SPEAKER_01 0:00

It's loud. Well, good morning, New Song Church. I mean, it's great to be with you. Like I said, my name is Vernon. Um, I started as a pastor here three months ago. I mean, it's been an awesome three months. Yeah, I've really loved it. I was just asked, like, what was your three months like? And I was like, Well, I've learned to drive around. You know, I love driving. I'm a good driver. You know, I love, you know, exploring the city. That's what I do here. I was talking to a friend in Denver. He was like, What's your three months been? And I felt like this sign kind of summarized it a little bit. I know Amazon drivers be like, This house again? I'm pretty sure Courtney and Clayton can testify. It's every week. I'm getting like tons of packages. And you know, I even a neighbor of mine a couple weeks ago came by just to let me know. I can take the recycling straight to the recycling plant. I don't have to pile the the playground of boxes in the in the alley. He was telling me, I'm like, oh, okay, good to know. But no, I've really, really loved being here. And it's just been a fast three months. I feel like we're moving and it's just been awesome. Currently, we're in a series where I'm calling Behold the Lamb of God, gazing at the beauty of Jesus through the Gospel of John. And then just to recap a little of the last few weeks, we discussed that beauty is what causes us to feel joy or excitement or love or longing or wonder when we see it. Beauty stirs in our heart joy when we see it. Think when you hold a newborn baby for the very first time, right? Our heart is moved with joy and gladness, happiness, excitement. We are experiencing seeing a moment of beauty, right? Or when you see a couple newlyweds, holding hands, about to give their vows, they're giddy. There is an excitement, there's an anticipation, a hope, a wonder. Those of us watching also stirred with tears of joy, gladness. Why? Because we are in a moment where we see, where we experience, where we reflect on beauty. We also talked about that Jesus is the source and summation or the fullness of all beauty. I'll let you think on that for a moment. But another way to say it is that he is the creator of all beauty. And he is also the perfect ultimate expression of all beauty. And as a result, he is worthy of our worship. He is worthy of our worship. We don't want to worship Jesus just because of his position as King and Creator, right? Though he is worthy due to his position as Lord of the universe, we also worship Jesus because he is infinitely beautiful. He is infinitely beautiful. And as we see his beauty, the ultimate beauty, our hearts are moved to worship, to awe, to wonder, to joy, to gladness, to happiness, to excitement. Um, so for the next few weeks, we are just gazing at the beauty of Jesus. There's cards that you can take, it just kind of goes through the topics each week. And my encouragement for us today is that you would just join us in this journey. It goes through May, May 31st. Just join us in this journey, Sunday mornings, where we are going to reflect on who Jesus is, the beauty of God in Jesus, week by week. And so my hope, my encouragement is you would just join us Sunday mornings, and we'll be in John chapter four today, if you want to turn in your Bible, and then I will pray for us and we'll get started. But Lord Jesus, we do just thank you that you are beautiful, that you are worthy of our worship, not merely in your position, but also in your person. Or that as we see you, Lord, we are we only can respond in worship, in awe, and gladness, in joy, and happiness, and excitement, because the revelation of you always produces worship. So, Jesus, speak to us this morning. Open our eyes that we can behold just the beauty of the King. Amen. Well, I'm not sure if you saw, but a week and a half ago, something happened that might be the beginning of a major cultural shift, one of the biggest cultural shifts that we've seen in maybe decades. Maybe decades. And if you've been a student of the last 50 years, that's a very bold statement. Um you might not have noticed it because typically major cultural shifts in society don't start loudly. They're not proclaiming from the mountains. No, they they unfold while we are mostly distracted. But there are some news articles that kind of picked up on it. This was a quote from, I think, the Guardian who was saying this is a cultural and economic turning point. Cultural and economic turning point. Another article, the era of invincibility is over. The era of invincibility is over. Another one, this is not just a verdict. It was a signal that the rules have changed. And what was it? Is that we are beware of the smartphone zombies. We all have the tech snack, right? We're gonna, our spines are actually changing. Kind of somewhat, but no, another article is saying this is big tech's big tobacco moment, big tobacco moment. If you remember from the 90s, there was a hearing, 1994, in Congress, where the seven biggest big tobacco executives were called into Congress and they were asked a very simple question. Is nicotine addictive? Is nicotine addictive? One after another. I do not they verbatim, they're saying the exact same phrase. I do not believe nicotine is addictive. Next guy. I do not believe nicotine is addictive. I had to look it up and watch the video. I was like, there's no way this actually happened. I was reading the news of this article last week, and I was like, this couldn't possibly have happened. Sure enough, one after another, I do not believe nicotine is addictive. This was so profound to the American public, it shifted public policy because the American public knew, okay, these guys are lying. These guys are not telling the truth. 1994, this is not 1920, right? This is 1994. The American public caught up leading up to this. The 40 years leading up to this, Big Tobacco had won case after case after case of people suing that tobacco causes mental health or physical pain or lung cancer, all these different things. They were continued to win win cases because they were saying, well, this is a matter of self-choice. This is people's personal choice. This is not our responsibility. This hearing caused an uproar in American public. Eventually, four years later, it led to the Master Settlement Agreement. It was the largest civil settlement in history where the eternal attorney generals of all 50 states sued the big tobacco companies and won $200 billion for the the health challenges that they were burdened with due to tobacco. So they're calling this a big tobacco moment a week and a half ago that potentially could culturally shift our whole trajectory going forward. And what was it? If you paid attention, KGM versus MetaPlatforms and Google, young Cayley argued that Instagram and YouTube were knowingly causing her harm, starting at six years old, because they were building algorithms built for addiction. They were designed for addiction, and that addiction was actually causing mental health problems. To a lot of people's surprise, she actually won. The jury found that Meta or YouTube and Instagram were liable for the harm because they were designing algorithms with this infinite scroll. It was an infinite scroll, and that infinite scroll is naturally designed to be addictive, and that addiction is causing mental health struggles. The verdict awarded millions and damages and set a precedent for thousands of similar lawsuits currently happening. There's currently 2,000 similar lawsuits. So it potentially could be a shift, a cultural shift. When we start to wake up, that this whole social media frenzy of this infinite loop of constant addiction, scrolling infinitely, was designed to make us addictive. And that addiction is actually causing us mental health struggles. And the corporate lie, the corporate, the corporate liability of these big tech companies will just similar to big tobacco, will be become public. But as I was thinking through it, have you ever wondered what makes it so addictive? I mean, with tobacco, right, it's a physical biological thing that's creating chemical dependencies. But with Instagram, with YouTube, with TikTok, it's not a physical dependency, it is an experience. It's an experience. What makes it so addictive, though? Reflecting on that, I had a possibility that we are all in a constant state of longing and yearning. That this is our baseline human state. We're longing and yearning, the baseline human experience. Or another way to say it is our thirst is never quite quenched. We are always reaching for something a little bit more. We are endlessly scrolling through life for that dopamine after dopamine. And for us, practically, maybe it's just dreaming of a new job or a new promotion so we can buy more things. Or maybe it's chasing new experiences or new adventures or new hikes or new houses or Amazon packages on our doorsteps. We're always reaching for something more. And underneath it all, I would argue that we're all actually chasing beauty. Sometimes without even knowing it, we are longing for beauty in this infinite scroll of life. And that beauty that gives us happiness or satisfaction or laughter or excitement when we see it, the way that we are infinitely scrolling is temporary. We all know that the infinite scroll through life only briefly satisfies, it always leaves us wanting more. So the question today is there anything at all that can satisfy the human heart? Is there anything at all that can satisfy the human heart? And from our passage today in John chapter 4, we'll pick up in verse 3. I believe we'll discover the answer to that question. Starting in verse 3. Jesus left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria, so he came to a town in Samaria called Sikar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to 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. So a little bit of backstory leading up to this. Thousand years prior to this experience in Samaria, right? If you remember the stories of the Old Testament, originally the twelve tribes were together. After Solomon died, a thousand years prior to Jesus, or about the northern kingdom split from the southern kingdom of Judah. The northern kingdom was called Israel, the southern kingdom was called Judah, and it led to this thousand-year struggle of conflict between the two. What the northern kingdom eventually became the Samaritans, basically, in the area of Samaria, and the southern kingdom of Judah became the Jewish people. The word we get the name Jew is from Judah, but there was a thousand-year struggle basically between these tribes that were previously together as brothers. The northern kingdom, about 700 years before Jesus was conquered by Assyria, and they were many of them were exiled. And if you remember the stories of Assyria, the way the Assyrians controlled populations was they would they would transport them. So they would come in and conquer the northern kingdom of Israel. They took about half of them, sent them to the other side of the world. Then they put a bunch of people from the other side of the world and gave them the houses down in Samaria. And the blending of populations was the way that Assyria controlled peoples. And so at that point, this people of Samaria were a blended culture. They're a blended group. The Jewish people down in Judah no longer considered them fully Jews. So they were Samaritans. If you remember as the story continues, the southern kingdom of Judah was also exiled by the Babylonians, right? So they were sent to Babylon, the leaders of the Jewish community in Judah. But 70 years later, with the king of Persia allowed them to come to return back to Jerusalem. So for 70 years they were longing, looking, hoping to return to Jerusalem, to go back up, to make Aliyah to Jerusalem. And as they were finally getting to go back to go to Jerusalem, who was there to oppose them? Anybody guess? It was the Samaritans of all people who were there to oppose them. They're finally getting to go back. And it says they plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and cause confusion in it. The builders worked with one hand and they held a weapon with the other as they were rebuilding Jerusalem. This even further cemented the deep hatred between the two tribes. You know, and we we expect opposition a lot of times from outsiders, right? But when that opposition comes from the inside, from family or friends, from the half-brother Samaritans, when you're the one causing me problems coming against me, it's an entirely new level of offense. David in Psalm says it like this that it is not an enemy who taunts me, or then I could bear it. But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. This is how they considered the Samaritans, right? They're they're previously, you know, at one point they were brothers. They're coming back to Jerusalem. The Samaritans are trying to oppose them. So by the time of Jesus, 450 years later, the Samaritans were still known for their betrayal. Jews deeply resented the Samaritans, and there was no forgiving or forgetting. And I think we can probably all relate that it's often easier to forgive someone far away or possibly even an enemy than it is that's to forgive someone who sits at our table. Just kind of briefly wanted to mention regeneration. Regeneration is a program that probably will start at the end of April. That's primarily helping us work through forgiveness and repentance. Forgiveness and repentance. Jewish people, 450 years later, we'll read later in the story, they're still holding on to this grudge of betrayal of the Samaritans. And sometimes, you know, we can walk in the same things. Hopefully, we don't go 450 years holding on to grudges, but we can walk in unforgiveness or unrepentance. And so regeneration is just a program that helps us kind of walk through personally our own forgiveness of things that have been done against us, as well as our own repentance and the things we've done against others. And we'll probably do it at the end of April. If you want to join us, I just wanted to throw it out there as something that you could you could join us into. But continue on in John chapter 4. And again, the Jews of G Jews in Jesus' day did not forgive or forget. And so 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 food. And the Samaritan woman said to him, But but you are a Jew, and I'm a Samaritan. How can you ask me for a drink? For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Even she knew, hey, I'm the enemy here, right? You guys hate us. Why are you coming to talk to me? We know we do not get along. We you think that we're corrupted in both our ethnicity as well as our religion, and you resent the fact of all the this hostility we had for a thousand years. Why are you coming to talk to me? Jesus answered her. Sir, the woman said, But you have nothing to draw with, and 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 livestock? Jesus answered, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. I think what Jesus is getting at is more than our physical thirst, it's that the human heart has this insatiable longing that cannot be satisfied through earthly means. It's our human condition that no matter how hard we try, no matter how matter how much we chase, the dopamine may satisfy us briefly for a moment, but our underlying thirst for something more remains. So we infinitely scroll through life, endlessly searching eternally discontent. He continues in verse 14. But whoever drinks the water that I give them will never thirst. There is a possibility, even to quench our thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. He is telling her, and now us that he can give us something that can satisfy our thirst, leading to eternal life. So what is eternal life? Thankfully, Jesus tells us later in John, this is eternal life, that they know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Eternal life is not just floating in the clouds, right? With with the angels and the harps. Eternal life is knowing God. And Jesus says that his thirst-quenching offer leads to this eternal life of knowing God. So back to that original question: Is there anything that can satisfy the human heart? Is there anything at all that can satisfy the human heart? Jesus tells us it's simply to know God. The only thing that can fully satisfy our innate longings is to know our Creator, to see the beauty of God, to know the beauty that is only found in God. C.S. Lewis says it like this that creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. If I find my in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. We were made to know God. But God is out there somewhere, and we are now here in this room. God is not currently sitting physically in a form. So then how do we satisfy our true longings here on earth? Jesus tells us that we can know God. We can see the beauty of God through the invitation that He gives, and that knowing God finally satisfies our hearts. Why? Because we see the beauty that we are longing for. And that is the premise of this whole series that we want to gaze at and behold the beauty of God in the face of Christ, where we find that sweet soul satisfaction. So today, in the remaining time, I just want to look briefly at the beauty of Jesus and that he is lowly and almighty. He is lowly and almighty. First, Jesus is lowly. When we come to him at our worst, we don't find resistance, we find compassion, nearness, rest. Continuing on in John 4, verse 27. Just then, at the end of their conversation, his disciples returned and they were surprised. They were surprised to find him talking with a woman. It doesn't say exactly why they were surprised. It even says in there they don't want to say anything about it. It just says, but they were surprised, and we can speculate on why. Why were they surprised? One, this is a Samaritan. We just talked about it. Wait a minute. These people, they tried to prevent us 450 years ago from rebuilding our city, and they've been enemies for all this time, and they're corrupted in their beliefs. Why are you talking to a Samaritan? Secondly, it was culturally inappropriate. Culturally inappropriate, right? This is in an isolated place, potentially, right? They're alone. A man is approaching a woman. At this age in the first century, this is not culturally appropriate, right? They're thinking, you know, people's minds is going to all kinds of places. The disciples show up saying, Well, okay, well, why is he talking to this lady? You know, culturally inappropriate. And third, she was probably an outcast within her own community. We learn in Jesus' conversation that she had five husbands. And the current husband, the current man she's living with was not her husband. So in the first century, that was incredibly scandalous. So it was shameful, probably. So this woman was likely avoiding others in her own community. If you remember, she came in the middle of the day alone. Right? People went to the wells in the morning or the afternoons. And it was a social thing for women. It still is a lot of times in cultures where that people will go to a well. It's a social thing for the women to gather, or the children sometimes. She's coming alone in the middle of the day, in the heat of the day, people speculate it's because she was isolated, she was marginalized, she was rejected, pushed to the edges of her own community. Yet it is there in her loneliness and brokenness that Jesus meets her. So what does it mean that Jesus is lowly? His heart towards sinners and sufferers is not frustration or distance, but it's gentle, compassionate, love that draws near. In Matthew, Jesus tells us that he, I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. When Jesus describes himself as lowly in heart, he's identifying with those in society, those who society deems unworthy. He is saying that he is willing to receive the lowest and the poorest and the worst among the people, the most obscure, the despised, the ignorant. He welcomes them. And rather than seeking the company of the social elite and powerful, he cares for the broken, for the lost, for the weak. Jesus is the only person who, if you get close to him, no matter how broken your life is, you don't feel smaller, you feel lifted up. Jesus is lowly. Jesus is lowly. And it is beautiful that he is lowly. But it's not the lowliness of Jesus alone that makes him beautiful. Many through history have probably been lowly. So what makes Jesus so exceptional? And it's that he why that he is lowly while he is simultaneously all powerful. He's lowly while he's simultaneously all powerful. Consider it just for a moment. Jesus has all the power in the universe. All things were created by him and for him. He is wise beyond measure. No one can comprehend him or fully understand his ways, and yet he uses all of his power. Not so that he could be served, but to serve. That is the beauty that our hearts are longing for, the beauty that universally moves us to awe and wonder and worship. That the King of all power and all glory bends down in humility to wash your feet, to tend your wounds. We read in Revelation, At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby, a rainbow that shone like an emerald and circled the throne. Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Around the throne were four living creatures, and day and night they never stopped saying. Continuing today, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to Jesus, who sits on the throne and who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him, who sits on the throne and worship him, who lives forever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say, You are worthy, our Lord and God, Jesus, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being. This is Jesus, the Almighty One, who all of heaven worships eternally. And that giant Jesus simultaneously, currently, with you, with me, is lowly bending down in service. When we really reflect on it, nothing is more profound. Nothing is more compelling. If you remember, beauty is what causes us to feel gladness or happiness or excitement or awe wonder when we see it. It's what moves our hearts to worship. And Jesus embodies all the beauty that we long for. He is our soul satisfaction that quenches the longings of our endless scrolling. So are you tired of the infinite scrolling through life that always leaves you wanting more? Will you receive the living water that Jesus gives, welling up into the eternal life of knowing God? So let us just take a brief moment to behold and consider the beauty of our King. His gentleness. His patience. To me, as children in humility, his gentleness is glory, his meekness is might, because the God who comes to us beggars is still the Lord of all light. Yet close to the broken, the word everlasting, but still gentle in what is spoken. He's the king ever reigning, below to meet the hurting, the all-powerful one who can carry our every burden. He is Jesus. Yet bows down with the weak. The one heaven worships but still listens when his children speak. The high and exalted, yet humble and near, the one crowned in splendor, but still tending to every tear. He's altogether lovely, the center of every story, and this king of every glory is still gentle. Riding on a donkey. Now gently, slowly, tenderly, he invites you to know him, stooping down in humility, so that you may behold him. So let us this day and every day newly sit at his feet, beholding the king of beauty.

SPEAKER_00 32:50

Beauty stirs our love, it ignites our passions, it awakens our longings. Is the light in your eyes now dawning? The beauty of God in the face of Jesus. Do you know?

SPEAKER_01 33:09

He's the beauty of all beauties, the majesty of all majesties, the awe of every wonder, the song with endless harmonies. Do you see him?

SPEAKER_00 33:23

You are created for worship and you are moved to worship, not out of duty, but only in seeing beauty. Jesus. Do you see it? Do you know it?

SPEAKER_01 33:57

Is your heart stirred to wonder? Are you moved to the joy of surrender? Is this gladness your soul's hunger? Do you worship? It When we see it, it causes us to feel, to experience, to know that peace and that pleasure, that rest beyond measure, that delight and grand wonder, it's the sweetness that we hunger. The Almighty, lowly, gentle, holy, the perfection of all beauty, the God of all glory, King Jesus. He's inviting you. He's inviting me to know beauty. So let us behold our King. Amen. Amen. Amen.