Father, we ask that you help us to be a people who lifts Jesus high,
that, Father, that we're prepared to be people who go to bless and ascend.
And not, Father, to be self-centered, but to be a people who lift Jesus high
and go into our city, go to the ends of the earth,
to tell people about Jesus, to make a difference for you.
Father, now we gather around your word,
and we ask that your Holy Spirit would move mightily in our hearts, Father,
because there's much darkness in our minds and in our emotions and our will.
There's much darkness, Father, and we get accustomed to the darkness.
So, Father, shine the light of the glory of the gospel of Jesus deep into our hearts
as we read your word, so that we will be disciples of Jesus
who are living for your glory in our day-to-day lives.
And this we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Please be seated.
So, I'm a first-generation Canadian.
So, I grew up in an immigrant family.
My folks were immigrants from Northern Ireland,
and they immigrated to Montreal.
In fact, if it had been a simple twist of fate,
I wouldn't be speaking to you this morning.
When my parents got married, they were working-class kids.
They wanted to leave Northern Ireland.
They wanted to go to where there was more opportunity,
especially for working-class kids.
They both only had a grade-8 education.
And when it came time to start to prepare to immigrate,
they couldn't decide between Australia and Canada.
But, like many immigrants, they knew one person in Canada
and nobody in Australia.
And that one person they knew was in Montreal,
so they came to Canada because there was a man there named Joseph McCartney
who ended up becoming my Uncle Joe
because he ended up marrying my mother's sister.
Anyway, so we come.
There's a group of other Irish immigrants.
My parents, eventually, my mom's siblings also moved.
And one of the things we did, they didn't have much money,
so when it was holiday time, we'd go camping together,
three, four, five, six families.
And, you know, the kids would play throughout the day,
and then they'd all go into the different tents and sleep.
And at night, the adults would all gather around the campfire,
you know, whatever, 10, 12 people, the different couples.
And as I got a little bit older,
I discovered what it was that the adults all did around the campfire.
They didn't hold hands and sing Kumbaya.
They argued.
Boy, did they argue.
One of them, at least one of them, was a Roman Catholic.
The rest were Protestants from Northern Ireland.
They argued.
They didn't just argue about Northern Ireland.
They argued about labor unions.
They argued about, you just name it, politics, culture, shopping, clothing, everything.
They argued.
And every once in a while, I discovered,
the people, their voices would get pretty loud,
and somebody would go, shh, the kids are sleeping.
So then they would continue their argument like this.
You're really bleep, bleep, bleep, stupid.
And on it would go.
And that's what they did.
So I mention this because what we see today is we see a story about Jesus walking into an 800-year-old argument
that had often been violent on both sides.
That's sort of the backstop to this story.
It's a very common human problem.
Those of you who are more leftist inclined, you might remember the USSR.
They hunted Trotsky down to kill him.
I think it was in Mexico.
Because certain types of communists would fight the Maoists, would fight the Trotskyites, Irish and Protestants.
Sunnis and Shias have been killing each other for over 1,300 years.
Trump and Clinton, red and blue states.
In fact, Rachel Harder, who was here this morning in between,
her simply getting put on a committee of the status of woman on earth,
a lot of violent conversation.
It's a common human problem throughout the ages.
And Jesus walks right into the middle of it.
For 800 years, the Samaritans and the Jews had been in argument sometime
and taking up arms against each other as well.
So if you take your Bible, it'd be great if you turn to John chapter 4
and let's see what happens when Jesus walks into an 800-year-old argument.
And it says John chapter 4, and we'll begin reading at the first verse.
Now, when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John,
and just sort of, oh, sorry, although, that's John the Baptist,
although Jesus himself did not baptize but only his disciples,
Jesus left Judea and departed again for Galilee.
And just sort of pause here.
The Pharisees were the biggest sort of denomination of Jewish people at the time.
We would call them religious fundamentalists.
And they were the biggest sort of most powerful grouping,
them and the sort of the Sadducees.
They had a lot of the power.
And Jesus was no fool.
And as you know, if you go and read to the story to the end,
Jesus had a well-founded suspicion
that the religious and social and cultural and intellectual and political authorities
were not looking favorably upon him.
And so he becomes aware of the fact that the governing groups were starting to become aware of him
and his growing popularity.
And so he becomes a semi-fugitive.
He decides that he's going to lead.
You know, it's really, really interesting.
You know, if you think about this,
just compare this to a lot of other religious founders and types of figures,
is that Jesus becomes a semi-fugitive.
All his life, Jesus is powerless.
And it's not because he doesn't have a type of power that he could use.
You know, this isn't a miracle story this week, but he can do miracles.
But he's powerless.
So he's a semi-fugitive.
He's going to leave.
And that's what sort of launches this story.
Verse 4.
And he, that's Jesus, had to pass through Samaria.
Now just sort of pause here.
I didn't know this until I did the research.
But the word had is a very interesting word in the original language.
What it's really saying, it's a significant word because it's a word in the original language
which is only used when God makes it a necessity for something to happen.
So what we see here is that God has laid it upon Jesus' heart that he has to go right into Samaria.
And like, isn't that very interesting?
What's interesting is that the way that God is being introduced here by Jesus,
because ultimately this is all, Jesus would have been the one who tells the disciples about this.
They're the ones who come to understand it,
is that God is sending Jesus into this 800-year-old argument.
Not away from it, but into it.
And this is also just really significant, I didn't organize this,
but after the sermon, we're going to have Jess Cantillon make a bit of a presentation
about how we believe that he has to go to Jerusalem to plant a church.
We as a congregation, we're considering whether we should be starting another congregation in Kanata.
We believe that it's God that we have to do it.
We're discerning it, by the way.
We're discerning this because we're not Jesus.
So you take steps of faith to discern it.
But God sometimes says, you've got to do this.
You've got to do this.
And that's what's going on.
Jesus has to go into Samaria.
And so let's continue reading.
Verse 5 and 6.
So Jesus comes to a town of Samaria called Sychar,
near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob's well was there.
So Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well.
It was about noon.
Just pause here.
One more little pause.
One of the problems, there's a lot of nonsense that goes out in the world.
I mean, there's all sorts of problems with the Christian faith.
You know, we get that.
In fact, you know, I was just thinking this week, Christians know the problems in the Christian faith better than non-Christians know the problem in the Christian faith.
I mean, we live with it.
If you read the Bible, you become aware of different problematic things in the Bible, often far more than non-Christians, you know, do.
But in this particular thing here, which is very, very interesting, is the area that Jesus is going into, Jacob, he has another name in the Old Testament.
The other name for Jacob is Israel.
And his sons are the 12 tribes of Israel.
So Jesus is going into an area that Israel established and the tribes of Israel established.
It's now where Samaritans live.
Samaritans are semi-pagan.
They're half pagan and half Jewish.
And so they also are claiming that they go right back to the founder of Israel, the founder of the Jewish people, that they can trace their lineage back.
But they're half pagan and half Jewish.
And that actually is the source of so much of the conflict.
Going back to the same ancestors.
I went and when I was 11 years old, I went to Northern Ireland with my family.
And we were in a small town in Southern Ireland.
And there's like a big wire mesh over the railing of the bridge, over this nice, you know, river.
And my dad started chatting to the guy who was there.
This is in Southern Ireland.
And my dad said, are there any good fish in there?
And this crusty old Irish guy says, I'm not going to try to imitate his accent.
We haven't been able to fish in there since King Billy crossed the boing.
And if you know anything about Ireland, that's sort of the start of the whole Northern Ireland.
King Billy is William of Orange.
Protestant from Holland.
He comes.
That's where all the Protestants come from.
And my dad kept chatting.
And my dad, as he was walking away, said, you know, that's the problem with this country.
It's been their own bloody country for over 100 years.
And they're still blaming the lack of fishing on a Protestant king.
Memories can go deep when there's lots of conflict.
And it's going to keep rearing its head in this particular story.
So verse 7.
Jesus is going to now meet a Samaritan.
Verse 7.
A woman from Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her, give me a drink.
For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
The Samaritan woman said, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?
And then in brackets, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
In fact, for many Pharisees, for many Jewish people, they would have thought that the second
Jesus took a drink out of her container, they had become ritually and ceremonially unclean.
And this, by the way, is a common human problem.
I think it's still the case in many parts of India that if a dalit, the lowest caste,
if they were to get a drink from somebody, they would give them a drink in a,
if they even were able to get a drink of water at all, they would get it in like a clay pot,
almost like a flower pot.
And they would get the drink in that so that the drink, the container could be smashed afterwards
so that no non-dalit would be contaminated by drinking the water.
It's a common human problem to view people as being ceremonially unclean.
But what we see here, which is so interesting, is that Jesus walks towards the woman.
He's the one who initiates the conversation.
She probably would have ignored him.
But Jesus, who has not only intentionally gone into Samaria,
now in a sense he walks across the room and begins the conversation with the woman by asking her,
in a sense his enemy, the one that many Jewish people would say is deeply unclean,
and he asks her for a drink of water.
Now, one of the things, whenever you read a narrative in the New Testament,
you have to always sort of pause at every juncture.
You don't have to, but a way to get more out of it is to pause at these little junctures.
Sometimes stories can become so familiar to Christians that the answers and how the responses come,
they're obvious, but it's not obvious how the story's going to go.
So, like the woman could have said, like, how dare you do that?
Or she gives this smart answer to Jesus about, you know, you normally people don't,
you Jewish people don't ask, like, from an unclean Samaritan like me.
And it's not in a sense obvious what Jesus' answer is.
Jesus could say, oh, come on, woman.
Like, I'm trying to be friends.
Like, work with me.
Like, why are you being so?
And then, you know, maybe use the B word about her or something like that, you know?
He could be arrogant.
Like, there's all sorts of possible responses that he could have to the woman after she's been,
she hasn't been angry at him, but she's been very cool.
Sir is a bit of a formal title, and she's just bringing the problem up front.
For 800 years, you folks, you, you, for 800 years, you have been looking down your noses at me.
People like me, my people, in my country.
So why are you asking me for a drink?
Now, what's going to follow here?
When I have a counseling degree, I know people always are surprised at that.
They wonder why I'm not nicer.
But I have a master's degree in counseling, believe it or not.
And one of the things that we did for two of the, the two years in the master's program
is every term I'd have a, something called a practicum.
And one of the things that we had to do in the practicum, I had a cohort,
a group of people who were traveling through it with me.
And every three weeks, I had to present a verbatim.
I don't know if they still do that.
Now they probably just tape it.
But a verbatim is that throughout the three weeks of practical stuff that we were doing,
I had to think of a particular counseling encounter.
And I was to try to, on just in two pages, write it down in terms of I said this, they said this.
And then we would come and discuss it in terms of what was going on,
different ways that we could have approached it.
They encouraged us to bring times when we don't think we handled it very well,
and also to bring times we think we hit a grand slam with it.
And it's really, it really struck me this week as I was preparing this,
is what we're about to see is a verbatim.
That's what it is.
Jesus must have used verbatims to teach his disciples.
Like, they walked everywhere.
It would take a long time.
He would have been on these long walks.
And I could just see now Jesus saying,
because none of the disciples were there for this.
So they'd only know about it if Jesus, in a sense, gave them a verbatim.
He looked at him what happened, and then helped to unpack it and use it as a teaching thing.
They're walking down the thing.
I met this woman.
I said this.
She said this.
I said this.
She said this.
I said this.
She said this.
I said this.
She said this.
And then I can easily see that he'd have a bit of a conversation with him,
unpacking what's going on, why he said what he said.
It was a very effective teaching practice and counseling.
And this is what we're actually seeing.
And one of the things that we did sometimes, especially when we were first in our practicum,
is that there were either verbatims that the professor had from previous students,
or occasionally there would even be books of verbatims,
because it can be a very powerful way to learn, to enter into a conversation.
So what we have here is a verbatim between Jesus and this woman.
So how does Jesus respond?
Verse 10, Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you,
give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.
So Jesus, what does Jesus do?
So Jesus has been led by God to walk into Samaria and through it.
He's been led by God to walk into an 800-year-old argument.
And what he's doing now is he's pressing into her heart.
I mean, that's what Jesus does with all of us.
And by the heart, I don't mean the emotions.
Right? Those of you who have been here for other Sundays,
what the Bible means by the heart is the command center of our lives.
The command center of our lives from which our will operates,
our mind operates, our emotions operate, our memory operates.
That deep part of us where, in a sense, will and mind and emotions and memory
and all of those things, they all meet.
The understanding, the knowledge, they all meet that command center of our lives.
And Jesus always walks towards our heart in the context of the living God.
That's what he does.
He does it with the Samaritan woman.
He does it with us.
He walks always towards our heart.
And in here, he introduces three ideas.
And because John is a book, I mean, this is the Bible, so it has 66 books,
39 that tell people how to be prepared for Jesus,
in a sense, and 27 that sort of unpacks who Jesus is.
But this particular part that we're looking at is part of a larger book.
And Jesus is introducing three ideas that those of us who know the rest of the story
have a bit of a sense of what they are.
And it's going to continue to be teased out as the story proceeds.
But right now, he introduces three ideas.
And the three ideas are very, very interesting.
The gift of God, who Jesus is, and what that who is, Jesus,
what their heart is and their power is.
Three different ideas.
And, you know, this again reminded me, this is, I guess this is, at least for me,
one of the big learnings that I have as I'm reading through John's Gospel
and face-to-face with Jesus,
is that I'm increasingly under conviction that I have to tell Canadians
that I don't believe in God.
At least I don't believe in God as Canadians understand God.
That what I need to tell people is, in terms of the God of Canadians, I'm an atheist.
I believe the God that's introduced by Jesus.
And the God who's introduced by Jesus walks towards people.
He walks towards people with a gift.
He walks towards our heart.
That's the God I believe and not the God of Canadians.
Part of my counseling, I was in this one workshop that I had to do when I was doing counseling,
and by coincidence, everybody in this particular workshop,
they were all either nuns, like nuns with habits, you know, like the singing nun.
That's an old joke.
But like nuns, parts of religious order,
were people who were training to become Roman Catholic priests.
I was the only one in the group that wasn't one of these people.
And we had to do a role play.
And I wasn't part of it.
Some people, three people did a role play,
and the rest of us then were going to talk about it.
And the role play involved how a mom and her kids were interacting.
And they do the role play.
And the first two or three comments about how insightful and moving it was,
and then I said,
time out.
That's not how moms and kids work.
That's not, given the context,
that's not how a kid's going to talk to their mom.
Like, that's just not the way it is.
I have three kids.
Trust me.
That's not how it works in a family.
So here we go.
We have this story.
Jesus has just introduced this very,
very interesting idea about the gift and this power, etc.
So how does a Samaritan woman act?
Well, she acts like a Samaritan.
That's how she acts.
Because it's a real story.
Look what happens in verse 11 and 12.
How does she respond to what Jesus says?
The woman says to him, verse 11,
Sir, you have nothing to draw water with,
and the well is deep.
We know that it's at least 100 feet deep.
Where do you get that living water?
And now, minefield.
Minefield.
Are you greater than our father, Israel?
Or Jacob.
Are you greater than our father, Jacob?
He, Israel, gave us this well.
And drank from it himself,
as did his sons, the 12 tribes.
Aaron.
I'm not sorry, not Aaron.
It's wrong.
Wrong.
But, you know, the 12 tribes.
This is their well.
She responds like a Samaritan.
So how does Jesus respond?
He says this.
Verse 13.
Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again.
But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.
Will never be thirsty again.
The water that I will give him will become in him or in her a spring of water,
welling up to eternal life.
And the woman said to him,
Sir, give me this water,
so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.
Now, just pause.
If you're here today,
you've come with a friend,
or maybe you've just come in by yourself,
and you're not a Christian,
I want to tell you a secret
about the majority of the people here in this room.
And the secret is this.
Verses like this terrify Christians.
Why does this terrify Christians?
Look at that again, what it says.
Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him
will never be thirsty again.
And Christians,
I mean, it doesn't terrify them all the time,
because most of the time we just say it,
but when we actually look at it,
if we thought we had to do a sermon on it,
if I had to say,
come up to the front and speak four minutes
on how you've never been thirsty again,
the fear comes to us.
I'm depressed.
I struggle with anxiety.
I'm struggling with loneliness.
I'm tired.
I feel like a failure.
I feel like I'm defeated.
I definitely feel thirsty.
I really need God.
I don't feel like I'm very strong or well-watered.
And for many Christians,
when they see a text like this,
it terrifies them that a non-Christian would ask them,
really?
Like, you never thirst?
Like this,
like whatever that means,
some type of spiritual type of sense
that never goes on with you anymore?
And so,
we get terrified about texts like that.
So,
we need to sort out some confusion around this text
and what's going on.
Let's look at it again.
Verse 13,
So,
the first thing in here
is that Jesus isn't talking about an emotion.
He's not talking about an emotion.
There's no Christian emotion.
I don't care what they say
in all sorts of biblical,
all sorts of websites.
I don't care what they say
on all sorts of TV stations.
There is no Christian emotion.
It isn't that joy is a Christian emotion
and other emotions aren't.
Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for they shall see the kingdom of God.
Who said that?
Oh yeah,
it was Jesus.
Maybe Jesus knows more than that television teacher
who seems to talk as if
joy is the only Christian emotion
because he said,
blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.
There is no Christian emotion.
In fact,
one of the things that happens
as you come to know Jesus
is that Jesus will start
to heal
your emotional life.
He's going to work
on your emotional life.
And one of the things
that he does to heal it
is that you feel
the full range
of human emotions.
You'll feel all of them.
Jesus wept
at the grave of Lazarus.
He was,
at the grave of Lazarus.
He wasn't being,
he wasn't sinning
when he weeped.
He was being human.
He was feeling
a human emotion.
And when the Holy Spirit
comes into our lives,
it doesn't come
like a type of drug.
It doesn't,
the Holy Spirit
is an oxycodone
that only makes you
feel one thing.
You'll,
you'll,
you start to get
your emotions healed.
And that's a whole other topic,
but that's what happens.
It's not one emotion.
So what's going on here
in this text?
There's a bit of a mix up.
We now have
three dozen roses
at the church today.
I originally was just
going to have one,
but after the service,
this just works out
good for all of you folks.
Everybody here,
well,
obviously there's too many
for all of you
to have a rose,
but take,
take everybody
who wants a rose
after the service,
take a rose.
We have some newspapers
over there
and you can wrap it up
so it doesn't get destroyed
in the cold.
But here we have
some roses
and this,
these roses
will help us
to understand
what Jesus is saying here.
The thing you can notice
about all of these roses
is that they're cut.
And this rose
illustrates
what it means
to be human.
Every single one of us
is a cut rose.
We've been disconnected
from the source of life.
Some of you might say,
George,
I sure wish
I'd been as pretty
as one of those roses.
I've always been
more of a wilted rose.
And some of us
might be sitting here
thinking,
George,
I look like these roses
are going to look
in about a week and a half.
Pretty dried
and withered.
And maybe we can look around
and see some other people
and they really do look
like a beautiful rose,
but in God's sight
in a sense,
every one of us
is like a beautiful rose,
but every single human being
is cut,
separated from God.
And in a sense,
what Jesus is saying here,
see,
it all goes back
to Genesis 3.
God makes us
to have a relationship
with him
and he makes us perfect
and he makes us
to have this relationship
with him
and we are now,
in a sense,
in Adam
and what happens
in Adam
is that Adam
decides to not believe God,
not trust God,
to want to be like God himself
and so he and Eve
turn from God
to become like gods themselves
and they disconnect themselves
from the source of life,
which is how
first there becomes sin
and then death comes in
as a sign of sin.
And so what Jesus is saying here
is very, very, very powerful.
Remember he said earlier,
if you knew the gift of God
and if you knew
who was speaking to you,
then you would ask him
for living water.
She pushes back.
She acts like a person
who's in an 800-year argument
and she pushes back
and Jesus is undaunted.
Why?
Because he's walking
towards her heart
and he gives her this image
of,
and it's this powerful image
in a sense
if you drink in Jesus,
it's this sense
that whatever this gift is,
it's not just something
which is out there.
Jesus uses a variety of images,
both in terms of images
of believing,
of eating bread,
of drinking water,
of drinking wine.
He does these different images
to illustrate this basic
spiritual truth
that Jesus
is going to do something
that only God can do
that we cannot do ourselves
that is going to have
as its fundamental property.
It is going to reconnect us
to God
so that we are reconnected
to the source of life.
And the image that he uses
is that
when we drink him in
to receive what only he can do
and what he is going to do
for us upon the cross,
the very center
of who I am,
apart from Christ,
it's as if
in the center of who I am
there is a cup
with a limited amount of water
and every day
that water
is being poured out
and death is when
the water is all gone.
And Jesus is saying
at the very center
of who you are
there is now a spring
of living water,
of fresh water
that will flow in you
and through you
for all eternity.
For all eternity.
I will connect you back to God.
I think I've gotten out of my order.
Could you put
my first point up there?
Here we go.
Points are just to be a help
even if I get carried away.
From birth,
every human being
is like a beautiful
cut rose.
From birth,
every human being
is like a beautiful
cut rose.
And the second point,
if you could put it up,
when you drink
in Christ,
he creates
an eternal spring
of living water
at the center
of who you are.
When you drink
in Christ,
he creates
an eternal spring
of living water
at the center
of who you are.
Now,
some of you
are probably
a little bit surprised
about what happens next.
I have to do this
all very briefly.
But,
Jesus does something
which is very
un-Canadian.
You see,
for Canadians,
we would like it
if the story
stopped right here.
In fact,
as Canadians,
we would go,
aww,
a spring of living water.
Aww,
that's so nice.
Aww,
that could be
like a greeting card.
And the people
in our culture
who don't like Christians
would say,
yeah,
just give me a jack
and a beer.
Like, you know,
that just stuff makes,
that just,
I get sick and tired
of that stuff, right?
But we'd like to stop
right here.
And in fact,
Canadians get
profoundly uncomfortable
about what happens next.
In fact,
the typical Canadian question
is,
why is Jesus
being so mean
next?
Well,
what happens?
Look what happens.
It's verse 16,
right?
Verse 15 is,
sir,
give me this water
so that I will not
be thirsty
or have to come here
to draw water.
End of the story
if it was Canadians.
But this is a Jesus story
and he's going
towards our heart.
What does he say?
Jesus said to her,
go call your husband
and come here.
The woman answered him,
I have no husband.
There's,
in English,
just four very,
very,
very powerful words.
I have no husband.
Hasn't gone into
a lot of detail,
but it's very clear
and frank.
Jesus said to her,
you are right in saying,
notice he says,
you are right in saying,
I have no husband.
For you have had
five husbands
and the implication here
is that it's not
that they've died.
She believes in a sense
in serial monogamy.
She's had many husbands.
They've all ended in divorce
and then he continues on
and the one you now have
is not your husband.
What you have said is true.
And for many of us,
we say to ourselves
as Canadians,
Jesus has just promised
living water
and now he is,
like,
why is he turning away
from living water?
But the thing is,
he's not turning away
from living water.
This is all part of him
giving her
living water.
You see,
the God who really exists
isn't the God
that most Canadians worship.
Jesus is introducing God
and so he points out
her sin
and he commends her
for honest answer
and then she responds
in a very,
very powerful
and personal,
you know,
in a very,
very powerful
and personal way
in verses 16,
17,
and 18.
Sorry,
I should have kept reading.
The woman answered him,
I have no husband.
Jesus,
okay,
back up to,
yeah.
So,
he is giving her
living water.
That's what he's doing.
He's giving her
living water.
You see,
the fact is
that God is good
and earlier on
Jesus has said
that God is light
and in him
there is no darkness
whatsoever
and the whole problem
in Genesis 3
began
because
human beings
didn't believe God
they didn't trust God
they didn't trust
that he was good
and when they had done
something which was wrong
if you go back
and read Genesis 3
God comes
and Adam and Eve
are hiding
and when God
speaks to them
Adam doesn't say
you know God
I did something
which was wrong
instead what he does
is
he blames
his wife
and won't acknowledge
that he's done
anything wrong
you can already see
how
the problem
of sin
is breaking him down
and pushing him
even farther away
from God
and
God calls us
God is true
God is good
God is beautiful
and there are things
with
and he's made us
for himself
he's made us
for goodness
he's made us
for truth
he's made us
for beauty
he's made us
for wholeness
and as the eternal water
spring of water
comes into our lives
it's not going to be
amoral
it's not going to just
be a spiritual comfort
it's not just going to
bless whatever we do
it's going to work
within us
to prepare us
to live with God
everything that Jesus
is doing
something so that
at the end of the day
we can once again
walk with God
in the cool of the day
and feel his arm
around us
as we just spend time
with God
and so the things
within us
which are not good
which are not true
which are not beautiful
which are dark
and idolatrous
and hiding
the water
is going to have
to bring it out
because God
is true
so she responds
in verse 19
sir I perceive
that you are a prophet
our fathers worshipped
on this mountain
but you say
that in Jerusalem
is the place
where people
ought to worship
what she does
here is
in the presence
of Jesus
she
in her mind
the only thing
she can think of
is I
I need to somehow
do something
to atone
I need to go
and offer
some type
of a sacrifice
my sin
has been revealed
I need to offer
some type of sacrifice
to try to take
this away
and she's a little
bit worried
that because
Jesus is talking
about all these
things
she's going to
have to become
Jewish
and she doesn't
realize that
Jesus is in fact
the Lamb of God
who takes away
the sin of the world
that he is not
going to only
defeat death
and create the
conditions whereby
when we put our
faith and trust
in him
we can share
in his defeat
of death
but he also
deals with that
which causes
death
which is our sin
which is our love
of idols
our love
of lies
our love
of things
which are not
good
and our shame
and Jesus
on the cross
deals not only
with the defeat
of death
to reconnect
us to life
but he deals
with guilt
he deals
with shame
he takes on
himself
the guilt
that I can't
deal with
by myself
he
you know the
Bible as I've
said before
never tells us
to forgive
ourselves
the Bible
tells us
to learn
to accept
the forgiveness
which has been
offered in
Jesus
because he
has paid
it all
he
has
paid
it
all
the story
continues
his response
to her
verse 21
woman believe
me the hour
is coming
when neither
on this
mountain
nor in
Jerusalem
we worship
the father
your father
you worship
what you do
not know
we worship
what we know
for salvation
is from the
Jews
he doesn't go
to comparative
religion
he goes to
revelation
but the hour
is coming
and is now
here when the
true worshipers
will worship
the father
in spirit
and truth
for the father
is seeking
such people
to worship
him
the god
that I know
that I'm
introducing
to you
is not a
god
who's too
busy
for you
who is
always angry
at you
or is too
distant
he is the
god who's
seeking you
your human
problem and
mine is that
we hide
from god
we never
truly seek
god
we hide
from god
but the
god who
does exist
is a
god who
seeks
and god
is spirit
and those
who worship
him must
worship in
spirit and
truth
and here
it's not
talking about
a particular
emotion
sorry I
keep walking
where I
shouldn't
because there's
no light
there
what he's
talking about
is it's a
very very
simple thing
you know if
you have a
down syndrome
person
low IQ
if you ask
them to
know all
sorts of
complicated
things
they can't
know all
sorts of
complicated
things
you ask
a child
if they
can know
sort of
all
complicated
theology
they can't
know
complicated
theology
but you know
what in
themselves
they can
give themselves
to people
little children
give themselves
to their mom
or their dad
down syndrome
people can
give themselves
to somebody
and little
kids can
know what's
real and
what's true
you don't
have to be
a genius
and what
Jesus is
saying
here
is
I'm not
calling
for people
if you
have a
high IQ
praise God
use your
IQ
for the
glory
of God
if you
have an
unbelievable
willpower
praise God
use it
for the
glory of
God
if you
are unbelievably
strong
or beautiful
praise God
use it
for the
glory of
God
that's
fine
but what's
happening
here
is that
I know
your heart
Jesus knows
that these
things
this woman
has had
all these
issues
but he
came to
die for
her
knowing
who she
was
he came
to die
for her
he knows
you
he came
to die
for you
why
he comes
to you
the father
seeks
you
and what
he's asking
for you
is for you
to drink
in
his provision
for you
at the level
of your
spirit
to say
Jesus
give me
this living
water
be my
savior
and my
lord
it's
something
which even
a child
can do
is to
give at
the level
of their
of who
they are
just give
themselves
and that's
what the
father is
seeking
for us
to no
longer run
and no
longer
hide
but to
stop
and turn
and say
father
you have
been
seeking
me
all my
life
I am
yours
may
Jesus
come in
and do
the work
he needs
to do
that I
might be
yours
and that
that spring
of everlasting
water
might flow
in my
life
into all
eternity
please stand
if there's
anyone here
who hasn't
given their
life to
Jesus
there is
no better
time
than right
now
in fact
what I
would just
say
if you
you know
I'm not
you know
the problem
I grew up
in churches
where
the pastor
always had
a formula
that you
had to
pray
and that
was
terrifying
because
as a
little
kid
I
thought
I
had
to
memorize
the
formula
and
figure
out
how
to
say
it
perfectly
there
is
no
formula
all I
would
say
is
just
take
the
words
of the
Bible
and
just
copy
the
words
of that
Samaritan
woman
sir
give me
that
living
water
give me
that
Jesus
tells
you
how to
respond
to
him
that
he
might
be
your
savior
and
your
Lord
and for
those of
us who
are
Christians
who have
been
Christians
for a
long
time
it's
you know
maybe the
Lord is
saying to
us
that yeah
the spring
of living
water is
going on
there
but what's
going on
in my
life right
now is
I'm getting
so caught
up with
idols
and I'm
getting so
caught up
with running
from him
that I
need
to
this
before
God
I stand
and turn
and face
him
again
and say
father
forgive me
from running
for you
thank you
that you
never
stopped
seeking
me
thank you
that the
spring of
eternal
water
living
water
never
stopped
flowing
even
though I
have been
living
in rebellion
against you
and I
come and
surrender
before you
once again
because you
are my
father
I give
myself
into your
hands
no better
time than
now to
do such
work with
God
let's bow
our heads
father
pour out
your
holy
spirit
upon
us
father
we
thank
you
for
Jesus
we
thank
you
that
he
died
upon
the
cross
for us
we
thank
you
father
that
he
is
your
gift
we
thank
you
father
that
when
we
believe
him
and
put
our
faith
and
trust
in
Jesus
that
we
are
no
longer
cut
roses
separated
from
life
but
that
you
create
what
only
you
can
do
you
create
a
spring
of
eternal
life
of
living
water
in
the
center
of
who
we
are
that
will
take
us
through
our
death
into
an
everlasting
life
with
you
father
thank
you
for
the
great
gift
of
Jesus
and
father
make
us
sensitive
to
your
leading
and
your
guiding
and
help
us
to
surrender
more
and
more
to
who
you
are
and
we
ask
all
this
in
the
name
of
Jesus
your
son
and
our