WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.759 Well, it's a pleasure for me to be here this morning. 00:00:04.759 --> 00:00:05.759 The introduction was interesting. 00:00:05.759 --> 00:00:09.599 I'm the invisible man. 00:00:09.599 --> 00:00:13.000 Actually at City City we prize invisibility. 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:18.260 We actually prefer to kind of work behind the scenes and to help churches, plant churches, 00:00:18.260 --> 00:00:23.120 and ultimately, of course, the glory go to Christ, not to any earthly institution of 00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:24.120 any sort. 00:00:24.120 --> 00:00:30.640 But Corey asked me if I would just share a little bit about what I do and what we're 00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:34.039 doing and then I'll try to get us as quickly into the text as possible. 00:00:34.039 --> 00:00:39.560 In fact, you may want to keep John chapter 4 open either in your Bibles or on your phones 00:00:39.560 --> 00:00:41.320 as the case may be. 00:00:41.320 --> 00:00:46.040 So many of us no longer carry books, but we actually have them in a different form. 00:00:46.040 --> 00:00:50.240 But 1989, Tim and Kathy Keller moved to New York City to plant a church. 00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:55.200 Our denomination had tried to plant a church in New York City which had failed terribly. 00:00:55.200 --> 00:01:02.679 A lot of waste of resources and such, but good-hearted leader tried to do the best job he could but 00:01:02.679 --> 00:01:09.240 just couldn't break through the rough atmosphere that New York was at the time. 00:01:09.240 --> 00:01:14.280 So Tim and Kathy came very humbly to New York City, hoping that if they worked very hard 00:01:14.280 --> 00:01:18.840 they might be able to plant a church that would become a church of 300 or 400 and maybe 00:01:18.840 --> 00:01:22.920 over the course of 25 years help plant three or four other churches in the city. 00:01:22.920 --> 00:01:27.719 And had they been able to do that, that would have been job well done actually. 00:01:27.719 --> 00:01:34.159 Instead, the Lord pours out a blessing in the first three years of Redeemer's ministry. 00:01:34.159 --> 00:01:39.760 And I think it was a result of both the work that Tim did in preparing himself and them 00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:44.719 for ministry in New York City and what we would say was an extraordinary outpouring 00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:46.320 of the Holy Spirit. 00:01:46.319 --> 00:01:51.039 And they saw about a thousand people come to Christ in three years in New York. 00:01:51.039 --> 00:01:53.639 I mean that was unheard of. 00:01:53.639 --> 00:02:02.000 As far as we know, that hadn't happened since 1857-58, the Wall Street revival that took 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:03.079 place. 00:02:03.079 --> 00:02:06.439 So this was an unexpected result. 00:02:06.439 --> 00:02:10.919 By 95, there were three of us, I was one of them, that began planting daughter churches 00:02:10.919 --> 00:02:13.280 of Redeemer in New York. 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:18.640 I was actually just outside the city, but we were trying to figure out how do you plant 00:02:18.640 --> 00:02:20.640 a church in a city like this? 00:02:20.640 --> 00:02:26.759 A city that tends to be fairly dominated by secularism, by any number of other religions, 00:02:26.759 --> 00:02:31.039 pretty hostile to Christ and his gospel, those kinds of things. 00:02:31.039 --> 00:02:36.159 And at that point, Tim didn't even really know how they had done, what they had done. 00:02:36.159 --> 00:02:41.039 So as we're talking together and trying to figure it out, white papers begin to be written 00:02:41.039 --> 00:02:45.439 about how do you preach to a secular audience, how do you do ministry in a city like this, 00:02:45.439 --> 00:02:49.199 what do you deal with, how do you deal with the homosexual issue, what about this issue 00:02:49.199 --> 00:02:53.039 or that issue, it was challenging. 00:02:53.039 --> 00:03:02.479 But probably by 1997, we began to wonder if what we were learning in New York City might 00:03:02.479 --> 00:03:07.919 have application in some of the other kind of globalized cities across the world. 00:03:07.919 --> 00:03:13.319 We were already relating to individual guys in a number of North American cities, Montreal 00:03:13.319 --> 00:03:20.239 and Toronto, Seattle, San Francisco, D.C., Boston, those kinds of places, kind of bicoastal 00:03:20.239 --> 00:03:22.279 for the most part. 00:03:22.279 --> 00:03:27.679 But we had kind of a hope maybe that what we were learning in New York might have application 00:03:27.679 --> 00:03:34.359 in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Singapore, Hong Kong, kind of the world financial centers 00:03:34.359 --> 00:03:36.560 that were highly globalized. 00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:39.640 We weren't sure if it would. 00:03:39.640 --> 00:03:43.439 But the more that we were doing things in New York, the more we found people coming to 00:03:43.439 --> 00:03:50.080 us and saying, hey, we would love to learn from you and take what we can learn here back 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:51.599 to our own cities. 00:03:51.599 --> 00:03:57.240 By year 2000, we created an institution in New York City called the Redeemer Church Planning 00:03:57.240 --> 00:04:02.759 Center that would eventually become the institution that is now Redeemer City to City or as we 00:04:02.759 --> 00:04:05.640 call it, simply City to City. 00:04:05.639 --> 00:04:12.319 But as we formed that institution primarily to plant churches in our own city in New York, 00:04:12.319 --> 00:04:18.079 and we had a dream, which sounds audacious whenever I speak in Europe, and I know that 00:04:18.079 --> 00:04:21.800 you guys realize you're part of Europe, but sometimes you think about Europe as somewhere 00:04:21.800 --> 00:04:22.800 else. 00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:33.399 But as we think about Europe, including the British Isles and Ireland and such, we had 00:04:33.399 --> 00:04:39.879 a dream to plant or help plant 1,000 churches in New York City, 1,000. 00:04:39.879 --> 00:04:45.759 We'd actually done a pretty good analysis of it, and there were about 7,200 churches 00:04:45.759 --> 00:04:49.279 in New York City at the time, early 2000s. 00:04:49.279 --> 00:04:55.679 And as we were trying to figure out what would it take in order to see 10% of people living 00:04:55.679 --> 00:05:00.279 in New York in all five boroughs to actually become real believers in Christ, real followers 00:05:00.279 --> 00:05:02.079 of Jesus Christ. 00:05:02.079 --> 00:05:06.879 And I don't know how scientific this was, but we came to the conclusion that New York 00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:12.919 probably needed more than 5,000 new churches to be planted, and perhaps at least 2,000 00:05:12.919 --> 00:05:18.399 of the 7,000 to be revitalized and become really gospel oriented. 00:05:18.399 --> 00:05:19.959 That seemed to be pretty impossible to us. 00:05:19.959 --> 00:05:22.680 So why don't we just think about 1,000? 00:05:22.680 --> 00:05:27.599 And maybe we can plant some, and we can help others plant, and maybe together we can see 00:05:27.599 --> 00:05:29.279 something happen in New York City. 00:05:29.279 --> 00:05:33.919 So we created the Church Planning Center for that purpose, but there was this openness 00:05:33.919 --> 00:05:36.239 to work elsewhere in the world. 00:05:36.239 --> 00:05:41.119 And as I came on staff to recruit and train and coach guys for New York City, I had an 00:05:41.119 --> 00:05:43.319 open remit to be able to work in Europe. 00:05:43.319 --> 00:05:50.119 And we'd been interacting a little bit in Budapest, Hungary, and we found real receptivity 00:05:50.119 --> 00:05:51.119 there. 00:05:51.119 --> 00:05:55.319 But no sooner than we had created this institution, then we got an invitation from London. 00:05:55.319 --> 00:05:56.839 We got an invitation from Amsterdam. 00:05:56.839 --> 00:05:58.959 We got an invitation from Berlin. 00:05:58.959 --> 00:06:03.799 We were going to plant Belgium, Moscow, all asking us if we would come and help them. 00:06:03.799 --> 00:06:06.639 And we weren't sure that we could, but we began to engage. 00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:12.199 But here was the basic idea, is that maybe we could come alongside of other churches 00:06:12.199 --> 00:06:17.079 and leaders to help them plant churches in their cities and do in their cities what we 00:06:17.079 --> 00:06:18.959 were hoping to do in New York. 00:06:18.959 --> 00:06:21.019 So that was kind of the premise. 00:06:21.019 --> 00:06:22.319 We weren't a sending agency. 00:06:22.319 --> 00:06:26.519 We weren't sending North Americans elsewhere, but we were rather coming alongside of the 00:06:26.519 --> 00:06:30.759 existing church and seeing if we could help them figure out how to do ministry in a place 00:06:30.759 --> 00:06:36.399 like Edinburgh or in a place like Central London or in Central Paris or that sort of 00:06:36.399 --> 00:06:37.399 thing. 00:06:37.399 --> 00:06:38.399 That's kind of the backdrop. 00:06:38.399 --> 00:06:42.159 So at this point, we've in one way or another helped plant a couple hundred churches in 00:06:42.159 --> 00:06:43.879 Europe. 00:06:43.879 --> 00:06:48.039 So we've been active in, I think, 53 cities at this point. 00:06:48.039 --> 00:06:53.279 Those churches are rapidly planting many daughter churches, granddaughter churches. 00:06:53.279 --> 00:06:57.719 We're fully expecting that there'll be between four and 500 more churches planted in the 00:06:57.719 --> 00:07:02.559 next four to five years in Europe as a result of the Europeans really becoming active in 00:07:02.559 --> 00:07:04.159 a number of ways. 00:07:04.159 --> 00:07:10.279 And personally, I work in the cities of North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa. 00:07:10.279 --> 00:07:12.879 That's kind of my remit. 00:07:12.879 --> 00:07:15.279 And then I have a colleague that takes the other half of the world, Jay Kyle. 00:07:15.279 --> 00:07:20.000 So he does all of Asia or the rest of Asia, if you will, and Latin America. 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:22.799 But obviously, we're working through all kinds of other people. 00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:27.280 So that's a very brief description of what we're doing. 00:07:27.280 --> 00:07:32.920 And it's been incredibly exciting to watch churches plant churches and even to watch 00:07:32.920 --> 00:07:38.840 in Edinburgh like-minded leaders come together and begin having a vision not only for their 00:07:38.840 --> 00:07:46.280 city but for the rest of Scotland and linking hands with leaders in England, leaders in 00:07:46.280 --> 00:07:50.879 Ireland, leaders across the channel in the rest of Europe. 00:07:50.879 --> 00:07:52.439 It's really amazing what God is doing. 00:07:52.439 --> 00:07:57.240 And I think that it's a new day in Europe in many ways. 00:07:57.240 --> 00:08:02.439 The nadir of Christianity, I think, was probably reached in Europe probably in 1998. 00:08:02.439 --> 00:08:07.000 And since then, they're seeing a huge uptick in new churches being formed, people being 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:09.079 one to Christ. 00:08:09.079 --> 00:08:14.240 And I have every reason to think that the Lord is going to do an amazing thing throughout 00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:17.360 all of these nations and cities. 00:08:17.360 --> 00:08:22.279 But it'll be a result of faithful believers who are simply trying to proclaim Christ, 00:08:22.279 --> 00:08:25.279 kind of one beggar, telling another beggar where to find bread. 00:08:25.279 --> 00:08:28.959 I mean, that's kind of the backdrop of it. 00:08:28.959 --> 00:08:31.799 So I'm happy to talk about that later if you want. 00:08:31.799 --> 00:08:33.959 I'll be standing at the back at the end of the service. 00:08:33.959 --> 00:08:39.759 But let me, if I can, turn your attention to Scripture this morning to John chapter 00:08:39.759 --> 00:08:42.919 4, this story about the woman to well. 00:08:42.919 --> 00:08:48.399 And I'm going to start by making an assumption, which is often dangerous, but I don't think 00:08:48.399 --> 00:08:50.279 it's too dangerous to this context. 00:08:50.279 --> 00:08:54.319 So my assumption is that most of you, if not all of you, are probably pretty familiar 00:08:54.319 --> 00:08:56.720 with this story, with this text. 00:08:56.720 --> 00:08:59.799 There literally have been countless sermons preached on this text. 00:08:59.799 --> 00:09:05.480 There have been seminars on evangelism taught from this. 00:09:05.480 --> 00:09:08.000 Many of you may know this text better than I do, even though I think I've preached on 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:11.360 it probably 60 or 70 times myself. 00:09:11.360 --> 00:09:14.839 But so I'm not going to deal with many of the details of the text. 00:09:14.839 --> 00:09:17.439 I'm not going to go down in the side roads. 00:09:17.440 --> 00:09:22.960 What I want to do is basically focus on answering essentially three questions. 00:09:22.960 --> 00:09:25.560 Who was this woman? 00:09:25.560 --> 00:09:27.480 What was driving her life? 00:09:27.480 --> 00:09:31.240 And what actually happened at the well? 00:09:31.240 --> 00:09:35.720 But before that, if I can, let me lead us in prayer once again. 00:09:35.720 --> 00:09:39.480 Father, we thank you that you love people like us. 00:09:39.480 --> 00:09:45.320 And that as we gather, we come not as the righteous, but we actually come as those who are often 00:09:45.320 --> 00:09:49.920 painfully aware of our sinfulness and are falling short. 00:09:49.920 --> 00:09:54.640 Oftentimes, Lord, there is shame in our lives that we don't reveal to others. 00:09:54.640 --> 00:10:00.280 And yet as we come before you, we confess and we receive that reassurance that you really 00:10:00.280 --> 00:10:06.400 do love us and you love us unconditionally because of what Christ has done. 00:10:06.400 --> 00:10:11.280 And Father, this morning in these few minutes that we have together to look at your word, 00:10:11.279 --> 00:10:17.120 I pray, Lord, that you would open our hearts and our minds to what you have to say. 00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:21.399 And anything that, Lord, that is not of you, we pray that those words would merely fall 00:10:21.399 --> 00:10:22.399 to the ground. 00:10:22.399 --> 00:10:26.480 Lord, we pray that your spirit would work among us. 00:10:26.480 --> 00:10:32.879 Give us a greater glimpse of you and your glory and your love and your grace. 00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:34.399 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:10:34.399 --> 00:10:35.399 Amen. 00:10:35.399 --> 00:10:42.840 So, three questions, who was she and what was driving her life and what really happened 00:10:42.840 --> 00:10:43.840 at the well. 00:10:43.840 --> 00:10:51.439 So, let me start by saying that the first thing we learn about her is that she was a 00:10:51.439 --> 00:10:59.240 despised person from a despised race and of a despised gender. 00:10:59.240 --> 00:11:05.960 We didn't really read the whole text, but if you look at verse 6 of the passage there, 00:11:05.960 --> 00:11:11.879 it says there that she came at noon and there's a bit of a description of where she was. 00:11:11.879 --> 00:11:16.759 She was at Jacob's well and she was a Samaritan. 00:11:16.759 --> 00:11:19.399 But she came at noon. 00:11:19.399 --> 00:11:25.240 What we read into that, and maybe it is reading into it, so we're surmising a bit, but she 00:11:25.240 --> 00:11:28.919 comes at the sixth hour in the heat of the day. 00:11:28.919 --> 00:11:33.240 That was not the normal time that women would go to the well, and by the way, women were 00:11:33.240 --> 00:11:37.519 the ones that carried water for the days, activities and such. 00:11:37.519 --> 00:11:42.279 But she comes at noon not when the other women are coming. 00:11:42.279 --> 00:11:44.120 She comes alone. 00:11:44.120 --> 00:11:48.319 What we read into that is that the reason she comes at that time and rather than at 00:11:48.319 --> 00:11:51.559 the other times is because she was despised by the people. 00:11:51.559 --> 00:11:55.839 Later on in the text you'll see that she had been married five times and that at present 00:11:55.840 --> 00:11:59.440 she's living with another man that she's not even married to. 00:11:59.440 --> 00:12:02.519 She was in one sense kind of a woman of disrepute. 00:12:02.519 --> 00:12:07.639 I'm sure not a prostitute, but she was not highly regarded by the other people in the 00:12:07.639 --> 00:12:08.639 village. 00:12:08.639 --> 00:12:13.519 You kind of see that later on in the text in part of it that wasn't read. 00:12:13.519 --> 00:12:17.519 The villagers kind of make a distinction when they say, now we believe not because of what 00:12:17.519 --> 00:12:20.840 you told us, but because we've heard it from him. 00:12:20.840 --> 00:12:27.440 If there's this kind of interesting interplay about her, but she was a woman that was not 00:12:27.440 --> 00:12:28.440 highly regarded. 00:12:28.440 --> 00:12:31.040 Secondly, she was from a despised race. 00:12:31.040 --> 00:12:32.040 She was a Samaritan. 00:12:32.040 --> 00:12:36.800 Again, I won't go into all the details, but Samaritans were considered to be unclean by 00:12:36.800 --> 00:12:38.399 the Jews. 00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:43.320 And it's really interesting, and she draws attention to this idea in verse seven and 00:12:43.320 --> 00:12:52.600 nine there, that she is surprised that Jesus, a man in essence a rabbi, would speak to her 00:12:52.600 --> 00:12:56.560 and even ask her for a drink of water. 00:12:56.560 --> 00:13:00.120 Jews would not normally receive either food or drink from a Samaritan. 00:13:00.120 --> 00:13:03.000 It would be considered to be unclean. 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:09.880 And so why is he even kind of spending time with her, let alone asking her for something? 00:13:09.880 --> 00:13:12.720 And then she was of a despised gender. 00:13:12.720 --> 00:13:17.279 Men were, although they were appreciated, they were not held in high regard in Jewish 00:13:17.279 --> 00:13:19.720 society at that time. 00:13:19.720 --> 00:13:25.000 And there was a prayer prayed by many Jews back then that is still actually prayed by 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:29.879 some Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox Jewish men today. 00:13:29.879 --> 00:13:36.360 And the prayer essentially goes like this, oh Lord, thank you that I'm not a slave, that 00:13:36.360 --> 00:13:40.720 I'm not a Gentile, and that I'm not a woman. 00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:44.920 And those were actually gradations getting worse. 00:13:44.920 --> 00:13:46.960 The worst thing would be to a woman. 00:13:46.960 --> 00:13:51.240 Now obviously Jesus' view of women was radically different. 00:13:51.240 --> 00:13:55.879 And we see Jesus interacting with women in a very different way than that, and they figure 00:13:55.879 --> 00:13:59.320 very prominently in the ministry of Jesus Christ. 00:13:59.320 --> 00:14:04.320 And I really think that we, it's Jesus who has altered the view of women in our society 00:14:04.320 --> 00:14:08.960 and continues to alter it so that women and men are really seen as being equal, of equal 00:14:08.960 --> 00:14:14.879 value, of equal worth, and perhaps sometimes even better than the men. 00:14:14.879 --> 00:14:20.320 But the second thing we learned about her is that she was a very proud, skeptical, and 00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:24.360 intelligent woman. 00:14:24.360 --> 00:14:29.080 If you look at verse nine, let me read it again to you. 00:14:29.080 --> 00:14:34.960 The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you would you ask for a drink from me, 00:14:34.960 --> 00:14:39.680 a woman of Samaria, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans, and Jesus asked her if you 00:14:39.680 --> 00:14:43.400 knew the gift of God, who is it that is saying to you, give me a drink? 00:14:43.400 --> 00:14:47.440 You would have asked him and would have given you living water. 00:14:47.440 --> 00:14:52.040 And the woman immediately then, just after that, begins to question him. 00:14:52.040 --> 00:14:54.120 You don't have anything to draw with. 00:14:54.120 --> 00:14:56.280 Who are you, this kind of thing? 00:14:56.280 --> 00:15:02.440 But I read resentment in the woman's response to Jesus. 00:15:02.440 --> 00:15:07.880 In effect, at one point she's saying, do you think you're better than our father, Jacob? 00:15:07.880 --> 00:15:09.560 Maybe I can change a little bit. 00:15:09.560 --> 00:15:13.920 I won't say it quite, maybe as roughly as I could, but who the heck do you think you 00:15:13.920 --> 00:15:14.920 are? 00:15:14.920 --> 00:15:19.680 I mean, she's really challenging him in a very, very significant way. 00:15:19.680 --> 00:15:24.960 In response to that mild rebuke, his assertion that he could give her living water, she points 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:30.400 out that she doesn't believe, she's skeptical, she doesn't believe he can actually give her, 00:15:30.400 --> 00:15:32.120 you have nothing to draw with. 00:15:32.120 --> 00:15:36.360 How in the world are you going to draw water if you don't have anything to draw? 00:15:36.360 --> 00:15:41.360 Are you so senseless that you think you can draw without having even something? 00:15:41.360 --> 00:15:45.320 So she's pushing back at him again and again and again. 00:15:45.320 --> 00:15:48.919 But you can also see how intelligent she is. 00:15:48.919 --> 00:15:52.639 Once Jesus begins to bore in, do you see what she does? 00:15:52.639 --> 00:15:54.320 She tries to take him off track. 00:15:54.320 --> 00:15:59.519 You Jews worship in one place, we worship in another, she's introducing theological controversy. 00:15:59.519 --> 00:16:02.319 She's actually fairly well versed. 00:16:02.319 --> 00:16:08.799 She's trying to get him off point, off target, away from penetrating into our life. 00:16:08.799 --> 00:16:11.159 So she's not an ignorant person. 00:16:11.159 --> 00:16:17.720 She may have been uneducated in certain ways, but she's very proud, very resistant to him, 00:16:17.720 --> 00:16:22.360 very skeptical and also very intelligent all at the same time. 00:16:22.360 --> 00:16:31.399 And it's likely by the way that she had probably at one time been beautiful. 00:16:31.399 --> 00:16:36.720 In many ways she's what Americans at US people would say, she was street smart. 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:39.840 Somehow or another she'd gotten five men to marry her. 00:16:39.840 --> 00:16:41.639 That takes some doing. 00:16:41.639 --> 00:16:46.039 And now she's living with a guy that she's not married to, I think because she didn't 00:16:46.039 --> 00:16:48.560 want to get married to him. 00:16:48.560 --> 00:16:52.120 So this is actually a very capable person. 00:16:52.120 --> 00:16:59.320 The third thing we learn about her though is about her disappointment in life. 00:16:59.320 --> 00:17:05.599 She seems pretty weary at one point, sir, give me this water so that I don't have to 00:17:05.599 --> 00:17:06.759 keep coming. 00:17:06.759 --> 00:17:08.160 That's that present tense. 00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:14.440 So I don't have to keep coming again and again and again to get water. 00:17:14.440 --> 00:17:17.799 If you can give me that water, give it to me. 00:17:17.799 --> 00:17:22.319 And we can probably only imagine what her life might have been like, scorned and rejected. 00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:29.079 And in essence, physically alone and probably worse, emotionally alone. 00:17:29.079 --> 00:17:33.839 Because when he puts the point, he kind of puts his finger on the problem, go call your 00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:38.240 husband and she responds, I have no husband. 00:17:38.240 --> 00:17:41.879 And then obviously he responds, you're right in that sort of thing. 00:17:41.879 --> 00:17:45.639 But that's an interesting statement, I have no husband. 00:17:45.640 --> 00:17:52.840 She had a man, but it appears to me that she had been constantly disappointed by the men 00:17:52.840 --> 00:17:54.840 in her life. 00:17:54.840 --> 00:17:58.720 And that the guy that she was living with at that point, she wasn't even willing to 00:17:58.720 --> 00:18:00.400 be married to. 00:18:00.400 --> 00:18:06.200 Over and over again, she had come back hoping that she would find this man that would make 00:18:06.200 --> 00:18:08.120 her life work. 00:18:08.120 --> 00:18:12.560 In essence, I'd need no husband. 00:18:12.559 --> 00:18:17.440 How much has been made by preachers about the dissimilarities between this woman and 00:18:17.440 --> 00:18:19.000 us living in the present day? 00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:23.359 We often, as we read scripture, we tend to think about, oh, it's that person. 00:18:23.359 --> 00:18:25.440 And that I have very little in common with her. 00:18:25.440 --> 00:18:31.679 But I want to suggest this morning that actually she is probably more like us, let me flip 00:18:31.679 --> 00:18:33.240 it around. 00:18:33.240 --> 00:18:39.159 We may be actually more like her than what we're willing to think. 00:18:39.160 --> 00:18:44.640 We may be of a different class, maybe of a different race, maybe of a different time. 00:18:44.640 --> 00:18:49.000 But in essence, in many ways, we are just like her. 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:54.800 I think as we read the text, we ought to be identifying with her in her need. 00:18:54.800 --> 00:18:59.400 Over the past, I guess 42 years of ministry now, it took my first sabbatical, by the way, 00:18:59.400 --> 00:19:01.400 last spring, in 41 years. 00:19:01.400 --> 00:19:03.759 It was my first three months sabbatical. 00:19:03.759 --> 00:19:05.240 Wasn't nearly long enough. 00:19:05.240 --> 00:19:08.680 But I was grateful for that. 00:19:08.680 --> 00:19:12.480 But for over 40 years of ministry, throughout, in different parts of the United States and 00:19:12.480 --> 00:19:18.039 across the world, I've found that people are essentially the same wherever you are. 00:19:18.039 --> 00:19:22.120 They may have a different language, they may have different, you know, food or different 00:19:22.120 --> 00:19:24.000 cultural traditions or whatever. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:26.920 But people are basically the same everywhere. 00:19:26.920 --> 00:19:30.600 And that's why warfare is so nonsensical to me. 00:19:30.600 --> 00:19:36.480 You often have individuals literally killing each other because some powers that be want 00:19:36.480 --> 00:19:40.960 them to be in conflict, but really, they're men and women just like us. 00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:41.960 They want the same things. 00:19:41.960 --> 00:19:42.960 They want to be happy. 00:19:42.960 --> 00:19:46.120 They want to find somebody that'll love them, that they can love. 00:19:46.120 --> 00:19:49.640 They want to raise their kids in relative security. 00:19:49.640 --> 00:19:52.839 They'd love to have their kids have a better life than what they do. 00:19:52.839 --> 00:19:56.039 They want a sense of meaning and purpose. 00:19:56.039 --> 00:19:57.400 Those are the things we share. 00:19:57.400 --> 00:20:02.400 And I think that's what she wanted as well. 00:20:02.400 --> 00:20:08.160 But the problem is, the next question, what was driving her life? 00:20:08.160 --> 00:20:12.800 So you think with me, even as I try to talk through these things. 00:20:12.800 --> 00:20:20.680 So this second question, what was it that she thought would make her life work? 00:20:20.680 --> 00:20:23.920 In one sense, I've given away the answer already. 00:20:23.920 --> 00:20:28.680 But I think she thought that if I could only find the right man, if I could find the right 00:20:28.680 --> 00:20:32.519 spouse, that'll make my life work. 00:20:32.519 --> 00:20:42.880 That will give me the love and the security and all that I really want. 00:20:42.880 --> 00:20:45.320 Most of us are this way in one sense or another. 00:20:45.320 --> 00:20:47.200 New Yorkers are particularly this way. 00:20:47.200 --> 00:20:50.519 Many people are driven by, if I can just find the right man or the right woman, I'll live 00:20:50.519 --> 00:20:52.200 happily ever after. 00:20:52.200 --> 00:20:54.560 I believed in that when I was in college. 00:20:54.559 --> 00:21:00.079 I thought if I could make enough money and marry a beautiful woman, I would live happily 00:21:00.079 --> 00:21:01.079 ever after. 00:21:01.079 --> 00:21:03.720 That was the American gospel to me. 00:21:03.720 --> 00:21:07.440 I did marry a beautiful woman, but I never made that money. 00:21:07.440 --> 00:21:10.679 I'm not sure what happened in that process. 00:21:10.679 --> 00:21:16.279 But in the course of the conversation, I think it really becomes painfully obvious what was 00:21:16.279 --> 00:21:17.720 driving her. 00:21:17.720 --> 00:21:21.960 And I think it was obvious to Jesus even before he had the conversation. 00:21:21.960 --> 00:21:27.920 Because it's so quick that he says, go call your husband, and then it comes out. 00:21:27.920 --> 00:21:33.079 In essence, the pain begins to be revealed there. 00:21:33.079 --> 00:21:36.559 But in essence, finding that right man had been her gospel. 00:21:36.559 --> 00:21:39.880 It was a gospel that essentially she had almost given up on. 00:21:39.880 --> 00:21:40.880 But that was her gospel. 00:21:40.880 --> 00:21:47.200 It may sound a little strange to talk about being her gospel, but in essence, the gospel 00:21:47.200 --> 00:21:52.039 is to a person whatever you think is actually going to put your whole life together. 00:21:52.039 --> 00:21:55.640 Now, that's not the gospel of Jesus Christ, obviously. 00:21:55.640 --> 00:22:00.120 But those things do become the things that make our lives work. 00:22:00.120 --> 00:22:04.920 With New Yorkers, and I suspect it's somewhat similar to many people living in Edinburgh, 00:22:04.920 --> 00:22:09.080 there's a variety of different gospels that are believed. 00:22:09.080 --> 00:22:15.559 One was if I can only find the right mate, if I can only make enough money, if I can 00:22:15.559 --> 00:22:22.399 only earn the PhD, if I can only get the Broadway part, if I can only make it in the music 00:22:22.399 --> 00:22:26.240 industry, and there's a host of other ones. 00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:31.759 But all those things become the gospels that drive New Yorkers' life. 00:22:31.759 --> 00:22:36.359 The problem though with all those gospels is they're empty. 00:22:36.359 --> 00:22:41.879 Because even when you make it, even when you marry the most beautiful woman or the most 00:22:41.880 --> 00:22:47.760 powerful man, or when you get the position at the company, when you get to the top, it's 00:22:47.760 --> 00:22:49.960 empty. 00:22:49.960 --> 00:22:57.240 Those things actually don't make life really work at all. 00:22:57.240 --> 00:23:02.520 A year ago, maybe two years ago, now I guess, I was sitting in a service in a new church 00:23:02.520 --> 00:23:03.520 in Brussels. 00:23:03.520 --> 00:23:05.760 There was a woman there that morning. 00:23:05.760 --> 00:23:10.760 It was the first time she'd come to church, I think ever, maybe in her life. 00:23:10.759 --> 00:23:15.839 But her husband had died prematurely. 00:23:15.839 --> 00:23:19.559 Her husband was really what her life was about. 00:23:19.559 --> 00:23:24.359 After six months of trying to deal with that reality, she attempted to kill herself. 00:23:24.359 --> 00:23:27.559 She threw herself out of a window. 00:23:27.559 --> 00:23:34.799 She literally, as she hit the ground, the pavement, she ended up being severely damaged 00:23:34.799 --> 00:23:40.000 but wasn't successful in taking her own life. 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:45.000 That deep desire for her husband, that husband filling up her life, when that was taken away, 00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:47.119 there was nothing left. 00:23:47.119 --> 00:23:50.319 She comes that morning, and actually she heard the gospel that morning, and she turned to 00:23:50.319 --> 00:23:51.960 Christ. 00:23:51.960 --> 00:23:56.960 But a husband, even if you find the right one, or the wife, even if you find the right one, 00:23:56.960 --> 00:24:03.720 they can be so easily taken away, either by death or by any number of other instances. 00:24:03.720 --> 00:24:08.400 Anything that you believe is your gospel in this world can be taken away. 00:24:08.400 --> 00:24:10.759 Death can be taken away overnight. 00:24:10.759 --> 00:24:12.560 Security can be taken away overnight. 00:24:12.560 --> 00:24:17.600 The 9-11 event had a huge effect on New York City, although it was a horrible, tragic event. 00:24:17.600 --> 00:24:21.519 Actually one of the really positive effects of that is that it burst the bubble of security 00:24:21.519 --> 00:24:26.000 that so many New Yorkers lived in, that they felt we cannot be touched. 00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:28.480 When that happened, all of a sudden they realized they were vulnerable. 00:24:28.480 --> 00:24:33.759 It was the first time in actually several decades that New Yorkers actually felt free 00:24:33.759 --> 00:24:37.920 to talk about God, about eternal things, what's it all about? 00:24:37.920 --> 00:24:38.920 That sort of thing. 00:24:38.920 --> 00:24:44.720 So we actually had a baby explosion post 9-11, but we've also seen an explosion of church 00:24:44.720 --> 00:24:48.400 planting and development in New York City. 00:24:48.400 --> 00:24:55.039 An interesting thing about this woman at the well is that her primary concern was not life 00:24:55.039 --> 00:24:57.880 in the hereafter. 00:24:57.880 --> 00:25:03.880 Her primary concern was now, give me this water so I don't have to keep on coming back 00:25:03.880 --> 00:25:04.880 to this well. 00:25:04.880 --> 00:25:06.279 That's really what she wanted. 00:25:06.279 --> 00:25:13.799 Her concern was not what's going to happen to me after I die. 00:25:13.799 --> 00:25:19.000 And actually as we talk to people in our society, very few people actually have much real thought 00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:23.720 about what happens in the next chapter, in the next life. 00:25:23.720 --> 00:25:26.440 They actually want to make a difference in their lives now. 00:25:26.440 --> 00:25:30.599 And what I want to say is that the gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ, is not merely 00:25:30.599 --> 00:25:34.920 about life in the hereafter, although it is about that. 00:25:34.920 --> 00:25:40.360 It actually is about changing the journey we're on in this life, and that Christ can 00:25:40.360 --> 00:25:46.440 come into a person's life and literally change their experience. 00:25:46.440 --> 00:25:52.120 All these things of earth that we talk about that are actually good things, they can add 00:25:52.120 --> 00:25:54.120 to the happiness of life. 00:25:54.120 --> 00:26:00.519 They can reduce the difficulties of life, but ultimately they don't have the power to 00:26:00.519 --> 00:26:03.560 actually meet our deepest needs. 00:26:03.559 --> 00:26:08.279 Just Monday I got a call just before I was leaving home from my brother. 00:26:08.279 --> 00:26:12.720 My brother is not a, he's one of my brothers, he's not a Christian. 00:26:12.720 --> 00:26:15.759 And he's 55 years old and his wife is leaving him. 00:26:15.759 --> 00:26:22.559 And it was terribly sad to hear my brother in the pain that he's in. 00:26:22.559 --> 00:26:24.759 But I thought they had a good marriage. 00:26:24.759 --> 00:26:31.079 She was a good woman, he's a good man, relatively speaking, but it's taken away. 00:26:31.079 --> 00:26:35.039 And I actually think that this may be the time at which the Lord will break through in 00:26:35.039 --> 00:26:39.480 his life and that he'll see that it's not finding a mate that's actually going to make 00:26:39.480 --> 00:26:43.279 it all work, but it'll actually be finding Christ. 00:26:43.279 --> 00:26:46.879 For this woman there was no man that could make her life work. 00:26:46.879 --> 00:26:53.599 That could make her feel loved, that could give her the security that she so desperately 00:26:53.599 --> 00:26:56.759 wanted, she'd never found that person. 00:26:56.759 --> 00:27:01.879 But there was somebody that actually could make it work. 00:27:01.879 --> 00:27:04.480 So what happened at the well? 00:27:04.480 --> 00:27:07.599 How did this interaction with Jesus affect her? 00:27:07.599 --> 00:27:11.879 There's an interesting statement in verses 39 through 41 that we didn't read. 00:27:11.879 --> 00:27:15.680 So let me read it to you in case you don't have a Bible in front of you. 00:27:15.680 --> 00:27:20.279 But it says there at the end of this passage, many Samaritans from that town believed in 00:27:20.279 --> 00:27:23.519 him because of the woman's testimony. 00:27:23.519 --> 00:27:26.000 He told me all that I ever did. 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:29.680 And so when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with him and he stayed there 00:27:29.680 --> 00:27:35.000 two days and many more believed because of his word. 00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:37.960 And many more believed because of his word. 00:27:37.960 --> 00:27:46.000 I think we can draw from that that this woman came to real belief in Christ that morning. 00:27:46.000 --> 00:27:51.279 She was changed as a result of this encounter with Jesus. 00:27:51.279 --> 00:27:56.920 Personally, I don't really like brief summaries of the gospel very much. 00:27:56.920 --> 00:28:02.279 Although I think the four laws of the Capsic Crusade used to use ended up playing an instrumental 00:28:02.279 --> 00:28:06.559 role in my coming to Christ years and years ago. 00:28:06.559 --> 00:28:09.839 Brief summaries often don't say enough. 00:28:09.839 --> 00:28:15.079 But many times you have to use a brief summary in order to talk intelligibly with people 00:28:15.079 --> 00:28:16.079 about the gospel. 00:28:16.079 --> 00:28:22.399 The one that we use in New York, which I'm fairly happy with, is basically you are more 00:28:22.399 --> 00:28:26.000 sinful and flawed than what you've ever dared to believe. 00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:30.480 And yet you can be more accepted in love than what you ever dared to hope because of what 00:28:30.480 --> 00:28:32.799 Jesus did for you on the cross. 00:28:32.799 --> 00:28:37.679 Now that wasn't of Keller, although Keller uses that formulation of gospel. 00:28:37.679 --> 00:28:40.399 It actually comes from Jack Miller who precedes. 00:28:40.400 --> 00:28:46.519 He's one of the fathers of many of the key leaders that we look to today. 00:28:46.519 --> 00:28:49.040 But that is a statement of the gospel. 00:28:49.040 --> 00:28:52.920 It's really a statement of the effects of the gospel really. 00:28:52.920 --> 00:28:57.440 You are more flawed and sinful than what you've ever dared to believe. 00:28:57.440 --> 00:29:00.200 That's really the reality of us even now. 00:29:00.200 --> 00:29:05.800 And yet you can be more loved and accepted than what you've ever dared to hope because 00:29:05.800 --> 00:29:10.360 of what Jesus Christ has done on the cross. 00:29:10.359 --> 00:29:15.279 All of us, probably much more like the woman at the well than what we had dared to admit, 00:29:15.279 --> 00:29:17.319 we are all fallen. 00:29:17.319 --> 00:29:21.279 We all are many times running after idols, so to speak. 00:29:21.279 --> 00:29:25.639 We are believing in gospels that don't really hold up. 00:29:25.639 --> 00:29:29.879 And many times it's only when tragedy or bad things happen that those false gospels are 00:29:29.879 --> 00:29:38.439 revealed and we're almost forced to look to Christ or to despair one way or another. 00:29:38.440 --> 00:29:44.200 Here's for the most part, no and yet they don't know that they actually believe in false 00:29:44.200 --> 00:29:45.200 gospels. 00:29:45.200 --> 00:29:51.320 At one point there was a woman by the name of Mary Ellen who she and her husband were 00:29:51.320 --> 00:29:56.160 part of a core group and I was trying to help get a church started on the east end of Long 00:29:56.160 --> 00:29:58.400 Island in a place called Southampton. 00:29:58.400 --> 00:30:01.120 We borrowed basically all the names in America from Europe. 00:30:01.120 --> 00:30:06.400 So when you go to the states you'll find Midlothian, you'll find all kinds of Scottish names, you'll 00:30:06.400 --> 00:30:08.360 find all kinds of British names. 00:30:08.359 --> 00:30:10.759 We're not creative enough to create our own I guess. 00:30:10.759 --> 00:30:12.919 But Mary Ellen was out in Southampton. 00:30:12.919 --> 00:30:17.240 They were part of this core group and at one point I was asking Mary Ellen, I know that 00:30:17.240 --> 00:30:21.679 somehow you came to Christ in New York and through Redeemer's Ministry, but I've never 00:30:21.679 --> 00:30:24.399 heard your story, would you tell me your story? 00:30:24.399 --> 00:30:27.039 And so she said, of course I would. 00:30:27.039 --> 00:30:30.519 And so she said, you know, I was a bond broker down on Wall Street. 00:30:30.519 --> 00:30:35.439 I was in an office with about 30 to 35 people there. 00:30:35.440 --> 00:30:39.080 And there was one Christian, one believer in the office. 00:30:39.080 --> 00:30:40.720 His name was Chip. 00:30:40.720 --> 00:30:43.759 But Chip was one of the nicest guys you'd ever want to meet. 00:30:43.759 --> 00:30:47.960 So he was a Christian, but he was one of the nicest guys you'd ever want to meet. 00:30:47.960 --> 00:30:50.880 That kind of betrays the skepticism in New York about believers, okay? 00:30:50.880 --> 00:30:56.240 Because believers from their perspective are obnoxious, ignorant, bigoted, all these kind 00:30:56.240 --> 00:30:58.880 of stereotypes that you get with those things. 00:30:58.880 --> 00:31:01.680 But Chip was one of the nicest guys you'd ever want to meet. 00:31:01.680 --> 00:31:05.080 And from time to time when things would slow down the office, we'd talk. 00:31:05.079 --> 00:31:09.759 We'd talk about the latest film, or we'd talk about a show that you'd go see, or a new 00:31:09.759 --> 00:31:12.240 concert that was in town, or you might talk about politics. 00:31:12.240 --> 00:31:14.519 You might even talk about religion. 00:31:14.519 --> 00:31:18.919 And Chip, in her words, always had the most interesting take on our discussions. 00:31:18.919 --> 00:31:21.720 He was never a pushy, but he was always kind of different. 00:31:21.720 --> 00:31:26.519 So from time to time, I would go to Chip and I would ask him about some of my questions. 00:31:26.519 --> 00:31:31.919 She had been baptized in a Roman Catholic church, and by the time, once she made her first 00:31:31.920 --> 00:31:35.039 community at age seven, she never had to go to church again. 00:31:35.039 --> 00:31:38.200 And her family kind of left Catholicism and such. 00:31:38.200 --> 00:31:43.320 So she had some acquaintance with church or Christianity, but really didn't understand 00:31:43.320 --> 00:31:44.320 much. 00:31:44.320 --> 00:31:46.759 So she would come to Chip asking the typical apologetical questions. 00:31:46.759 --> 00:31:50.240 How can there be a God if there's all this suffering in the world? 00:31:50.240 --> 00:31:52.320 You know, all the typical kinds of things. 00:31:52.320 --> 00:31:56.600 And Chip could answer some of those questions, well, some he couldn't. 00:31:56.600 --> 00:32:01.759 But at one point, as she's asking more and more questions, Chip says, you know, Mary 00:32:01.759 --> 00:32:04.680 Ellen, I think you just need to come to this church that I've been going to. 00:32:04.680 --> 00:32:08.920 The guy that preaches there answers these kinds of questions all the time. 00:32:08.920 --> 00:32:12.160 Now, it happened to be Tim Keller and Redeemer. 00:32:12.160 --> 00:32:16.720 And so Mary Ellen, because she trusted Chip, he wasn't weird. 00:32:16.720 --> 00:32:18.240 He was a credible individual. 00:32:18.240 --> 00:32:20.680 She decided that she would come. 00:32:20.680 --> 00:32:25.000 So she came this one Sunday evening and she actually brought three girlfriends with her. 00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:26.480 They were kind of her posse, her protection. 00:32:26.480 --> 00:32:29.079 You know, she wasn't sure if there was going to be a cult or whatever. 00:32:29.079 --> 00:32:33.199 And it was in a university auditorium, so actually it wasn't too intimidating. 00:32:33.199 --> 00:32:37.159 But she still thought it might be a cult or something quite weird. 00:32:37.159 --> 00:32:39.119 And I asked her, well, what was it like? 00:32:39.119 --> 00:32:43.480 And it happened that Redeemer Services in the evening used kind of a cool jazz sound to 00:32:43.480 --> 00:32:47.279 their worship, which fit New Yorker at the time. 00:32:47.279 --> 00:32:51.279 And I think it still does in many ways. 00:32:51.279 --> 00:32:55.000 But it wasn't weird or odd, but it was nice. 00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:57.799 I mean, the music was good and that sort of thing. 00:32:57.799 --> 00:33:02.319 And then when he got up to teach, it was a lot like a lecture, you know, although it 00:33:02.319 --> 00:33:04.039 was really interesting. 00:33:04.039 --> 00:33:10.200 At times it was humorous, but it was also profoundly disturbing. 00:33:10.200 --> 00:33:11.200 Interesting description of preaching. 00:33:11.200 --> 00:33:15.319 I wish people would describe my preaching as profoundly disturbing. 00:33:15.319 --> 00:33:17.039 I think it's a good thing. 00:33:17.039 --> 00:33:18.440 But I said, okay. 00:33:18.440 --> 00:33:20.039 And so then what happened? 00:33:20.039 --> 00:33:25.000 Well, we went out to a bar afterwards to get a drink, as New Yorkers normally would. 00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:30.759 And we couldn't help but talk about what this guy at the service had talked about. 00:33:30.759 --> 00:33:32.279 I said, okay, then what? 00:33:32.279 --> 00:33:35.519 Well, we ended up coming back the next Sunday night. 00:33:35.519 --> 00:33:40.400 And actually, there was a whole group of us that began coming every Sunday evening. 00:33:40.400 --> 00:33:44.960 There were about nine of us that attended every Sunday evening for about three months. 00:33:44.960 --> 00:33:48.359 And every night we'd go out to a bar and we couldn't help, although there was never an 00:33:48.359 --> 00:33:53.640 intention this way, but we couldn't help but talk about what Tim had talked about in his 00:33:53.640 --> 00:33:54.640 sermon. 00:33:54.640 --> 00:33:59.160 And she said, and sometimes we really argued about it. 00:33:59.160 --> 00:34:00.160 And I said, you argued about it? 00:34:00.160 --> 00:34:03.480 And she said, actually, one time we actually almost got kicked out of a bar that we were 00:34:03.480 --> 00:34:04.480 in. 00:34:04.480 --> 00:34:05.480 I said, what do you mean? 00:34:05.480 --> 00:34:10.559 And she said, well, there was one guy there and he was furious at what Tim had said. 00:34:10.559 --> 00:34:12.720 And so then we were all arguing about it. 00:34:12.720 --> 00:34:14.440 Well, what was it that Tim had said? 00:34:14.440 --> 00:34:18.960 And what Tim had basically done was he said, here is what New Yorkers believe. 00:34:18.960 --> 00:34:24.599 And he'd argued from what they were pursuing back to then that means here's what New Yorkers 00:34:24.599 --> 00:34:25.799 believe, here's what your real values are. 00:34:25.799 --> 00:34:28.360 Here's what you think is going to make your life work. 00:34:28.360 --> 00:34:34.639 Here's why you're overworking to become that journalist or whatever that thing might be. 00:34:34.639 --> 00:34:39.079 And he was angry because he said, that's not what I believe. 00:34:39.079 --> 00:34:44.480 So here eight non-Christians were doing apologetics with another non-Christian, convincing him 00:34:44.480 --> 00:34:47.679 that Tim was right and that he was wrong. 00:34:47.679 --> 00:34:49.960 And it got to the point where they were literally yelling at each other. 00:34:49.960 --> 00:34:52.119 That's why they almost got kicked out of the bar. 00:34:52.119 --> 00:34:55.119 And so I said, okay, so what's the conclusion of it? 00:34:55.119 --> 00:35:04.159 And she said, well, after three months of going, I felt like Tim had either answered 00:35:04.159 --> 00:35:09.719 many of the objections that I had to Christianity or he had set them aside so I could no longer 00:35:09.719 --> 00:35:12.279 kind of hold on to them. 00:35:12.279 --> 00:35:18.279 And I felt like I was standing face to face with Jesus. 00:35:18.279 --> 00:35:21.199 And I needed to make a decision about him. 00:35:21.199 --> 00:35:26.960 He either really was the Lord, the Messiah, or he really was some sort of a liar or a 00:35:26.960 --> 00:35:30.359 lunatic or something along those lines. 00:35:30.359 --> 00:35:34.879 But she said, the evidence was so compelling, I had to bend the knee to Christ. 00:35:34.879 --> 00:35:37.960 But there was one last problem that I had with becoming a Christian. 00:35:37.960 --> 00:35:39.359 And I said, well, what was that? 00:35:39.359 --> 00:35:43.719 And she said, well, I knew at that point that in order for me to become a Christian, it 00:35:43.719 --> 00:35:52.119 meant that I had to consider to be a brother or sister in Christ, people like Pat Robertson, 00:35:52.119 --> 00:35:59.159 Benny Hinn, James Dobson, and she mentioned somebody else, and then even George Bush. 00:35:59.159 --> 00:36:02.359 And she said, I felt all those people were cultural terrorists. 00:36:02.359 --> 00:36:04.319 And so that was kind of the last impediment. 00:36:04.319 --> 00:36:10.079 But she bent the knee to Christ and literally her life was changed. 00:36:10.079 --> 00:36:16.920 In this text, there's no formulation of the gospel at the end, is there? 00:36:16.920 --> 00:36:19.679 At least I don't see it there. 00:36:19.679 --> 00:36:26.759 There's no pray this prayer, believe these things, any of that. 00:36:26.759 --> 00:36:29.000 What's the gospel that he offers? 00:36:29.000 --> 00:36:31.400 Did you see it? 00:36:31.400 --> 00:36:35.000 It's basically, I'm he. 00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:38.519 Messiah that you seek, that's who I am. 00:36:38.519 --> 00:36:40.880 I'm the true husband. 00:36:40.880 --> 00:36:45.320 I'm the one who can actually meet your deepest needs. 00:36:45.320 --> 00:36:48.000 I'm the only one who can. 00:36:48.000 --> 00:36:55.000 And she goes away, she goes to the village, come meet this man who told me everything 00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:56.000 in my life. 00:36:56.000 --> 00:37:00.119 Now he hadn't told her everything, he just said a couple of things. 00:37:00.119 --> 00:37:02.320 But could this be the Messiah? 00:37:02.320 --> 00:37:08.480 But she comes to believe because he is the answer to the gospel. 00:37:08.480 --> 00:37:13.800 The reality of so many of us, even as Christians, is we're often seeking another gospel. 00:37:13.800 --> 00:37:18.880 We're actually living as if we don't believe the gospel of the scripture, we believe some 00:37:18.880 --> 00:37:20.240 other gospel. 00:37:20.240 --> 00:37:25.760 And if the money was taken away, or if the position was taken away, or the looks were 00:37:25.760 --> 00:37:34.320 taken away, or God forbid the Lord allow your child to die, or something along those lines, 00:37:34.320 --> 00:37:37.000 would our life still be able to hang together? 00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:41.480 Well the reality is that Christ is the only real answer because all those things could 00:37:41.480 --> 00:37:42.480 be taken away. 00:37:42.480 --> 00:37:44.719 We'll all end up dying at some point. 00:37:44.719 --> 00:37:48.400 We can't take it into the next life. 00:37:48.400 --> 00:37:55.199 But this woman believed in the true husband, and that is Christ. 00:37:55.199 --> 00:37:57.480 And he's the answer to all of our needs. 00:37:57.480 --> 00:38:00.159 Let's pray together. 00:38:00.159 --> 00:38:04.639 Our Father and our God, we thank you that you have loved us. 00:38:04.639 --> 00:38:07.159 You love us still. 00:38:07.159 --> 00:38:10.519 You care about us as human beings. 00:38:10.519 --> 00:38:14.359 We are, Lord, so errant in so many ways, so many times. 00:38:14.359 --> 00:38:21.879 Lord, I pray that you would speak to anyone here this morning who actually doesn't know 00:38:21.879 --> 00:38:27.359 you yet, and that you would draw him or her to yourself. 00:38:27.359 --> 00:38:31.000 But I pray, Lord, that you speak to those of us who have known you, and that do know 00:38:31.000 --> 00:38:37.079 you, and do believe in this gospel, that you would renew that understanding that you are 00:38:37.079 --> 00:38:40.840 the one, you are the one that can meet our deepest needs. 00:38:40.840 --> 00:38:47.840 You are the Messiah, and you have chosen to love us and to forgive us of all of our sins. 00:38:47.840 --> 00:39:04.480 In Jesus Christ, amen.