Good morning, Watermark Church. It's good to see you guys today. My name is Eric, and
I work here at Watermark Church. You know, I woke up this morning, and I turned to my
wife, and I said, what should I wear today? And she picked this shirt from my closet,
and I said, do you think that will be distracting to people? And she said, no, it's fine. And
then I showed up here, and I think every single person I've talked to so far this morning
has opened the conversation with. So what's up with your shirt? So hopefully that will
not be a distraction to you while I'm talking. We've been going this year through, we've been
following this path in our sermons, and I heard a couple people this week who said that they
didn't quite understand what we've been, what the logic is to how we've been progressing.
So I figured we'd start out today just recapping where we've been, where we are, and where we're
going, and then we'll jump into today's passage. So we started out this year looking at the
book of Deuteronomy, and we said that God's Word shapes God's people into a people who love
Him and love others. And that was what God was aiming for when He gave His people His Word.
But then if you look through the rest of the Old Testament, God's people just failed again
and again and again and again at doing that. And so rather than being this distinctive
people who love God and love others, they tried to blend in again and again and again with the
other nations around them. After a long time, Jesus comes, and Jesus is the true Israelite,
the true one who loves God and loves others perfectly. He embodies what it means to obey these commands
of God, and we can see an example in His life of what our lives are supposed to look like if we are
these people who love God and love others because our lives have been shaped by His Word. And then where
we're going to go is that we're going to see, starting around Easter, that Jesus not only gives us an
example of what this lifestyle looks like, but He also empowers us to live out this lifestyle.
Because what the Bible says is that our sin, our rebellion against God, is what separates us from
Him and keeps us from loving Him and loving others as we're supposed to. And when Jesus dies for us,
He takes our sin onto Himself so we can be forgiven and have a restored relationship with God and with
others. And we're going to look at the book of Acts and see in the early church, how did the community
of Jesus' followers live out this transformed lifestyle? So we looked at how it's supposed to look,
but it didn't quite get to where it was supposed to, the one who perfectly lived it out, and then
how He empowers us to live it out moving forward. And that's sort of where we've been, where we are,
where we're going. And today we're in the middle of a series on, we're calling it Sinners Jesus Met,
looking at different people that Jesus interacted with throughout His life. And today we're looking at
His encounter with the sexually captive, the woman at the well. And what we're going to see is that in her
life of addiction and her culture of shame, Jesus brings a radical, life-changing acceptance to her.
So before we jump into the passage, let's pray that God would speak to us today.
Father, we thank You that Your Word is living and active and powerful and that it impacts us.
We pray that as we look at it today, that we would not leave here the same as we are right now,
but that we would be challenged, that we would be transformed, that Your Word would do surgery on
our hearts, and that we would love You more and love others more because of it. And in Jesus' name,
amen. So today our sermon is going to be a little bit different than what we normally do. Normally we
have like, here's point one, two, three. Today we're not going to quite do that. We're going to spend most
of our time looking at the story and sort of breaking it apart and seeing what's really going on here.
And then at the very end, we'll have maybe one point and one next step. Sound good? Everyone with me?
So what's been happening so far is Jesus and His disciples are doing ministry in this area called
Judea, which is southern Israel. And the religious leaders here, Jesus and His followers are doing,
are reaching lots of people, are doing great things, and they are not happy about it. They want to come in
and start causing trouble. And Jesus and His disciples catch wind of this and say, rather than
deal with this trouble, let's move on somewhere else so that we can keep doing what we're doing.
And they decide to go to an area called Galilee, which is in northern Israel. It's sort of like,
you know, you go from Hong Kong Island up to the New Territories. You have to pass through that area
in the middle. For us, it's Kowloon. For them, it was this place called Samaria. But unlike us,
the people who lived in that middle area were despised and hated by the people on the north
and south. I live in Kowloon, so hopefully you don't despise and hate me. And also unlike us,
they didn't have MTR or cars so that they could just whoosh right through without interacting with
anyone from that area. They passed through on foot, which means that it was quite likely you were going
to bump into some of these Samaritans along the way, which was not ideal. The reason that Jews
hated the Samaritans is because God had long ago given the Jews this command that I want you
to worship me, not other gods. And I know that if you marry people from foreign nations around you,
that with them you will start worshiping their gods. And I don't want that because I love you and I care
about you. And I know that true life comes from a relationship with me. And I want you to be able
to focus on that relationship free of the distractions that foreign gods will bring in.
And so the Jews had followed this, had married only other Jews, but the Samaritans
had intermarried and become this mixed half-breed where they were part Jew but part not.
And so for the Jewish people in Jesus' day, the way that the world would have worked is basically,
if you were a Jew, you're like up here. You're great. You're fantastic. If you're a Gentile,
like a general non-Jew, you're maybe like here. You're pretty bad off, but I mean, you didn't
really have too much say in it. So you're not the worst there could be. The worst way down here
is the Samaritans because they started off as God's people, but then disobeyed and became this
mixed up half-breed that's not really us, but not not us either. And so we just despise them.
We avoid them. It was so bad that if there was a dish with food on it and a Samaritan took a piece
of food off that dish, no good Jew would eat anything else that touched that dish because
they just hated each other and wanted to avoid each other and despise each other. And this is the area
where Jesus and his followers are traveling through as we start this story. Jesus and his disciples have
been walking, walking, walking. It is hot. It is dry. They're coming near this town called Sikar.
And as they get outside the village, there's a well, probably about a kilometer outside the village.
And Jesus sits down at the well to take a break while his disciples run into the village to get food
because they are all hungry. And as Jesus is sitting there, it's the middle of the day,
probably about noon. It's hot. It's dry. The disciples head off. And as he waits there for
them to come back, a woman from the city comes out to the well to get water. Now this would have been
a really weird thing to see. Not the fact that someone was coming to the well to get water. I mean,
if you wanted water in your house back then, you had to go to the well to get water. They didn't
have a sink that they could just turn on to get water. You had to carry a big jar with you. You'd dunk
it down into the well. This well was very deep, so you'd use a rope to lower it, scoop up the water,
pull it back up, and then carry it back into the town with you. That was fairly normal. But there were
two things about this situation that were not normal. First off, no one goes to the well in the
middle of the day. This is hard work. This is heavy labor. You want to do it in the cool of the day
so that it's not quite so exhausting. So they'd either do it right in the morning as the sun was
coming up or in the evening after it's cooled down from the heat of the day so it's a little bit easier.
The fact that she's coming in the middle of the day is weird. Also, you don't go collect water alone.
Just like women's trips to the bathroom today, this is something that you did in groups.
And going in groups gave you someone to talk to as you walked along the road.
Going in groups meant that you had safety if someone came and approached you on your way to
the well. You didn't go to the well alone. So the fact that this woman is coming to the well
in the middle of the day at a time when no one else will be there by herself says something
is wrong with this picture. Something is different about this woman than about the normal woman that
you would see there. And what we see is that she's trying to avoid other people. We're going to see
later on in the story this is because of shame from her sexual past. And I can sort of picture her as
she comes to the well. It's hot. She's despising the heat, despising the shame in her life that's causing
her to have to go out in this heat to get her water. And as she gets closer to the well, she sees
something that's not supposed to be there. At first, it's just a blur on the horizon, but she keeps going
and gets closer and realizes it's a man. Now, as a woman, this is exactly the type of situation that
would make you want to travel in groups. Because here's this woman who probably can't really defend
herself. And this man who's presumably fairly strong from years of doing carpentry work.
This is a scary situation, right? If he wants to attack her, she is not able to defend herself. So she
has walked all this way about a kilometer from the city carrying her water jug. It's not worth it to go
back now. She gets to the well and I'm assuming she's just hoping that she can get her water. He will
avoid her. He'll leave her alone and she can go back to the city undisturbed. And as she starts
lowering her water jar into the well, this man says to her, give me a drink. Which, if you understand
what he's been going through, kind of makes sense. He's been walking out in the desert all day long,
like, you're thirsty, you want a drink. But the woman recognizes that something weird is happening
with him as well. First off, no good Jew would talk to a Samaritan. You don't ask a Samaritan for a
favor. That doesn't happen. Second, in this culture, no man would talk to a woman, especially in public.
In fact, some of the rabbis taught that by talking to a woman, you put yourself in danger of going to
hell because you were distracting yourself from the study of God's word. And so a man in this culture
would not talk to a woman, especially a random stranger in public. It was frowned upon. It was not
acceptable. And the third thing that's weird, like I said before, Jews did not eat or drink from dishes
that had been used by Samaritans. And the only way that this woman was going to be able to give this man
a drink is by letting him drink from her water jar, which means that he can't be a very good Jew
if he doesn't even follow that part of the Jewish code. So there's three things really weird about
Jesus' question, and it startles the woman. And so she's so startled, she just says, how is it that you,
a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? She's startled, she's confused, she doesn't quite
get what's going on here. And Jesus, unfazed by the question, tells her that if she really knew who
she was talking to, she would have asked him, and he would have given her living water.
Now, I'm assuming that if you were her in this conversation, that you, like me, would have gotten
super confused at this point in the conversation, just like she did. What the heck is living water?
Where do you get it? Like, you don't even have a jar to get this normal water, how are you going to
get something better than this normal water for me? And, like, the guy who dug this well for us,
his name was Jacob, it got changed to Israel, which, oh, by the way, is the name of our nation.
If the founder of our nation can't give us something better than this, how do you think you're going to
give me something better than this? You think you're, like, better and more impressive than him?
Now, what we all know, but she didn't, is the answer is yes, Jesus is better and more impressive
than Jacob. But she's confused. She's met this stranger who's making some pretty big claims.
She doesn't quite understand what he's saying or why he's saying it. And so Jesus clarifies to her,
the water that I'm giving you is a different type of water than the one that comes from this well.
It doesn't come from a well, but it springs up from inside you, and it leads to eternal life so
that you never have to be thirsty again. It's a big claim. And the woman responds with,
sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come to this well anymore.
Now, on the one hand, that's probably a good response. Sir, give me this water so that I won't
be thirsty again. She's accepting this offer that he's made to her. But then, look at her motivation
for accepting it. She says, give it to me so that I will never have to come to this well again.
Now, why did she want to avoid the well? Well, first off, it's hard work carrying this heavy load
out in the heat. Anyone would want a chance to get out of that. But second, remember, the well was a
social place. And this is a woman who wants to avoid social situations. The well is where all
the women from the town go out to chat with each other, maybe gossip with each other. And she is
more often than not the subject of that gossip. And so if she can have this freedom to not have to come
to the place where everyone's talking about her anymore, she sees that as liberating. She says,
I now have a chance to hide for the rest of my life from the shame that I feel, to never have to
face these people who despise me ever again. Give me this living water so that I can hide from my shame
so that I can be safe and comfortable. And I don't know about you, but I often in my life,
when I am ashamed of something, feel like, just like this woman, that freedom comes from hiding from my
shame, from keeping others from seeing what's truly wrong with me, and hoping that it goes away before
they realize it. And Jesus, again, knows the perfect response to give to her at this moment. He says, go,
get your husband, and come here.
She's wanted to avoid having to deal with the shame of her past, and Jesus instantly, in a moment,
brings her right to the place where she needs to confront this shame. And I wonder if it was you or
me in this situation, what is it that Jesus would have said to us that would have cut straight to our
hearts as quickly as this comment cut to the woman's heart? Would it be something like, go,
get your internet search history, and come here? Go, get the financial records you've been keeping for
your company, and come here? Go, get your helper, and have her come here so she can share about the
way that you've been treating her. Maybe it's something else. But I think for most, if not all of us,
we have areas in our lives that we want to keep hidden, just like this woman did.
We have parts of our lives that we're ashamed of that we don't want anyone else to know about.
And Jesus, in this story, knows exactly the issue that this woman is trying to avoid,
and he brings her to the place where she has to come directly face-to-face with this issue.
So the woman responds and says, I have no husband, which technically is true, but really it's not.
You know, it's like if you're a parent and you say to your kid, like, did you slap your brother?
And he says, no, and technically it's true because he punched him instead of slapped him,
but really he hit his brother, and that's what you care about, right?
And that's the nature of her response right here. She says something that's technically true,
but a lie in the message that she's trying to convey by it. And maybe she did this because
she's trying to avoid the shame. Maybe she did this because she just wants to get on with the good
stuff and get this living water quicker. We don't know. But either way, Jesus' response to her
is incredibly unique because he applauds her honesty, yet still confronts her sin.
He says, you're right. You don't have a husband because the five men who used to be your husband
are no longer your husband, and the man you now live with also is not your husband, so you speak
the truth. He doesn't point at her and say, liar! I know you've been married to basically every man
in this city. He says, you speak the truth. But then he confronts her sin at the same time.
And what we see in this moment is that the woman is sexually captive.
You know, I think at her heart, she's just like the rest of us. I think she, more than anything
else in life, craves and longs for a genuine human connection.
She wants somewhere where she can be vulnerable and be accepted. She wants someone that she can
be intimate with and someone who she can love them and they can love her back.
Why else would she try again and again and again at love after it's failed so many times? I think most
people would have given up by this point on the hope of finding love. And yet after her fifth failed
marriage, she still has another boyfriend. Because she wants someone who loves her. She wants someone
who accepts her. She wants a place to be vulnerable. And normally, even if we're not in a romantic
relationship, we have friends that can do this role for us in our lives. But for her, because of her past,
no one was willing to do that. No woman in this town would come near her because of fear that her
reputation would rub off on them. No married man's wife would let her husband anywhere near this woman
for fear that he would become husband number six or seven. No single man would want the stigma of being
around someone like her unless they got some type of benefit from the deal. For her, finding love had
reached the point of being a transaction. And the price that she paid for love, or at least the
appearance of it, was her body. She was trapped, feeling like the only way she could get someone to
even pretend to care about her in the world was through sex. And other than that, there was no way
that she could find anyone to care about her. And I think in our context, it's easy to look at her and
see her as broken and messed up. But at the heart, she's just like the rest of us. She wants someone to
love her. She wants someone to care for her and accept her. But she feels trapped.
Because the one thing in life that she most wants, she can't get, no matter how hard she tries, again,
and again, and again, and again, and again. And every step she takes to trying to find this true love,
someone who will love her and accept her no matter what, actually alienates her further and further
from the rest of society. And I think this is pretty common in our world today. Think about it.
What are the things that you do when you are desperate for love? For me, if I want more attention
from Justine, what I'll do sometimes is act really childish and annoying to get her to notice me.
And the thing about acting like a five-year-old is that when you're three and you act like a five-year-old,
everyone says, wow, you're really mature. This is awesome. And when you're an adult and you act like
a five-year-old, people are like, wow, you're really annoying. Stay away from me. And so my efforts
to try and get attention and get someone to notice me actually drive her away and make her be like,
no, I don't want to hang out with you if you're going to act like a child right now.
But we see this other places too. People want to find someone who will love them.
And so sometimes, as a single, we want to find that person that we're going to be with for the
rest of our lives. But we believe what culture has told us, that you're never going to find someone
who's going to be willing to stick around long enough in a relationship with you to marry you
unless you sleep with them while you're dating. And so there's a strong temptation to compromise
on our sexual standards so that we can find someone who's going to love us.
Maybe if you're married and you have a spouse who just spends really long hours at work,
and when they get home, they're too tired to focus on you, and you want that attention.
And so we nag, nag, nag, because we want to be noticed and think maybe once we're noticed,
then that love will develop again. But it doesn't happen.
Maybe you're a husband and you just get frustrated because you get home from work at the end of the
day, and that one thing you want is sex from your wife. And you think to yourself, I deserve this.
I know I've been there before. Like, I work really hard for this family to help support us
and help us be able to make it financially in this expensive city, and it was a stressful day at work,
and I just want to decompress, and I deserve this.
And when she says no, how do we respond?
I think what we find is that in those moments where we are desperate for love
and we are desperate for attention, we act out in ways that a rational version of ourselves
would never do. But that makes sense for us in that moment,
in that state of mind that we're in, because we crave and long for this attention and being noticed.
And that's exactly what this woman has been doing her entire life,
jumping from man to man to man, hoping that one of them will love her,
hoping that one of them will accept her.
And so when this woman finally gets around to responding to Jesus' comment,
she changes the subject completely,
because she does not want to deal with this issue of her life.
Have any of you ever found it's way easier to have a really deep theological discussion
about something that has nothing to do with your life
than it is to deal with a really simple question that goes straight to your heart?
I find that.
And this woman does exactly that right here.
She says, okay, this just got way too real, way too fast.
This is way too uncomfortable right now.
We can't talk about this anymore.
And so what her version of this is,
is, oh, okay, I see you're a prophet.
You know things about me that you wouldn't have been able to know otherwise.
So I have a question for you.
The Jews say that we should worship here.
The Samaritans say that we should worship here.
Who's right?
You tell me, because you're a prophet.
And Jesus, again, brilliantly responds to her.
And he's not distracted again.
He says the hour is coming and is now here,
where it's not here or there,
but it's going to be how we worship God that matters, not where.
And something really interesting about his response,
when he says the hour is coming,
in the book of John, that always refers to the cross.
What he's saying is,
I personally am going to do something so big,
so powerful,
so world-changing,
that it's not going to matter where we worship God anymore.
It's going to matter how we worship him.
And how we worship God needs to be in spirit and in truth,
which, again, is an interesting response,
because truth is the one thing this woman is trying to avoid in this moment.
And the woman, seeing that she's not getting anywhere,
says,
well, you know, there's this guy coming.
He's called the Messiah.
When he comes, he can tell us all about it.
Like, let's ignore this conversation,
just move on with life.
And Jesus' response is stunning.
Now, I love the ESV translation of the Bible,
but I feel like it doesn't quite get the fullness of what Jesus is saying right here.
It does an okay job.
It says,
I who speak to you am he,
which technically, yeah, he said that.
But something like the New Living Translation gets this much better.
It pulls out more of the nuance of what Jesus is saying.
And it says,
I am the Messiah,
with the words I am in capital letters.
Now, here's why that's significant.
Because in the Old Testament,
God's covenant name,
by which he related to the people of Israel,
was,
I am.
And in this moment,
Jesus is saying to the woman,
not just this guy that you're talking about is me,
but he's saying,
I am the Lord of the universe.
I am the God of the Old Testament
that you've been reading about.
I'm not just a man.
I am God.
And normally in a conversation,
if someone makes that type of a claim,
you think they're crazy.
But the crazy thing about this conversation
is that when Jesus says this,
the woman believes him.
Now, at this moment,
the disciples come back,
sort of startled that Jesus is talking to a woman.
You can sort of imagine a conversation between them.
Peter's like,
hey, who's that talking to Jesus?
And John's like,
I don't know.
I wonder what they want.
And Andrew's like,
hey,
a new friend.
And then,
I don't think he was really like this,
but I sort of picture in my mind,
Judas just like in the back,
like hands in his pocket,
scuffling along,
like,
he's talking to some random stranger.
He never talks to me like that.
And as the disciples arrive,
the woman leaves.
She goes back into the town,
and she starts sharing with everyone there
about this man that she has met.
Two super interesting things about this.
First,
she leaves her water jar at the well.
The task that she had originally come to do
is no longer as important to her
as the task of going and sharing with people
about this man that she has met
because he has changed her life.
But the second and even more amazing thing
is the message that she brings to the village.
Look at this transformation in her life.
She goes from going to the well by herself
in the heat of the day
to avoid people
and avoid the shame of her past
to running around the middle of the village
screaming out,
guys,
come here.
meet this man.
He just told me
everything that I have ever done.
The woman
who more than anything else
wanted to hide,
wanted to not be known,
all of a sudden is boasting
in the middle of the town
to everyone who will listen
that someone knows
everything
I have ever done.
And how does that transformation happen?
Why is it that she's so different?
It's the power of grace in her life.
I'm sure that for her whole life
or at least since her first divorce,
everyone who found out her story
has shunned her.
Everyone who met her
has tried to avoid her
as soon as they found out
what type of a person she was.
And then along comes Jesus,
the man who knows everything
and yet still loves her.
You notice his tone of voice
doesn't change
once it comes out
that she's had five husbands.
His offer of living water
doesn't come off the table
once she lies to him.
He engages her,
he accepts her,
he loves her,
even though he knows
everything
that she has done wrong.
He revealed
the deepest,
darkest parts of her life
that she didn't want
anyone else to see
and he was still
talking to her
like a normal person,
still showing her love.
And my guess is
that he was the first person
since at least
her first divorce
that treated her
in that way.
And when that happened,
she realized
that freedom came
not from hiding,
not from isolating,
but from being fully known
at her darkest and worst
and yet still fully loved.
And it says that
many people from the town
came out
and believed in Jesus.
So I want to look at
one truth from this story
and one next step for us.
And the key truth
that I want us to see today
is that Jesus reveals
her sin and our sin
for the sake of healing it
and restoring it.
You know, I, a lot of times,
am just like this woman.
When I sin,
I feel that the best way
to deal with it
is to hide it
until it goes away.
Hope that it gets better
without anyone else
finding out.
And my experience
in my life
has shown me
that this leads
to feelings of shame
that eat me away
from the inside.
You know,
when I first moved
to Hong Kong,
I started struggling
with a little bit
of depression
because I was,
I was sad
because I was,
you know,
had no one
that I knew here,
I had no one
that I could talk to
about everything
that I was going through.
And in that moment
when I started
to feel that,
this voice in my head
said,
Eric,
you shouldn't be
feeling these things.
You work at a church.
You can't let people
know about what's
going on in here
because they will think
that you are really,
really messed up.
So you need
to hide it.
You need to bury it
and hope that it goes away.
And maybe someday
when it's gone away,
you can talk to people
about how you used
to deal with this.
But until then,
you can't say a word
to anyone.
And so I did.
I hid it.
I buried it.
I hoped that it would
go away.
And what happened
is that the,
I'd go out
and I'd talk with people
and I'd have this big
smile on my face
and as soon as the people
were gone,
I'd feel this emptiness
inside that would just
eat away at me.
And this shame
from knowing
that I was being
a fake
with everyone
that I was interacting with.
And it got worse
and worse
until God finally
brought me to a point
where he said,
Eric,
you have to deal with this.
And I started sharing
with people
about what was going on
and in that moment
was when I started
to find freedom
from everything
that I had been experiencing.
It was in that moment
that I realized
people don't just love me
because they know
some fake version of me.
People love me
even though they know me
at my worst.
People love me
not because they think
I'm better than I am
but just because
they love me.
And the scariest,
darkest parts of me
that I'm afraid of,
they still love me
through those moments.
And it was liberating.
It was life-changing.
And you know what
the crazy part is?
Even though I've been
through that experience,
I still tend towards
hiding in isolation
when there are things
in my life
that I'm ashamed of
because it's so pervasive
and so prevalent,
this belief,
that freedom comes
from isolation
and hiding in my mind.
And what this woman
shows us
is that freedom
comes from being
fully known
and yet fully loved.
Pastor Tim Keller
in his book
The Meaning of Marriage,
he has this quote.
It's brilliant.
He says,
to be loved
but not known
is comforting
but superficial.
Basically,
if someone loves you
but they don't know
truly who you are,
it feels good
but it's a little scary
because you're always worried
they're going to find
something out
that makes them
stop loving you.
Then he says,
to be known
and not loved
is our greatest fear.
That's exactly
what this woman
had lived out
her entire life.
The people in her village
knew everything about her
and that was precisely
why they avoided her
and hated her.
And that's what all of us
I think fear the most
in life
is that someone
will find out
everything there is
to know about us
and precisely because
they know the truth
they will avoid us,
they will hate us,
they will not love us.
Keller says,
but to be fully known
and truly loved
is well a lot like
being loved by God.
It's what we need
more than anything.
It liberates us
from pretense,
humbles us
out of our self-righteousness
and fortifies us
for any difficulty
that life can throw at us.
It's exactly what Jesus did
for this woman.
He said,
I know everything about you
and I still love you.
That's what he did for me
and that's what he wants to do
for all of us.
He wants us not to keep hiding
but to bring our sin
into the light
so that he can heal it.
And it doesn't matter
what the sin is
that we're hiding from.
Jesus is big enough
and powerful enough
to see it
and still accept us
because in his death
he has already paid
the price for it.
Jesus doesn't love
some idealized version of us.
He loves us
with all of our sin,
with all of our crap,
with all of our issues.
That's why he died for us
because we are messed up people
and he still wants
to love us
and accept us.
So what we see
is the woman's been
looking to this husband
for something that she could
only ever truly,
fully find
in the Messiah.
He wants to give her life.
He wants to be the place
where she can be
fully vulnerable
and still accepted,
fully intimate,
fully loved
and known
and accepted.
and he wants to be
that place
for each and every
single one of us today.
And again,
he is the only one
who's able to do that
perfectly
every single time
because he
has already paid the price
for all of it
through his death.
And the other thing is
that he's given us
a community
of his followers
to help us
as we follow him,
which leads us
to our action step.
I know it's far easier
to hide
and pretend
that the shame
and guilt
in our lives
don't exist
than to deal with it.
You know,
one thing I noticed
is that when I want intimacy,
it's far easier
to get physically naked
with Justine
than to get
completely emotionally
vulnerable with her.
But God wants us
to find
that place in him
where we can be
fully known
and in the community
of his people
where we can be
fully known
and we can be
fully accepted
and loved.
And I don't know
what it is
that you're struggling
with today,
but I know
that on your own
you're not big enough
or strong enough
to handle it,
but Jesus is.
So it may be
something sexual.
It may be
an addiction
to pornography.
It may be
just these feelings
of inadequacy
because of the way
that your spouse
interacts with you
and treats you.
It might be
a struggle
with same-sex attraction.
It might be
that you regret
giving up your virginity.
It might be
non-sexual.
Maybe it's depression.
Maybe it's
these feelings
of guilt
over decisions
you've made
at your workplace
or in relationships
with your friends.
But regardless
of what your struggle
is,
the path to freedom
comes not through
hiding and isolating
and hoping that it
goes away,
but through being
known and being
loved and still
being accepted.
So what we're
going to do is
after service,
we're going to have
a few staff people
appear over by
these banners.
Chris will be there,
Henrika will be there,
Sylvie will be there,
and I'll be there.
And if you feel like
you have been hiding,
have been isolating,
and you want someone
to talk to about it,
we will be available
to talk to you.
And if you say,
like,
I have to run off
right after service
or I don't really
feel comfortable
talking to you guys
about it,
my encouragement
to you,
my challenge
to you,
is sometime
this week,
call your community
group leader
or someone
from your community
group and share
with them about
what's been going
on in your life.
In fact,
I would encourage
you,
if that's what
you're planning
on doing,
pull out your
phone right now
and put a calendar
reminder in there
so that you can
remember,
because I know
I have a tendency
as soon as I get
out that door
to forget.
So help your phone
to remind you,
use it for good,
not evil.
And use your phone
to remind you,
call someone,
a friend,
a community group
leader,
to talk to them
about what's
going on in your
life.
Because God
gives us freedom
not as we hide
our sin and
brokenness,
but as we bring
it into the light
and let him
heal us.
And he's given
us the community
around us
to help us
in this process.
So this week,
let's learn to find
this freedom
in confession,
trusting that
the blood of Jesus
is powerful enough
and strong enough
that he can still
love us
and accept us
no matter what it is,
that we have done
and that he is
strong enough
to heal all the
wounds from our
past.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you
for your love.
We thank you for
the power of the
cross to forgive
sin,
to make us new,
to take away
this need that we
feel to isolate
ourselves,
to take away our
shame and our
guilt,
to give us new
life,
to give us hope.
God, I pray that
we would be like
this woman,
that we would be
people who see
the beauty of being
fully known and
fully loved and
find that as a
liberating truth in
our lives,
that you would
empower us as we
experience that
forgiveness to go
out into our
worlds and share
with the people
around us how
great and powerful
and intense your
love is for us.
I pray for anyone
here who feels
like they need to
confess something
but is afraid,
that you would
give them the
boldness to step
up and share with
someone today or
this week about
what's been going
on in their lives
and that through
this you would
help us grow as a
people who love
you and love one
another.
In Jesus' name,
amen.
Amen.