WEBVTT 00:00:01.439 --> 00:00:02.399 Good morning. 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:04.480 It is already. 00:00:04.559 --> 00:00:05.679 I can observe that. 00:00:05.839 --> 00:00:07.759 So it's good to be here. 00:00:07.839 --> 00:00:14.240 My name is Ron Vanderwell, and uh I'm your guest guy here this morning for the sermon. 00:00:14.480 --> 00:00:19.839 Um my last name is Vanderwell because that's what my parents gave my brother Tom and me. 00:00:20.079 --> 00:00:27.679 And uh Cheryl, his Tom's wife picked that up, as did my wife, Deb, and our niece Kelly, who's right there. 00:00:27.839 --> 00:00:31.199 So um that's who we are. 00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:36.320 And uh I've been trying for 40 years to score a preaching gig at Madison Square. 00:00:37.600 --> 00:00:57.359 And uh seminary, I was on staff in a couple different churches um during my time in Grand Rapids, and friends of mine went here, and I was always kind of like a little bit of church envy because their church was pretty cool, and uh and as was the were the churches I was on staff at. 00:00:57.679 --> 00:01:13.920 But uh anyway, I've always had a lot of respect for Madison Square, and then uh real short version of my story because it affects how I how you hear me voice God's word. 00:01:14.480 --> 00:01:34.400 Um for 30 some years I was a pastor in different places, Kalamazoo, spent quite a bit of time in Northern California and then uh Illinois, and then I became a specialized transition minister helping churches through transitions in Massachusetts and in Wisconsin. 00:01:35.359 --> 00:01:52.319 And so uh in between there, uh we would stay with my bro, my other brother, and his wife, and uh um for a couple months and kind of catch a breath and figure out what the next gig was with transition work. 00:01:52.799 --> 00:01:59.439 And uh after our second time doing that with churches, just really felt out of gas. 00:01:59.680 --> 00:02:03.599 Turned out there were some serious oncoming health issues. 00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:38.800 Um, hydrocephalus due to aqueductal stenosis was that the doctors told us, and I declined pretty markedly, pretty rapidly, and it took three different shunts hardware right up here, and uh the first two became infected and caused even worse problems, but uh the third worked, and uh the end result being I went from being who I thought I was all my life to being about the ability of a toddler, and uh it was tough for everybody near us, near me. 00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:40.560 I was dumb and happy. 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:56.879 Um since then, since then I woke up and uh got older again and uh went through the process of realizing um, oh my goodness, what did I lose? 00:02:56.960 --> 00:02:59.599 I lost my whole life as I thought it was. 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:13.840 Um at the same time, God began steadily over like a three-year period showing me that actually He's given me a ton through what I thought I lost. 00:03:14.719 --> 00:03:27.599 And uh that's a short version of a really long story that I'm not done with yet, but I'm about two years into a three-year period where God said just sit tight and see, wait and see. 00:03:28.319 --> 00:04:01.919 All that to say is that colors how I read scripture, and that colors how I hear God, and also how I view myself, and the perspective that's come out of all the stuff I just told you, that perspective can stick in my mind, ironclad, for several hours at a time, and then it gets caught up in all the old ways I've done all my life of busy, busy, and uh, I'm very busy, but not with the stuff that gives you a career to show for it. 00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:08.719 However, some of that busyness has me here with you guys this morning, and I'm really glad for that. 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:18.000 And so, to move on with that, what I would like to do is read with you um John chapter 4, verses 5 through 27. 00:04:18.959 --> 00:04:23.279 And so uh this is the passage I want to look at with you this morning. 00:04:24.079 --> 00:04:41.279 This is uh in the second, the fourth chapter now of the Gospel of John, and uh um John is making it clear to anybody with their eyes open, this is what Jesus has come to do. 00:04:41.439 --> 00:04:43.040 Let me let me read it here. 00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:51.519 So he, Jesus, came to a town in Samaria called Sikar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 00:04:51.759 --> 00:04:57.040 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. 00:04:57.199 --> 00:04:58.720 It was about noon. 00:04:59.199 --> 00:05:05.439 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, hold on to that noon detail, that will prove important. 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:10.879 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, Will you give me a drink? 00:05:11.199 --> 00:05:14.399 His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:21.600 The Samaritan woman said to him, You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman, how can you ask me for a drink? 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:24.879 For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. 00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:34.079 Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asked you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:39.920 Sir, the woman said, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:41.519 Where would you get this living water? 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:48.399 Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did all his sons and his livestock? 00:05:49.040 --> 00:05:53.680 Jesus answered, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:57.360 But whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. 00:05:57.519 --> 00:06:03.279 Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. 00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:12.560 Then the woman said to him, Sir, give this give me this water, so I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water. 00:06:12.720 --> 00:06:15.199 And he told her, Go call your husband and come back. 00:06:15.759 --> 00:06:18.079 I have no husband, she said. 00:06:18.639 --> 00:06:21.920 Jesus said to her, You are right when you say you have no husband. 00:06:22.399 --> 00:06:26.800 The fact is you've had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. 00:06:26.959 --> 00:06:29.519 What you've just said is quite true. 00:06:30.079 --> 00:06:34.160 Sir, the woman said, I can see that you are a prophet. 00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:41.439 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that this was that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem. 00:06:41.759 --> 00:06:49.920 Woman, Jesus replied, Believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 00:06:50.079 --> 00:06:52.560 You Samaritans worship what you do not know. 00:06:52.800 --> 00:06:57.920 We worship the Jews, worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 00:06:58.079 --> 00:07:05.920 Yet a time is coming and is now come when the true worshipers will worship the God, worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth. 00:07:06.160 --> 00:07:08.959 For they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:14.560 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and in truth. 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:19.120 The woman said, I know that Messiah called Christ is coming. 00:07:19.360 --> 00:07:22.160 When he comes, he will explain everything to us. 00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:26.720 And Jesus declared, I, the one speaking to you, am He. 00:07:27.680 --> 00:07:32.959 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking to a woman, but no one asked, Well, what do you want? 00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:34.800 Or why are you talking with her? 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:38.800 Okay. 00:07:39.519 --> 00:07:43.680 Who here has played the game of hide and seek at least once? 00:07:44.720 --> 00:07:45.360 All right. 00:07:45.920 --> 00:07:52.000 Um who knows what it is, even though you if you were never invited to play along with the neighborhood kids. 00:07:52.319 --> 00:07:54.480 Um okay. 00:07:55.279 --> 00:08:00.959 It uh it's a curious game, if you think about it. 00:08:01.279 --> 00:08:10.959 Because it's all about wanting, not wanting to be found, but also needing to be found. 00:08:12.079 --> 00:08:26.079 There's this weird tension that happens, and uh and so everybody runs and finds a hiding spot, and then somebody goes into searching, and the game extends and the tension grows until finally everybody's found. 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:31.519 Now the key to the game is the is it, whoever's designated as it. 00:08:32.080 --> 00:08:46.000 Um and this unlucky soul is the one who has to count to a pre-designated number, and then after counting to that number, that person goes and finds all the other players. 00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:58.879 And so um, and that person is, and it says it's kind of a drag because all right, I gotta count to whatever, and then I gotta go do that, and I'm the the odd one out. 00:08:59.759 --> 00:09:05.360 On the other hand, that person is extremely important to the game. 00:09:05.679 --> 00:09:21.759 For instance, if if their mom calls and calls them home for dinner, um you may have this tiller hiding spot in the bedroom closet standing behind the coats, but uh how long are you gonna stand there if nobody comes looking for you? 00:09:22.080 --> 00:09:26.559 It's like the all the the pressure is taken out of it. 00:09:29.039 --> 00:09:36.720 Our granddaughter is about four now, and JoJo loves to play hide and seek, but she really doesn't get it. 00:09:37.120 --> 00:09:42.799 Um she has control issues, we think. 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:45.840 But um is this being taped? 00:09:45.919 --> 00:10:05.360 I just um um and so she'll she'll scurry around and okay, you know, Deb's supposed to hide over here, I'm supposed to hide behind this sofa here, and you guys, you okay, you hide here and here and here, and we'll get this all set, and I'm gonna come find you. 00:10:06.720 --> 00:10:10.399 And she misses the point entirely. 00:10:11.039 --> 00:10:20.639 There's absolutely no suspense, but she has a ball, and we're codependent, and and we don't mind, and so it's like, oh, that was fun. 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:31.519 The fact is, whatever she wants to do, we're gonna join her, and we can argue about details later. 00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:39.200 Um I think God is pretty good at hide and seek. 00:10:41.120 --> 00:10:44.799 One of his first lines in the Bible, Adam, where are you? 00:10:46.080 --> 00:10:47.120 What's that? 00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:57.039 Um think of uh God walking with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day and then not being able to find them. 00:10:57.759 --> 00:11:04.720 Now, God, the um the all-knowing creator of heaven and earth, he could certainly see behind a bush. 00:11:06.639 --> 00:11:12.480 But he allows the the cat and mouse hunting of it, like, where are you? 00:11:12.559 --> 00:11:13.919 I'm gonna find you. 00:11:15.759 --> 00:11:18.320 And then why were you hiding? 00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:26.639 If you go through the story of the the history of the Old Testament, it's all hide and seek. 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:42.639 Um think of Jacob running away from his family, running away from problems, running away from his brother, and uh running away from everything that just seems so burdensome in his life. 00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:48.639 And just when he is finally away from it all, there's this stairway from heaven coming down. 00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:51.840 And uh, and God says, I found you. 00:11:54.879 --> 00:11:58.799 And uh, he gets an express lane right to heaven if he wants. 00:12:00.720 --> 00:12:03.600 Um, follow through the history of God's people. 00:12:03.840 --> 00:12:08.639 Um, they're lost again and again and again, or they're hiding, and God's saying, Where are you? 00:12:08.799 --> 00:12:20.000 And they're they're they're worshiping some other God, or they're um they're off serving some other place, or they're in exile because they blew their chance to be in the promised land. 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:23.039 And even when they're in Egypt, he sees them. 00:12:23.279 --> 00:12:34.159 And uh when when they're they're in Israel and they finally get their own land, and he finally they turned their back on him and they try to hide, but he still comes after them. 00:12:34.399 --> 00:12:41.600 Hosea says this way Um uh the more I called Israel, the further they went for me. 00:12:41.840 --> 00:12:43.919 Chapter 11, verse 2. 00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:53.440 Generation after generation of hide and seek in Egypt, in Israel, in exile. 00:12:54.399 --> 00:13:06.080 So it's not surprising that when the word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood, I love how Eugene Peterson puts that in the message. 00:13:06.639 --> 00:13:12.639 When the word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood, he picked up this game pretty well too. 00:13:14.480 --> 00:13:25.039 Um he uh well he had a very simple message I'm gonna come find you. 00:13:25.840 --> 00:13:27.039 Ready or not? 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:32.240 And uh people tried to avoid him, like, oh man, you found me. 00:13:32.559 --> 00:13:37.279 But he but he was remarkably persistent, he must have liked the game. 00:13:37.440 --> 00:13:39.519 Um think of Zacchaeus. 00:13:39.919 --> 00:13:42.399 Who would have thought to hide in a tree? 00:13:42.799 --> 00:14:03.440 Um, or the religious leaders or their smoke stream, they would hide behind all these rules and with a proper fast, and which are the right ways to do this, and who's qualified and who's disqualified, or the rich young ruler who comes with an earnest desire, like I really want to connect to God, and Jesus names the one thing that was keeping him away. 00:14:03.759 --> 00:14:13.440 Um, Nicodemus, deeply hungry spiritually, sneaking off to Jesus at night. 00:14:14.159 --> 00:14:15.840 His face falls. 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:18.399 He'd been found. 00:14:19.759 --> 00:14:28.960 All of these people were hiding as best they could, hearing Jesus call, come out, come out wherever you are. 00:14:31.039 --> 00:14:34.000 That's what was going on in our passage this morning. 00:14:35.679 --> 00:14:39.840 Um with the Samaritan woman at the well. 00:14:41.519 --> 00:14:46.879 Verse 6, you may have noticed going through that, says this happened at noon. 00:14:48.240 --> 00:14:52.960 And the woman is walking to a well outside the city of Sikar. 00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:56.799 Now, just a quick backdrop on that. 00:14:57.120 --> 00:15:00.320 Um, Jesus kind of arranged it so he's there by himself. 00:15:00.399 --> 00:15:09.600 He sends the disciples off to get some box lunches, and uh, and so they're coming while they're gone, he's by himself at this well at noon. 00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:16.559 And this woman has come by herself to the well at noon in Palestine. 00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:19.759 Now, let me just say this. 00:15:20.080 --> 00:15:25.039 We live for a long time in Northern California, which is a Mediterranean climate. 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:31.440 What that means is that almost for most of the year, almost every day there's a 30-degree temperature swing. 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:33.519 In the morning, it's nice and cool. 00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:35.840 Go out, exercise, work in the yard, whatever. 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:37.519 It's like 70 degrees. 00:15:37.840 --> 00:15:41.519 By midday, it's 30 degrees warmer. 00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:48.480 And so you step outside at noon for something, and it's taking a pizza out of the oven hot. 00:15:48.639 --> 00:15:50.000 That's the kind of weather you have. 00:15:50.159 --> 00:15:56.000 But you don't worry about it because you know by the evening you'll be looking for a jacket when you go for a walk with a dog. 00:15:57.039 --> 00:15:58.399 Every day. 00:15:58.879 --> 00:16:08.559 So let me just ask you if you were going to walk the well outside Sikars about a half mile to a mile out of town, depending on where the village was. 00:16:08.799 --> 00:16:22.879 And so if you're gonna walk, say, three-quarters of a mile, carrying an earthen jar the size of a small child, filling it with water and then dragging it back, what time of day would you go to the well? 00:16:23.840 --> 00:16:27.200 Probably not when it's taking a pizza out of the oven hot. 00:16:28.720 --> 00:16:30.559 Why would you do that? 00:16:31.360 --> 00:16:43.279 The only reason you would go then is if somehow that were preferable to what it was like to be with all of your neighbors when it was cool. 00:16:44.639 --> 00:16:44.960 Okay. 00:16:45.519 --> 00:16:47.440 That's how the story starts out. 00:16:48.240 --> 00:16:50.320 And it's a fascinating encounter. 00:16:50.559 --> 00:17:03.759 So this woman who had learned to hide, who was an outcast in a nation of outcasts in the Samaritans, those types stay by themselves, right? 00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:21.599 And so this woman who was an outcast among the outcasts comes to the well, and she meets this Jewish man, this rabbi, apparently, who actually talks to her. 00:17:22.559 --> 00:17:24.880 As a woman, she wouldn't have expected that. 00:17:25.119 --> 00:17:27.680 As a Samaritan, she wouldn't have expected that. 00:17:27.839 --> 00:17:33.759 Certainly not as a Samaritan woman, but he looks her right in the eye and he starts, he starts a conversation. 00:17:34.079 --> 00:17:36.000 Have any idea how strange that is? 00:17:36.240 --> 00:17:38.160 What's with this guy? 00:17:41.359 --> 00:17:43.680 So here's what came up. 00:17:44.400 --> 00:17:47.599 He told her, Go call your husband and come and come back. 00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:51.200 I have no husband, she said. 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:56.160 Jesus said to her, You are right when you say you have no husband. 00:17:56.319 --> 00:18:02.160 The fact is you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. 00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:05.440 What you've just said is quite true. 00:18:06.559 --> 00:18:11.440 Sir, the woman said, I can see that you are a prophet. 00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:16.640 She had her sense of the obvious. 00:18:18.559 --> 00:18:29.200 So the situation opens up, and uh it's a fascinating encounter. 00:18:29.359 --> 00:18:33.279 She's like, he starts to talk religion with her. 00:18:33.599 --> 00:18:36.640 Well, he's a Jewish rabbi, that's what they do. 00:18:37.119 --> 00:19:07.119 Um, but they get further and further, and and what's happening is that she's evading him while wanting to connect to him somehow, and talking about um deflecting towards the Messiah some someday, and eventually, by the very end of the passage we just read, she says the M word, which opens it all up when the Messiah comes, and Jesus says, You wouldn't believe. 00:19:07.839 --> 00:19:09.839 And I think he means it. 00:19:11.759 --> 00:19:17.279 Then the disciples bumble back on scene, and the whole thing goes and it fades to black. 00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:32.000 But something happened there with this outcast among outcasts, lugging her burden out in the blast furnace heat in the middle of the day, getting that water. 00:19:32.480 --> 00:19:39.839 And it was important enough that we have a lengthy, detailed chapter in the opening of the Gospel of John. 00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:45.039 Because God says, I want these guys at the square to get this. 00:19:46.400 --> 00:19:47.759 So here we are. 00:19:50.400 --> 00:20:00.000 Um she was clearly interested in him, um, but was clearly uncomfortable where he was heading. 00:20:00.400 --> 00:20:02.319 The whole husband thing. 00:20:02.720 --> 00:20:05.680 Um, if he knew all that, why was he bringing it up? 00:20:06.960 --> 00:20:11.039 Um she'd been hiding. 00:20:11.359 --> 00:20:13.279 She might not have called it that. 00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:27.119 But out in the noonday heat, all by herself, even in a small town where nobody's all by themselves, until oh man, you found me. 00:20:31.200 --> 00:20:33.039 This is a touching story. 00:20:34.799 --> 00:20:43.039 But I think most of us would be surprised to discover how much we hide from God too. 00:20:44.799 --> 00:20:57.839 Um even Fifth of July, Sunday go to church types, present company included, um, God is noting your attendance here on a holiday weekend, I will add. 00:20:58.240 --> 00:21:00.799 Um, as I trust in mine. 00:21:01.200 --> 00:21:10.960 Um we uh we we can hide from God, even as we have our favorite God language to throw around. 00:21:11.119 --> 00:21:16.319 We we we you can be very religious while hiding from God. 00:21:17.759 --> 00:21:23.119 Actually, churches often are really good at helping us get a way to do that. 00:21:23.440 --> 00:21:32.400 Um often I find okay, enough of the preacher talk, I myself want God close, but not too close. 00:21:33.039 --> 00:21:35.359 And I see that with a lot of us. 00:21:36.319 --> 00:21:42.559 Um we don't reject God like I'm gonna be an atheist this week. 00:21:42.799 --> 00:21:45.920 We don't reject God, we just kind of resist Him. 00:21:46.160 --> 00:21:51.519 It's not as I not consciously like, oh no, I'm not no devotions for me today. 00:21:52.319 --> 00:21:55.759 It's more like we just let things get in between us. 00:21:57.279 --> 00:22:07.440 Um and so we Well, may maybe you'd love you'd love to have God melt your heart in worship. 00:22:08.079 --> 00:22:11.200 But let's say you've never really been that type of person. 00:22:11.519 --> 00:22:17.359 And so you love the music, but uh you kind of keep things wrapped up. 00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:28.559 Um maybe you'd love to have God lead you to confess your sins and experience the kind of forgiveness that you have in other seasons of your life. 00:22:28.799 --> 00:22:34.000 Um but uh you've got a thing about guilt. 00:22:34.079 --> 00:22:36.640 You just it's you don't go there. 00:22:37.279 --> 00:22:44.559 Um maybe you'd love to have God heal you of the worry that eats at you, like like the acid in your stomach. 00:22:44.720 --> 00:22:51.599 Though you you you like him to do that, but that's just not realistic given all the stuff that's happened to you in your life. 00:22:51.759 --> 00:22:53.920 You're not gonna be free of that. 00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:56.400 You've been too deeply imprinted. 00:22:56.559 --> 00:23:04.160 Um you'd love maybe you'd love to be boldly stand up and proclaim God's love as free as you see some other people doing. 00:23:04.240 --> 00:23:08.640 But but the fact is you're not just not you're not that kind of person. 00:23:09.359 --> 00:23:13.839 And uh some people are shy, right? 00:23:15.200 --> 00:23:16.720 And so we hide. 00:23:18.400 --> 00:23:30.000 We're hiding in our hiding holes as best we can, um, behind the busyness that keeps us from having to make really hard decisions about what really matters to us. 00:23:30.240 --> 00:23:41.200 Or we hide behind old wounds that give us an excuse to be petty or vengeful because she did that or he did this or I didn't have this when I was at that stage in my story. 00:23:41.359 --> 00:23:43.039 So we hide behind those things. 00:23:43.519 --> 00:23:46.880 We hide behind a false intellectualism sometimes. 00:23:47.119 --> 00:23:57.200 Not that that would ever happen with reform types, but um guess pastor, you're not entirely sure how to read the room, but I'm glad that one worked. 00:23:57.440 --> 00:24:10.880 Um But uh we we hide sometimes behind things which are correct and are important, but are not the most correct and the most important. 00:24:15.119 --> 00:24:20.240 Sometimes it just comes down to fear. 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:35.359 I would rather lug this burden all the way out here in the heat than have to face a difficult situation in a small town with five ex-husbands. 00:24:38.880 --> 00:24:56.480 Let me ask you this morning, as you walked in here, holiday weekend, if uh if God had stopped you in the as you parked your car, and uh as you walked in the door and said, I'm gonna give you a choice this morning. 00:24:57.680 --> 00:25:13.440 I can unravel you to the point where at some point while you're in this building, you're not gonna know who's touching what inside the areas that you thought were defended in you. 00:25:13.599 --> 00:25:19.920 I can unravel you and re-ravel you by the time you turn the ignition in your car on to go home. 00:25:20.160 --> 00:25:24.240 I can unravel you and re-ravel you with my grace. 00:25:24.960 --> 00:25:28.160 Or I can let you just enjoy some really cool music. 00:25:29.200 --> 00:25:31.680 Which would you have chosen? 00:25:33.599 --> 00:25:34.880 Think about that. 00:25:37.680 --> 00:25:49.599 More often than not, we, like the woman, like kids playing hide and seek, are more than content just to stay in our hidey holes. 00:25:52.880 --> 00:26:05.359 However, um the person who's not content with that is Jesus, sitting out there in the heat with us, all by himself at the well. 00:26:07.039 --> 00:26:12.880 There's a theological, a spiritual issue behind this that I want to unpack for just a moment here. 00:26:13.119 --> 00:26:16.720 Um the the issue is the love of God. 00:26:17.680 --> 00:26:26.640 Um the Bible tells us that God loves us, that nothing can get in the way of his care for us. 00:26:26.799 --> 00:26:29.279 Um, and our theology understands that. 00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:35.200 We know that about God's providence, God's care, um, that in all things God works for good. 00:26:35.440 --> 00:26:39.279 Nothing ever will separate us from the love of God that is ours in Christ Jesus. 00:26:39.519 --> 00:26:42.400 We know all of that mentally, their mind. 00:26:42.640 --> 00:26:52.240 Something happens around the point of our Adam's apple where it stops and doesn't reach our heart. 00:26:52.720 --> 00:27:00.000 And then so what we actually feel is often much less dramatic than what our brains understand. 00:27:00.319 --> 00:27:03.119 And this morning I want to talk about that difference. 00:27:03.279 --> 00:27:05.759 Let's talk about what happens about right here. 00:27:06.240 --> 00:27:16.480 Um, for instance, most of us, I'm assuming, probably live with a low-level sense of worry, a hum of worry in the backdrop of our lives. 00:27:16.799 --> 00:27:26.079 Not not usually not abject fits of panic, but just low-level hum of worry. 00:27:27.680 --> 00:27:37.440 Um coping skills are just not up to completely yielding our burdens to God. 00:27:38.559 --> 00:27:40.079 What's with that? 00:27:41.119 --> 00:27:44.559 Or a residual shame from mistakes we've made. 00:27:44.799 --> 00:27:51.039 Sure you know God's forgiven you, sure you know that you've talked it through with whoever you're gonna be able to talk that through with. 00:27:51.119 --> 00:28:01.440 But but the fact is that you still semi-cringe over things you semi-remember because you can only semi-forgive yourself because you only semi-dare. 00:28:02.319 --> 00:28:09.200 And somehow all those semi-problems line up to a God who's saying, we'll see. 00:28:12.480 --> 00:28:19.200 Maybe maybe you live with a nagging sense of God's disappointment. 00:28:19.759 --> 00:28:23.839 And you he loves you, it's his job. 00:28:25.119 --> 00:28:32.079 But honestly, he would have liked this or that to be a little different in your life. 00:28:32.880 --> 00:28:41.599 Um maybe like a parent who promises they're not gonna leave, but doesn't promise they're gonna like it. 00:28:44.240 --> 00:29:05.200 For most of us, our lives would be noticeably different if we lived with a passionate gut level alarm in the going off in the morning, and I feel it sense of being fiercely loved by God, that God's face lit up when in heaven when your name came up in a conversation. 00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:09.039 Most of us don't feel like that. 00:29:10.079 --> 00:29:19.359 Not saying that there's something wrong with you, I'm just saying most of us don't believe what Jesus had come to share with that woman outside Sikar. 00:29:20.640 --> 00:29:27.039 And uh that's why God sticks at this game of hide and seek so persistently. 00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:35.839 Come out, come out, he's saying to you and to me, wherever you are, pursuing us, just like that woman at the well. 00:29:36.799 --> 00:29:51.119 Wherever you hide, whatever you're too busy for him with, or whatever you're trying to do to somehow make up for that, or this, or what might happen. 00:29:53.759 --> 00:29:59.039 He's pursuing us until eventually he can hear us say those magic words. 00:29:59.359 --> 00:30:01.279 Oh man, you found me. 00:30:02.640 --> 00:30:05.759 When was the last time you said that to God? 00:30:07.680 --> 00:30:10.319 Have you ever been surprised by it? 00:30:11.759 --> 00:30:24.160 It's been said that the whole point of the gospel is that we are more broken than we would ever admit, and more precious in God's eyes than we would ever dare hope. 00:30:24.960 --> 00:30:27.920 That's a Tim Keller quote I love. 00:30:28.079 --> 00:30:29.839 Um let me say it again. 00:30:30.079 --> 00:30:35.359 The point of the gospel is that you and I are more broken than we might ever admit. 00:30:36.559 --> 00:30:47.599 Certainly as we show up for church on Sunday morning, more broken than we would ever admit, and yet, in God's eyes, still more precious than we would ever hope. 00:30:48.400 --> 00:30:51.359 Can you imagine both of those being true? 00:30:51.680 --> 00:30:57.119 Most of us gravitate towards one just fine, but not the other. 00:30:58.319 --> 00:31:02.000 Can you imagine embracing both of those? 00:31:03.680 --> 00:31:06.559 So let me ask you, what's your hiding place? 00:31:07.680 --> 00:31:12.799 Where do you hunker down when life gets just a little bit too hard? 00:31:13.119 --> 00:31:20.000 Um maybe it's something bad, you're a serial bank robber, and that's what you do to blow off stress. 00:31:20.240 --> 00:31:21.359 Probably not. 00:31:22.720 --> 00:31:25.519 Just taking a guess on a Sunday morning crowd. 00:31:25.759 --> 00:31:29.519 Um But where do you go? 00:31:30.319 --> 00:31:35.039 What do you soothe your mind with or calm your heart with? 00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:38.240 And and maybe it's a bad thing. 00:31:38.400 --> 00:31:56.319 You're hooked on phonics or whatever that um that's an old people joke, but um maybe it's something maybe it's something bad, uh an addiction or a habit you wish you could be clear of, you wish you didn't eat this way or drink that or watch this. 00:31:56.559 --> 00:31:57.359 Maybe it's not. 00:31:57.519 --> 00:32:01.359 Maybe it's something legitimate that you use to distract yourself with. 00:32:01.440 --> 00:32:17.440 And so you work or you do this or you accomplish that, or you and you binge watch this or whatever, but you go somewhere else other than God for that thing inside you that keeps gnawing and doesn't go away. 00:32:18.319 --> 00:32:25.359 And this morning I want you to hear, with the same tone of voice that that woman outside Sikar had. 00:32:27.599 --> 00:32:30.880 Come out, come out, wherever you are. 00:32:32.880 --> 00:32:49.519 And as you go into the noonday heat, lugging the burden of your shame and anxiety, hear him having made his way already, waiting in that hot spot for you. 00:32:55.519 --> 00:32:57.759 Ready or not, here he comes. 00:32:58.400 --> 00:33:13.440 Let's pray, Lord Jesus. 00:33:17.119 --> 00:33:42.319 We never understood you when you were here, and even now that we can read the whole book, um, we come back to what we thought we understood, and we discover how much more yet we don't. 00:33:44.640 --> 00:34:21.920 Things like love, yours for us, and how it can give us for others grace, your willingness to forgive, a costly kind of forgiveness, just because of being crazy about us, um, the tenacity of your promises, when our trust in them can be so fragile, the abundance of your providence, even as our fears about the future often keep us awake at night. 00:34:24.239 --> 00:34:54.000 Um, we believe, help our unbelief, feed us here at your table, strengthen us with your gift, and uh as we limp along together following you, create in us a sense of expectation for you to do what we could not and what we don't deserve. 00:34:54.480 --> 00:35:05.519 Give us the unabashed wonder that comes from realizing how your grace dwarfs us. 00:35:05.920 --> 00:35:08.079 We pray this in your name, amen.