Satisfaction | Week 1

I wasn't serious, but they actually put a toilet up here mostly in case I get too nervous. But no. I'm just kidding. Hopefully, some point, the toilet will make sense. Try your best to just ignore the toilet until we get to that point. If you're like, dude, who is this person that is up here? Well, my name is Daniel, and I'm our young adults pastor. And I just moved out here from San Diego, and this is my very first time getting to get up here and embarrass myself in front of you guys. So you are welcome. The good news is is if you hate it, I will be be here next week, and so we'll get to continue

the awesomeness together. So, man, I I all joking aside, I hope you guys are good. I hope you are are ready to have some fun. And and here's here's my big idea, and here's what we're gonna talk about tonight that I believe that God is in pursuit of every single one of you. I believe that God is for you. He's not against us. He's good. He has good things planned for us. And if you walk out of here with nothing more but your head held high knowing that God is for you, it doesn't matter what you've done, that God is a God that is going to redeem and restore all of us, that, man, I've accomplished my goal, and that's everything that I'm hoping to do. Amen?

Before we started because I know most of you don't know me. So if you don't know me, you definitely don't know my family. So I got a picture that I wanted to show you of my wife and my kids. So that's my wife, Ashley. That's my daughter, McKenna, and my son, Braden.

McKenna is, like, the sweetest thing in the world. Braden's hit that awesome period at, like, five years old where you're not convinced that even though he says he's a Christian, if he really is, because the Bible tells us we'll know them by their fruit, so we're still waiting to see with him. But the the biggest reason that I wanted to show you that picture is to tell you like an inside secret. I met my wife at church. We don't do this at Rock Point, but at church I came from, we used to do like the stand up, say hi to somebody in church. That's when we made eye contact, and there's this little known secret if you're a single dude in here that I just need to let you in on. Church is the greatest place to try to meet a girl because in church, there's always, the better looking girls that are willing to date the doofier looking guys because they go for, like, spirituality,

not just, like, the exterior things. It's awesome. And if you ever walk around church and you see that couple and you're like, how did that dude get that girl?

That's how. That's that's how it happened. And now, immediately, all of you are running through couples in your head, and you're like, now it finally makes sense. Because I was like, he must be rich, but I saw the car he drove. And so it's it's a spirituality thing. If you're in church, like, you can be a normal dude, but the girls rank spirituality a lot higher until you get a chance that normal dudes can get hot wives in church. Hello. K?

That's that one's free. I won't even charge you for that one. Here's the biggest thing that I wanted to say upfront before we begin. I don't know how long you've been at Rock Point. I've been here officially for three months, and I've been around church for a long time.

Be even And being here right now on this stage is such a surreal moment because I it it was such a god thing to coordinate all of the details of how I ended up here. I was actually in the process of applying and accepting a job at another church. They'd sent me to a website to finalize the process with them. Well, the posting for this church was right underneath that church, and so I was like, I might as well apply to both. Why not? Sent both, assuming I would never hear back, and I ended up not taking the other job and taking this church and taking the position here. And and I just wanted to tell all of you guys that we literally

have the greatest church staff in the world. That I I I don't say that. You can give them a huge round of applause. I don't say that because they're gonna give me a bonus, but I slightly am hoping that I do get a bonus because I said that.

But truthfully, like, I want you guys to know, man, from from the top down, our leadership team here is absolutely unbelievable. I have never been a part of such a healthy organization,

and I I think that we have not just one of the best communicators that I've ever seen in pastor Bill, but also just one of the greatest people I've ever been around. Him and his wife, Carrie, are the real deal. We love them immensely. We believe that there are going to be incredible things that God's gonna continue to do through them. And so if there's any part of your heart that's like, man, I wanna find a better church or I wanna find a better this, you won't find it. I'm telling you that this place is the real deal. Our leadership team is the real deal, and me and my family are just so beyond honored to be here. And so I just wanted to start and say I know that I'm standing on on shoulders of people that have gone before me, and it's a privilege and an honor to get to do that with you guys this evening. Amen?

Hey. If you have a bible, would you open up to John chapter four? We're gonna spend the next two weeks talking about this thing that I think a lot of us are searching for in life, whether we we verbalize it this way or not. I think a lot of what we do through life is searching for this elusive thing called satisfaction.

Right? There's all kinds of songs that have been written about it, how we still can't find it, how there's this thing called satisfaction

that seems to be right around the corner. There's this thing that we feel like happiness and joy will be just around the bend once we finally get that thing or once we finally do that or buy this. And the hard part is satisfaction

is a pretty elusive thing. And so I wanna spend the next two weeks talking about what I believe is God's plan for you and I to live a life of the most satisfaction.

I think that John chapter four has a story about this random woman that's at a well that is arguably the most important scripture in all of the Bible, that if we don't understand this portion of scripture, we don't really fully understand the context of who Jesus is. So John chapter four, if you were there, say amen.

Man, you guys are way better than the 03:30 service. I won't tell them that, though. John chapter four, we're gonna start reading in verse one. It says, now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining baptizing more disciples than John.

Although, in fact, it was not Jesus who baptized, but it was his disciples. So he left Judea, and he went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar near the plot of ground Jacob had given his son Joseph.

Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. Here's what's happening. K? In John chapter three, Jesus' life in public ministry is starting to take off. Right? He's starting to get a following. People are starting to realize there's something really to this guy. They're starting to realize that there's something about him that they don't really understand,

But he's doing a lot of stuff, and this really random, weird

rumor starts that he's baptizing a ton of people, and they don't like that. The religious leaders don't like that because they don't believe that Jesus is who he claims to be. And so Jesus is like, let's get out of town. I don't wanna be this guy. I don't want notoriety.

You'll notice throughout the New Testament, there are multiple moments where Jesus will do a crazy miracle and tell the people involved in the miracle, hey, don't tell anybody about what I just did, because he was never about trying to build his own kingdom. He was always just doing what he said he saw the father in heaven doing. It was a very normal act for him. It wasn't something to build his own kingdom.

He takes his disciples on a journey, and they start walking, and they they head down to a path. And the Bible says that they had to go through Samaria. Well, if you look at where they were and where they were going, they definitely didn't have to go through Samaria because it was the fastest route to get there.

When the bible says that they had to go through Samaria, they had to go through Samaria because Jesus knew who would be in Samaria, not because this was the fastest, most logical path to take. You have to remember with everything that you read through scripture, everything that Jesus does, it's intentional,

it's on purpose, and there are other meanings behind what is always happening. Part of what we're going to see in this story is people thinking that Jesus is talking about natural, physical, external things,

but Jesus is not just addressing the physical. He's addressing the spiritual. He's addressing the deeper inner parts of who people are that nobody wants to address. Part of the transition you have to begin to have as you read scripture to really understand what Jesus and God throughout the story is saying

is it's not just about the exterior. Right? He's talking about the deeper parts of who we are. And here's what I'm talking about tonight. When I say satisfaction,

I'm not talking about the best way to find a job that satisfies you or how to find the right income where you're not making too much, where it's a burden, but you're not making so little that you don't have enough money. What I'm talking about is to find a satisfaction

at the soul level. That type of satisfaction when you lay down at night that you like who you are. You're content with your lot in life.

That you like who you are. And I believe that I'm going to put all my cards on the table. Here's where I'm going. I believe the only way that you and I will ever find satisfaction in this life is when we understand that we are created beings, and created beings have to understand who they are in context of the creator.

Your life will never make complete sense because you are a created being, and there is a creator who made us that has a plan and a purpose and a vision for our lives. But until we stop and we say, hey, creator, what is the plan for us, creation,

we just go around doing all of this stuff, trying to find satisfaction and wondering why we can never find it. And here's what I'm trying to tell you if you hear nothing else that I tell you. Your life will never make complete sense outside of understanding who you are in Christ. Amen?

Let's keep reading. It says, now going he had to go through Samaria, so he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar near the plot of ground Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. Underline that it was about noon.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, will you give me a drink? His disciples had gone into town to buy some Chick fil A. Verse nine. I love that people laugh at the corny Christian jokes. It's awesome. Because you know Chick fil A is Jesus' favorite food, not In N Out.

The Samaritan woman said to him, you are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.

Verse 10, Jesus answered her and said, 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 said, you have nothing to draw within the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank from it himself as did also his sons and his livestock?

Jesus answered him, everybody who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.

Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The woman said, sir, give me this water so I don't have to make this terrible walk up the San Tan Mountains again, and I won't get thirsty and have to keep drinking. He told her, go call your husband and come back.

And she said, I have no husband. And Jesus said, you're right when you say you have no husband. The fact is you've had five, and the guy that you're with now is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true. Sir, the woman said, I can see that you are some kind of prophet or something.

Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claimed that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem. Woman, Jesus replied, believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth. For they are the kind of worshipers the father seeks.

God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and truth. The woman said, I know that the Messiah called Christ is coming and when he comes, he will explain everything to us. Jesus declared, I, the one speaking to you, I am he.

Just then, his disciples returned and were surprised to find him with a woman, but nobody said, what do you want or why are you talking with her? Then leaving her water jar, underline leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah? They came out of the town and they made their way toward him.

Meanwhile, his disciples urged him, Rabbi, eat the Chick fil A. But he said to them, I have food to eat that you know nothing about. Then his disciples said to each other, did somebody bring him in and out? In Jesus' name, let's pray. Father,

god, we need you. Lord, we lean into you. Father, the only way that this becomes more than just a transfer of information

from an old textbook to people, God is for the Holy Spirit to do what it does. God, would you use one person to speak to a room full of people? God, would you use the the the powerful spirit that the Bible says is alive and active in us to hear your transformative truth?

God, would you convict us where we need to be convicted, encourage us where we need to be encouraged. God, give us ears that are open to hear the truth of who you are. Father, no matter where we are tonight in our walk with you, god, let us walk out of here a little bit closer to you. In Jesus' name, everybody said, amen and amen. Hey.

How many of you guys come from big family? When I say big family, I mean three siblings or more. K? Three siblings or more. Keep your hands up if you have four siblings or more, five siblings or more, six siblings or more, seven siblings or more. You guys know this is a Christian church, not a Mormon church. Right?

Eight eight siblings or more, nine siblings or more, ten, Eleven. 12. Sir, you're the winner. Give him a round of applause. That's incredible. Well, he has 12 siblings.

That's not what I'm talking about. That's a small football team. Okay? That's that's like you need a bus. Well, I I'm one of five siblings. K? So I grew up in a pretty big family. I've actually got a picture so you guys can get some context. This is our our our family back when we were kids. That's my good looking stud face right there. That's I had braces and a shaved head. When I was in junior high, everybody called me Sid from Toy Story. And I'm like, I totally don't even hurt toys. Like, this is doesn't even make sense, but that's what they called me because I look like Sid. But that's that's my family. I just wanted you guys to see them because we're better looking than most families, and I just wanted you guys to know that. No. I'm I'm kind of kidding.

I I grew up in a big family, man. Coming from a big family is awesome. Right? If you're from a big family, there are some amazing benefits. Like, you never get new clothes. You always get handed down sports equipment. Like, you never actually own anything. It's always like somebody

is getting it. Everything is borrowed. You learn to eat really quickly because food disappears.

Well, there's also I mean, all of those amazing benefits of being in a family. There's also some negative benefits of being in a big family. Right? I don't know if you guys know this. The three thirty service had never heard about us, so maybe I'll enlighten some of you. But our family had this thing called FHB.

Does anybody in here know what FHB is? Awesome. I'm gonna enlighten two services in a row. K. FHB was a thing that my mom, no joke, would do if we had family or people over to our house and there was some type of food being served. FHB

stood for family holdback, and we knew that when my mom would start going around and she would just go FHB, that we were all supposed

to report it to each other that FHB was officially on. And if you wanted seconds, you had to wait until everybody else got food because clearly our guests mattered more than us. There was hot dogs waiting for us after all the good food was eaten. My mom would go around and would say FHB, and we would know to wait.

There's all of that kind of funny stuff. I didn't realize too, my dad used to do some stuff when we were kids that I think now as a dad is absolutely brilliant. My dad would, like, go put ribs on the barbecue and then would come in and make macaroni cheese

and hot dogs and serve that to us. And then by the time that we were full, he would pull the ribs off the barbecue

and be like, oh, man. I'm so sorry you guys are full. Like, I didn't know. Like and then he would get to eat all of the ribs, and he would hide his stuff. And there there's just something about food that you didn't make. It just makes it taste better. Right? When your parents provide it or they they make it, you just get to eat it. Well, there was a time that my dad used to actually when we were kids, he would hide all of our sodas out in the garage because he knew that we would just devour through all of the sodas if he left them in the house. And so he would leave them out in the garage, and every now and then, we would sneak in there and we would drink the sodas. My little brother would sneak in there and eat the dog food, and we're like, bro, have at it, man. Have have absolutely as much dog food as you want. We'll stick with sodas. You're good.

There was there was one day that I remember when I was a kid, and I was playing outside, it was hot. Not like the desert, like the version of hell that I've closest to hell that I've been in, like a 120 degrees hot. San Diego hot. I'm from San Diego, so it's 85 outside, and we start melting. Okay?

So it's like 85 outside, and we're playing, and we're out there having a blast. I'm dying of thirst.

Have you ever been so thirsty that you just go to the fridge and you just grab something? Sometimes in the middle of the night, you're not even completely awake. You're just so thirsty. You just grab the first thing you can find. You start chugging it, you realize three gulps in that it's like grape jelly or something. That's the kind of thirsty that I'm talking about. K? I was dying of thirst. I go I'm like, I'm gonna just run-in the garage. I'm gonna grab a soda. I'm gonna chug it. I go in the garage, and there's a soda can on the workbench that my grandfather has been in the garage working on stuff. And I'm like, god loves me. He already has a soda ready for me. The pop like, the top is already off of it. Like, I'm good to go. This is called favor. And I go running in the garage, and I just find this soda, and I just start chugging

this soda. Some of you are covering your eyes because you know where I'm going with this. K? I got about three gulps in before I realized that my grandpa had been using that as an ashtray for the last couple days.

Yeah. I think the only thing that would have been worse is if it had been like a spit can or something from chewing tobacco. So I literally get three gulps in, and I'm, like, repulsing out cigarette butts and ash, and it was just the grossest thing that that I've ever experienced. And you're here like, dude, why are you telling us all of this? I promise I'm going somewhere with this.

The the thing that I want you to know, the reason that I tell you that story is obviously to make it lighthearted and to hopefully be able to laugh inside of church, because I believe that we can come to church and it doesn't have to always be so serious, we can have fun and be lighthearted because God is good and he loves us. But I also think that that story illustrates the truth and the reality of our lives.

That I think sometimes the things that we're thirsty for, sometimes the things that we think are going to provide something for us end up giving us a very different result than we thought that they would give us. And the reason that I know that that's true is because it's true of a woman two thousand years ago.

This was the original thirsty

girl. Right? We say all the time now, like, oh, she's thirsty. This was the reason that that that saying exists because this woman was thirsty. She was thirsty for things that were never going to satisfy her. There was things inside of her that she was trying to fill with things that were never meant to actually fill the void inside of her. That I again, just to tell you where I'm going, I believe that all of us operate with a part of our heart and a part of our soul that is just gaping and open, and most of us at some point in life will hit the crossroads where we go, is this

it? Is this really all that this is? I get up. I go to work. I get a good job. I get promotions. I get a wife. I get the 2.5 kids and the white picket fence, and that's that is it because it seems like that is not offering me. It's not actually giving me what I thought that it was going to give me.

And all of a sudden, life becomes really difficult when we hit that crossroads and we've worked really hard to get to the spot that's leaving us really unsatisfied. That I believe that picture is a perfect picture of the story of the woman at the well.

That I told you to underline the part where it said that it was about noon. The reason that that story matters, and usually when I'm in San Diego, I have to tell people that it's actually hot in different parts of the country and different parts of the world at noon, but you guys get it. Right? Nobody, if I told you you had to go out and climb the San Tan Mountains every single day to get your daily dose of water,

I imagine during July and August, you would not make that journey at noon. You would probably do it early in the morning or you would do it late at night. Why? Because it's logical, and we're logical and smart people. We go when it's cooler outside.

You wouldn't go at the heat of the day. You wouldn't go at the hottest time of the day unless you were doing it knowing that nobody else would be there, praying and hoping that nobody else would be there. You have to get the picture of this woman to understand the context of the story of John chapter four.

That this was a woman who had been completely dis qualified from society. She had been completely rejected. She had made decisions that had led her to a place where she believed she had no worth and she had no value. She had become

an outcast of society. And as the story goes on, we begin to realize it's because she's had five divorces, and now she's living with a guy that doesn't even want to marry her. And most of us are like, that just sounds like my neighbor next door, and I think I should sign her up for the bachelorette. Like, I don't know why that's so bad. Well, you've got to understand in this context, in this culture, divorce was like the worst of the worst. That if you got divorced,

your family literally would have disowned you. Society would have rejected you. There must have been something wrong with you for a guy to actually reject you. And so here stands this woman who not only has been divorced one, she's been divorced five times.

And now she's living with a guy who's not even her husband. And again, in our society, we're like, yeah, that's everybody. But in this culture, you don't do that. Everybody knew it. It's why this woman felt relegated to live life by herself.

She had began to believe what was being said about her. Because of what she's done, she has lost worth, and she has lost value in the eyes of people. And more importantly than people, she has lost value in the eyes of God.

Because everything that she's known, everything that religion has taught her up until this point is that value in the eyes of God is something that you earn. It's something that you achieve. And here's how you do it. There's a list of rules. There's a list of regulations.

Follow those, you'll have value. Follow those, you'll have worth. Follow those, and someday you might get to heaven. So here stands this woman who's made mistakes. And you have to begin to understand you and I in this story are the woman at the well. All of us have done things that disqualify us.

All of us have done things that have left left us in a place where we should be rejected by society, where we should be rejected by God. And maybe yours isn't isn't getting divorced or yours isn't trying to fill the void in your heart with guys, but all of us have done things to try to fill the temporal

gaping hole that's inside of our soul. All of us at some point have found temporary satisfaction in this thing called sin. And if you don't have fun when you're sinning, you're just not doing it right. Okay? They wouldn't call it temptation if it wasn't tempting. Here's the problem with sin, is that it's fun for a while.

But then the problem is sin stops becoming fun. It stops being enjoyable, and the very thing that we used to get joy from now we're a slave to. And here's the problem with sin. Sin will always keep you longer than you thought you were gonna stay.

It will take from you more than you ever thought that you were gonna give it, and it will cost you a thousand times more than you ever thought you were gonna pay. I think the best way I've ever heard it described is that you can choose your sin, but you don't get to choose your consequence.

And I am telling you, John ten ten is very clear that that Jesus has come so that you and I can have life and life to the fullness. But there's an enemy that's out there, and he's trying to kill, steal, and destroy every single one of us.

And the picture that the enemy wants every single one of us to be is the woman at the well. He would love for you and I to believe that because of what we've done, we're now disqualified. Because of what we've done, we have no worth. Because of what we've done, we have no value. And now we are just set in living a life where we are by ourselves forever.

That I am telling you that is the enemy's plan for your life in a nutshell. He wants you alone, by yourself, and isolated because that's how he attacks. Sometimes the greatest thing the enemy can do is just get us by ourselves because the moment that we're alone, that's how he does his greatest work, and this is this

woman.

And she has believed the lie that she has no worth, and so she says, okay, I'll just go every day at twelve. I'll avoid all the women. I won't have to deal with all of them talking about me and saying all the stuff about who I am. And I'll just go, and I'll be by myself. And then one day, she walks up, and there's a dude that's standing at the well.

There's a guy that's sitting at this well, and I imagine the moment she saw him, her heart probably would have dropped. And she was like, man, if I just keep my eyes down, maybe if I just don't look at him, if I don't acknowledge him, maybe I can just get my water, he won't speak to me, and I'll just leave. Because now this moment is really awkward, not just because she feels like she's been disqualified,

but because guys and girls in this culture don't interact together. More importantly, she's a Samaritan woman, and this is a Jewish man, and Jews hate Samaritans.

This is like one of the most tense moments. This is like charger fan and raider fans. Like, we don't like each other. Okay? We we fight. We hold back. I guess you guys, Seahawks and Cardinals, that's like a thing, but, it's they're like they're both birds. Okay? It's not that big of a deal.

If nobody's told you birds don't fight that awesomely. It's like kinda just you know? But this is this woman, and she knows, hey, this conversation shouldn't have happened. There should be no interaction right now because I have no worth. I have no value. I don't wanna see people. I am isolated.

And yet this guy named Jesus is gonna start to do his Jesus thing, and he looks at this lady and he tells her, hey, lady, can you get me a drink of water? And oftentimes, the first ask, the first request that gets us in the door with Jesus is just a simple request, a simple answer.

And this lady, again, has a very logical response to Jesus. She goes, hey, bro. You want a drink of water, but this well is really deep. And I hate to be the one to tell you, but you don't even have a bucket, bro. And Jesus goes, if you would just give me some water, I could actually give you

living water that would become inside of you like a spring that would overwhelm and become like living water bubbling out from the inside. And I and I think sometimes when we read these stories because we know who Jesus is, we have the full context of the story. We're like, oh, look at Jesus. He's so spiritual. Like, this is this would have been a really awkward conversation.

Imagine for a moment you walk through a well. There's a random dude that's sitting there, and he starts to ask you for a drink of water. And you you try to blow him off by giving him just some generic answer, and then he goes even deeper and goes, dude, I could give you living water. It'll be inside of you. If you knew who was asking you, you would just give me water.

Like, I would have been like, bro, have you been smoking the devil's lettuce? Like, what are you talking about? Okay? Like, why why are you having this awkward encounter? I can't believe I just said the devil's lettuce from the stage. But the good news is Bill and them are out of town, so I can just delete the recording and act like it never happened. So

but this this woman and this guy start to have Jesus and this woman start to have this this this dialogue and this encounter back and forth. And this woman, I think almost to to passively

shut up Jesus, she says, fine. If this is really what you say that it is, give me this living water so I don't have to keep making this journey

every day. And this is where the story transitions. This is where Jesus actually gets to address the thing that he came here to address. This is the reason the Bible says in the beginning of John four that he had to go through Samaria. Because he says, okay, if you want this water, all you gotta do is go get your husband

and come back, and I'll give it to you. And at this moment, this woman would have been pinned to the wall because Jesus just went from talking about physical things to nailing the very thing that she's been trying to satisfy her life with that she knows are that she knows is never gonna actually satisfy her.

He says, go get your husband. And she starts to realize, you must be some kind of prophet or something. And Jesus says, yes, because you've had five husbands, and the guy that you're with now, he's not even your husband. And all of a sudden, he gets right to the heart of the issue of why he's here. And he starts to tell

this lady that I know you at the deepest level. And I think that it's at this point that this lady starts to be awoken to the reality that maybe, just maybe, this guy Jesus is not just a teacher. Maybe he is the teacher.

And she actually starts to say, hey, there's actually gonna become a day that I know of that there's a messiah that's coming. Our whole lives, everybody's talked about this prophecy of the messiah that is going to come. And I know at some point, he's going to come. But when he comes, then everything will actually

make sense. And this is why this story is so important and why you have to pay attention right here because Jesus actually is getting ready to announce not just to this lady, but to the world that he

is the Messiah that all of the Old Testament has been prophesying about. That he is the Messiah that is going to usher in a new kingdom. That he is the guy that is going to restore

the broken. That he is the guy that is going to say value and worth is no longer something that you earn. It is now a gift that you receive based on what I've done. And notice who it is that he declares the greatest news the world has ever heard. Notice who he tells it to.

To a broken woman at a well that has absolutely no value based on what she's done. The reason that that matters is because it tells us so much about the heart of God, the heart of Jesus.

It is indicative of who he is, that he would use a broken woman at a well to announce the greatest news the world has ever heard. And if you're here and you're a broken person, let me tell you this is the greatest news that we have ever

heard. Because what he is introducing is the greatest exchange the world has ever seen. He says, I am now ushering in a kingdom where I take your rejection and I take your brokenness, and I give you forgiveness. I give you fullness of life, and I actually begin to give you satisfaction

and worth, and I give you value. And here's what I'm trying to tell all of you tonight,

that your life will never make complete sense until you reconcile with the fact that we are created beings, that there is a creator behind all of this. And the creator has a name. The creator has a face, and his name is Jesus. And he came and he walked this earth. And he felt the things that we felt.

And he told a broken woman the same thing that he wants to tell you tonight, that your past doesn't disqualify you, that you can't earn freedom, you can't work your way into finding satisfaction.

It's not the way this world works. And he tells her that I

am the Messiah. And he tells her there's a new kingdom, and now here's the standard. All I'm asking is for people that worship me in spirit and truth. Essentially, what he says there at the very end is here's how you accept and live out the fullness of what God has for your life.

He says you have to start being yourself. You have to stop hiding and pretending to be somebody that you're not. That God cannot and will not bless who we pretend to be. God can't bless the person that we're pretending to be.

All God wants from you and I is for us to stand before him and to drop all of the masks, to drop the show, to drop the performance, and finally just reconcile with the fact that, yes, this is me. These are all of the things that have happened to me. This is who I am in all of my failure, in all of my shortcoming,

in all of my mistakes. And the moment that happens, that's where grace comes in like a flood. And grace begins to overwhelm and overflow our hearts the same way that it does this woman.

Because it's at this moment that it must have been like a bombshell goes off inside of this lady. Because you got to imagine, they're only at this well for maybe an hour, maybe two. The disciples leave to get food, and then they get the food and they come back. So I don't know how long that takes, but it's not a long period of time that this discussion is happening. But in this short window of time, she goes from realizing that maybe Jesus is a good teacher to maybe potentially he's the teacher to going,

holy, this is actually the savior of the world. This changes everything. And you notice that she actually, in that moment, she leaves her her jug of water at the well, and she goes sprinting back to her family because she goes, if this is true, this now changes everything.

I imagine that there was other women that she knew that had been discounted and rejected by society that she had to go and tell, this is no longer our value. This is no longer who we are relegated to being.

That there's a guy named Jesus, and he's at the well, and he was tired. And he asked me for water. Said, you don't have a bucket? And he's like, just give me your life, and I'll put inside of you living water. Come meet this guy. And she brings her whole town, revival starts breaking out.

And that's what I want to spend all of next week talking about. But here's the thing, and here's the problem where I think most of us sit today, is I think that we live in a society and a culture where most of us have at least heard of Jesus. Most of us have some context for who Jesus is,

but most of us have done exactly what this lady had done. We relegate him to just being another wise prophet. And what I'm trying to tell you is that the greatest question that you have to answer with your life is who is Jesus really?

Because we actually don't get the luxury of saying that he was just a good prophet and a good teacher because he said some crazy stuff. He said that nobody's getting to heaven except through me. He said that I come from the father. I forgive sins. Me and the father are one.

He said if you don't even hate your own mother and father, you can't follow me. Leave the dead. Let the dead bury the dead. Come pick up your cross and follow me. He said some crazy stuff. And so you and I either have to go, that dude is a lunatic.

We have to go. Maybe he was a liar. Maybe he was just completely making stuff up to try to manipulate people and to get a bunch of wealth, which clearly failed because he even said, I don't even have a house to lay my head down.

Or maybe just maybe he actually was who he said that he was. But the fourth category that we create for Jesus in our westernized culture where he was just a good prophet like all of these other good prophets, we don't get that luxury. You either have to believe that he was crazy, and I'm cool if that's where you are.

You have to think that he was a complete liar or maybe he actually was the Lord of the universe. Those are the only three categories we get to put Jesus in. And what I'm telling you is that I think every single one of us has some context for Jesus.

And I think sometimes the thing that holds us back and what Jesus in this story is actually alluding to is a prophecy that was written by Jeremiah

hundreds of years before this encounter at the well in John chapter four ever took place. If you have the bible, open up to Jeremiah. I'm gonna read this verse and close with this idea.

In Jeremiah chapter two, the prophet Jeremiah is prophesying about the coming messiah and the living water that he will declare himself to be. And this is what the prophecy says. It says, for my people have committed two evils. Jeremiah chapter two verse 13. For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me,

the fountain of living waters, and they've honed themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. This is the point where the toilet starts to make sense. Okay? Here's what Jeremiah says. Jeremiah says, these are the things that I hold against you. You have forsaken

living water. You have seen the invitation of living water. But instead of accepting living water, here's what you've done. He says you dig yourself toilets, broken toilets that won't even hold water, and that's what you choose to drink from.

He says, this is what I'm holding against you, that you have on the table living water. You have the opportunity to experience true freedom and grace and redemption and restoration, but you go, no. I'm cool with toilet water. And here's the truth and the reality of where I think a lot of people in the church today are.

We go, the living water sounds awesome, but that would mean that I would have to do the same thing that this woman did, and that is at some point put down my bucket that I came here with, my bucket that I'm used to filling to get the sustenance in the water that I'm used to receiving.

Because the only way that you can get rid of the toilet water and start getting living water is you have to, at some point, put the toilet water down.

This woman sets her bucket down, and she leaves without it. I think the picture for most of us inside of the church, we come and we go, god, pour out your grace like a flood. I got give it all to me. Come on, Jesus. Let the heavens open. And then it starts flowing, and we're like, I'm gonna catch all of it.

But the truth is you can't really catch much because our hands are like this. We hold on to the things that we know are holding us back.

We hold on to relationships that we know we should end. We hold on to jobs that we know aren't going anywhere. We hold on to sins that we know aren't gonna lead us anywhere but death, but they're at least getting us through. And most of us sit here and we go, I wanna receive the fullness of what God has for me.

Well, what I'm trying to tell you, what the story of the woman at the well is is here's the simple solution to finding satisfaction in this life is you have to understand that you're a created being and that there's a god who is a designer and a creator that has a plan and a purpose for your life. And here's the simple thing you have to do today,

is you have to begin to recognize that toilet water is just toilet water. And yes, it might temporarily get you by, but it will not get you where you think it's it's gonna get you.

You will end up being just like me in my garage at nine years old drinking something that I thought was going to satisfy me to realize that it was just full of a bunch of trash. Here's my heart for you as a pastor is that you would actually begin to change and let go of things

before you get to a spot where pain forces you to let go of them. Because, you know, sometimes God in his infinite wisdom will allow us to be taught by this thing called pain. Pain's a really swift instructor.

And here's the truth and the reality that I know, that oftentimes in our humanity, the only times that we change is when the pain of staying the same actually becomes greater than the pain of changing. That's usually the moment that we say, okay, I'll change.

What I'm saying is that there is this thing out there called wisdom where we can actually heed good instruction, that we can see the good thing that God has for us and let go of the broken cisterns that we have. And so the only thing that I'm here to try to challenge you with tonight is to tell you the invitation

is simple. The practicality of what it looks like might not be simple, and it's going to be individualized for every single one of you, but the invitation is really simple. In this story, Jesus created the greatest exchange the world has ever seen. Toilet water for living water.

You get to choose. Would you pray with me?

Father, I thank you, God, for every single person that's here. God, I thank you that there are no coincidences, that you bring us all exactly where we need to be in the exact times that we need to be there.

And, father, I feel like there are people in this room who know that they know that they know that what they've been settling for is just toilet water.

And that God, I I I love that even that the prophet Jeremiah would use such a almost grotesque picture to illustrate and to paint the picture of the things that we put inside of us. God, the things that we allow to be in our lives.

And so, father, I just pray. I pray for everybody that's in here that, god, that you would begin to reveal, that you would begin to show us right now, god, the thing that we need to let go of, the things that we need to to just drop at your feet so that we can pick up the fullness of life that you offer us,

so that we can actually begin to embrace the living water that you are. God, with everybody's eyes closed and heads bowed, would we have a moment of just vulnerability before you to where we would be vulnerable enough to say, this is who I am. This is where I really am. This is what I've struggled with. And God, I'm here

to lay this thing down, whatever it is, so that I can pick up your living water and to experience the fullness of what a life empowered by you is. So, father, would you speak to us tonight? God, would you let us walk out of here a little bit closer to you? God, would we walk out of here understanding

that you are for us and you have good things for us. You don't wanna take anything from us. You wanna add to us. Jesus, would you have your way? Would grace come in like a flood and overwhelm every single one of us? Jesus, we worship you, and we praise you. It's in your mighty name that everybody said, amen.