Template Oct 22, 2006 Messy Spirituality Series 4
Felt Need: I believe God forgives, but I am not sure He forgives me, am I too much of a loser for God?
Hoped for Result: Listeners will understand and believe in their hearts that God Forgives our past and He loves and accepts, us in the process.
Message: Just add water
Scripture: John 4:1-26 NIV John’s Gospel DVD
Synopsis:
1. Jesus see beyond our sins, our weaknesses and failures.
A. What does Jesus see in the Woman at the well?
1. Jesus respects her
2. Jesus turns her from loser to winner.
Ill. Vincent’s story about grace graciously given in the messiest of circumstances.
B Many of us are still trying to repent in a good enough way that we can feel worthy of God’s love and forgiveness.
1. Are guilty of creating our own divine punishment?
2. Are we guilty of trying to earn our way into the kingdom?
C. What are the benefits of the changed life?
1. “After Jesus conversation with Jesus, the woman at the well is just beginning a whole new way of living, but none of the facts of her life have changed”.
2. The good news for us is that if this was true for the woman at the well, it is also all the more true for us. “ The implications for us are overwhelming. Those of us who want to move on from our past, those who have come to the end of the road, can start with our unchanged life, now. We don’t have to wait until we are “mature”.We don’t have to move to a new town or convince others we are serious; we simply start. We begin. We take the first bumbling, stumbling, teetering steps toward the spiritual life, even if we’re not very good at it.”
Metaphor: We built a wall out of paper grocery bags and wrote words and phrases that we use to keep God at a distance. We had water bottles hidden behind that had lable that said "For Messy Christians, free refills" We invited people to keep or give them away.
Music:
Graphic Image:
Just Add Water John 4:1-26
1. Jesus see beyond our sins, our weaknesses and failures.
A. What does Jesus see in the Woman at the well?
Let’s look at this most amazing story in to get a good sense of what is going on here. This is a remarkable story because it comes under the up side down kingdom concept.
Verse 9 is the first clue that there is something different going on. How does the Samaritan woman respond to Jesus request for a drink of water?
The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘You are a Jew an I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans)
This goes back hundreds of years. When the Jews were exiled by their captors. Some of the Jews married outside their faith. This made them half breeds. There was to be no interaction with them, they were unclean, they fell into the same category as pigs which were considered unclean. Rabbi’s were not supposed to talk to women especially alone. These facts alone make the whole story amazing, because Jesus was certainly aware of the cultural taboos of the day.
Jesus respects her, he ignores her question about appropriate behavior and goes to the next level. “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
The woman is ready to go forward in this affirmation relationship that Jesus offers, and then begins to think besides being thirsty who is this man, that accepts me as a Samaritan, as a woman?
Jesus offers the water of the spirit that is beyond the physical. She hears him, but immediately thinks this would be a great deal, then I wouldn’t have to keep coming down to the well in the hottest part of the day alone.
Jesus then goes to her heart and invites her to bring her husband. She says “I have no husband”
Now it really get messy! Jesus tells her what she already knows that she had 5 husbands and she is living with someone.
The woman is sure Jesus is some kind of prophet that he would know these secret details about her life.
The woman changes the subject from herself to places of worship.
Jesus describes a God this isn’t just in the mountains or the synagogue. He describes a God that is of Spirit and truth, that goes beyond the physical places of mountains or synogues. “God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
The woman likes this kind of talk and goes to the anticipated Messiah.
Jesus says” I who speak to you am he”
Let’s back up a moment to why this is amazing. Jesus said she had been divorced 5 times and was living with someone. In these times a divorce only could be initiated by the husband and it had to be that the wife was not fulfilling her responsibilities. It would be shouted to the world in a public place for all to hear. This process happened 5 times. How humiliating, how shameful, is it no wonder she came to the well alone. It has also been surmised that the one she was living with was so she wouldn’t starve to death.
Knowing all that doesn’t it sound amazing that Jesus would talk to this loser in life?
Jesus mission was about transforming losers to winners in life. The woman who is not asked to change anything is transformed and runs back into town to tell anyone who would listen about this man Jesus. She was a new person from that day forward. “Jesus goes straight to her longings, finds them, and in the process finds her.
Let me share with you Vincent’s story about grace graciously given in the messiest of circumstances from Michael Yaconelli’s book Messy Spirituality.
In a book by New Zealand author Mike Riddell, Vincent has met and fallen in love with a young girl named Marilyn. Neither one of them is seeking a relationship, but a relationship is seeking them. Swept up by their emotions, the two become deeply involved. Marilyn a prostitute, is not prepared to fall in love and is certainly not prepared for the honesty love requires. She must tell Vincent who she it, knowing full well that here painful disclosure will probably mean the end of their relationship.
“Vincent?”
“Mmmmm.”
“There’s ah .....There’s something we need to talk about.”
“Only if you want to. I’m happy just to sit here and look at you. Sorry, this looks like something serious.” Looks a lot like the intro to the Dear John speech, truth be told.”
“Its about me and what I do.”
“Yeah, wondered when you were going to pluck up the courage to talk about it. Don’t tell me, you work for the CIA, right?” Sorry. sorry, I’ll shut up.”
She is totally absorbed in the remains of her salad, scrutinizing it for something. Anything to avoid his eyes.
“There’s no easy way of saying this. I’m a prostitute. I sleep with men for my living. It’s a business. I’m very professional.
Time and silence have this thing they do together. The make a chasm that has no bottom to it. And there you are, standing right on the edge of it. Aware that at any moment you may be falling and falling , with no hope of recovery. At the moment they are at either side of it, each consumed by their private terror. She looks up at last from here salad. Vincent is crying. The tears are streaming down his cheeks, and he is biting his lip to stop himself sobbing. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to deceive you. I’m sorry, Vincent. I’m sorry.”
He can’t speak. He wants to, but nothing is working. He is looking at her, at her beautiful face, at her eyes, at the slight hardness around her mouth. And weeping and weeping. She reaches a hand across to hold his. She is beyond tears, empty and bleak and barren. Vincent is mumbling something but is incoherent through the pain. And then he begins to repeat it again and again.
“I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.....”
This is the worst thing she has ever heard in her life. She wants to scream, to break something, to tip over the table in rage. Instead some continental shelf rips loose within her. She begins gulping and moaning, a terrible agonizing cry from another place. And the tears are flowing. They grip each other’s hands, and lean their foreheads together. The tears are flowing into the abyss, and there is no end to them.
Marilyn expected Vincent to reject her, to pull away from her, to have nothing to do with her. In a strange and touching way Vincent did what Jesus would do; he looked beneath the expected criticism; what she received was understanding. Instead of hearing words of condemnation Marilyn heard over and over again , “I love you”.
B Many of us are still trying to repent in a good enough way that we can feel worthy of God’s love and forgiveness.
Many of us are still feeling so unworthy of the love that has been offered to each of us. It sounds too good to be true. I is like all these bricks behind me. We have build walls between us and Jesus who offers us the greatest gift of all, His love and His Forgiveness, in other words His Grace.
I have to ask each of you Are guilty of creating our own divine punishment? Are you guilty of trying to earn our way into the kingdom? Have you put up wall, hurdles, hoops between you and God? Too often we play mind games with God to think we are out of his circle of persons He would care about ?
Think about what If God had a cell phone, would our name be in His favorites list? It’s a heck of a phone, with unlimited minutes, reception is excellent, where ever we find ourselves, with our names and numbers in his personal directory.
Think about the woman at the well again for a moment. Do you catch some of the amazing things about this story. Jesus didn’t require her to do one thing different, as a result of the meeting.
She ran back to town and announced come meet the man that knew everything about myself, I am not the same person you knew before, I am free from my past........
Jesus had taken someone from loser status to winner in God’s eyes.
If He could do it for her couldn’t he possibly do it for us....?
In Mike’s book he tells the story of Carl.
It was little league and Carl was at bat. It was the last inning, two outs the bases were loaded, and depending on how Carl did, it would decide the winner and the loser of the game...!
Carl came from a large family and they were there the mother and father, grand parents, aunts and uncles to cheer him on and the opposing crowd was there to jeer Carl. The stakes were high, the energy was reaching an amazing pitch as the pitcher threw the first pitch. Strike one, the crowd really got into it, both yelling support and ridicule.
Carl was going to be the hero or the loser with the second pitch, Strike two. The crow continued the noise as the third pitch came across the plate Carl swung a might swing and everyone saw the ball fly into the catchers mitt. Strike three your out. Not only was Carl out, the game was over and he was the cause of the loss.
The winning team went crazy, their families swarmed out onto the field, everyone having their own kind of celebration. All except Carl’s team. As Carl’s team walked quietly off the field. dejected, they mingled with their families and headed back to their cars in silence.
Carl was still standing at the plate, devastated, alone his head down in disgrace.
Then it happened Someone yelled “Come on Carl, pick up the bat. Grandpa’s pitching.”
Bewildered Car; slowly picked up the bat and swung at Grandpa’s first pitch. He missed, and he missed the next six pitches. On the seventh pitch he got hold of the ball and sent it into left field. His aunt ran, picked up the ball and threw it to first base with plenty of time for the out. The first baseman Mom, must have lost the ball in the sun because it went right through her hands into the dugout. “Run” everyone yelled. As Carl was running to second, the first baseman recovered the ball and threw it. Amazingly Uncle David was blinded by the sun as well. “Keep running!”, yelled someone and Carl headed for third, where the throw went at least two feet over the head of the third baseman. “Keep running, Carl” and Carl raced for home, running as hard as he had ever run. The ball was thrown with deadly accuracy as the catcher, blocking home plate, waited to tag him out, but just as Carl reached home plate, the ball bounced in and out of the catcher’s mitt, and Carl was Safe.”
Before he knew what was happening, Carl found himself being carried around on Uncle David’s shoulders while the rest of the family crowded around cheering Carl’s name.
One person watching this whole thing said “I watched a little boy fall victim to a conspiracy of grace.”
Carl was the loser, the one who struck out, failed his team, disappointed his family went from loser to hero. Carl, who would have been left with the awful memory of his failure, was instead given a memory of grace, love, and acceptance. Just like the woman at the well.
C. What are the benefits of the changed life?
1. “After Jesus conversation with Jesus, the woman at the well is just beginning a whole new way of living, but none of the facts of her life have changed”.
2. The good news for us is that if this was true for the woman at the well, it is also all the more true for us. “ The implications for us are overwhelming. Those of us who want to move on from our past, those who have come to the end of the road, can start with our unchanged life, now.
We don’t have to wait until we are “mature”.We don’t have to move to a new town or convince others we are serious; we simply start. We begin. We take the first bumbling, stumbling, teetering steps toward the spiritual life, even if we’re not very good at it.”
You see this wall with all this graffiti on it. It looks pretty awesome, maybe overwhelming, but it is all in our minds. God didn’t build the wall we did, in our mind....
We can tear it down just as easily as we built it up... Lets check it out. Oh what’s this? I see we have water on the other side just waiting for us, a free gift, no strings attached, o I see it is living water, the kind from which we will never thirst. During our last hymn/song I invite you to come and get some of this water it is a free gift from God.....
