WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:11.480 So, I have never given birth, but I'm told that the closest a man can come to experiencing 00:00:11.480 --> 00:00:18.379 ! I'm told this, I have no way to objectively measure it, but I'm told that the closest a 00:00:18.379 --> 00:00:23.320 ! man can come to experiencing the pain of childbirth is a kidney stone. So, maybe somebody 00:00:23.320 --> 00:00:28.100 out there has gone through both and you can tell me how comparable they are. I did have 00:00:28.100 --> 00:00:35.380 a kidney stone about three years ago. It was memorable. My wife had to drive me to the ER 00:00:35.380 --> 00:00:41.820 and I thought I was dying. But when I got there, you know, I talked to the doctor. Obviously, 00:00:41.980 --> 00:00:46.299 one of the more important questions from my perspective was, how do I make sure this never 00:00:46.299 --> 00:00:52.340 happens again? And the doctor said that the reason that I got the kidney stone was due to dehydration. 00:00:53.359 --> 00:00:57.340 And when I say dehydration, I don't just mean I went a week or two not drinking enough water and 00:00:57.340 --> 00:01:03.480 being thirsty. I mean a lifestyle of dehydration. You know, years and years and years and years and 00:01:03.480 --> 00:01:12.159 years of living thirsty, of not drinking, and over time, that actually can cause things like that. 00:01:12.240 --> 00:01:19.379 And that's really the danger and the problem with prolonged dehydration, with living a lifestyle where 00:01:19.379 --> 00:01:24.460 you're constantly thirsty, is that you can do that for years and years and not be aware of it until 00:01:24.459 --> 00:01:32.000 something goes really wrong. And then you look back and you say, oh, now I see how this led me to this 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:41.619 crisis. And the same is true when we think about spiritual thirst or spiritual dehydration. 00:01:42.519 --> 00:01:48.619 Most people, if you ask them, don't feel spiritually thirsty. And the idea of spiritual hydration, 00:01:49.039 --> 00:01:53.759 dehydration, doesn't make a lot of sense to most people. So we don't feel spiritually thirsty. 00:01:53.760 --> 00:02:02.540 We feel other things. We feel restless. You know, we feel anxious. We feel lonely. We feel 00:02:02.540 --> 00:02:09.920 unsatisfied. We feel driven. You know, there's an acronym in the addiction recovery world, HALT. 00:02:10.340 --> 00:02:16.740 Hungry, angry, lonely, tired. Those are the things that you feel that can often lead you to use. 00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:21.379 So you need to be on guard when you feel those things. But why do we sometimes feel that we can't 00:02:21.379 --> 00:02:29.039 identify where it's coming from? Well, underneath it all, there's spiritual thirst. And this morning, 00:02:29.099 --> 00:02:36.240 we're going to meet a woman who is severely spiritually dehydrated. She doesn't know it until 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:41.960 she meets Jesus. And then that changes everything about her life. So I want to look at this story 00:02:41.960 --> 00:02:46.019 with you. And then we're going to draw out some implications for those of us here this morning. 00:02:46.020 --> 00:02:53.719 Let's pray. Our Lord, Heavenly Father, we thank you because even as we turn our hearts and minds to 00:02:53.719 --> 00:02:58.620 pray, you're already here. You, in fact, already know what we need better than we do. 00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:04.660 So, Lord, we simply ask that your will would be done in us and through us, that you would do your 00:03:04.660 --> 00:03:11.680 work through your Word. We pray that through your written Word, Lord, even as we come to understand it, 00:03:11.680 --> 00:03:17.460 Lord, that we might actually encounter your living Word. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen. 00:03:19.140 --> 00:03:26.520 So, first of all, just to orient us to this story in John chapter 4, Jesus has decided and is now 00:03:26.520 --> 00:03:33.800 making his way from Judea to Galilee. And on his way, he passes through a region called Samaria. 00:03:33.800 --> 00:03:41.800 And there was a lot of hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans over cultural and racial and 00:03:41.800 --> 00:03:49.500 religious differences. There was a lot of antipathy. Jesus passes through this region. And at noon, 00:03:49.640 --> 00:03:55.760 it's hot. And Jesus is hot and tired. And so he stops to rest by a well. He sends his disciples 00:03:55.760 --> 00:04:02.600 away to buy food. And by the way, if you're next time you're in the West Bank, this well is still 00:04:02.599 --> 00:04:08.900 standing. You can go see it in the town of Nablus. I think it's in an Eastern Orthodox church. And it's 00:04:08.900 --> 00:04:17.339 still, you can still draw water from it. So, Jesus is by this well. And a Samaritan woman comes to draw 00:04:17.339 --> 00:04:25.639 water. And Jesus strikes up a conversation with her by asking her for a drink. And this is a really odd 00:04:25.639 --> 00:04:33.659 encounter for at least a couple of reasons. Number one, most people would come to draw water for the 00:04:33.659 --> 00:04:39.560 day, either in the early morning or in the late afternoon, early evening, when it was a lot cooler. 00:04:39.699 --> 00:04:44.599 This is the hottest part of the day. Nobody comes at this time of day. But this woman is here, 00:04:45.259 --> 00:04:51.459 happens to meet Jesus. Even more strange, though, is the fact that they even have a conversation at all. 00:04:51.459 --> 00:04:56.259 Because as I said, a lot of hostility between Jews and Samaritans, they did not speak or interact. 00:04:57.259 --> 00:05:02.959 Men typically did not speak to or interact with women that they didn't know or weren't related to 00:05:02.959 --> 00:05:09.319 in settings like this. And yet, this is the longest private conversation that Jesus has with anyone 00:05:09.319 --> 00:05:15.639 in the entire New Testament. He has it with this woman. Now, they start out talking about well water, 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:21.060 but Jesus very quickly pivots the conversation in a different direction to focus on a different kind 00:05:21.060 --> 00:05:28.600 of water, what he refers to as living water. It says in verse 10, if you knew the gift of God 00:05:28.600 --> 00:05:35.819 and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living 00:05:35.819 --> 00:05:45.800 water. Now, at first, she's evasive in her response. She says, essentially, if we could put what she says 00:05:45.800 --> 00:05:51.740 into modern day, she says, who do you think you are? She's like, do you think you're better than our 00:05:51.740 --> 00:05:59.639 ancestor Jacob, who actually dug this well and drew water himself? Jacob, by the way, is the grandson of 00:05:59.639 --> 00:06:06.980 Abraham. He's the one who gave birth to the 12 fathers, the 12 patriarchs of Israel. So she says, you think you're 00:06:06.980 --> 00:06:15.300 better than Jacob, who gave us this well? Jesus is not deterred. He presses gently forward, and he says this. 00:06:15.300 --> 00:06:20.860 Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. He's talking about the well water. But whoever 00:06:20.860 --> 00:06:27.319 drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them 00:06:27.319 --> 00:06:34.740 a spring of water welling up to eternal life. Now, when she hears this, this woman is intrigued, 00:06:35.259 --> 00:06:41.060 and you can tell by her response, she realizes that he's talking about something very different. 00:06:41.060 --> 00:06:46.600 She's talking about something that seems to be able to satisfy all thirst, right? Not just physical 00:06:46.600 --> 00:06:54.500 thirst. Some eternal source of life that might be able to be put inside her somehow. And there's 00:06:54.500 --> 00:07:00.139 something in her that clearly responds to that. This is something that she desperately wants. And so 00:07:00.139 --> 00:07:06.500 she immediately responds, right? No longer evasive. And she says, sir, give me this water so that I won't 00:07:06.500 --> 00:07:12.800 have to get thirsty and come back to draw water again and again and again. And then Jesus says a 00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:20.160 very calculated response. Okay. Why don't you go and get your husband, and then the two of you come back 00:07:20.160 --> 00:07:27.760 here. And he knows exactly what he's doing. And as a result of him saying that, you can imagine her 00:07:27.760 --> 00:07:39.340 face going from lighting up to, oh no. And her secret comes out. And it's all laid bare. And we find out 00:07:39.340 --> 00:07:44.860 that this woman has been with five different men, and that the man that she's currently living with and 00:07:44.860 --> 00:07:52.360 cohabiting with is not her husband. Now, I want to be clear on what this means and what's going on in this 00:07:52.360 --> 00:08:00.180 woman's life. Bible teachers sometimes portray this woman as a kind of notorious sexual center and temptress. 00:08:01.400 --> 00:08:07.379 I would say if you understand the first century Jewish culture, that's probably not the whole story. 00:08:08.780 --> 00:08:14.840 In the first century, Jewish men were, the divorce laws were fairly permissive. If you were a 00:08:14.839 --> 00:08:21.599 man, and so Jewish men could divorce their wife for practically any reason, right? You burn dinner, 00:08:22.319 --> 00:08:30.779 divorce, right? The house is messy, divorce. You're just not pleasing me, divorce, right? It was fairly 00:08:30.779 --> 00:08:37.159 easy. It was a lot harder for a woman to divorce her husband. It happened, but it was a lot more rare, 00:08:37.539 --> 00:08:44.519 and it was a lot more difficult to pull off. And so it's much more likely that this woman had given 00:08:44.519 --> 00:08:51.740 herself to these men looking for the things that most of us look for when we become romantically 00:08:51.740 --> 00:09:00.419 involved with someone, looking for not just pleasure and gratification, but intimacy and love and 00:09:00.419 --> 00:09:05.539 acceptance and wholeness. And not to mention, in this society, if you're a woman, you really couldn't 00:09:05.539 --> 00:09:10.840 survive very well not being married. And so, you know, looking for safety and looking for provision and 00:09:10.840 --> 00:09:15.680 looking for security and all of the things that many of us would look for in relationships. 00:09:17.280 --> 00:09:23.060 And what we can surmise is that she had given herself to these men and that one by one, 00:09:23.060 --> 00:09:31.759 these men had discarded her for whatever reason. The reason that she's most likely living with a man who 00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:41.720 is not her husband is probably because everybody in town believes that she is too defiled to be married. 00:09:42.860 --> 00:09:51.819 She's damaged goods. And so nobody will marry her. So no wonder she comes to the well at noon, 00:09:52.100 --> 00:09:58.399 the hottest, most miserable part of the day. This is the time when she would be least likely to 00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:09.579 encounter anyone else from town. So you see what this means. She would rather endure the scorching heat 00:10:09.579 --> 00:10:20.459 of the noonday sun than risk being shamed by one of her neighbors. This is the reality of this woman's life. 00:10:20.460 --> 00:10:34.519 This is the pain that she's living in. She's a pariah. She's an outcast. So this is not, I would say, just a story about a temptress, about sexual immorality. 00:10:35.180 --> 00:10:43.780 I think this is a story about misdirected longing, about social isolation, about shame, about rejection. 00:10:43.779 --> 00:10:55.000 And here she is talking to a Jewish rabbi of all things. And somehow this Jewish rabbi knows all of her secrets before she even shares them. 00:10:55.699 --> 00:11:00.539 So under normal circumstances, this would be this woman's absolute worst nightmare. 00:11:00.959 --> 00:11:08.519 It's like somebody is shining a spotlight on the most painful, shameful, awful parts of her life. 00:11:08.519 --> 00:11:15.000 Her worst, most desperately held secrets have been laid bare. 00:11:16.699 --> 00:11:19.179 But these are not normal circumstances. 00:11:20.460 --> 00:11:22.720 And the rabbi she's talking to is Jesus. 00:11:24.120 --> 00:11:32.279 And it is striking. All the commentators say there's not the slightest hint of condemnation in anything Jesus says. 00:11:32.279 --> 00:11:35.279 He's simply naming what is true. 00:11:35.839 --> 00:11:39.839 But then he's offering and extending an invitation. 00:11:41.199 --> 00:11:42.419 There's an invitation. 00:11:43.559 --> 00:11:47.720 And Jesus invites her to understand the true source of her thirst. 00:11:47.799 --> 00:11:51.699 And he does that when he uses the phrase, very intentionally, living water. 00:11:51.700 --> 00:11:57.140 The phrase, living water, you may have picked up on it when Ellen was reading a moment ago. 00:11:57.240 --> 00:12:05.040 The phrase, living water, points us back to the Old Testament, and particularly passages like Jeremiah, chapter 2, verse 13. 00:12:05.740 --> 00:12:08.460 This is a place where God is not just talking about Israel. 00:12:08.620 --> 00:12:10.660 He's stating the truth of the human condition. 00:12:11.800 --> 00:12:13.480 He's speaking about all of us. 00:12:14.520 --> 00:12:15.460 And he says this, 00:12:15.460 --> 00:12:17.480 My people have committed two sins. 00:12:17.480 --> 00:12:29.279 They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. 00:12:29.360 --> 00:12:31.039 Now, this is extremely important. 00:12:31.500 --> 00:12:39.200 A spring, by definition, taps into an underground water source and flows continuously. 00:12:39.860 --> 00:12:44.840 So there's a spring near our cabin in West Virginia, and the water is just constantly pouring out. 00:12:44.840 --> 00:12:50.379 And the local people who know where the spring is will go with big jugs and everything, and you just fill up the spring. 00:12:50.480 --> 00:12:54.560 But no matter what time of day you go, day or night, the water is always flowing. 00:12:54.639 --> 00:12:57.879 That's a spring, because it's tapped into a vast underground water source. 00:12:58.980 --> 00:13:02.060 A cistern is a man-made tank. 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:05.320 It's not connected to any water source. 00:13:05.720 --> 00:13:09.720 It's essentially just a large tank that collects runoff and rainwater. 00:13:09.720 --> 00:13:17.220 So, you know, it collects water, you drink out of it, but it gets empty, and it has to constantly be filled from somewhere else. 00:13:18.639 --> 00:13:23.180 And so this is essentially, you know, that's an essential difference. 00:13:23.320 --> 00:13:24.560 And then God goes a step further. 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:27.740 He says not just cisterns, but broken cisterns. 00:13:28.500 --> 00:13:28.639 Right? 00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:32.360 So a cistern doesn't have any water source feeding it. 00:13:32.399 --> 00:13:33.920 You just have to collect what you can. 00:13:34.620 --> 00:13:39.179 But then God says we've actually dug for ourselves broken cisterns, meaning there's a big crack in the bottom. 00:13:39.419 --> 00:13:43.819 So even what we gather, even when it does rain, that water just drains out the bottom. 00:13:43.919 --> 00:13:45.959 So a broken cistern is completely useless. 00:13:46.459 --> 00:13:48.099 It has one job, and it can't do it. 00:13:48.179 --> 00:13:49.099 It can't even hold water. 00:13:50.019 --> 00:13:53.059 And this is God's diagnosis, friends, of the human condition. 00:13:54.659 --> 00:13:58.000 He's saying there's a deep thirst in every human soul. 00:13:58.000 --> 00:13:59.559 There's a deep thirst. 00:13:59.919 --> 00:14:01.279 There's a longing for God. 00:14:01.740 --> 00:14:06.059 Because God designed us to draw life directly from the source. 00:14:06.559 --> 00:14:13.940 He designed us to draw life from him like a spring, this vast source of life under all reality. 00:14:13.940 --> 00:14:20.840 But instead of doing that, he says we deny our need for God. 00:14:21.940 --> 00:14:30.480 And so inside each one of us, instead of a spring, we have a broken cistern in our soul. 00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:40.200 And what we do is we go around to different wells trying to fill up that cistern, trying to kind of fill it and quench that thirst. 00:14:41.039 --> 00:14:46.000 But no sooner do we draw water into it than it begins to leak out the bottom. 00:14:46.159 --> 00:14:47.500 And so it's never enough. 00:14:47.620 --> 00:14:50.940 It always leaks away, and so we always need more. 00:14:50.940 --> 00:14:56.640 As Jesus says to this woman, everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. 00:14:57.060 --> 00:15:00.760 Obviously, he's talking about way more than the well water. 00:15:00.920 --> 00:15:02.300 He's not talking about that at all. 00:15:02.380 --> 00:15:03.840 He's talking about the men in her life. 00:15:05.500 --> 00:15:12.360 If you keep going to these men, if you keep thinking it's going to be different this time, right, you're going to get the same result. 00:15:13.420 --> 00:15:18.160 And I think if we're honest, this is something that we all know on some level deep down. 00:15:18.159 --> 00:15:20.100 It's interesting. 00:15:20.279 --> 00:15:22.899 This, for whatever reason, reminded me of the TV show Mad Men. 00:15:24.819 --> 00:15:29.759 If you know anything about that show, Don Draper, the main character, sort of is the guy who has everything. 00:15:30.059 --> 00:15:35.059 He has everything that our culture says should make a person happy and fulfilled. 00:15:35.259 --> 00:15:36.799 He's really good looking. 00:15:37.079 --> 00:15:38.139 He's got status. 00:15:38.839 --> 00:15:41.500 He is very successful. 00:15:41.799 --> 00:15:43.299 He's very socially desirable. 00:15:43.299 --> 00:15:48.559 He has the ability to have sex with people when he wants to. 00:15:49.120 --> 00:15:55.099 He's sort of, a lot of times, the smartest guy in the room, the one person who knows what's going on more than anybody else. 00:15:55.259 --> 00:15:58.439 And he has all the things that you would think would make you happy. 00:15:58.539 --> 00:16:02.399 And yet, I would say he's probably one of the most miserable characters ever created. 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:07.240 And at one point, he says, in one of the episodes, he says, what is happiness? 00:16:08.639 --> 00:16:09.539 What is happiness? 00:16:09.819 --> 00:16:12.519 It's a moment before you need more happiness. 00:16:13.439 --> 00:16:14.299 That's all it is. 00:16:14.360 --> 00:16:16.620 And that really sums up his life. 00:16:17.939 --> 00:16:20.439 That's what it's like trying to fill a broken sister. 00:16:20.440 --> 00:16:27.100 No sooner do you feel that little hit, that little bump, that little high, than you're chasing the next time. 00:16:28.800 --> 00:16:33.440 The comedian, Louis C.K., was being interviewed on a late night show. 00:16:33.680 --> 00:16:36.740 And he talks about, they're talking about our smartphone addiction. 00:16:36.900 --> 00:16:38.520 And why are we constantly on our devices? 00:16:38.680 --> 00:16:45.800 And why are we constantly scrolling on, you know, Zillow or TikTok or Instagram or whatever your particular poison might be? 00:16:45.980 --> 00:16:48.020 Why are we always doing that all the time? 00:16:48.019 --> 00:16:57.460 And he says, well, clearly we're distracting ourselves to escape the fact that, as he says, quote, underneath everything in your life, there's that thing. 00:16:58.360 --> 00:17:00.240 What he calls that forever empty. 00:17:01.840 --> 00:17:03.259 There's that forever empty. 00:17:03.860 --> 00:17:14.339 And so he says, we're constantly trying to distract ourselves because, and he says, if we were just to set down our phones and sit in our car in silence for five minutes, half of us would probably break down into tears. 00:17:14.339 --> 00:17:18.959 Because that thing starts to creep up, right? 00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:23.459 That broken cistern emptiness comes into our conscious awareness. 00:17:23.699 --> 00:17:24.579 So here's the thing. 00:17:24.819 --> 00:17:25.419 Here's the question. 00:17:26.059 --> 00:17:30.199 I think I'm sort of, this is, I think we're mostly agreed on that. 00:17:31.419 --> 00:17:33.099 I think we're all kind of seeing some heads nod. 00:17:33.099 --> 00:17:38.539 If this is something that we know deep down, why do we keep doing it? 00:17:39.619 --> 00:17:41.659 Why do we keep going back to the same wells? 00:17:42.959 --> 00:17:52.679 And I think the reason, at least as I reflect on my own life, is because all these things work for a while. 00:17:52.680 --> 00:17:58.860 They work for a while until they don't anymore. 00:17:59.600 --> 00:18:02.240 So why do we chase sex or status or achievement? 00:18:02.400 --> 00:18:04.200 Because these things work for a while. 00:18:04.560 --> 00:18:08.500 You know, so a new romantic relationship is thrilling. 00:18:09.759 --> 00:18:17.440 You know, that's sort of that adrenaline rush of serotonin and oxytocin and norepinephrine and all of that is just surging through your system, right? 00:18:17.440 --> 00:18:20.140 And it's like all you can think about. 00:18:20.200 --> 00:18:21.559 That rush is amazing. 00:18:23.820 --> 00:18:24.940 But it doesn't last. 00:18:25.720 --> 00:18:27.640 And then the novelty wears off. 00:18:27.700 --> 00:18:29.440 And then you see the flaws and the imperfections. 00:18:30.279 --> 00:18:33.700 And then, you know, and then you have a really bad fight. 00:18:33.880 --> 00:18:35.559 And you don't get along as well as you thought you did. 00:18:35.600 --> 00:18:37.559 And hopefully all that happens before you get married. 00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:41.279 So you know what you're really getting into, right? 00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:44.279 And, but it doesn't last, right? 00:18:44.279 --> 00:18:53.240 And if, by the way, and if we treat people in our lives like wells, it will not go well for us and it will not go well for them. 00:18:53.440 --> 00:18:54.460 It's actually going to do damage. 00:18:54.660 --> 00:19:04.279 If you turn your spouse into a well, if you say this is where I'm going to draw meaning and this is where I'm going to draw fulfillment and this is where I'm going to draw satisfaction from you from this relationship. 00:19:04.279 --> 00:19:07.379 Or if that's the way you see your kids. 00:19:07.660 --> 00:19:10.859 If you're like, my kids, that's really, that's how I justify my life. 00:19:11.160 --> 00:19:13.059 That's how I justify my career choices. 00:19:13.379 --> 00:19:15.160 That's how I give myself meaning. 00:19:15.480 --> 00:19:18.500 This is what I'm aiming at is just having kids who are successful. 00:19:18.740 --> 00:19:22.619 And if my kids are successful, it'll justify the sacrifices I've made. 00:19:24.019 --> 00:19:27.460 It'll justify the rest of me and make me feel good about myself. 00:19:28.200 --> 00:19:28.399 Right? 00:19:28.400 --> 00:19:31.600 If we turn the people in our lives into wells, it's going to do harm. 00:19:32.500 --> 00:19:41.060 The problem is you can't really love and accept somebody as they are if you're simultaneously trying to draw meaning and satisfaction from that person. 00:19:42.700 --> 00:19:46.440 What ends up happening is you end up being chronically disappointed in them. 00:19:47.140 --> 00:19:48.860 They feel like it's never good enough. 00:19:49.360 --> 00:19:52.300 You hold them to expectations they're never going to be able to live up to. 00:19:52.299 --> 00:19:58.000 To give another example, some people turn their work into wells. 00:19:59.659 --> 00:20:04.299 We try to suck self-worth and fulfillment out of our jobs. 00:20:04.399 --> 00:20:09.919 And that works for a while until it doesn't. 00:20:10.700 --> 00:20:14.440 You know, a big professional accomplishment makes you feel amazing. 00:20:15.500 --> 00:20:15.940 Amazing. 00:20:18.460 --> 00:20:19.559 For maybe a night. 00:20:19.559 --> 00:20:21.960 You know, you go out and celebrate, have fun. 00:20:22.559 --> 00:20:24.559 Congratulations, Welda, you've worked so hard for this. 00:20:25.419 --> 00:20:27.220 You wake up the next morning, what do you feel? 00:20:27.359 --> 00:20:28.059 Do you feel full? 00:20:30.019 --> 00:20:30.359 No. 00:20:30.859 --> 00:20:32.079 You've got to start hustling. 00:20:32.299 --> 00:20:34.799 Chasing the next accomplishment. 00:20:35.019 --> 00:20:37.200 Chasing the next big goal. 00:20:37.319 --> 00:20:38.700 People say, what are you going to do next? 00:20:39.179 --> 00:20:41.740 You know, my wife's a creative, works in the film world. 00:20:41.960 --> 00:20:42.700 And that's the hard thing. 00:20:43.099 --> 00:20:45.799 Say you have a film and it goes to Sundance and it wins all the awards. 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:49.099 What's everybody talking to you about at Sundance when you're winning your award? 00:20:49.399 --> 00:20:50.359 What's your next project? 00:20:52.199 --> 00:20:54.319 That's the main number one question everybody asks. 00:20:54.539 --> 00:20:55.299 What's your next project? 00:20:56.279 --> 00:20:58.039 It's like, can't I just enjoy this? 00:20:58.399 --> 00:20:59.319 No, what's your next project? 00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:02.419 How are you going to continue to justify your existence? 00:21:04.339 --> 00:21:05.099 That's the way it is. 00:21:05.119 --> 00:21:06.559 So it works for a while. 00:21:07.359 --> 00:21:09.000 So that's why some of us overwork. 00:21:09.099 --> 00:21:10.700 That's why some of us never take a day off. 00:21:10.779 --> 00:21:15.419 That's why some of us spend more time with our work colleagues than we do our kids. 00:21:16.480 --> 00:21:18.899 That's why some of us never feel satisfied in our jobs. 00:21:18.980 --> 00:21:26.179 Why we're constantly kind of got one eye, one ear to the ground, kind of wondering if there's something better out there that will fulfill us a little more. 00:21:26.180 --> 00:21:32.360 That's why, friends, some of us, our emotional well-being hinges on our performance. 00:21:32.359 --> 00:21:35.699 So when you're successful, it goes to your head. 00:21:35.759 --> 00:21:36.579 You get puffed up. 00:21:36.719 --> 00:21:38.959 You start feeling like, I really am amazing. 00:21:39.319 --> 00:21:41.279 When you fail, it feels like death. 00:21:42.740 --> 00:21:47.619 It feels like you haven't just failed to succeed. 00:21:47.719 --> 00:21:48.500 You're crushed. 00:21:49.839 --> 00:21:50.079 Right? 00:21:50.079 --> 00:21:54.879 And some of us actually don't actually try as hard as we could or should because we're so afraid of failing. 00:21:56.220 --> 00:22:00.199 So we settle for mediocrity because we can't bear the idea of failing. 00:22:01.259 --> 00:22:05.480 In all of these ways, right, we're having to go back to the well. 00:22:05.720 --> 00:22:10.619 I remember an interview years ago on NPR with Paul McCartney. 00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:12.559 Hopefully everybody knows who he is. 00:22:12.559 --> 00:22:15.379 One of the greatest musicians of our era. 00:22:15.380 --> 00:22:25.020 And in this interview, I remember it because he admits that he feels threatened when another musician comes out with a great album. 00:22:25.940 --> 00:22:29.360 And if you listen to the interview, the interviewer is kind of like completely shocked by this. 00:22:29.580 --> 00:22:34.440 And he's like, you've had success in so many dimensions of music. 00:22:34.440 --> 00:22:39.700 You really feel competitive insecurity with somebody else that's coming out with a record? 00:22:40.660 --> 00:22:41.840 And there's this pause. 00:22:41.980 --> 00:22:45.040 And then McCartney says, unfortunately, yeah. 00:22:46.380 --> 00:22:50.160 He says, I should be able to look at my accolades and go, come on, Paul, that's enough. 00:22:50.900 --> 00:22:56.140 But there's this little voice in the back of my brain that goes, no, no, no. 00:22:56.460 --> 00:22:57.440 You could do better. 00:22:57.840 --> 00:23:00.180 This person over here is excelling. 00:23:00.780 --> 00:23:01.300 Try harder. 00:23:03.120 --> 00:23:06.580 That is the sound of a broken cistern leaking. 00:23:06.579 --> 00:23:15.539 That is the drip, drip, drip of a cistern in your soul that can't hold water. 00:23:15.539 --> 00:23:23.119 I wonder if you ever have that little voice in your own head. 00:23:24.339 --> 00:23:26.000 And I've thought about that quite a bit this week. 00:23:26.559 --> 00:23:27.759 When do I hear that voice? 00:23:27.759 --> 00:23:36.339 You know, when is the little dial on my cistern on E? 00:23:37.339 --> 00:23:39.339 You know, and I'm aware of it. 00:23:41.559 --> 00:23:45.119 There's only one way to satisfy spiritual thirst. 00:23:45.980 --> 00:23:50.279 There's only one way to sate that longing. 00:23:51.079 --> 00:23:53.420 And that's the entire reason that Jesus has come. 00:23:54.119 --> 00:23:55.299 It's the entire reason. 00:23:55.899 --> 00:24:01.599 Jesus tells this woman, the water that I offer becomes a spring of water inside you, welling 00:24:01.599 --> 00:24:02.960 up to eternal life. 00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:05.740 What he's saying is, no more broken cisterns. 00:24:06.299 --> 00:24:07.839 No more dripping away. 00:24:08.180 --> 00:24:09.740 No more forever empty. 00:24:10.119 --> 00:24:15.680 A fountain of spiritual life inside you that flows directly from the source, from God himself. 00:24:15.680 --> 00:24:20.100 And she clearly begins to realize that he's talking about much more than water. 00:24:20.200 --> 00:24:22.480 He's talking about spiritual renewal. 00:24:22.640 --> 00:24:26.799 That's why it's odd if you follow the conversation, why does she all of a sudden bring up where 00:24:26.799 --> 00:24:27.600 to worship? 00:24:27.759 --> 00:24:31.860 It's because that's one of the biggest differences between Jews and Samaritans was which mountain, 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:35.299 where do you go in order to meet and encounter God and have a spiritual experience? 00:24:35.720 --> 00:24:37.600 And they had a huge disagreement over that. 00:24:37.880 --> 00:24:39.500 Where do you go to meet and worship God? 00:24:39.500 --> 00:24:43.620 And Jesus essentially says this, very soon, none of that's going to matter. 00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:47.180 You won't have to go anywhere. 00:24:48.100 --> 00:24:49.220 You don't have to go to a temple. 00:24:49.380 --> 00:24:50.620 You don't have to go to a mountain. 00:24:51.840 --> 00:24:52.680 None of it's going to matter. 00:24:54.740 --> 00:24:59.440 People will be able to worship God wherever they are because they will have God's truth 00:24:59.440 --> 00:25:01.480 and God's spirit inside them. 00:25:03.960 --> 00:25:07.759 He doesn't come out and say it, but what he's really saying is, you're not going to need 00:25:07.759 --> 00:25:10.380 to go to a temple because one day you're going to be a temple. 00:25:10.380 --> 00:25:15.800 Your body, your very presence, wherever you go, you're going to carry around the power 00:25:15.800 --> 00:25:18.120 and the presence and the life of God inside you. 00:25:19.280 --> 00:25:20.800 This is a radical claim. 00:25:22.620 --> 00:25:28.680 So she begins to realize all of this and it sinks in, right? 00:25:29.180 --> 00:25:32.320 And she says, we do believe and we're waiting for the Messiah. 00:25:32.319 --> 00:25:37.679 And this is the clearest place anywhere in scripture when Jesus responds and he says, I am him. 00:25:38.619 --> 00:25:40.980 I am that Messiah you've been waiting for. 00:25:41.059 --> 00:25:45.359 People say, well, Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah right here in John chapter 4. 00:25:46.439 --> 00:25:48.460 Jesus says, I'm the one you've been waiting for. 00:25:48.740 --> 00:25:53.539 She's so compelled by this and so transformed by this that she leaves the jar by the well, 00:25:53.639 --> 00:25:57.579 very symbolic, and she turns and she runs into town, the very people that she mostly tries 00:25:57.579 --> 00:26:01.779 to avoid, no longer caring because she no longer needs their approval. 00:26:02.319 --> 00:26:03.859 She's found something infinitely better. 00:26:03.960 --> 00:26:07.759 She's left the jar behind and she goes and she begins to tell everybody she encounters, 00:26:08.039 --> 00:26:09.439 you've got to come see this guy. 00:26:09.639 --> 00:26:11.379 You've got to come hear what he's saying. 00:26:12.439 --> 00:26:16.839 She becomes one of the most effective, maybe the first evangelist in John's gospel. 00:26:17.159 --> 00:26:19.299 It's incredible, this transformation, right? 00:26:19.299 --> 00:26:26.379 This woman is, I think, in many ways, all of us. 00:26:27.579 --> 00:26:34.099 And she realizes what we need to realize, that Jesus did not come, Lord have mercy, he did 00:26:34.099 --> 00:26:35.659 not come merely to give advice. 00:26:36.980 --> 00:26:38.919 He did not come to set a good example. 00:26:39.819 --> 00:26:42.619 He did not come simply to bring about some social reform. 00:26:44.440 --> 00:26:47.399 Jesus Christ came to satisfy spiritual thirst. 00:26:47.400 --> 00:26:52.380 That is the entire reason he came, to offer living water. 00:26:52.700 --> 00:26:54.200 No more broken cisterns. 00:26:55.460 --> 00:27:01.220 And what we figure, what we see here is that when you come to Jesus in faith and repentance, 00:27:02.140 --> 00:27:07.300 God not only offers forgiveness, but he offers the gift of the Holy Spirit. 00:27:09.040 --> 00:27:11.280 God's life in us, right? 00:27:11.320 --> 00:27:12.860 The spring of living water. 00:27:12.859 --> 00:27:13.859 God's life in us, right? 00:27:13.859 --> 00:27:14.859 God's life in us, right? 00:27:14.859 --> 00:27:17.839 So I want to apply this in a couple of ways. 00:27:17.919 --> 00:27:21.919 I want to talk a little bit about us as a church, as a community, for those of us who 00:27:21.919 --> 00:27:22.939 are part of Church of the Advent. 00:27:23.059 --> 00:27:25.119 And then I want to talk to us as individuals. 00:27:26.219 --> 00:27:28.419 The first question I want to ask is simply this. 00:27:29.879 --> 00:27:32.839 Imagine a woman like this coming into our church. 00:27:32.839 --> 00:27:36.799 How would she be received? 00:27:39.399 --> 00:27:40.379 It's worth thinking about. 00:27:41.959 --> 00:27:47.259 Some communities might be inclined to respond more with a tone of condemnation. 00:27:49.759 --> 00:27:55.819 You know, you look at this woman's choices and her lifestyle and the immorality that's clearly there. 00:27:55.819 --> 00:28:02.039 And now, they probably wouldn't do this to her face, but certainly some people would do it behind her back. 00:28:03.000 --> 00:28:05.720 You know, there'd be a lot of things that would be happening socially in the church, 00:28:05.759 --> 00:28:09.279 and she would just be quietly never invited to those things, right? 00:28:09.319 --> 00:28:12.159 She might want to, like, work with the youth ministry, and people would say, 00:28:12.220 --> 00:28:14.960 she's not the kind of person we want around our kids. 00:28:17.519 --> 00:28:19.919 Now, other communities might go in a very different direction. 00:28:19.920 --> 00:28:25.320 They might respond by pouring on unconditional affirmation, right? 00:28:25.560 --> 00:28:27.740 We're going to affirm you in all of your choices. 00:28:28.500 --> 00:28:33.019 And if anything, this woman is a victim of unjust social structures. 00:28:33.600 --> 00:28:36.860 She is a victim of oppressive and outdated moral standards. 00:28:38.980 --> 00:28:40.759 Notice that Jesus does neither. 00:28:42.740 --> 00:28:49.180 No one had a higher view of sex and marriage and sexual fidelity and faithfulness than Jesus. 00:28:49.920 --> 00:28:58.300 I mean, Jesus very clearly challenged the liberal views around divorce in the first century, 00:28:58.740 --> 00:29:01.180 and he held up the sacredness of marriage. 00:29:02.560 --> 00:29:06.340 And yet, there's not a hint of condemnation in anything Jesus says. 00:29:06.800 --> 00:29:10.860 And at the same time, Jesus doesn't affirm this woman's lifestyle. 00:29:11.880 --> 00:29:15.340 He clearly knows that she needs to be transformed, and actually, much more importantly, 00:29:15.580 --> 00:29:17.320 she knows that she needs to be transformed. 00:29:17.740 --> 00:29:18.779 She clearly wants that. 00:29:19.920 --> 00:29:23.480 So Jesus responds with neither condemnation nor affirmation. 00:29:23.580 --> 00:29:25.039 He responds with invitation. 00:29:26.259 --> 00:29:26.820 Invitation. 00:29:27.440 --> 00:29:28.380 He accepts her. 00:29:29.000 --> 00:29:29.980 He loves her. 00:29:30.160 --> 00:29:33.240 And then he opens the way for her to be renewed. 00:29:33.360 --> 00:29:36.080 But she's the one who has to walk down that path. 00:29:36.660 --> 00:29:37.700 And she does. 00:29:37.700 --> 00:29:45.779 The core need of every human being is not moral. 00:29:46.660 --> 00:29:48.160 It is relational. 00:29:49.460 --> 00:29:52.759 It is reconnection to God. 00:29:55.259 --> 00:29:59.319 God doesn't wait for us to become righteous and then love us. 00:29:59.319 --> 00:30:02.379 God loves us first. 00:30:02.379 --> 00:30:07.879 And loves us into righteousness and into holiness. 00:30:07.880 --> 00:30:11.580 This woman's core need, our core need, is relational. 00:30:11.980 --> 00:30:17.600 And for that reason, I believe and desire that the culture of our church should be a culture of invitation. 00:30:20.780 --> 00:30:21.980 We're not going to condemn you. 00:30:22.100 --> 00:30:23.240 We're not going to affirm you. 00:30:23.240 --> 00:30:25.120 I don't even affirm most of what I do. 00:30:25.119 --> 00:30:38.459 But it's a place where you can come, no matter who you are, no matter what you believe, no matter what you've done, where you can come into a community like this. 00:30:38.460 --> 00:30:40.259 And you know you're going to be loved. 00:30:41.019 --> 00:30:42.319 You know you're going to be accepted. 00:30:43.059 --> 00:30:46.019 And yet there is always going to be an invitation extended. 00:30:47.299 --> 00:30:50.900 An invitation for you to come and experience the renewal offered by Jesus. 00:30:51.960 --> 00:30:54.660 An invitation to come further up and further in. 00:30:55.579 --> 00:30:57.140 And that will always be on the table. 00:30:58.519 --> 00:31:01.059 So that's what I want to say about the church. 00:31:01.200 --> 00:31:03.680 Just a comment for us as individuals. 00:31:03.680 --> 00:31:15.180 I think it is highly likely that there are many of us here this morning who inside are very much like this woman. 00:31:17.600 --> 00:31:21.420 Maybe you're here and you're not a Christian and you're trying to figure all of this out. 00:31:21.980 --> 00:31:27.740 Maybe you're here and you are a Christian, but you feel spiritually dry and you feel spiritually desiccated. 00:31:27.740 --> 00:31:34.839 Maybe, and I think this is more true than we realize, maybe you carry around a kind of secret shame. 00:31:36.339 --> 00:31:44.579 Maybe there are parts of you that feel so shameful, that feel so, there's such sources of pain for you. 00:31:45.160 --> 00:31:50.759 And maybe there's this thing in you that thinks if anybody ever really knew that about me, they would run the other way. 00:31:51.500 --> 00:31:54.079 So maybe like this woman, you sort of go to the well at noon. 00:31:54.460 --> 00:31:57.859 You know, you don't really ever get close to people. 00:31:58.079 --> 00:32:04.319 You don't really ever let people in to see who you really are because you're afraid of what they might say or what they might do. 00:32:05.539 --> 00:32:07.480 Maybe you're isolated like she is. 00:32:09.359 --> 00:32:11.299 The answer is not going to be found out there. 00:32:12.839 --> 00:32:14.279 You're never going to find it out there. 00:32:14.279 --> 00:32:22.779 It's not going to be found by chasing the next high from wells that leave you thirsty and unfulfilled. 00:32:23.799 --> 00:32:29.279 The answer is we all, we all need to come to Jesus. 00:32:30.160 --> 00:32:31.079 Come to him in prayer. 00:32:32.279 --> 00:32:33.700 Come to him by opening his word. 00:32:33.839 --> 00:32:35.319 Make worship your highest priority. 00:32:36.639 --> 00:32:43.180 Be reminded, as I need to be reminded every day, every single day, that nothing compares to his love. 00:32:43.180 --> 00:32:47.500 One final detail on that note from this story. 00:32:48.320 --> 00:32:53.120 Verse 4 says that Jesus had to go through Samaria on his way to Galilee. 00:32:53.560 --> 00:32:55.580 That's actually not, strictly speaking, true. 00:32:55.579 --> 00:33:10.559 The vast majority of Jews, and particularly religious Jews, rabbis like Jesus, had a route that they would use to travel that, to take that trip that intentionally skirted around Samaria. 00:33:10.819 --> 00:33:13.460 So it was rare for anyone to go through Samaria. 00:33:13.960 --> 00:33:18.579 Any Jew hearing that he was going on a journey would assume that he was going to go a different route. 00:33:18.579 --> 00:33:24.859 So it raises the question, if you know that, why did Jesus have to go to Samaria? 00:33:26.659 --> 00:33:28.399 It has nothing to do with geography. 00:33:29.699 --> 00:33:31.579 It's because he had a divine appointment. 00:33:32.379 --> 00:33:36.939 The entire reason Jesus goes is this woman. 00:33:36.940 --> 00:33:42.299 He goes to that well at that time of day to find this woman. 00:33:44.140 --> 00:33:48.680 If Jesus would do that for her, imagine what he does for you. 00:33:49.720 --> 00:33:51.240 Imagine what he would do for you. 00:33:52.480 --> 00:33:53.480 Don't you understand? 00:33:53.600 --> 00:33:54.980 This is what he has done for you. 00:33:55.539 --> 00:33:55.660 Right? 00:33:55.840 --> 00:33:57.340 This is why Jesus has come. 00:33:57.860 --> 00:33:59.380 This is why Jesus is here. 00:34:00.360 --> 00:34:01.559 It's because he loves you. 00:34:02.400 --> 00:34:03.900 It's because he wants to change your life. 00:34:05.140 --> 00:34:05.759 Let's pray. 00:34:05.759 --> 00:34:05.759 00:34:06.940 --> 00:34:11.139 Our Lord and Heavenly Father, may this be true. 00:34:12.300 --> 00:34:20.820 Lord, there comes a time when words, we feel their limits and we need spirit. 00:34:22.300 --> 00:34:29.860 And Lord, you promise that we who come to you will be able to worship in truth and in spirit. 00:34:29.860 --> 00:34:37.160 And so now that we've heard your truth, Lord, we need but to be silent and we need your spirit. 00:34:37.559 --> 00:34:39.360 And we need your spirit in us. 00:34:39.740 --> 00:34:43.380 And we here long for that spring of living water. 00:34:44.500 --> 00:34:45.380 Lord, we thirst. 00:34:45.380 --> 00:34:53.320 And we think of you on the cross in one of your last phrases before you died saying, I thirst. 00:34:54.480 --> 00:35:00.039 And we think about your thirst on that cross so that one day we would never thirst again. 00:35:01.160 --> 00:35:04.599 And Lord, it's in that love and that sacrifice and that hope that we place ourselves. 00:35:05.480 --> 00:35:06.720 Lord, would you fill us with your spirit? 00:35:06.719 --> 00:35:08.480 In Jesus' holy name. 00:35:08.699 --> 00:35:08.879 Amen. 00:35:08.879 --> 00:35:08.980 Amen.