Speaking Boldly about the Gift of God

[0:00] Well, we have had our own fair share of weather here, so let me throw this out to you. Show of hands, survey time. This week, how many of you had plans that you then had to change because of the snow?

[0:17] Anyone have plans that you had to change because of snow? I did, right? I even just yesterday had plans for the day and had to improvise and adapt them because more snow fell than I expected to fall.

[0:28] I actually thought there was going to be rain because I didn't really check the weather myself. If you were to ask, if I were to then ask you this follow-up question, why would the snow change your plans?

[0:43] Why would the snow change your plans? What would you say to me? What would you answer me? Why would the snow change your plans? The stalker fields were closed. Because of the snow, somebody closed the stalker fields.

[0:55] It's okay. So you couldn't play, you know, your daughter couldn't play soccer, right? It's too dangerous to drive. You don't want to take that risk, right?

[1:07] Too dangerous to walk. Yeah. That's fair. It got a little bit icy last night. Yeah.

[1:17] All right. So we have these reasons that we've given for why we couldn't do what we wanted to do. We have these rationales.

[1:29] Now, I think all the reasons that you guys just gave sound like they're pretty good reasons, right? You know, there's no point in trying to play a game of soccer by yourself on a snowy field when nobody else is playing.

[1:41] There's no point in slipping and falling and breaking a bone. They're good reasons because of priorities. They're good reasons because they put their priorities in the right place.

[1:54] There's a, we put a higher priority on personal safety than we do on going to some sort of appointment. That honestly is just a little bit less important than if you break your hip, right? Sometimes we have rationales for what we do or what we don't do.

[2:14] And sometimes those rationales aren't so good. Sometimes they aren't good, rationales, because we have our priorities all messed up. We have put a high priority on things that are honestly of lesser importance.

[2:29] We lose opportunities in life. We let them slip by precisely because we have our priorities in the wrong order.

[2:40] We've got our priorities all messed up. Last week, we learned from an event in the life of Jesus. We learned from John chapter 4 that Jesus has his priorities in order.

[2:51] Jesus places love at a higher priority than his comfort and his social status. His comfort, his social status rank pretty low on his list of priorities.

[3:05] Approaching others in love, approaching others with the good news, with the gift of God, that's more important to him. Jesus is not swayed by a series of lies.

[3:18] There's a series of lies that last time we called love defeaters. These rationales, these reasons that we give ourselves, reasons for why we shouldn't approach other people with the gift of God, why we shouldn't move towards other people in love.

[3:37] We have a whole slew of these love defeaters, these reasons why we don't approach one another in the church, why we don't speak words of comfort or encouragement or correction to one another, but kind of keep our distance from one another instead.

[3:55] We have a whole slew of these love defeaters, which we buy into, that prevent us from approaching those outside the church, those who don't believe in Jesus Christ, from telling them the good news that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, Lord and Savior.

[4:11] The good news that all who repent of their sins and believe in Jesus will not perish, but will have everlasting life. That's the gift of God.

[4:23] We have this gift. The person of Jesus Christ is who he is and what he's done for us. The good news of hope that comes from that. This is the gift of God.

[4:35] And today we're going to continue to look to Jesus because as Jesus continues his dialogue with this Samaritan woman in John chapter four, we're going to find that Jesus not only demonstrates love toward her, a humble, approaching, self-sacrificing love, Jesus also demonstrates boldness toward her.

[4:58] Jesus works toward forming a healthy relationship with her. And by the way, healthy relationships are framed with words that are both loving but also bold.

[5:10] If you are unwilling or feel unable to speak boldly to another person in your life, by definition, you do not have a healthy relationship. If you formed your relationships on this idea of, well, I'm not going to, I could never say that to that person.

[5:24] I'm just going to, you know, keep distance. Your relationship's messed up. Your relationship is really messed up. And you don't really have control over everything in that relationship.

[5:34] I mean, the other person's involved too, right? But how do we speak boldly? How do I become the kind of person who speaks boldly? Are there certain lies that I'm believing or certain challenges that I have been sort of shrinking away from?

[5:51] Well, Jesus is going to get challenged. He's going to be challenged. His boldness will be challenged in John chapter four. And so to get the context of the story, I'm going to start reading in verse one and I'll read all the way through verse 18.

[6:08] So beginning in John chapter four, verse one. Now, when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples.

[6:24] He left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son, Joseph.

[6:39] Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water.

[6:52] Jesus said to her, give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?

[7:11] For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

[7:28] The woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?

[7:40] Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself as did his sons and his livestock. Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again.

[7:57] But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

[8:12] The woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.

[8:25] Jesus said to her, go, call your husband and come here. The woman answered him, I have no husband.

[8:36] Jesus said to her, you are right in saying, I have no husband. For you have had five husbands and the one you now have is not your husband.

[8:49] What you have said is true. This is the word of the Lord. Now last week we learned that we are called to bring that gift of God with an unconventional love.

[9:03] And we saw that in the way that Jesus approached this woman. But now we are in the thick of this back and forth conversation, this dialogue. And this week here is what we are learning. Like Jesus, you are called to reveal the gift of God with an unconventional boldness.

[9:21] Like Jesus, you are called to reveal the gift of God with an unconventional boldness. That in a sentence is what we are learning today.

[9:31] Now if you aren't really paying close attention to what Jesus is saying, you might not notice how boldly he is speaking. I find this is true for people who grew up reading the Bible.

[9:44] We kind of lose some of the impact of this. We just run through it and we don't really notice what he is saying. But the Samaritan woman, boy, she sure does.

[9:58] She picks up on it all right. Here is how I would characterize her throughout this first part of the dialogue. I would characterize her as feeling a couple of emotions. One of them is kind of annoyed.

[10:11] A little bit annoyed by Jesus. There is just this sense of she is bristling a little bit of what he is saying. I would also say she is a little bit amused by him. She is hanging in there.

[10:23] She is not walking away from him. And by the time we reach verse 15, the annoyance has totally given way to amusement. We will see about that once we get there.

[10:35] Jesus being a little bit of what we might call a gadfly. If you ever read some of the dialogues of Socrates, you know Socrates was like this ultimate gadfly who just annoyed everybody with all the questions he asked.

[10:47] Right? Jesus being a little bit of a gadfly. He is kind of, you know, sort of poking at her a little bit. And so in her responses to Jesus, she is going to call him out for his boldness.

[10:59] She is going to, you know, she is going to make an effort to put him in his place. She is not going to, you know, throw a fit or anything. But she is kind of making little digs back at him to keep him in his place.

[11:12] And she does this through four challenges. So last time we saw Jesus overcome seven lies that we call love defeaters. And these are lies that were not really explicit in the passage.

[11:24] They are more implicit. They are more implied. They are things that we often tell ourselves but that we see that Jesus does not believe. He does not tell himself these lies. He refuses to believe them.

[11:36] This time we are going to see four challenges. I am going to, just to be consistent, I will call them boldness defeaters. So we got four boldness defeaters. And this time they are not implicit. They are not implied.

[11:47] They are explicit. They are spoken out loud by the woman herself. In response to the good news Jesus is bringing. In response to the gift of God.

[12:00] At the end, we are going to learn that there is something that is motivating this woman. Something that is behind these challenges that she is throwing out to Jesus.

[12:12] I am going to run first through the four boldness defeaters. I am going to run through them one by one. And then we are going to go back through them again. To see how Jesus responds to each one of them.

[12:22] So, first of all, boldness defeaters, number one. This happens right after Jesus asks the woman, give me a drink. Now, we learned last time she is really taken aback by this request.

[12:34] John has already explained. Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. A good Jewish boy wouldn't talk to a Samaritan unless he had to. He certainly wouldn't have dinner with a Samaritan.

[12:47] He certainly wouldn't drink out of a cup or a bucket that a Samaritan were using. Which is what Jesus is asking for. On top of that, Jesus is a man.

[12:58] A rabbi. She is a woman. It is just kind of a distance there. You don't really talk to each other. Even if they were in the same cultural group. Last week, we were reminded of how Jesus, just in all these things, he is behaving in a counter-cultural manner.

[13:13] He is going against the expectations of his culture. And he is behaving in a way that would have left both Jews and Samaritans at best scratching their heads.

[13:23] And at worst, they would be aghast. They would kind of be a little bit horrified. So, here is the challenge that the woman throws out at Jesus in verse 9. How is it that you, a Jew, asked for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?

[13:41] So, let's paraphrase that. For each one of these things, we are going to take what she says and we are going to boil it down to a central complaint, a central challenge. This is an expression you may have heard before.

[13:53] It is in a challenge as old as time itself. Her challenge, boldness to feed her number one, is this. What do you think you are doing? What do you think you are doing? She is pushing back at Jesus by saying, you have no good reason to approach me.

[14:10] You have got no good reason to approach me. Jesus ought to be keeping his distance. Now, maybe you have told this to yourself. I have got no good reason to approach me.

[14:21] What am I doing? Or maybe somebody has told that to you. What do you think you are doing? When you are approaching someone else, to talk to them about Jesus Christ, whether it is somebody inside the church who needs to be reminded of truth, or somebody outside the church who needs to hear it.

[14:40] Maybe the Holy Spirit has prompted you to start up your heart, to move you towards someone. And the Holy Spirit is like, go, go, go, go. And instead, you have bought into this rationale of boldness to feed her number one.

[14:54] What do you think you are doing? Let's move on to the second defeater. We find it in verse 11. Jesus has offered the woman, in verse 11, he's offered the woman living water.

[15:08] And she replies in verse 11, Sir, you have nothing to draw water with. And the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?

[15:21] Jesus is asking her for water. Then, this has just got to be so confusing to her. He's asking her for water. And the next thing he does, he claims, oh, by the way, actually, I'm the one who has water.

[15:35] So, hmm, she's already got a little bit of reason to be skeptical about this. She looks him over. This guy doesn't even have a bucket. How's he going to get water up from that deep well?

[15:50] Hmm. What would you think if you were in her shoes? You know what I would think? This guy's got something up his sleeve. Con artist. Right?

[16:01] This Jewish rabbi, he doesn't have water at all. He's trying to sell me this living water. Oh, boy. Yeah, I wonder how much money he's going to ask for it. Right? Whatever he is trying to do.

[16:12] I don't know what he's trying to pull right now, but whatever he's doing, he isn't going to be giving me a drink. That's for sure. She challenges him with these words that we just read in verse 11. These words boil down to boldness, defeater number two.

[16:25] What do you think you have? What do you think you have? She's pushing back at Jesus by saying, you actually have less than I do.

[16:39] I've got a bucket. I can get water. You have no water at all. You don't even have a way to get water. She thinks Jesus, he's got to stop trying to fake that he has anything of value to give her.

[16:53] Maybe that's something you've believed. You're in the middle of conversation and you sense that the spirit wants you to talk about Jesus Christ, but the good news of Jesus just feels fake.

[17:09] It feels unreal. The words feel like ashes on your tongue. Or maybe somebody has just straight up told you. They don't think you've got anything. Maybe you've listened to the rationale of boldness, defeater number two.

[17:22] What do you think you have? Now before Jesus has a chance to respond, the woman throws in a third challenge in verse 12. And here's what she asks him in verse 12.

[17:35] Are you greater than our father Jacob? Jacob. We learned earlier, verse 6, this is Jacob's well. That's a well that was dug by her ancestor Jacob.

[17:49] That's her heritage. And she has a great deal of reverence for her ancestor, for this tradition that she's come out of. This is a point of honor for her. It's a big deal.

[18:01] This well is a point of pride. But apparently this Jewish fellow, he's a little bit too big for his britches, isn't he? Right? He thinks he can give her better water than Jacob has given her.

[18:14] She challenges him. Are you greater than our father Jacob? She's throwing at Jesus, boldness, defeater number three.

[18:25] Who do you think you are? Who do you think you are? She's pushing back at Jesus by saying, you know what? You're nobody special.

[18:37] Why should I listen to you? Jesus has got to stop making such a big deal about himself. She's got her truth. She's living her truth.

[18:48] Jesus, he's just making this power play. He's trying to take control over her, imposing his beliefs on her. Who do you think you are? Maybe you've held back from speaking boldly to other people because you're afraid of that sort of accusation.

[19:05] Honestly, maybe you've taken that accusation to heart. Like you sense that you're supposed to say something boldly, but you're like, oh gosh, this is just going to be making me out to be really big.

[19:17] This feels like I'm taking control of the other person. I've been sort of taught that's what truth is. It's just a power play. Maybe you've listened too well to the rationale of boldness, defeat, or number three.

[19:31] Who do you think you are? Then the woman follows up with a further comment about Jacob. Gives Jesus a little bit of a history lesson.

[19:42] So just in case he didn't know his history. He gave us the well and drank from it himself as did his sons and his livestock. So what she is saying to Jesus is that this well, the one that they have sitting before them, this well, it is the heritage of her village, her family.

[20:04] And do you know what? It was good enough for Jacob. Man, it was good enough for that guy. It was good enough for his 12 sons who formed the 12 tribes of Israel.

[20:15] It was good enough for them and for their livestock. And so it's good enough for her. What's wrong with it? It's quenching my thirst just fine.

[20:30] Thank you very much. This is good stuff. That's this woman's way of putting boldness to defeat her number four. I'm doing just fine. I'm doing just fine.

[20:43] She's pushing back at Jesus by saying, hey, I'm okay. You're okay. Let's just leave each other be, shall we? I'll drink my water.

[20:54] You drink your living water. Yeah, yeah. Have fun with that. My water is working just fine for me. Maybe you've held back from speaking to someone who seems content, who seems like they've got a good thing going on in their life.

[21:16] Maybe they're doing well financially. They're wealthy or they're successful. They seem pretty happy with how things are going in their life. Maybe the Holy Spirit has prompted you to speak boldly to someone like that, but you've listened to the rationale of boldness defeater number four.

[21:31] I'm doing just fine. So we've got these four boldness defeaters. How do you overcome them to speak boldly about the gift of God?

[21:46] How do you follow in the footsteps of Jesus? How do you reveal the gift of God with an unconventional boldness? Well, let's go back to that first one.

[21:58] The first boldness defeater. What do you think you're doing? How does Jesus respond to that? How does Jesus speak boldly?

[22:10] Look at verse 10. Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.

[22:25] Now Jesus begins by saying, If you knew the gift of God, who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink. It's kind of funny because sometimes we think boldness means being a jerk.

[22:36] I'll talk maybe more about that next week, that we confuse being honest with being a jerk. And Jesus, he's bold, but he's kind in the way he's bold.

[22:47] He doesn't say this in a really direct and rude way. Like he could have said, Hey, you don't know the gift of God. You don't even know who I am. But that's not how he does it.

[22:58] He's like, Hey, if you knew the gift of God, if you knew who is saying to you, give me a drink. But he makes it very, very clear right off the bat. She is missing something.

[23:09] She is lacking understanding. She doesn't know. There's something she doesn't know, but that she really needs to know. That's what Jesus is telling her right off the bat. And what doesn't the woman know?

[23:22] He says that she doesn't know the gift of God. She doesn't know the experience of receiving God's grace, his kindness toward her.

[23:34] Kindness that she did nothing to earn. We so badly want to feel like we have earned all the good things that we received in life. And Jesus is saying, There's a gift of God, a kindness that you just can't ever feel like you've earned.

[23:53] And I've come with this kindness. She doesn't know who is speaking to her. She doesn't know Jesus.

[24:04] She doesn't know him. She doesn't love him as the son of God and savior. So before moving on, let me, I don't want to make the assumption that you know these things.

[24:16] Do you know the gift of God? Do you know what it's like to know that, yes, I've sinned against God. All that I've earned is, is eternal wrath and destruction.

[24:27] This debt is greater than I can ever pay. The penalty is unbearable. Do you know what it's like to know that this same God, he sent his only son to satisfy his justice, to pay the debt, to take the penalty on himself, to reconcile to you, to him, to welcome you into his family.

[24:47] Do you know what it's like to receive grace upon grace? Do you know what it's like to have Jesus as your Lord and your brother, to know him, to marvel at him, to overflow with gratitude to the God of grace?

[25:02] Do you know the gift of God? Jesus tells the woman, if you knew, you would have asked him.

[25:14] Friends, if you knew these things, if you truly know these things, you would be on your knees asking, Jesus, I want more.

[25:25] I want more of you. I want more of this marvelous gift of kindness from God my Father. Jesus tells the woman, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water, because he gives generously, graciously, lavishly, to everyone who comes humbly and asks, take drink from this water without price.

[25:53] what do you think you're doing? You're bringing the gift of God. You're bringing the gift of God.

[26:06] And that means that you have something that's more important. You have a higher priority than your own comfort, than your own status.

[26:18] You'll lay aside your comfort, you'll lay aside your status, if it means that someone else comes to know the gift of God, and who it is that is offering them living water, the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit.

[26:35] Let's consider boldness to feeder number two. What do you think you have? What do you think you have? The woman challenges Jesus, and he doesn't really have any of this living water.

[26:52] In fact, she's pretty sure he doesn't have any water whatsoever. How does Jesus respond? Well, this one, Jesus answers, not just with his words, but with his demeanor.

[27:06] With this whole manner of speaking and relating to her. Jesus says, that he does have inside him, just like everyone who believes in him, he has inside of him, a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

[27:20] That's what he says in verse 14. And he demonstrates this. He doesn't just say that. He shows her what that looks like in this very conversation.

[27:32] With just the way he speaks with her. Jesus' demeanor is so different from hers. And honestly, so different from the way many of us would talk with her. You know, maybe she's amused and kind of annoyed by him.

[27:48] We're going to see that she is in fact trapped in a lifestyle of broken relationships. That she is a slave to cynicism and despair. But Jesus is so different.

[28:00] He is beautiful. There is a hopefulness about him. There is a confidence. And there's a real joy.

[28:12] Jesus is willing to let himself be belittled and scolded. And it hurts. But he is irrepressible. You can't keep him down. Where does this come from?

[28:24] Why is he like this? It comes from his father. In John chapter 5, he is going to say, As the father has life in himself, so he is granted the son also to have life in himself.

[28:46] It is his relationship with the father as God the son. It is his relationship with the Holy Spirit who dwells within him. He has life inside of himself.

[28:58] He has hope. He has joy. No one can touch it. No one can take it away. You're not a member of the Trinity.

[29:09] FYI. You're not God. But did you know that if you were a Christian, you have this life inside of you. A spring welling up to eternal life.

[29:22] Maybe it's just a little spark, but it can be fanned into white hot flame, this life inside of you. You were meant to find life from knowing your father, knowing the gift of his son, knowing his spirit.

[29:35] This is a gift. Jesus is later going to talk about this gift in John chapter 7. And there we read, On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

[29:52] Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now this he said about the spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

[30:13] He's talking about the Holy Spirit, who dwells inside every believer, who dwells inside his church. You, and I'm talking about you individually, individual Christian, and also you, all of us collectively as a church, you are like the city of God, described in the prophet Ezekiel, a city that has rivers flowing out of it, getting deeper and broader, and giving life to a desolate dead places.

[30:46] A temple of the living God, that gives life to everyone around you. The more you know Jesus, the more you become like Jesus, the more you are filled with the spirit, the more you find life in him, the more you then bring life to others.

[31:05] Do you have this eternal life? Do you have this good life? You know what I think is our main obstacle in speaking with others about Jesus Christ?

[31:24] I think our main obstacle is that we're not sure we really love what we're selling. You know, you and I, we know there are some people out there who are just natural salesmen, right?

[31:37] They could sell you a nasty old shoe. You'd buy it from them, right? They just have this, this just effervescent energy about it. They could talk about anything. They're amazing at making it seem like anything is awesome.

[31:50] Anything is amazing. Even things they don't believe in. Most of us aren't like that. Most of us aren't really good salesmen, are they?

[32:01] I mean, I've been in a couple of sales jobs. One where I was selling stuff that I believed in. I was leasing apartments to college students and I really thought they were good places. I did well at that.

[32:12] Then I did a job where I was selling carpet and I had no idea what I was doing. I did not do well at that. I just don't have that salesman charisma, right? Most of us don't.

[32:25] If we don't, we can really only sell what we believe in and love. If we don't really cherish, if we don't really ourselves treasure and know the gift of God, know its goodness, sense the overflowing grace, feel that, other people are probably going to see that.

[32:46] They're probably going to kind of get from our demeanor a different story. But if we really knew the gift of God, if you really know it, they're going to see something different in you.

[33:04] Perhaps that's what keeps this woman in conversation with Jesus. Maybe deep down, there's something, there's just something about this man and earnestness.

[33:15] He really believes he has something. He knows, he loves what he has. And there's something intriguing about him that she just can't resolve in her mind. So she sticks in there with him.

[33:26] What do you think you have? You have the gift of God. You have the gift of God. Brothers and sisters, you have so much more than you know.

[33:38] I think we're a lot like people who, you know, we have this, we have a drawer full of gemstones and we're convinced they're all cubic zirconium, but they're really diamonds.

[33:55] And if we knew that, how would your eyes not glow when you speak of them? When you speak of the gift of God, you have the priceless treasure.

[34:06] You have the Father, Son, and Spirit. You have peace and righteousness, reconciliation with God, forgiveness, hope, and life forever and ever. You have living water.

[34:22] So that brings us to boldness, defeater number three. Who do you think you are? Who do you think you are? The woman thinks Jesus is being arrogant.

[34:37] I mean, that's clear. Are you greater than our father, Jacob? In our culture, people will think you are arrogant if you speak of Jesus as the only way to God.

[34:51] If you speak of Jesus as the only way to forgiveness of sins. If you speak of Jesus as the only way to heaven, as the only way to truly live. And honestly, I think we sort of absorb some of that cultural mindset that we start to feel, well, maybe I am arrogant to claim that I have life that another person doesn't have.

[35:16] Who do I think I am? In the postmodern mindset, it is considered arrogant to claim to have a corner on truth, to claim to know the one true story of how God is saving the world.

[35:29] This is seen as an attempt to control and to oppress other people. You have become an oppressor if you try to claim you have that one truth, to tell other people about that one truth.

[35:40] You're trying to bend them to your will, to conform them to your mold, to make them like you. Sometimes it's portrayed almost as an act of violence, imperialistic.

[35:51] Does Jesus in this conversation strike you as an imperialist? He doesn't, does he? You want to know why?

[36:04] Because there's a beauty in the way he approaches her. He approaches her with a disarming, humble, unconventional love. That's why last week was so important to understanding this week.

[36:16] There's a love in the way Jesus has approached this woman, a humility, a gentleness, her criticism kind of falls flat, doesn't it? Are you greater than our father Jacob?

[36:27] He's already shown he is not trying to oppress her. He has opened this conversation with meekness, asking for a drink, exposing himself to humiliation. Even when he tells her that she lacks understanding, he does it in just such a gentle and indirect way.

[36:43] Jesus has short-circuited her criticism before she can even deliver it. You know what you're going to find out? She's never going to bring it up again. This is the only time she's going to say that about him.

[36:58] Jesus doesn't back down from claiming the truth. In fact, by the way, Jesus really is greater than her father Jacob. So the answer to that question is yes. For you and me, the answer to that question is well, no, not really.

[37:13] But Jesus wins her over through his humility. If you bring the gift of God to other people, they might not say it directly.

[37:24] You could probably tell by the look on their faces. You're probably going to get this challenge. Who do you think you are? Who do you think you are? Sometimes I even see this in the church. You try to speak, you know, you don't get this so much with words of encouragement.

[37:41] Sometimes you need to speak some words of correction to someone and you get this look on their face like, who are you to tell me what to do? The best way you have of short-circuiting that challenge.

[37:52] You're not in control of what another person thinks and feels. But here's a good way to approach people. Through your demeanor, through gentleness, meekness, humility, show that you are not trying to dominate them and control them.

[38:07] You are not trying to puff yourself up with your own greatness. Look how much I know. I know things you don't know. You're not even, you're not trying to exalt yourself at the other person's expense by making yourself look great and them look small.

[38:23] You're even willing to be humiliated. You're willing to be reduced in status, to be shamed and reviled if you can only speak the truth about the gift of God.

[38:37] Jesus tells the woman in verse 14, he talks about the water that I will give. He is the giver of living water.

[38:49] That's something that's different about you and me. We believe in Jesus and he gives living water. You and I, we don't give living water.

[39:01] We're just the channels through which that spring of water flows. The channels through which the gift is coming. The channels for that spring of water welling up to eternal life.

[39:12] It is Jesus who is the giver of the gift. It is Jesus that you are exalting, not yourself. You are not here to press someone else into your mold to be their oppressor, to turn them into a clone of yourself.

[39:29] You are here to direct them to Jesus. Come. Here is your king. Not me, not me. He is. Let's together, let's become like him.

[39:43] Let's be stamped with his image. Let's be conformed to his mold together. Come. Come with me. Who do you think you are?

[39:54] You are a channel of the gift of God. You are a channel of the gift of God. Just from the verses Carl was reading this morning, you're an ambassador. You're not the king, you're his ambassador. And that frees you from the need to exalt yourself.

[40:09] You're here to exalt Jesus. Let go of yourself. Be small. Be humbled. You carry with you a priceless, life-giving treasure.

[40:23] You are holding the word of life. You carry living water. You are a channel of the gift of God. And then finally, we reach boldness to feed our number four.

[40:37] I think this is the one in Squamish, maybe less so in other places, but in Squamish, this is the one I encounter the most often. Boldness to feed our number four. I'm doing just fine. I'm doing just fine.

[40:49] You know, I encounter a lot of people as, you know, in just whatever, whether it's a coffee shop or running or just randomly talking with people. I encounter a lot of people who, on the surface, they seem pretty happy.

[41:03] They seem not very interested in finding a new way of life and finding living water. I mean, why would you expect them to be? They moved to Squamish precisely because they wanted this lifestyle.

[41:16] They come here because they believe the outdoors, this place hardwired for adventure, this is the good life. This is what's going to bring glory into my life.

[41:29] I found a good source of water. They don't seem bothered that I, you know, honestly, I don't know that I've ever encountered anyone yet. Maybe they're just, they're probably just really being nice.

[41:39] It's the Canadian way, right? But they, I haven't encountered anyone yet that seems bothered that I believe in Jesus Christ. Right? Nobody's seem has, to me, taken offense at that.

[41:50] Maybe just because I, whenever, I don't know. Maybe, they probably have for you, perhaps, but not for me. Their mindset is that, hey, if that works for you, great. You know, you live your truth. I'll live mine.

[42:00] Just keep it to yourself. We'll get along fine. You know, it's like, don't ask, don't tell. Right? That's how the woman dismisses Jesus in verse 12.

[42:11] She talks about, you know, hey, look how great the well I'm drinking, I'm drinking from is. It's, it's got great significance. It's the same well as Jacob. He is the father of the nation of Israel.

[42:22] Honestly, it's just an honor to drink the same well that Jacob drank from. And you're saying, you've got better water. Jesus, in verse 13, he begins talking about giving her this living water that will make it so that she will never be thirsty again.

[42:43] And that's what makes the water that Jesus has, that's what makes it so much better than the water from Jacob's well. It is a spring of water welling up to eternal life within her.

[43:00] You know what her response is? Verse 15, the woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.

[43:15] Now, how genuine a question do you think this is? What do you think? She's just like, oh gosh, wow, you've convinced me, you've won me over, how can I find this living water?

[43:31] Or is she just kind of playing with him? Just about every commentator you'll read in this is like, yeah, she's not being serious. It doesn't make any sense in this dialogue.

[43:43] She's been nothing but skeptical. And now he's just said the most outrageous thing of all. She probably has this look in her face like, oh yeah. You know, this is the kind of way that you would talk with a four-year-old child and his imaginary adventures, right?

[44:01] Oh, oh, you've got a spring of water. Oh, can I have a drink? Please? Here's my cup. Oh, so good. Good job, Jesus. Yeah. She's shifted from being suspicious of Jesus to maybe this guy is just a little bit simple.

[44:25] Maybe somebody dropped him as a baby, you know? The one thing that's true of her, she is definitely not taking Jesus seriously at this point.

[44:37] She's not taking Jesus seriously. And so, I want to stop and ask you a question, okay? Do you like this woman? How do you feel?

[44:49] How do you feel about her? Do you like her? Yeah? No? Do you like, do you like, are you annoyed and offended by the way she's treating Jesus?

[44:59] You know what I love about Jesus? Just reason number 530, right? It's so clear that Jesus likes her. He likes her.

[45:12] He doesn't walk off in a huff. I mean, she's just treating him in such a condescending manner. He doesn't walk off in a huff. He just, he keeps the dialogue going. He keeps engaging with her and he does it not because he has to.

[45:25] He does it because he wants to. He wants to keep talking with her. And Jesus replies to her, go. Oh.

[45:36] And so it's sort of like this, like, oh, okay, sure, yeah. He's sort of like, it's so funny because she says this thing, like treating him like a child and he responds as though she's serious. And he's got to know she's not serious, but he's like, okay, hey, go call your husband and come here.

[45:52] What a great answer because immediately it becomes clear, this woman is not doing just fine. she is not doing just fine. She's not doing well at all.

[46:05] I mean, her answer is just, I have no husband. That's all. And then Jesus tells her something no stranger could possibly know about her. You have had five husbands and the one you now have is not your husband.

[46:23] Now, why does Jesus say all this? Well, for one thing, I think it serves a couple purposes. One thing, it recaptures her attention.

[46:36] From this point on in the conversation, she is taking him seriously. Right? This is a sign. She's going to say, oh, sir, I perceive you're a prophet. So, the idea of him being maybe a shyster or just a simpleton is gone now.

[46:52] Now she's all in on the conversation. A second thing, though, this does is that it reveals that all is not well in her world. She isn't just fine.

[47:06] Her life is an endless succession of broken relationships with men. We don't know the story of what was up with these five husbands. I'm going to guess that all five of them didn't die and leave her a widow.

[47:19] And if they did, then maybe that's a little suspicious. You know? But I'm going to guess there was a lot of conflict there, a lot of dysfunctional relationships.

[47:32] And you know that? Because after five failed marriages, she seems to have abandoned marriage altogether and just shacked up with a guy. She doesn't form relationships well.

[47:47] The common denominator to all our failed relationships is her. Right? I'm sure her husbands weren't great guys either, but there's something messed up in her life.

[47:57] Her life is just this relationship disaster zone. And this puts everything that came before, this really puts the whole dialogue in a different light because what looked like just skepticism or reasonable responses to Jesus' boldness, all of a sudden you're like maybe there's a bit of cynicism here too.

[48:18] There's this shell that she's built around herself that's protecting her from hope because hope that is disappointed is one of the worst pains of all.

[48:30] It's one of the most crushing things of all. Cynicism is a form of despair and it covers up a broken life. Here's the truth about people and the longer I'm in pastoral ministry the more this seems to be true.

[48:46] Most of the people that you meet, they're just putting on a good face. Underneath, their lives are full of broken hopes and dreams.

[48:57] They're under the oppression of shame, hurt, regret, and guilt. For those of you who are young who are like I don't know what you're talking about, wait.

[49:11] It's just so I know about that's really cheerful. But it's just a matter of time. Right? You can't avoid it. That's what life in a fallen world is like. It's hard. Stuff happens.

[49:22] Oh, man. It's just such heavy things. And most people, I mean, they're looking for water. And most people find some source of water to drink from.

[49:36] We call those coping mechanisms. Some well to draw from again and again and again and again. Some of those ways of coping, some of them are pretty destructive.

[49:47] Drugs, alcohol, sexual immorality, gambling, other addictive behaviors. Those are things that are just most so obviously and immediately destructive to you and to all the people around you.

[50:00] But you've got to get water somewhere. So you go there. some ways of coping are more praised because they seem harmless at worst and in some cases really beneficial.

[50:18] You can just throw yourself in a team sport. I don't know how many stories of pro athletes I've read who it's like the reason they got involved in basketball was because that was their only refuge from a super destructive and broken home.

[50:31] Outdoor activities. Some people throw themselves into the great outdoors. Why? To escape. Hobbies. Social media.

[50:44] So on so forth. There's a million different ways to cope with life. It was interesting. I was reading just yesterday an article about a pilot program that was taking place at a town in Ontario somewhere.

[50:56] They're adopting this model they learned from Iceland where you know you basically the government funds all these programs for kids to like hey you know put them into karate or just ask them what they want to learn karate or just mountain climbing or you know sewing or whatever they want and just teach them how to do that and get them involved in these activities and it's done wonders for the mental health problems in Iceland and that seems really great and I read that I'm like that's some pretty good water right there that you have to keep going to again and again and again and again and what happens when you grow old and feeble and you can't do those things anymore.

[51:32] What happens if that water gets taken away from you? What are you left with? It works for a little bit.

[51:43] All of our coping mechanisms we adopt them because they work for a little bit. They give you some success. As a child they help. As an adult they destroy your life. They work for a little while and then they end up being horribly destructive in the end.

[51:58] but you have to keep coming back to them again and again and they only serve to cover up the fact that your whole life is built on a foundation of despair. Our whole culture is built on a foundation of despair.

[52:09] The problem is systematic. This is the best we got. All you can really do is just try to give people relief from hard things in their life and just gently our whole basically our I would put it as basically our whole system is set up to give people palliative care from the moment they're born.

[52:31] Just try to make your life as easy as you can. Get you through to the end. Try to give you some degree of success and get you through. Feel like you've gotten ahead in life and then you die. And in that whole model any catastrophe in your life threatens to overwhelm your abilities to cope.

[52:52] Those things only work so far. We desperately have to protect people from hardship because we just have so little ability to help them.

[53:02] As you grow older your strength fails, your mind and your senses fail you and these methods are all stripped away. All you're left with is the despair. How many people have I seen who are old and passing away and in their eyes I just see despair?

[53:19] Jacob's well will fail you. This is not living water. this is not the good life because by definition for it truly to be the good life it cannot be taken away from you because if it can be taken away from you it's not really the good life.

[53:37] You always worry about losing it. Living water is a spring welling up within you and it can never be taken away from you. You need the gift of God.

[53:54] You say I'm doing just fine. no you need the gift of God. What Jesus wants for this woman what Jesus wants for you is not another way to cope and deal with life.

[54:06] He wants to give this woman he wants to give you a true and living hope true life. He wants to give her and to give you living water that can never be taken away from you.

[54:19] That's why he says in verse 14 whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. You know sometimes people are we're just happy with the ways that we found to cope with life.

[54:33] We're far too easily pleased. We're convinced that we're satisfied for a little while anyway. Just some I guess some advice in approaching folks like that.

[54:48] Sometimes you have to wait. Sometimes you have to wait until they realize they're not doing just fine. I mean it's really only when this woman is confronted with the fact she's not doing just fine that she's actually willing to listen to Jesus.

[55:10] Sometimes I've heard pastors say that they prefer to speak at funerals rather than weddings. And you know what? In my experience that's true. I actually prefer it. not because I like death or I like to see people in sorrow.

[55:28] I don't. It's hard. But at a wedding nobody is really listening. Everyone is just happy. People are happy for the bride and groom.

[55:40] The bride and groom are all happy. Everyone is smiling. Happy people tend to tune out what they need to hear. I never see people so hungry, so dialed in, so longing for living water as I do when I'm speaking at a funeral.

[56:02] Because death, oh boy, there is nothing like death to expose our lives for what they are. To expose the foolishness of our way of living, the foolishness of our, the way we've just been coping with life and the way we've been relating to other people.

[56:19] It reveals our need. Death reveals our need for life. It reveals our need for living water, our need for real hope. I want to tell you this.

[56:33] If you know Jesus Christ as Lord, if you belong to him and he belongs to you, what you have in Christ is eternally sufficient.

[56:46] Maybe you may, you might, you might nod your head but then deep in your heart feel like, I don't know if that's really true. It sure doesn't feel like it. Let's talk about that. That's when I'm counseling people, that's what I'm helping them gain access to the resources and relationships you have in Jesus Christ.

[57:06] I've been focused lately and how do we connect with our Father? What does it look like to pour out your heart before him? How do we do that?

[57:16] many of us don't know how. But what you have in Christ is eternally sufficient. You will never be thirsty again as long as you keep returning to drink from that spring of living water.

[57:32] You have Father, Son, and Spirit. You have the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. so you can speak boldly.

[57:49] No one is doing just fine, but you have the gift of God. You have a sure hope. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? So like Jesus, you are called to reveal the gift of God with an unconventional boldness.

[58:08] Our God, our Father,