked so hard he always was able to keep it, but all

of, a lot of his friends got laid off.

And so he was thinking, "How can we be more successful as a plant?"

And they were competing against the Bakersfield plant, all right?

So it's pretty cool, all these places right here in Southern California

that, that I relate to, you know?

And so I'm getting into this movie, and, uh, uh, he, uh, he finally

figured out that they weren't making chips for Hispanic people.

Because Hispanic people would go to their picnics and their family gatherings

and stuff and put all this hot salsa on their chips, on the Cheetos and all the,

all the, the tortilla chips and stuff.

And he says, "They're not making any for us.

Maybe that's the market.

If we get into that market, we can save Frito-Lay.

We can save the country, the company, and we won't get laid off."

And so, so he, he watched a video from the president of Frito-Lay from, I think

he's in Atlanta, a guy named Enrico.

All right?

He was an Italian guy.

And, and, and, and he said in that, that video, "Think like a CEO."

And so Richard decided, "I'm gonna think like a CEO."

So he started looking around the plant, thought, "How can we improve this?"

And, and so he talked his wife into, to, to coming up with this, this recipe

for Chi- uh, Flamin' Hot Cheetos.

And he, and he, and he, and they had their little son.

He looked like he was about two or three.

Well, he could talk, so he was probably about four or five years

old, and he would be the taste tester.

And he would eat it and said, "No, no, not hot enough."

You know?

And he'd eat it and he, "Oh, too hot, too hot, too hot, too hot."

You know?

And he was the taste tester.

So they ma- they, they refined this, this recipe and the rest

of the story I'll finish it.

I ex- e- elongated it there a little bit.

Is he called up the CEO, and you could see the secretary's like, "Who's this?

You're the vice president of marketing for Southern California?"

"No.

No, I just, I work at the plant."

"Are you, are you the plant manager?"

"No.

No, uh…"

"Are, are you one of the directors of the…"

"No, no."

And she go, he goes, "What do you do?"

He goes, "I'm the janitor, but I'm gonna save the country- company.

I'm gonna save it.

I'm f- I'm gonna save Frito-Lay.

Let me talk to him."

And she's like, "I'm gonna put this guy through."

Put him through to the president.

The president listened to him, came and visited him, tasted it, let

him make it there at that plant, and at first it wasn't selling

'cause nobody knew about it.

So then he got all the neighborhood guys to start eating it and ga- he gave away

all, everything that didn't sell initially for free, and then it just exploded.

And he, he moved from janitor to a marketing director.

Oh.

And he retired at, like, 59 years old.

Is that cool or what?

I, I mean, I got teared up.

I'm like, "This is a great story.

Way to go, Richard."

And the reason that he told Enrico that he had to do it is because he cared about

his, his neighbors, and he was not gonna be denied 'cause he was not a loser.

He had been made to feel like a loser all his life, and he knew he wasn't.

And the story we're gonna look at today, guys, is about a couple of, of

losers, people at least thought they were, and Jesus told them they weren't.

So pray with me and let's look at the scriptures together.

God and Father, please bless us this morning as we read your Word.

Father, may it change our hearts.

May we meet Jesus at the well.

Father, may we clear our minds of all the distractions and all

the things that pull us away from your truth and from your Word.

And Father, may it show us some things that we need to see.

Thank you, Father.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Amen.

And so I'm giving you the reference that we have.

You know, if you wanna read that, you wanna look at it, uh, it, uh, will help

you go deeper into the Book of John.

But, uh, re- to remind you of the theme, it's in John 21, "Jesus did many other

signs and miracles that are not written in this book, but these are written that

you might," you and me, "might believe."

Believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah.

And so I don't want us to ever forget that.

In all these lessons, He's trying to feed our faith.

He's trying to get our faith to grow, to get our faith to be stronger.

What's wrong with most people is they've had a crisis of faith at some point

in their life, and they've lost faith.

Right.

Why have we lost members?

Crisis of faith.

Yes.

God disappointed them in some way, the church disappointed them in some way,

and they're looking for a different place where they won't be disappointed.

We gotta look at the right place to build our faith, and we're

gonna, we're gonna look at the well this morning to see Jesus.

But this is the, the poster, and I'm afraid to…

A little bit afraid to, to recommend this movie or this TV series,

'cause it's got some bad language.

Old Roy can't, can't, can't clean up his mouth.

All right?

But Ted Lasso is, i- i- is, is, is a soccer football show.

He's a coach, so I, I, I watched it during COVID, and now I'm

back into watching a little bit.

And this is the, the sign he has in the locker room.

And I'm not gonna ruin the f- the season finale for you, but they added to this

sign, and it's the right addition.

Let me just say that.

It's gonna come out in the sermon a little bit, all right?

So we gotta believe.

But we're looking at who is Jesus this morning.

And in this chapter, in verse 29, the Samaritan woman, and

we're gonna call her Samantha.

All right?

We're gonna personalize this.

We're gonna get practical and real with it, so let's call her Samantha.

All right?

I have a bro- a dad named Samuel.

We called him Joe.

You know, I had a brother named Sammy.

We called him Sam.

And so Samantha, we'll call Samantha.

All right?

'Cause we're gonna call the nobleman in this story Sam.

So we're gonna talk about Sam and Samantha this morning.

And usually, when you preach John chapter 4, it's such a long chapter,

John 4 · chapter mention

nobody talks about the nobleman.

But there's an important point what, that I wanna make about the

nobleman, but we won't go long.

All right?

Co- But she said, "Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did."

Do we really like truth tellers?

Do we really like people that tell us the truth about ourselves?

Or would we rather be in denial?

You know, I, I think a lot of us, we vacillate.

"Yeah, tell me the truth.

Ooh, not, not, not that mu- not that way."

Yeah.

"Be nice about it."

Right?

Or they start telling us and we're like, "That isn't true.

I don't agree with that."

And then we have to be told older, over and over some things before we ever get it

But the special thing about Samantha is what Jesus said to her, I…

If you read it, it's very blunt.

It seems harsh.

It seems shaming.

It really does.

And yet she loved it.

Because Jesus later on in the book says, "The truth will set you free."

Yeah.

That's right.

And we've got to always remember that.

Right.

That anything less than truth will not set you free.

Right.

And so even though sometimes the truth is hard to, to hear, and the

truth hurts, and I know it had to hurt this woman a little bit- Yes

it set her free.

She said, "Come and see a man that told me everything I ever did.

Could he be…?"

She thinks he is, but she's still doubting a little bit.

Could he be the Savior, the Messiah?

And Messiah means the Anointed One, the Chosen One.

It's from the Hebrew word Mishkayah, M- Mishkayak, and then the Greek Kristos.

And so, uh, we need to do a little review though before we get into this chapter.

You always gotta get the context.

Don't proof text the scriptures, guys.

And don't believe what you believe just because you pulled a verse out

of context and it sort of confirms your already predisposed beliefs.

All right?

All right.

Look at the context.

So let's look at the context of John chapter four.

And if we review what we've looked at in chapter one, two, and three and four,

there's this character, John the Baptist.

What's the main thing about John chapter one?

The incarnation.

God with us.

The Logos has come.

And then all these people witness in John chapter one that Jesus

came full of grace and truth.

But he, he's saying the world is in darkness.

There's empty souls out there.

And so all of a sudden this thought came to me this week that, you

know, John is trying to tell us how to have abundant life, full life.

Why?

Because he sees a bunch of emptiness, a bunch of people that don't feel good

enough or have enough or just feel empty.

In John chapter two, the jars run out of wine.

The jars are empty.

And so Jesus turns water into wine.

That's his first miracle, and his mother asks him to do it.

And then he clears the temple, and he says he didn't want…

God doesn't want empty worship.

"Don't make my house of prayer a house of robbers, a house

of deceivers and charlatans."

And that, then chapter three, Nicodemus.

Nick at night-

He came at night

And he's an empty soul.

He's, uh, got an empty spirit.

And so what does Jesus say to him?

"I wanna fill your spirit.

I want you to be born again, born of water and spirit, water

and wine, grace and truth.

You've gotta be born again or you're gonna stay empty, Nicodemus."

And then he meets the Samaritan woman and the noble official in John, chapter 4.

John 4 · chapter mention

The noble official at the end of the book is desperate because his

son is dying, and so many of us as, as parents relate to this.

We're so concerned about our kids, and you never stop being a parent.

And I have a angst every day about one of my children, you know?

And I, um, a lot of parents in this audience, we have angst over our children.

We have concern.

And so we'll relate to him, and we, I need to preach him today.

And then the Samaritan woman, it's this person that she's

having a crisis of faith.

How could she have a crisis of faith, Dr.

Craig?

She, she doesn't have any faith.

She's given up on God.

No, people without faith have crisis of faith.

They want faith, they just know they don't have it anymore.

And what has she got?

She's got an empty heart.

She's been looking for love in all the wrong places Urban cowboy.

Some of you remember country music back then.

John Travolta, you know, looking for love at Gilley's in Houston, right?

Yeah.

Most of you have never been there.

But it is a sweet song.

It's a true song.

People look for love in all the wrong places, and that's what Samantha did.

And so that's where our story begins this morning.

And Jesus always contrasts…

There's always a contrast in all of his lessons between f- And

here in John, it's always almost always gonna be full and empty.

Are you full or are you empty?

Are you full or are you empty?

Do you have life or do you not have life?

It says in John 10:10, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

John 10:10

But I've come that you may have life, and have it to the full."

Now, I'm not saying today you have full life.

By the time you get to heaven, you'll have full life, all right?

Amen.

So I'm not gonna promise you something that I can't promise you,

but this is what God wants for you.

This is what Jesus wants for you.

And you may not have it right now, but this is the promise of the Savior, of the

Messiah, that I can make your life better.

I can fill the void.

Right.

Amen.

I can fill the emptiness.

And even I, though I can't change all of your circumstances, 'cause

life isn't fair in this life.

That's why we're going to heaven, and that's why we look forward to heaven.

But I'll even help you to redeem the circumstances so the

circumstances don't kill you.

Yes.

So you can survive them, and even be full and be happy in this

life, even with the challenges.

Amen?

Amen.

So now let's get into our passage, John 4.

"Now Jesus learned that the, the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining

and baptizing more disciples than John, although in fact it was not Jesus

who had baptized but his disciples.

So he left Judea and went back once more to J- Galilee."

Where's he going?

He's going home.

Why is he going home?

Now he had to go through Samaria, and so he came to a town in Samaria

called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son, Joseph.

See, and you remember the story of Jacob.

He bought this land so when he went to Egypt, he could be brought back

so he could be buried in his home.

All right?

Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the

journey, sat down by the well.

It was about noon.

And I, I started studying this passage this week, and I got stuck.

Why'd he go?

Why'd he leave Judea?

Why'd he go back to Galilee?

Oh, because he didn't want the competition with John the Baptist?

'Cause, you know, he didn't want John to feel bad that he was

bap- his group was baptizing and growing faster than John's group?

I don't think that was it.

I don't think he wanted competition with John.

He knew John's purpose and destiny to prepare the way for him.

I think he wanted John to be able to finish his work, and so he didn't

want that kind of competition, so he got out of the way.

I think he went back to Galilee to get out of the way 'cause

his time wasn't right yet.

He w- he didn't wanna go to Jerusalem, stay in Jerusalem.

He knew what was gonna happen in Jerusalem.

He was gonna get crucified in Jerusalem, so he wanted to go

back home for a little while.

But he also knew when he goes home, a prophet is not at home in his own country.

He's not honored.

And so Jesus' actual home was in heaven, just like us.

We're just strangers in a strange land wherever we are, just like Jesus.

All right?

But I think he went back home for the same reason that yesterday at

the Denver Airport I bought this

And I had to weigh the decision.

It cost $6.98

And I thought, "I don't need another keyring.

I don't need another keychain.

I have plenty."

But I wanted it.

And why did I want it?

'Cause this is my home.

Not now.

Won't ever be again, 'cause I don't have any grandkids there, right?

And Cathy has informed me we're gonna live in California or Texas.

We're not moving back to Colorado.

And when you're married, you do what your wife says.

If you're a smart husband.

Yeah.

Especially when they don't give you…

They gave you, gave me, she gave me a choice, so I chose here.

All right?

But the last time I was in Colorado about five years ago, I bought a keychain.

Says Colorado on it.

Just a little bit of home.

And I didn't buy a cheap one that would break.

I wanted a metal one that might last a little while.

All right?

Jesus wanted to go home for a little while

But it also says, gives me some insight, that he didn't baptize.

His disciples were baptizing.

And that reminded me, that was an echo of another verse.

And we know that verse in, in 1 Corinthians 1:13-17.

1 Corinthians 1:13–17

It says, "Is Christ divided?

Was Paul crucified for you?

Were you baptized in the name of Paul?

I thank God I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one

can say that you were baptized in my name.

Yes, oh, also I baptized, uh, the household of Stephanas.

Beyond that, I don't remember everybody I baptized."

Why?

"Christ did not send me to baptize."

Oh yeah, I thought he sent us all to baptize.

"Go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son,

and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you.

And lo, I will be with you always, to the very end of the age."

That's the response

He really sends us to go preach the gospel.

Right.

The start of every gospel, it says, "Jesus began his ministry preaching the

good news about the Kingdom of God."

Yes.

Preaching the good news about the Kingdom of God.

Preaching the good news about the Kingdom of God.

Preach, guys, the gospel, not the response.

You'll get the response.

Right.

And the response is this next slide, believe, confess, repent, and be baptized.

You will get baptisms, but you won't by telling people, "Get bath.

Get a bath.

You need a new bath.

You need to get dunked in water.

You need immersed."

Don't tell them to have a religious ritual.

Right.

Tell them to fall in love with Jesus.

Amen.

Tell them to accept the good news, the gospel, and then

they a- well, how do I do that?

And then you tell them, "Repent."

Believe, confess, repent, be bapt- But if you don't believe Jesus

is the Son of God, the Messiah, the Chosen One, why get baptized?

Right.

You don't have faith in the Messiah.

So it all begins with belief.

If Tad- Ted Lasso knows it, we should know it.

That's true.

That's what I think, right?

Right.

Believe.

Believe Jesus is the Son of God.

Confess him.

Repent.

But preach the gospel.

And so that's why w- we're in this book, to d- to understand,

to embrace the gospel.

And so this story starts in John 4:6, "Jacob's well was there.

John 4:6

And Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well.

It was about noon."

And I did get something from the conference about wells.

I went to a class about clear the debris.

Now, what is that about?

And Steve Staton and his daughter Talia taught a great class that what they would

do when they'd conquer a people is they'd fill in their well with dirt, and that

would kill all the crops, and that would, that would create famine in the land, and

it would, it would destroy the people.

And so when you're rebuilding and trying to revive the land, you

have to dig out the well again.

You have to dig it out.

And I've been to Jacob's Well.

I've been to Sychar.

Kathy and I went on a Holy Land tour years ago, and I've been there, and I

even bought some water from Jacob's Well.

And I took it back, and I thought, "I'm gonna use this

for a sermon at some point."

And so I, I kept it for about a year, and then I preached John chapter four, and

I put my, my, my clay jar on the podium, and I opened it, and it smelled so bad.

I had to put it back

So that's why there's no clay jar up here this morning

But what happened at a well?

When you're a desert people, when you live in a dry land, water is everything.

Yeah.

Where would they get married?

By the well.

Where would they get engaged?

By the well.

Where would they announce the birth?

By the well.

Everything big happened at the well, especially love.

Love.

Oh, and we love a love story, don't we?

Yes.

Don't you like to h- t- tell us about how you fell in love.

Don't we love it?

I go over to people's house, "How'd you guys meet?

Who liked each other first?"

"Was it love at first sight?"

I always put them on the spot.

When you're older, you do that.

Okay?

And so at the well, Jesus spoke to the woman.

And so let's, uh, uh-

Go to the next one here.

John 4:7.

John 4:7

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her,

"Will you give me a drink?"

We know this story.

The disciples had gone into town to buy food.

The Samaritan woman…

And I want you to notice the questions.

John uses questions to keep our attention in this passage.

The first one, "You're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan woman.

How can you ask me for a drink?"

You know?

Just like, "Oh, Richard Montanez, how can you provide a marketing

strategy for this huge multinational corporation when you're just a janitor?"

Because you haven't tapped into the market of my people, and that's how he

convinced him Prejudice, discrimination.

Who do we associate with?

Who do we not?

I don't want this church to become an all-white church, an all-Hispanic church,

an all-Black church, all-Asian church.

But it could be if we're prejudice- Yep.

Yeah … if we have discrimination, if we don't love everybody.

We need to love everybody.

That's right.

Right?

Jesus did.

He loved everybody.

Verse 10, "Jesus answered her, 'If you knew the gift of God and who it

is that asks you for drink, you would a- you would have asked him and he

would have gave you living water.'"

Here's her second question.

"'Sir,' the woman said, 'you have nothing to draw from, and the well is deep.

Where can you get this living water?

Are you greater than our father Jacob?'"

Are you gonna create a well here?

You know, she's mocking him a little bit, okay.

"'Who gave us this well, and drank from it himself, as did his sons?'"

Jesus was a barrier breaker.

You need to be a barrier breaker.

That's right.

You know?

Right now, there's so much tribalism in our country and in our community.

I hope your best friends aren't all your same race.

See, that what was great about being an athlete, you didn't choose your teammates.

I mean, you just got put together with people, uh, who could play, and you didn't

care what color they were, you didn't c- care about the food they ate, you

didn't care about the- their background or their accent, because they were your

teammates, and you became a brotherhood.

And the- and I- that's why I encourage k- k- kids, get on teams,

and get on g- good teams, you know?

Because on the good teams, there's gonna be people of all different flavors.

All right?

But deep down in us, deep down in every one of us, is a bias.

We understand ourselves, we think, and we're more drawn

sometimes to people like us.

But with the Holy Spirit, we should be transformed to be drawn to everybody.

Amen.

And I'm gonna go after this factionism, and I'm gonna go after this cliquey

mentality Yeah And our church isn't gonna be full of that kind of

worldliness and that kind of garbage.

Yeah.

All right?

We're gonna be barrier breakers.

Yeah.

And we're gonna love everybody.

Jesus loved this woman.

He wasn't surprised by her question.

She was like, "Hey, another man trying to hit on me."

I mean, there must have been something going for this, this woman because

she'd been married and divorced five times and, and still got another man.

So she- I'm thinking she was probably attractive if she

could keep getting a man.

All right?

Now, she was hard to live with, I think

I don't know.

I don't wanna read too much.

I don't wanna be judgmental.

All right

But according to 1 Timothy 1:5, the goal of this command, Paul told Timothy, and he

1 Timothy 1:5

tells me, "Which comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith."

That's the only way we're gonna not be prejudiced and factious, to have

these three things, a pure heart.

When my heart's hard, I'm probably pretty biased, you know?

If you don't like my sports team, I don't like you But when I have

a good heart, I like everybody.

I'm sorry your team lost, 'cause I know how it feels, 'cause my teams lose a lot.

Right?

So I'm not gonna rub it in.

Comes from a pure heart, a good conscience.

When we have guilty conscience, we're mad at the world, we're defensive,

we don't wanna be found out.

But when you have a clear conscience, you love everybody.

Amen.

All right?

And when you're s- have a sincere faith that you're trying to do what's right

even though you may f- not, you may be indoctrinated a bad way or raised a

different way, you have a sincere faith and you're trying to love everybody.

That's the way we'll be barrier breakers, brothers and sisters.

And he goes on in verse 46, "Once mor-…"

Who else did he associate with?

We're gonna jump to the last story.

"Once more he visited Canaan in Galilee, went home, where he

had turned the water into wine."

So here comes a second sign.

"There was a certain royal official and s- his son lay sick at Capernaum.

When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went

to him and he begged him to come and heal his son who was close to death.

'Unless you people see signs and wonders,' Jesus told him, 'you will never believe.'

The royal official said, 'Sir, come down before my child dies.'

'Go,' Jesus replied, 'your son will live.'"

And what did he do that you and I need to do?

The man took Jesus at his word.

The man took Jesus at his word.

He believed.

Because Jesus said so, he believed.

"And he departed and while he was still on the way, his servants met him with

the news that the boy was living."

See, Jesus was a barrier breaker and he was a bridge builder.

He cared for the powerless and the powerful.

I am so tired of hearing sermons that Jesus only came for poor people, that

he only came for marginalized people, that he only came for desperate people.

He came for all people.

Amen.

All people, rich and poor, good and bad, man and woman.

Come on.

He came for everybody.

And that's the gospel, folks.

Right.

And if we preach any other gospel, then we're going to not be preaching

the go- It won't be good news.

That's right.

Wow.

It won't be good news.

Right.

And this movement was started by good news.

Right.

And that's why it's so diverse.

How'd you get here?

Because a bunch of upper middle class white kids in pretty good schools created

a diverse movement that went around the world to save the whole world.

A bunch of Southerners from Florida

A bunch of rednecks.

And I knew Chuck Lucas.

I'm gonna have to just stop right there, all right?

I mean, these were Floridians, guys, that went all over America and started

campus ministers, ministries, and I was second generation, not first.

I was converted at Boulder.

I mean, why would a bunch of Southerners go to Boulder, a hippie school, you know?

Because we, they didn't care.

They're out to save the world, everybody.

And let's not lose that.

Amen?

Amen.

And I'm not putting down the poor.

I came from poor

My family was poor.

Came from nothing.

Came from trailer park.

That's why I liked Richard's story, 'cause I could relate.

I was embarrassed when my mom dropped me off at school.

I'd rather walk to school.

How many of you know what a Studebaker is?

That was our family car, a green army-colored Studebaker.

When we'd drive downtown, I'd get in the backseat, and I would slump down and hide

I was a low rider

Because I was embarrassed

I know what poor is.

I came from poor.

Why was I so driven to go to school and to live a different life?

'Cause I didn't wanna be poor

And that's why many of us were.

But let's be big bridge builders.

This was a nobleman, this was a rich man, this was a Galilean

And he was powerful, but he was also desperate.

Everybody is desperate.

This conference that I went to just described that.

Jesus associated at the wedding party with his neighbors, his friends.

He loved his friends.

God cares.

But Nicodemus was of the party that was always attacking him, of the

ruling religious party, and he, so he could be considered an enemy.

But what did Jesus do?

He loved him and told him the truth.

This Samaritan woman was powerless, and marginalized, and poor, and an

outcast, and a s- sinner, divorced many times, and Jesus forgave her.

And the nobleman was powerful and rich, but he could not fix his son.

He could not heal him, and God heals.

God and Christ are for everybody because he loves everybody, because at some point

in all of our lives, we get desperate

What was so great about this scholarly conference?

No scholarship hardly at all.

They, they did quote some theologians in every lesson,

but they gave their testimony.

First guy gave his testimony.

He says, "I, I don't know why I'm in the ministry and I don't know why I'm

a teacher, 'cause I'm an introvert and I hate standing up here and speaking."

I hate it

And I don't know why I'm in the ministry, because I hate people

Oh, I love persons.

I love persons, but I hate people and I hate crowds and I hate being here.

But this is the only conference I come to, 'cause this is the

conference for the introverts

And I thought, "What am I doing here then?"

Because that's not me And then the next guy gets up and

he goes, "I'm an introvert."

And I go, "Boy, I don't feel at home," you know?

And then I thought, you know, I helped start this conference, and they, somewhere

along the line, 'cause I got sick and I got cancer, I sort of dripped it off the

committee, and I never got asked back on

And so they started excluding the extroverts and the evangelists.

And in our movement, we've got teachers, elders, evangelists, and I'm always

trying to pull everybody together.

'Cause I've been each.

I've been an elder here in LA on the west side, and in Dallas.

I'm a teacher, and I'm an evangelist.

The teachers think I'm an evangelist, so they don't care what I say.

The evangelists think I'm a teacher, they don't…

They do care, but I, I don't wanna overstate it.

Let's be br- realders, amen?

Amen.

Because Jesus loves everybody.

Sam and Samantha, you get the point.

You're way ahead of me.

You're smarter than that.

But these questions, something was said at the conference.

There's always something behind a question.

There's always something be- behind a question.

When the Samaritan woman asked Jesus, "Why are you asking me for a drink?"

She's really asking , "You don't accept me."

You know?

And especially the more they talked and the more she found out he was a prophet,

she's like, "Yeah, you're the, you're the guy that condemns me to hell."

You know?

But he was still talking to her, and somehow how he came

across to her drew her in.

It drew her in.

And then when she said, "How are you gonna give me this living water?"

She wanted water.

She'd love pipes and not have to walk and carry jars.

I love living in the 20th century.

I, I'm glad we don't have to go to wells.

I like turning on my faucet, right?

But this was a different kind of water.

This was the Holy Spirit inside.

And then later she says, "Are you greater than Jacob?"

She's starting to get it.

If you're promising this, then you must be somebody, somebody wealthy.

Don't make me f- promises.

Men have been making me promises my whole life, and they've not c- delivered.

That's why I keep discarding them and looking for somebody else.

All right?

She's the Zsa Zsa Gabor of the first century, right?

And if you don't know who that is, Google her.

All right?

But so she's asking, "You're making me this gra- grand

promise," like churches do.

We make grand promises, don't we?

Well, we can't deliver it, but Jesus can

But she's sort of asking, "Are you greater?"

And he is.

And then later on in this story, she asks, "Where should I go to church?

We Samaritans say we worship on Mount Gerizim.

You Jews say we should worship on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Where should I go to church?"

And Jesus is saying, he says to her, "There's gonna be a time where, after I

die, where you go to church is more about where the Spirit is than the place."

Right.

"And more about you than the place.

Because the kind of worshipers the Father seeks are those that worship in spirit…"

Listen to me now, this is the point of the whole sermon, "Those that

worship in spirit and in truth."

That's good.

In spirit with the right heart, the right posture, the right humility.

Amen.

Not consumers.

What can I get out of it?

Is it worth it?

I'll only get, contribute as much as I get.

Uh, it's this quid pro quo.

No, that isn't worshiping in spirit and in truth.

Worshiping in spirit and in truth is coming to give yourself to God.

Amen.

And God, speak to me.

I'm your servant, speak to me.

Yeah.

I'll do whatever you ask.

True worshipers.

And then the woman gets…

She says, "Hey, I hear there's a Messiah coming, gonna give us all the answers."

And Jesus says, "That's me."

That's me.

I wish people today were looking for truth that way.

On the plane back, two women sat next to me

They were Samanthas.

The first one had lost her husband tragically, quickly.

One of those widow-maker heart attacks.

They were at his reunion, the 20th or 30th Colorado football reunion.

He played football, defensive tackle in the Orange Bowl.

They won, 1976.

He was, he was, he was a famous athlete c- in my home state.

I'm sitting there a seat away from his wife, and she says, "Yeah, we went.

We got to Boulder and he died."

He was only 56 years old

And then come to find out he was roommates with Pete Cyphers, who was

the quarterback on my ri- the rival high school team that I played against.

And I worked for Pete's dad at the Hertz car lot.

I washed cars for Mr.

Cyphers.

And she goes, "Oh, was that, you know, George Cyphers?"

I go, "I don't know his first name.

I was a kid.

It was Mr.

Cyphers to me," you know?

And so it's a small world.

We're all connected

And I f- I felt bad 'cause then all of a sudden, another woman came and sat

between us, and they started talking.

And I tried to get in there.

I thought, "You know, gotta share my faith," you know?

And they asked me, "So, so what do you do?"

And I go, "I'm…

You know, I do a lot of things.

I'm a minister.

I'm a professor, you know?"

And, and first thing the woman that sat right next to me says

is, "Oh, I'm not religious.

I'm not religious."

Samantha.

She wasn't religious.

And so they got talking, and so I started watching the SC football game.

And then I felt bad.

I felt guilty that I didn't even tell the lady who'd lost

her husband I'm sorry he died.

I'm a chaplain.

I should have said that.

And so the, the hostess comes by and, and asks us for, if we wanna

drink anything, and I got two f- free drink cards when I checked in

I'm special

I just fly on Southwest a lot.

And I didn't want them.

I had a tummy ache, and I didn't wanna drink any alcohol, and, you know,

well, yeah, I just didn't want to.

So I gave them…

I said, "Would you guys like these?"

And then all of a sudden they like me.

Oh, yeah, and they ordered the same thing, and then they turned

towards each other and ignored me.

All right?

But this morning, as I'm preparing, praying about this, I'm thinking

I missed an opportunity.

A couple of Samaritan women.

Should have shared the gospel.

And I told them I was preaching.

I told them even what I was preaching, but they didn't seem that interested.

I gotta figure out a better way to talk to people, and I've been trying for 40 years.

So don't give up trying is the point.

Don't give up trying

There's always something behind it.

The last little bit here, John 4

It talks about the five husbands.

We've already talked about that.

Talked about word of worship, we've talked about that.

And then Jesus declares He's the one, we talked about that.

And then this whole thing of both in.

And that's what we gotta believe.

We gotta believe that Jesus is Lord and Savior.

Amen.

Amen?

Amen.

For us personally.

Yes.

He will help our life be full.

Thank you for your patience.

Thank you for listening.

I hope you've enjoyed going to the well this morning.

It's helped bless me because we're all pilgrims.

And I know I said some strong things, but they're truth.

Amen.

Amen.

It's gospel.

God bless you.

Amen.