Crucial Conversations Jesus and the Outcast (Northwest)

Transcription

1 Transcript July 9/10, 2016 Crucial Conversations Jesus and the Outcast (Northwest) Jake Barker John 4:1-42 Hey Traders Point. I hope you are having a great weekend so far especially if you are new or one of our guests. Man, we are so grateful that you would spend a part of your weekend with us here. We don t take that lightly. We know that each weekend it s somebody s first weekend in fact last week 82 different people told us that it was their very first time with us. So we are just so grateful to have you. And really our whole hope is that we could help you connect. We know that this can be kind of an intimidating thing and so we d love to help you connect. You can stop by Connection Central like Petie just said. Get a t- shirt. He said he d buy it, alright? I d get like 10 if I were you. Stop out there. There are some great people who would love to answer any of your questions and some of our leaders will be hanging out there after service to just say, Hey. So thanks again, so much, for being here. Now before we dive into our message today I think we would be remiss if we didn t acknowledge that this has been a really long week a really, really difficult one. And as if we needed any more evidence that we live in a broken and fallen world, we got it all over our news feed this week. The deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile they were disturbing and they were heartbreaking. And then the dust couldn t even settle on those moments before the news rolled in about the shootings in Dallas and you and I were left to look at each other and ask questions like, What is happening? And, How did we get here. And, Where do we go from here? And moments like these, they threaten to steal our hope: our hope for humanity, our hope for a better future, maybe even our hope that God has a plan. And there s one thing that I can guarantee you. It s because He says it in His word so often, it s that Jesus cares. Jesus cares about the lives of those two young men and the families they represent. Jesus cares about the families and the lives of those police officers who were wounded and those who lost their lives. And He cares about generational and systematical racism. And Jesus cares that there are certain people in our community who are scared to walk the streets because of the color of their skin. And Jesus cares that there are police officers who are scared to go to work because their uniform has made them a target. Jesus cares about every single bit of that. And because Jesus cares about that, so do we. So we re going to do two things today. We are going to pray and then we re also going to act. See sometimes I know that in my life I ve been guilty of using prayer as an excuse for passivity as if I could pray and not actually act. Well, I know that I m called to act. So this week it would be a great moment for you to call someone you know. Call someone in your workplace. Call a school mate, a team mate, someone in your neighborhood who has been uniquely affected by the events of this week and let them know that you love them, let them know that you care about them, let them know that Jesus cares. So were going to act and we re also going to pray. Here s what I d love for you to do. I d love for you to grab the hand of someone who is sitting next to you. If you re not next to someone just kind of scoot in. We d love for you to connect. This is a sign of unity. It s a sign that our church cares because Jesus cares. And I want to pray for a few things. I want to pray, first of all, for the return of Jesus and that He will come, that He will come soon because we know that the return of Jesus will be Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.

2 the only thing that makes all of the wrongs right. But in the meantime, I want to pray that we have the courage to do the right thing. The courage to speak up for those who cannot speak up for themselves. The courage to stand up in the face of injustice. The courage to say that we love people. I pray that our systems and our country can wake up, our systems and our country can treat everyone with respect and dignity. And ultimately I want to pray the words that Paul wrote in Galatians, chapter 5. He put it like this, For you are called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. Paul just described our week in Galatians, chapter 5 and my prayer for every single one of us is that through love we will serve one another. Will you pray with me? Father, we are sad and we are shaken. Some of us have lost our hope. Some of us have lost our confidence. Many of us, myself included, have waivered this week between being at loss for words but knowing that silence in the face of injustice is unacceptable. So I pray for new courage that You can put inside of our souls. A conviction that runs so deep that we cannot stand by, we can love one another, we can serve one another. I pray that You, this week, give us the courage and the humility to take an honest assessment of ourselves, our hearts, and our souls and if there is an ounce of racism that still exists inside of us that we will eradicate it. That we will aggressively attack that with the power of Your Spirit and cleanse that from our souls because we know that it is evil and it is not from You. Father, I pray for comfort for the parents who are raising children and they are scared. They are scared to send their sons, scared to send their daughters out because they don t know what is going to happen. I pray for those who are called to serve and protect, that they will do it with the same courage and boldness but also with compassion and mercy. Father, we pray this all because we know that only Your justice and only Your mercy will solve any of this. It is in Your name I pray. Amen. Thank you. Well today we re jumping into week three of our summer series called Crucial Conversations and over the month of July what we are doing is that we are taking snap- shots of the ministry of Jesus. And we see that Jesus talked to all kinds of different people I mean people from all kinds of backgrounds and religious experiences. In week number one we saw Jesus interact with a guy name Nathanael and Nathanael was a skeptic. Nathanael had questions about Jesus. He had good questions, he had honest questions. And what we see is that when Nathanael met Jesus, Jesus didn t dismiss him. He didn t chastise him for asking questions. In fact, He honored Nathanael and He answered the questions because Jesus wasn t afraid of Nathanael s questions and He s not afraid of ours either. In week two Matt introduced us to a guy named Nicodemus. And Nicodemus was the morally upright, all put together, Jewish scholar. He knew the answers. He had a PhD. He had the GPA. He had it all. And Jesus said that even in spite of all of that he needed to humbly begin again, be born again. Admit his dependence on Jesus. So last week Nicodemus was the morally, upright, all together one well today we re going to see Jesus interact with someone who was the complete opposite, who existed on the opposite side of the whole spectrum. This person did not meet the social norms, and niceties that we might expect. In fact, we might expect Jesus to hang Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 2

3 out with the religious people, but today who He s going to talk to, it might be a little surprising. And if you walked in here today with any pre- existing notion of who Jesus is for and more importantly who He is not for, if you had any ideas about who the kingdom of God is for and who it is not for then today you just need to be prepared that your pre- conceived notions will be demolished in John, chapter 4, alright? If you have a Bible or a Bible app, I d love for you to join me in the 4th chapter of John. That s where we re going to be hanging out. You can get a head start and head that way. What we re going to see is that Jesus is going to interact with one of those people. You know who those people are. Those people, all of us have them, all of us no matter who we are we have those people. They are a group of people to whom you do not belong but you assume that you know a lot about. Maybe you don t even know one person who belongs to that category, it s not you but you know what they think, and you know what they value, and you know what they love, and you know why they are the way that they are those people, okay? So maybe you are from Indiana and you talk about those people from Kentucky, alright? I m from Kentucky and you re sitting there and you re from Indiana and you are like, I would never. You do, alright? You do on a regular basis. You say, Those people from Kentucky marry their cousins. And those people from Kentucky they don t have all of their teeth, and they don t wear shoes. Well I m here to tell you that I did not marry my cousin, and I have all of my teeth, and I m not only wearing one, but I m wearing two, shoes. So shut- up. You hurt my feelings. Now beyond any kind of state identity groupings we talk maybe a little more real, we talk about those people with nice cars. I know about those people. And those people who work out all of the time. And those people who go to that church. Or we talk about those people from the west coast, those people from down south, those people who live in the Middle East, I know about those people. I m not those people. I don t know any of those people but I know about those people. And if anything, in our season in our country right now there are those people in the republican party and those people in the democratic party and then those people who just like to party that s my political affiliation. That s where I want to live. With those people who like to party. We say those people and those people are groups to which I do not belong; I ve never actually experienced that. I don t even know them individually but I know a lot about them and I fill in the blanks about them, and I paint with broad strokes, and I assume that because you belong to that group that you must be like this, and you must love this, and you must like this, you must interact with people like this. And maybe we would even get so bold as to suggest that this is what you believe about God. In John, chapter 4 what we re going to see is Jesus interacts with one of those people. And if you have ever been labeled as one of those people then you need to know that this message is for you. And if you ve ever felt like you re on the outside looking in, then this is for you. And if you ve ever been labeled the outcast, even from a church setting, then this is for you. John, chapter 4. We re going to begin in verse 3. Watch what John does. He kind of brings us back into the story. He says, He, talking about Jesus, left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And this is really important, And He had to pass through Samaria. He had to pass through Samaria. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 3

4 So John has given us an update on the travel log of Jesus and Jesus is traveling from Judea to Galilee. In between those two places is a place called Samaria. And John says that Jesus had to go through Samaria. But what we know is that, technically speaking, Jesus didn t have to go through Samaria. There was actually a different way. So why would John say it that way? Well he s pointing out to us that Jesus was making a point. See, through a series of historical events, the Jewish people had come to despise the Samaritans. In fact, the Samaritan people, as a people group, began as Jewish people who intermarried with people from pagan backgrounds. And because of those relationships, they introduced new religious norms and customs. They introduced new cultural customs. So they became their own people group, the Samaritans. And the Samaritans decided that they didn t need the temple in Jerusalem, they created their own temple in Samaria. And they said, Hey, Jewish people we know that you have your Scripture, but we re going to pick and choose which parts we accept. So the Samaritans only accepted the first 5 books of the Old Testament, and they rejected the prophets and the Psalms. So the Jewish people looked at the Samaritans and saw this version of who they were, a version of their culture, a version of their faith but it was corrupted, it was mutilated and they despised them, they hated them. So much so that, if a Jewish person was making the same trip that Jesus was making, there were some who would actually go way out of their way to avoid Samaria. They would go the long way. And I m not talking about some slight detour, this isn t the scenic route. They had to cross the Jordan river just to avoid going through Samaria. That s a next level of hatred when you cross a river, Oregon trail style, just to avoid people. That s some business. You ve got to work through that. But that s what it was. They hated them. So if John wasn t speaking logistically, like Jesus didn t have to go through Samaria because other people didn t. He could have taken the same route that other people did, why did John say it like that? Well this wasn t a logistical problem that Jesus had. In fact, Jesus had to go through Samaria because He had a divine appointment with one of those people and that appointment, that crucial conversation, was going to blow the roof off of His mission. Watch what happens next in verses 6 through 9. John says, Jacob s well was there, so Jesus, wearied as He was from His journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give me a drink. (For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to Him, How is it that You, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) So here s what s happening. Jesus moseys on up to this well and it says that it s about the sixth hour. And in Jewish timekeeping they began their day at what we call six a.m. So what s happening right here is that it is high noon. The sun is at its highest, it s the hottest part of the day. Jesus has been travelling and He s tired and He s thirsty, and He s hot. And He sits by this well waiting for someone to come draw water so that He can have a drink. In comes our friend the Samaritan woman. Now what s happening is that in this day there was yet to be indoor plumbing, there was no running water and so if you lived in town you depended upon a well that was on the outskirts of the city. Now in most households a woman would rise early, before the sun got too hot, and she, with her counterparts, would go to the well and draw water for their washing, and bathing, and drinking for the day. And most of them would go together because it was not only a household chore, but it was also a social gathering. This is what the ladies did together. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 4

5 But here comes this woman at noon by herself. And what we re going to find in the next few verses is why she s all alone. But before we do she s just shocked that Jesus would talk to her. This was crazy because He was a man, and she s not His wife. And He s Jewish and she s a Samaritan. And for multiple reasons this would have been an incredibly taboo thing. This would have kind of been scandalous in Jesus day. But if you spend enough time with Jesus reading His word, then you re going to find that social norms and presuppositions are not the guiding force in Jesus life. Jesus was on a mission that exceeded any man- made racial, gender, or socio- economic boundaries. Jesus had a divine appointment with this woman, at this well, on this day. So watch what happens how He responds to her question. She looks at Him and is like, Why are you talking to me? And in verse 10 here s what He says, 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. The woman said to Him, Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Skip to verse 13, Jesus said to her, 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. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. 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. All right, if you hang with us in this series and if you spend enough time with Jesus you re going to notice that He has this weird habit. People ask Him questions and He never directly answers them at all. She comes to Him and she s like, Why are You talking to me? And then He goes on about this thing called living water. He says, Ma am, you are here at this well to draw water that will last you the entirety of one day and then you re going to be back. In fact, this water will only quench your thirst for a day. You and I know this. If we drink a bottle of water, eventually we ll be thirsty again. And Jesus is making even a bigger point. He s saying, Ma am, your life revolves around providing temporary solutions to temporary problems. And for many of us that is exactly where we live on a day to day basis we are providing temporary solutions to temporary problems. We re living one day at a time. And Jesus says, I ve got a better offer for you. There is living water, which is an eternal solution to an eternal problem. He says, If you knew who you were talking to you would ask Me for that. It s like a well that rises up in people and provides eternal life. And what Jesus is letting her in on is a truth that you and I know is true. You know it because you re smart. I know it because I m smart. We all know this. We can mentally agree to the fact that very few of us have actually built our lives as if it is not true. And it s this. Our accomplishments are just okay. Our accomplishments are just okay. The things that you and I can do in our own power and with our own intellect and resources they are entirely okay. And they always promise that they will fulfill. And they always promise that they will quench our thirst. And they will promise eternal satisfaction but then we get into them and we realize that they are just okay. So when I was younger, I was 13. I was a student and there was one thing that I was convinced would satisfy me, alright? It would make everything alright with the world. I thought that if I could have this thing that everything would be good. If you can imagine a 13- year- old boy what would you imagine was the thing that he would want? A girlfriend, alright? That s really what I thought it would be. All the guys date girlfriends, and I didn t have a girlfriend. When I got a girlfriend everything would be okay. Then I got a girlfriend and it was just okay, alright? I mean she was fine. She was fine. She smelled like bar soap. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 5

6 That s all I remember. That s it. It was just okay. It didn t solve anything. It didn t fix anything. And then later in my life I was convinced, Alright, I graduate high school. I graduate college. I get that diploma and it will validate me. It will tell me that I accomplished something. And I wore that goofy hat and that goofy gown and I held that piece of paper and it was entirely okay. And then later in my life I thought, Man, when I get my first raise if I could just get a little more money, that next raise, that next mark will be the thing that will finally satisfy me. And then I got my first raise. And that first time when I saw that new deposit in my account I thought, Oh yeah. That s as cool as I get. I was like, Oh yeah. Maybe I ll do a little dance. That s about it. That s all I ve got. And then two weeks later when the exact same amount of money was deposited into that same exact account, I thought Oh yeah, this is what I get paid. That was just it. What used to be extraordinary has now become ordinary, like this is what it is. It didn t satisfy anything, it didn t fix anything. It was just okay. And I have a feeling that many of us in this room have something next that we are aiming at. Something that someday will satisfy us. We think that next purchase, and that next accomplishment, and that next goal achieved will finally be the thing that puts us at rest. Finally we will be content. It s that next car, that next house, it s that next vacation, it s that next promotion, it s that next spouse whatever it is, it s that thing that will finally, once and for all, end it for us. And Jesus is looking at her at the well and He s looking at you and me and He s saying, No, no. The well only provides water for a day and our accomplishments they are just okay. Only Jesus can provide the living water that will satisfy us for eternity and He s giving it. He s giving it freely. But you and I turn it down so, so often. So Jesus illuminates the truth and she s not quite understanding, right? This woman, if you look at her response, she s still talking about H2O. She s like, Alright, Jesus. That s sounds great. I want that water. Where do I get it? And we have to look at the last part of her response because it illuminates the person who Jesus is talking to and it lets us in, gives us kind of a window into her pain. Look at the words she says. She says, Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. She doesn t want to come to the well any more. She doesn t want to come in the scorching heat. She doesn t want to be by herself any more. She doesn t want to be the source of gossip any more. And she doesn t want to come to the place that reminds her about what she s done any more. She s lonely. She doesn t want to have to do this. And maybe you know what that feels like. Maybe that sounds all too familiar to you. Maybe you know what it s like to be on the outside looking in. And maybe because of a decision that you made, something that you said, you ended up on the outside of a group that you used to belong to and the isolation is terrible. And the silence deafening. And the lack of community is completely debilitating. You don t want to go to that well either. You know exactly what that is like. That s who Jesus is talking to. Someone who is in real, real pain. And in verses 16 through 18 we find out how she ended up here. It says, Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband, and come here. The woman answered him, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You are right in saying, I have no husband; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 6

7 So here we have the bombshell. Jesus reveals to her that He knows. He knows the thing that she was hoping that He didn t know. He knows the thing that she has been trying to cover up. Jesus just gently lays out for her that He knows who she is just like He knows who you and I are. Now, it s so important for us to understand this. If we miss this it will be such a loss. We have to notice the tone in which Jesus laid that out for her. All He told her was that He knew. There was no follow- up statement of condemnation, there was no judgmental tone. All He said is, I know who you are. He laid her bare right there at the well. Now you and I have to ask this question. What would motivate someone to get there? How does someone end up with that life? How can someone do five marriages and then try again with a sixth? When do you throw in the towel and when do you give up, like why would she choose that life? That s often how we think about people. How does someone choose that life? What I d like to propose to you is that you and I actually have a lot more in common with this woman than we would like to think. That you and I have actually lived a life to where we make the same kind of decisions that she made. And they are decisions that look like this. We want the things of God but we reject the person of God. We want the things that only God can provide but we don t want to deal with God so we try to make it happen on our own. And that s how you end up at the well by yourself. See you and I want purpose. We want to achieve something. We want to know that our lives matter. We don t want to wake up every morning and be unsure as to whether any of this matters for anything. But purpose is something that only God can provide. God is the only provider of purpose in the world. He s the only one who can give it. But you and I don t want to deal with Him so we try to make it on our own. That s why we work 60 plus hours a week. It s why we obsess over our jobs. It s why we miss ball games and recitals. It s why, when we daydream, our minds go to the office. It s because we re trying to manufacture a purpose. We want to accomplish something so we try to do it on our own even though it s something only God can give. You and I want intimacy. We may not use that word but we want to be known, and we want to love someone, and we truly want to be vulnerable and to be able to trust someone. But we don t want to do it God s way because we ve been convinced that it s long and boring and so we try to do it ourselves. And that s why we end up in flirtatious relationships with married co- workers. That s why we return to the same pornography website night after night. It s because we re buying into this cheap, generic imitation version of the intimacy that only God can provide. We re trying to make it happen on our own. We want things that only God can provide but we want to get them while we re calling the shots. That s what this woman did. She didn t wake up one day and say, Hey, I want five failed marriages. Or, Hey, one day I want to be the one who comes to the well at noon. No, she was just trying to get the things that God provides: true love, and true comfort, and true security. She was trying to make it happen on her own just like you and I do on a regular basis. So they re at the well and it s noon and Jesus lays out for her the things that she was hoping He didn t know and then I love what happens in verse 19 through 20. I love what she does next because she does exactly what you and I would do. Look at what she says, Sir, I perceive You are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 7

8 mountain, but You say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. This is so fantastic. She is so great. She basically says, Alright. Things are getting weird. You re all up in my business right now. Squirrel! That s really what she does. She s like, Hey, can we just not talk about that thing that You brought up? I m going to bring up this thing that I want you to talk about now. She s hoping to debate this Rabbi into a lecture about the finer point of minutia in theology so that someday they don t have to deal with her stuff. And if you and I were being really honest again I know that we are not so we re just going to have to pretend that we re honest people and we re just going to say, Pretend, just pretend to be honest, and say, You know what? There is a possibility that you and I have done the same thing. And sometimes it s easier to talk about the ideas of God than to really get to know God. I can know about Him, but not really know Him. And sometimes it s easier to talk with people about the stuff that is kind of trivial and not really allow people into my life who can really see how I am on the inside. We are her. I love the way that Jesus responds. He knows what she is doing. And He could have called her out. He could have dismissed the whole thing. But He didn t. He was very patient and very loving. And He says, Yeah, I ll go with you on this question. He s like, Look the debate is that there is a temple in Samaria and there is a temple in Jerusalem, which one s right? Well the Jewish people, because they didn t pick and choose which part of God s word that they wanted to believe, they worship in spirit and in truth. In four sentences He just like drops the mic and totally demolishes the whole argument. And she s left in awe. Look at the words she uses now. She just called Him a prophet. Look what she says now: The woman said to Him, I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ). When He comes He will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am He. This is amazing! Now 2,000 years later it s hard for us to fully grasp the gravity of that moment because we live in a different time and we live in a different culture. There are some of us who have grown up for our entire lives knowing that Jesus is the Christ. But this revelation right here would have been ground breaking. For the very first time in the Gospel of John, Jesus point blank looks at someone and reveals His Savior status and He does this to her. One of those people. One of the least likely people who we would ever have picked. If you and I were writing this story we would have written it totally differently. I would have had Jesus reveal His Messianic nature on a CNN special broadcast all over the world. The bottom trailer would have said, Jesus is Lord? That s what it would have looked like on CNN. That s the way I would have done it. Or He would have told someone really important like a king, or one of those religious people like Nicodemus. And Jesus says, No, I m telling her. I m telling her, because Jesus is unequivocally, unequivocally declaring that our man- made, social constructs are irrelevant in the kingdom of God. The walls we built, the categories we created, the stereotypes that we perpetuated have no bearing on Jesus. Jesus is for everyone. The gospel is for everyone. Grace is for everyone. This woman s gender, race, and reputation did not discourage Jesus and therefore nothing in your life will discourage Him either. This is good news. This is really, really good news. See here s the truth. Man, I don t know if this has clicked for you yet. Maybe this sounds foreign. Maybe this sounds a little crazy. But this is true: God is pursuing you. God is pursuing you. If you have yet to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you just need to know that God is chasing after you. You may not believe me. It may not feel like that. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 8

9 I guarantee you that that Samaritan woman didn t wake up that morning when all of her peers were at the well, maybe talking about her, and think, You know what? Today is probably the day when I meet God in the flesh. I m going to show up to the well and He s going to be there and we re going to have this nice conversation. No, it sounds like she had kind of given up. It sounds like she had kind of thrown in the towel when it came to God. Maybe she assumed that her baggage and her story disqualified her. And Jesus was waiting for her. He was at the well for her. He didn t have to go through Samaria logistically. He had to go to Samaria for her. And I am pleading with you right now to consider the fact, consider the idea let me propose to you that God is chasing hard after you. That no one is beyond the grip of grace. I love her response and this is so important. She has this encounter with Jesus at a well, He tells her everything that she s ever done and then He reveals His Messianic nature for the very first time to her, at a well, in Samaria, at noon. And look what she does with it in verse 28. It says, So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? Jump down to verse 39. It says, Many Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman s testimony, He told me all that I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them, and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His word. They said to the woman, It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know what this is indeed the Savior of the world. Man, I absolutely love her response. It s so, so good. She easily could have said, Okay, no one else is around. I m apparently talking to the Messiah. This is a very nice interaction that I m having. I will make a personal, private commitment to Him and it s no one else s business, alright? It s just going to stay between me and Him. She didn t do that. She was so overwhelmed by the grace that she received that she split. She took off back to town. Forgot her water jar. Forgot the thing that she had come for in the first place and she used these three simple words: Come and see. Come and see. And if you ve been tracking with us for the last couple of weeks you ve heard this already. But the simplest way to engage anyone in a conversation about Jesus is by using these words: come and see. If you ve been wondering how to engage someone whom you love, someone you know with the life- changing truth of Jesus Christ, it s these words: come and see. I love her model. Follow after her. She said, Come and see the Guy who told me everything that I ve ever done. She said, Come and see the Guy who did something with my mess. And I m not talking about you anymore. I m not talking about her anymore. I m talking about me. God did some amazing stuff with my mess. I have a mess in my past and I m still messy and I am in process right now. And I m just asking you to come and see. Come and see. See, she didn t have all of the answers. She d just met Jesus minutes ago. She didn t have everything that Nicodemus had. She didn t have any answers. She had a question though. She said, Could this be the Christ? Will you come and see for yourself? And I believe that if we say, Come and see, Jesus can take care of the rest. See when the Samaritans went out there they were there because of her because of her? Seriously, because of her? That one? She was the one Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 9

10 who He talked to. That s amazing. They get out there, they meet Jesus for themselves, and they go from belief because of her to belief because of Him. When you get people in front of Jesus they are never the same. This is an amazing story of redemption that grace is big enough for anyone s baggage. Grace is for everyone no matter what social walls exist. Grace is for us all. Now it s possible that you hear this story and you resonate so clearly with her and her story sounds a lot like yours and you used to be a part of something maybe even the church and then because of some decisions you made you found yourself on the outside. You were the outcast. Maybe you still are. And the isolation and the loneliness are killing you. And maybe it went so far that, much like her, your sin had become your identity. The reason she avoided the well was because of the scarlet A on her chest and she couldn t bare the shame. Maybe you don t know if you can go home anymore because you don t know how you will be received. Or, you don t know if you can reach out to those friends anymore because you believe that the bridge is burnt. And what happens is that, when you are by yourself and you go to that really dark place, you convince yourself that because those people are not there for you anymore, then maybe God isn t either. And can I just plead with you from the bottom of my heart that Jesus is for you. Not only will He receive you but He s been chasing after you whether you have felt it or not. He started that conversation with her when He could have talked with anyone else. He revealed Himself to her right then, at noon, when He could have said it to anyone else in the world. He chose her. He was chasing after her and He s chasing after you. Let this be good news today. He s inviting you into His saving grace right now. Now there may have been some of you who might have been waiting to come to Jesus until you got your act together so that you looked the part, so that you ve gotten your answers. Can I just point you to this lady? She didn t look the part. She didn t have her act together. She didn t have any of the answers and Jesus met her right where she was. And she was never the same. If you ve been waiting because you ve convinced yourself that grace is not big enough for your baggage, maybe grace is big enough for 99.9 percent of people, but you re the point one because there s no way that Jesus could forgive you of the thing that you ve done, the words that you ve said, the relationships you broke can I just, once and for all, tell you that the cross is enough. Jesus is enough. Jesus is more than enough. So here s what we are going to do. Right now, in moments like these, we know that there is sometimes something welling up in you and you re not really sure what that is. You don t know if that s like living water. You don t know if that s like the burrito from last night. You re just trying to figure this all out. You don t know why you are feeling the way that you are, right? Let me just say this. There s going to be a song and there s going to be communion you re going to have these opportunities to talk yourself out of responding. Then you re going to leave, and you re going to get into your car, and you re going to talk yourself out of it. And then you re going to come back here next week and you didn t do anything about it and life isn t different. We re going to give you the chance to respond right now because we don t believe that Jesus wants you to drag you re feet. We don t believe that Jesus is waiting for another day. We believe that Jesus has met you right here, right now and He s chasing after you, and He s been waiting for you, and He wants to give you the living water. So we re going to sing a song and there s going to be staff, and elders, and volunteers on the sides of the room. We just want to give you the opportunity to go now, to move now, to respond right now. Whatever God is doing Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 10

11 in your life. Whatever He s unearthing you can talk with someone and pray with someone. And I promise you that they will receive you with the same grace that Jesus received that woman at that well on that day in Samaria. Let me pray for you. Father, we are so grateful for Your word, the clarity of Your word, the conviction of Your word and the hope that is found only in Your word. Father, for those of us who are on the edge of a decision, the edge of a conversation, we ask that You would push us. That You would give us the courage to take that step. Give us the courage to stay vulnerable, the courage to open ourselves up and let You do what only You can do. Father, we lay this all at Your feet. It s in Your good name I pray. Amen. Alright, would you stand right now as we sing? There will be people who would love to pray with you on the sides. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 11