WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.080 Good seeing everyone. 00:00:01.080 --> 00:00:01.889 We are, uh. 00:00:02.665 --> 00:00:22.704 Uh, you know, even when I was pastoring, I'd, uh, you know, first started out, you know, communion would always be something tacked on to the end of the service, but, uh, I always thought it was something of such a weight and importance that I really wanted the service to be built around that, uh, my messages and all that instead of just being an after the, after the fact, uh, event that we did. 00:00:22.704 --> 00:00:28.344 And so, uh, this morning I think it's appropriate that, uh, we do the same as I'm, uh, sharing with you. 00:00:28.864 --> 00:00:37.835 Uh, about communion and this, uh, meal that the church, uh, has shared for over 2000 years together in community with one another. 00:00:37.835 --> 00:00:41.524 Of course, it has its moorings, the Passover meal, uh, God's people. 00:00:41.524 --> 00:00:48.664 And so much of what God has done with his people has been built around the meal, the common meal that is shared together. 00:00:49.085 --> 00:00:49.655 Um. 00:00:49.935 --> 00:01:02.715 I want to continue in that, in that vein, as we think about a communion meal as the people of God, as a community of faith, the, the enrichment of faith, the vividness that it brings to life. 00:01:02.804 --> 00:01:09.075 Uh, I wanna speak this morning on the subject of a nutritionally rich existence. 00:01:09.849 --> 00:01:12.549 A nutritionally rich existence. 00:01:12.549 --> 00:01:17.709 If you have your Bible, a smart device, whatever it is you follow along with, I encourage you to open it. 00:01:17.769 --> 00:01:28.120 Open your Bible to John chapter four and follow along with me as, uh, we explore verses 31 through 38 in this idea of a nutritionally rich existence. 00:01:28.120 --> 00:01:35.709 I, uh, I, I'm sad that I have to start off with some bad news, looking at some data, uh, from the Centers for Disease Control. 00:01:36.549 --> 00:01:38.680 Uh, the numbers don't look good for us. 00:01:39.040 --> 00:01:49.480 Uh, the latest data, and this is trending in a, in a negative direction as well, it's not getting any better, but the data shows that 42.8% of Americans are obese. 00:01:50.995 --> 00:01:53.484 32.5 are overweight. 00:01:53.484 --> 00:01:58.015 That means over 75% of our population is either obese or overweight. 00:01:58.045 --> 00:02:06.114 They link that to our diets, highly processed foods, uh, high fat diets, and a lack of AC exercise, but the real issue. 00:02:06.984 --> 00:02:14.905 Is, is diet, nutrition, uh, our eating habits, because it doesn't matter how much you exercise, you could never outrun a diet, can you? 00:02:15.504 --> 00:02:21.620 And so what, what is significant is what is it that we are using to fuel. 00:02:22.569 --> 00:02:23.289 Our bodies. 00:02:23.289 --> 00:02:31.810 You think about how much time in a day we spend foraging through our pantries, through our refrigerators, and we spend all day hungry. 00:02:31.810 --> 00:02:33.639 We're always looking for the next meal. 00:02:33.639 --> 00:02:35.229 What am I going to snack on? 00:02:35.289 --> 00:02:45.759 And through the course of a day, uh, we have been hungry, we have eaten a lot, and yet our bodies are deprived nutritionally. 00:02:47.365 --> 00:02:53.875 Those hunger pains that we get, the brain is sending signals to the body that what I need is nutrition. 00:02:54.985 --> 00:02:58.465 Now we, we provide food, we all eat until we're satisfied. 00:02:58.465 --> 00:03:07.525 But, but nutritionally, we never come to a place where we are satiated, where the nutritional needs of the body are, are satisfied. 00:03:08.604 --> 00:03:14.365 And so we keep feeding it empty calories and we do so until we are full, but we are never satiated. 00:03:14.395 --> 00:03:16.074 It nutritionally. 00:03:17.004 --> 00:03:24.235 And so what the body longs for is nutrition, and that becomes the very thing, uh, that we deprive it from. 00:03:25.645 --> 00:03:28.134 Well, the same thing happens spiritually. 00:03:29.094 --> 00:03:37.375 Uh, Jesus has set forth, and of course the word of God has set forth for us that, that, uh, have a nutritionally rich existence. 00:03:38.409 --> 00:03:42.789 To develop and to grow and to mature as a spiritual people. 00:03:43.180 --> 00:03:45.520 Well, there's some things that need to be practiced. 00:03:45.520 --> 00:03:47.259 It takes great intentionality. 00:03:47.259 --> 00:03:50.289 You need to, you need to study the word of God. 00:03:51.069 --> 00:03:56.469 Uh, you need to join together with God's people in rhythmic, continual worship. 00:03:56.469 --> 00:03:57.400 You need to pray. 00:03:57.400 --> 00:04:08.229 You need to serve, you need to need to give all of these things or the disciplines that add to our spiritual wellness, our spiritual maturity and and development as the people of God. 00:04:08.889 --> 00:04:17.139 Sadly, like our physical diets, we want to use substitutes, we want to use. 00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:29.620 Fast food instead of going to church, perhaps in, in a rhythm, in a pattern, not forsaken, the abandoning of ourselves together, the writer of Hebrew says, which has become the habit of some. 00:04:29.920 --> 00:04:30.819 Uh, we go to church. 00:04:30.819 --> 00:04:32.500 What, when, when it's convenient. 00:04:34.089 --> 00:04:46.329 Uh, instead of, instead of studying the word of God, instead of picking up the biblical text each day and immersing myself into the text with a prayerful attitude, uh, what sayeth the Lord. 00:04:46.735 --> 00:04:59.245 To me, instead of knowing the word of God and understanding the word of God, uh, we, we, we buy the most popular book at the Christian bookstore, or we listen to our favorite podcaster. 00:05:01.194 --> 00:05:23.454 Uh, instead of having that dynamic relationship, and I would hope that we would understand this, is that when we are a part of a, of a local body of believers, uh, I believe that there is this mystical union between the, a pastor that God calls a congregation, that he serves as an under shepherd and the working of the Holy Spirit, that there is a triangle, uh, a dynamic. 00:05:23.464 --> 00:05:45.035 There of God speaking through a pastor to an under shepherd, to a congregation at an appointed time, that the message you hear as a member of a congregation is the message that God's spirit has laid upon the heart of that under shepherd for you and his people for a time such as this. 00:05:46.024 --> 00:05:48.035 And a podcaster can never do that. 00:05:48.685 --> 00:05:57.204 Some favorite pastor off somewhere over on the west coast, he's going to speak a message that is, that in that dynamic is appropriate for his people in that time. 00:05:57.475 --> 00:06:03.714 Uh, but it's not necessarily a message that was for you in that dynamic that I just described. 00:06:05.334 --> 00:06:07.975 And so we have to be careful about the fads. 00:06:07.975 --> 00:06:10.524 We have to be careful about the trends. 00:06:10.524 --> 00:06:16.495 We have to be popular, we have to be aware of, of, of, of avoiding that, which is just popular. 00:06:17.379 --> 00:06:24.850 In the moment, I think we do well to hear the author of, of Hebrews writing in Hebrews chapter 13. 00:06:26.079 --> 00:06:28.389 Let me read this to you in Hebrews chapter. 00:06:28.569 --> 00:06:37.990 Hebrews chapter 13, Jesus, the writer of Hebrews would say something to this, to this very effect. 00:06:38.709 --> 00:06:40.540 Remember those he said in verse seven. 00:06:40.540 --> 00:06:48.550 Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. 00:06:49.180 --> 00:06:52.360 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 00:06:52.689 --> 00:06:56.439 Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings. 00:06:56.439 --> 00:07:07.540 For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods through which those who were occupied were not benefited. 00:07:09.430 --> 00:07:25.959 Now the deeper life, the nutritionally rich life, as we are going to discover through the teachings of Jesus this morning, is that it comes from our service and our engagement, our obedient to the will of God and the purposes of God. 00:07:26.620 --> 00:07:35.019 That's why Jesus would, uh, would offer these verses, listen to them in verses 31 and 32 regarding food. 00:07:35.019 --> 00:07:38.620 Now remember the context of this, of this passage in John four. 00:07:39.189 --> 00:07:48.370 It comes on the heels of Jesus' engagement with the Samaritan woman, the woman at the well, and he's talked to this woman about, about living waters that that lead. 00:07:49.180 --> 00:07:50.079 To life. 00:07:50.680 --> 00:07:54.790 And in that, in verse eight, we know that his disciples have gone to the city to get food. 00:07:54.790 --> 00:08:01.930 And now on the heels of this conversation about living water, Jesus has something to say to his disciples about food. 00:08:01.930 --> 00:08:06.129 And meanwhile, the disciples were urging him saying, rabbi, eat. 00:08:07.389 --> 00:08:13.480 But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. 00:08:15.714 --> 00:08:23.814 You see what these, what these disciples were thinking about and what we so often think about is just the moment. 00:08:24.894 --> 00:08:27.805 It's just the need of, of the moment, the, the immediate. 00:08:28.660 --> 00:08:41.649 Gratification, but what Jesus is going to do, just as water became a metaphor to talk to the Samaritan woman about living waters, waters, which she might partake and never thirst again. 00:08:42.070 --> 00:08:46.009 He's going to speak to these disciples about a food that they do not know. 00:08:48.549 --> 00:08:55.389 It becomes a metaphor for thinking about a nutritionally rich existence. 00:08:56.980 --> 00:08:59.289 That's what I wanna speak to this morning. 00:08:59.345 --> 00:09:08.110 I, I want to talk about four things from, from this passage that I think make for a nutritionally rich existence. 00:09:08.110 --> 00:09:21.009 I'm, of course, speaking in the spiritual realm, in the life of faith, but the same intentionality, the same deliberateness, the same forethought that it takes to planting our physical meals. 00:09:21.009 --> 00:09:24.100 If I'm going to, if I'm going to have a nutritional diet. 00:09:25.225 --> 00:09:40.554 If I'm going to, to, to avoid the fad diets, if I'm going to avoid the, the processed foods, the packaged foods, if I'm going to have a, uh, if I'm going to have a good, healthy nutritional diet, uh, it takes intentionality, doesn't it? 00:09:42.475 --> 00:09:53.004 Jesus is going to say the same thing is true in the life of faith, what God desires to accomplish in my life and yours. 00:09:54.264 --> 00:09:56.424 It's not gonna be done by the fashionable. 00:09:56.424 --> 00:10:09.384 It's not going to be done by the trendy or the popular, but here's the things that that will characterize a nutritionally rich existence as the people of God. 00:10:09.414 --> 00:10:19.465 The first thing notice in verses 31 through 34 is that a nutritionally rich existence has a sense of vocation. 00:10:21.190 --> 00:10:32.860 But if I'm going to have a nutritionally rich existence in my, in my communion with the father, in my walk with the Lord, then I'm going to have to have a, a vocational sense of my existence. 00:10:32.860 --> 00:10:34.389 Listen to these verses again. 00:10:34.690 --> 00:10:38.830 Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him saying, rabbi, eat. 00:10:39.789 --> 00:10:44.019 But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. 00:10:45.024 --> 00:10:50.544 So the disciples were saying to one another, no one brought him anything to eat, did he? 00:10:51.745 --> 00:10:53.664 Jesus said to them, my food. 00:10:54.144 --> 00:11:02.815 That is what brings wellness purpose, meaning what brings nutri nutritional enrichment to my life. 00:11:02.815 --> 00:11:11.934 My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his word. 00:11:14.049 --> 00:11:17.769 Jesus is saying, this is what charges my batteries. 00:11:19.299 --> 00:11:22.029 This is what gives me a sense of purpose and meaning. 00:11:22.029 --> 00:11:25.210 This, this is what enriches my life. 00:11:25.210 --> 00:11:28.840 It, it's doing the will of the Father. 00:11:28.840 --> 00:11:30.639 Jesus had a sense of vocation. 00:11:32.110 --> 00:11:35.259 Now there's a difference between an occupation and a vocation. 00:11:36.414 --> 00:11:44.245 What we should all embrace as followers of Christ is we should have a sense of vocation about our existence, about our daily lives. 00:11:44.245 --> 00:11:45.985 That's different from an occupation. 00:11:45.985 --> 00:11:49.465 An occupation, uh, is to have a task. 00:11:49.465 --> 00:12:04.105 You, you occupy space at a place where you've hired on, you, you, you've, uh, you're occupying space, doing a task for which you were hired so that you might receive a paycheck. 00:12:05.470 --> 00:12:06.610 And that's an occupation. 00:12:06.610 --> 00:12:08.679 That's not a vocation. 00:12:09.970 --> 00:12:15.129 Vocation is to do everything that you do with a sense of calling. 00:12:16.629 --> 00:12:19.720 It's the sense of calling that God has upon your life. 00:12:19.720 --> 00:12:23.590 You have answered the call of God in your life as a follower of Christ. 00:12:23.590 --> 00:12:27.309 His spirit prompted you, his his spirit convicted you. 00:12:27.309 --> 00:12:31.299 That spirit is calling you unto himself and you responded to that calling. 00:12:34.149 --> 00:12:38.860 And out of that calling, every facet of your life is impacted. 00:12:38.860 --> 00:12:45.039 You see, in the study of scripture, I've never understood this separation between the sacred and the secular. 00:12:46.120 --> 00:12:48.039 For a child of God, everything is sacred. 00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:55.000 Where, where you and I find ourselves, where our feet are on a daily basis because Christ dwells in you. 00:12:55.210 --> 00:12:56.919 That is a sacred place. 00:12:58.320 --> 00:12:59.559 These are sacred moments. 00:12:59.559 --> 00:13:01.330 These are sacred opportunities. 00:13:01.330 --> 00:13:05.049 These are sacred interactions that I have in some of the most me. 00:13:05.080 --> 00:13:08.289 What appear to be the most meaningless of places. 00:13:08.289 --> 00:13:11.080 Do you have that sense of vocation? 00:13:13.269 --> 00:13:15.429 You know, when I hear people talk about how miserable they are. 00:13:16.450 --> 00:13:28.690 At school, at work, whatever it is, whatever that thing is, it takes up the greatest portion of their day, whether it's the work, the school, whatever, and they say, you know, I just, I, I, I really dislike doing this. 00:13:30.340 --> 00:13:35.019 Well, when I hear a believer say that, all I'm hearing is that you have no sense of vocation. 00:13:36.940 --> 00:13:53.230 Because if I have a sense of vocation, then any task that, that might seem so redundant, any, any task that, that, any existence that seem, that would appear to others to be just a grind while others around me are saying, you know, I really don't like it here. 00:13:53.230 --> 00:13:57.309 I'm just trying to get through the day and get to my, get to my paycheck. 00:13:58.434 --> 00:13:59.815 With a sense of vocation. 00:13:59.815 --> 00:14:08.754 I'm understanding that in my calling, I'm doing my, my task, whatever I'm doing, I'm doing it under the Lord and not under men. 00:14:09.985 --> 00:14:13.764 I'm seeking to do this thing in a way that brings honor and glory to him. 00:14:13.945 --> 00:14:20.485 That sense of vocation, it impacts my, my role as an employee, as as a student, as a husband, as a father. 00:14:20.634 --> 00:14:24.174 There is no arena of life that goes untouched. 00:14:25.509 --> 00:14:31.779 Is not impacted by that sense of vocational call of God upon our lives. 00:14:34.269 --> 00:14:38.710 We see it in the life of Jesus. 00:14:39.669 --> 00:14:42.759 Listen to the words of verse 27. 00:14:43.840 --> 00:14:49.809 At this point, as disciples came, they were amazed that he had been speaking with a woman. 00:14:49.809 --> 00:14:52.539 Yet no one said, what do you seek? 00:14:52.539 --> 00:14:53.860 Why do you speak? 00:14:55.284 --> 00:14:59.424 With her because he had a sense of vocation. 00:15:02.365 --> 00:15:07.134 Everyone else would dismiss a Samaritan, wouldn't they think? 00:15:07.134 --> 00:15:18.054 In our day and time we under, we failed to appreciate completely the, the prejudice and the tension that existed between the Jews and, and the Samaritans. 00:15:19.929 --> 00:15:25.345 I don't really have time for all the historical background of that, but I can frame it in a modern context. 00:15:25.345 --> 00:15:29.695 You, let's imagine the people group that you despise most. 00:15:31.495 --> 00:15:34.914 I know our temptation is, oh, I don't have a group like that, pastor. 00:15:34.914 --> 00:15:36.894 I, I'm much too holy for that. 00:15:37.044 --> 00:15:37.404 No, no. 00:15:37.404 --> 00:15:38.725 Let, let's get past all that. 00:15:38.725 --> 00:15:47.095 Let's, let's just imagine the people group that you really don't care for, for whom you know in your heart you have a prejudice. 00:15:49.615 --> 00:15:58.825 Multiply that times 10, multiply that, whether it's hate, just dis disregard or whatever, a dismissal of that people group. 00:15:58.855 --> 00:16:08.634 Multiply that by 10 and only then do you begin to understand the prejudice that existed in that moment. 00:16:09.865 --> 00:16:11.154 They cannot fathom. 00:16:11.154 --> 00:16:15.684 They cannot imagine why Jesus would be having a conversation with a Samaritan. 00:16:16.840 --> 00:16:21.940 Woman, see Jesus understood. 00:16:23.409 --> 00:16:26.919 In this sense of vocation that I have, every place is sacred. 00:16:26.919 --> 00:16:34.090 Every person is sacred with whom I interact with a sense of vocation. 00:16:34.090 --> 00:16:43.600 Wherever I am, whatever I'm doing, God is using in the process of possibly drawing others unto him. 00:16:46.870 --> 00:17:09.609 I'd ask you, have you come to that place where you have a sense of vocation about, about your life, an understanding of your faith and your relationship with the father, and in that sense of vocational call that that leaves no stone unturned that impacts every arena of your life. 00:17:11.075 --> 00:17:12.325 Because Jesus says it is. 00:17:12.384 --> 00:17:18.835 It is in this context, doing the will of the Father, wherever I am, even in Samaria. 00:17:21.085 --> 00:17:24.775 In this, I find enrichment and fulfillment. 00:17:26.049 --> 00:17:27.549 Everything becomes important. 00:17:27.549 --> 00:17:29.650 Everything becomes significant. 00:17:30.190 --> 00:17:39.579 'cause it's an opportunity to glorify the father and to showcase him and to show the fruit of the spirit, the spirit of Christ in a way that others may not. 00:17:39.730 --> 00:17:43.000 People that would never enter a church, they will watch you, they'll watch me. 00:17:44.349 --> 00:17:54.490 The second thing that makes for a nutritional existence, nutritionally rich existence, is not only is it, is it an existence that is vocational? 00:17:54.984 --> 00:17:57.295 But it's also one that is insatiable. 00:17:58.255 --> 00:17:59.035 Insatiable. 00:17:59.035 --> 00:18:00.355 It's never satisfied. 00:18:00.355 --> 00:18:06.775 Notice, let's just begin in, in verse 32, but he said to them, I, I have food. 00:18:06.775 --> 00:18:08.875 Remember, they've asked the question about food. 00:18:08.875 --> 00:18:11.154 Did somebody feed him that we didn't see or know about? 00:18:11.184 --> 00:18:21.805 You know, Jesus says here in verse 32, I have food to eat that you do not know. 00:18:24.269 --> 00:18:28.134 Yeah, that's, that's difficult for them to understand. 00:18:28.134 --> 00:18:37.180 We've, we've heard your teachings, we've heard everything that you've had to say, oh, we've, we've seen your, your miracles. 00:18:38.920 --> 00:18:44.349 Well, they, they can imagine that, that there's more to know that there's, that there's more to understand. 00:18:44.349 --> 00:18:46.269 And of course we understand they have a lot. 00:18:46.450 --> 00:18:54.819 We know from hindsight there's a lot more that's coming, a lot more that, that they have failed to comprehend and understand at this point. 00:18:56.019 --> 00:19:06.220 But what we see in verse 33 is that these disciples have taken Jesus far too, literally, he says, so the disciples were saying to one another, no one has brought him anything to eat. 00:19:06.670 --> 00:19:11.170 Did he Jesus speaking about food, they're, they're thinking literally about food. 00:19:11.170 --> 00:19:15.910 We see that Jesus is misunderstood numerous times in the Gospels, don't we? 00:19:15.910 --> 00:19:22.089 Where people took him literally where he was just using something literal as a spiritual metaphor. 00:19:22.089 --> 00:19:27.309 Nicodemus Jesus in that conversation about being born again. 00:19:27.579 --> 00:19:33.250 Nicodemus was, was taking him literal, how is, how can one be born again? 00:19:33.250 --> 00:19:35.170 He's thinking in terms of spiritual birth. 00:19:35.934 --> 00:19:41.634 The Jews, when Jesus would speak about the temple, they were thinking about a literal temple. 00:19:41.634 --> 00:19:48.595 The Samaritan woman thought he was just talking about water, but Jesus had this unique way, none bearing here. 00:19:48.595 --> 00:19:53.815 Of course, uh, it's nonetheless true here, but Jesus had that way of taking the literal. 00:19:54.654 --> 00:20:07.525 That which people could see and observe, he took, could take those and he could fashion them into something, uh, that, that had bearing upon their spiritual life and their understanding of the father. 00:20:09.775 --> 00:20:14.214 But what I want us to see here is that there's always more. 00:20:14.964 --> 00:20:22.105 To be understood, always more to be pursued in the life of faith, never reaching a place of being satisfied. 00:20:22.375 --> 00:20:23.694 Listen to verse 34. 00:20:23.694 --> 00:20:25.434 We see it even in the life of Jesus. 00:20:25.434 --> 00:20:31.974 Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 00:20:31.974 --> 00:20:40.375 If you could see that in, in the, in the original language, in the Greek text, the verb tense is continual. 00:20:41.349 --> 00:20:41.829 Ongoing. 00:20:41.829 --> 00:20:43.269 This isn't a one time deal. 00:20:43.269 --> 00:20:44.529 This isn't past tense. 00:20:45.190 --> 00:20:50.829 He said, my food is to do the will, verb tense, continual, ongoing. 00:20:51.099 --> 00:20:57.130 My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 00:20:57.130 --> 00:21:00.190 It is something that, that is continual and ongoing. 00:21:00.190 --> 00:21:02.410 Jesus used the same word on the cross. 00:21:02.410 --> 00:21:03.970 He says it is finished. 00:21:06.460 --> 00:21:08.769 Wasn't really finished though, was it? 00:21:10.025 --> 00:21:17.410 The work of Christ, the work of the Spirit continues on through the body of Christ. 00:21:18.309 --> 00:21:27.670 The church Jesus had no sense of having arrived and knowing the will of God and doing the will of God. 00:21:29.319 --> 00:21:35.799 You see it, it makes for a nutritionally rich existence. 00:21:37.180 --> 00:21:52.299 When I continue to hunger and thirst, never being satisfied with what I've experienced, what I've known, what I've understood previously, who can know the mind and the heart of God, it creates an insatiable appetite. 00:21:54.970 --> 00:21:57.609 And leads to a nutritionally rich existence. 00:21:57.609 --> 00:22:06.940 A third thing God would have us notice about this kind of existence is that it has a providential awareness That shouldn't surprise us. 00:22:07.480 --> 00:22:09.519 Do not say Jesus said. 00:22:10.150 --> 00:22:16.779 Jesus said, do you not say he's offering a little proverbial statement here? 00:22:18.160 --> 00:22:20.319 Do you not say there are yet four months? 00:22:20.319 --> 00:22:21.430 And then comes. 00:22:22.089 --> 00:22:23.079 Harvest. 00:22:24.250 --> 00:22:28.269 Behold I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields. 00:22:28.269 --> 00:22:33.009 And they, and they are white for harvest already. 00:22:33.009 --> 00:22:38.619 He who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for E, for life. 00:22:38.619 --> 00:22:45.910 Eternal so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 00:22:48.250 --> 00:23:00.579 Now, I don't want you to be confused by this statement here in, in verse 35, what the point that Jesus is making to his disciples and to us, that you're behind. 00:23:02.230 --> 00:23:03.160 You're already behind. 00:23:05.065 --> 00:23:11.095 We are already behind in what we should be doing and what we should be accomplishing for the kingdom of God. 00:23:11.125 --> 00:23:29.454 Now, what Jesus says here in, in verse 35, it's apparently some little parochial, um, uh, some colloquialism, some little local phrase that, that maybe these disciples were, were familiar with, because nowhere else do you find that little proverbial statement. 00:23:29.545 --> 00:23:31.615 It's found nowhere else in extent literature. 00:23:33.025 --> 00:23:34.585 We find it nowhere else. 00:23:36.055 --> 00:23:45.055 I think the closest thing that, that we could understand and what he's saying here, do you not say they're yet four months, and then comes the harvest. 00:23:45.055 --> 00:23:47.065 Behold, I say to you, lift up your li eyes. 00:23:47.065 --> 00:23:47.724 Look on the field. 00:23:47.724 --> 00:23:48.805 They're white for harvest. 00:23:48.805 --> 00:23:53.964 That first clause there, they are yet four months, and then comes the harvest. 00:23:53.964 --> 00:23:57.805 You think you have time and be patient. 00:24:00.009 --> 00:24:03.789 Phrase we would be familiar with is Rome wasn't built in a day. 00:24:03.789 --> 00:24:05.500 Don't get in a big rush. 00:24:07.059 --> 00:24:09.880 Rome wasn't built in a day. 00:24:11.710 --> 00:24:14.890 That's not what he's saying in regard to the kingdom of God. 00:24:16.180 --> 00:24:25.569 Jesus is saying to his disciples, this doesn't need to be your attitude, this attitude that people have about agriculture with this agricultural truth. 00:24:26.500 --> 00:24:29.049 There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest. 00:24:29.049 --> 00:24:32.019 That is not a spiritual truth. 00:24:33.250 --> 00:24:36.369 He's saying for us there should be a, a sense of urgency. 00:24:36.369 --> 00:24:44.710 We, we don't have the privilege of delay between sowing and reaping and harvesting as, as in a agricultural metaphor. 00:24:46.089 --> 00:24:46.240 No. 00:24:46.240 --> 00:24:50.740 The calling that we have and what we are called to our mission there, there's an urgency. 00:24:52.539 --> 00:24:54.130 Look, the fields are white. 00:24:55.194 --> 00:24:59.214 Under harvest play on this. 00:24:59.214 --> 00:25:00.954 I think that's happening. 00:25:00.954 --> 00:25:04.150 That could be easily missed, you know? 00:25:04.569 --> 00:25:07.930 Um, wheat is not necessarily white when it's hard. 00:25:07.930 --> 00:25:13.000 It has a golden hue when, when wheated is, is ready for, for the harvest. 00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:15.549 Now there is a, there is a rot, right? 00:25:15.609 --> 00:25:24.400 I guess that would, would appear, uh, uh, that would appear white in, uh, appearance if it was left in the field too long and not harvest it. 00:25:24.670 --> 00:25:26.019 I really don't think that's it. 00:25:28.329 --> 00:25:30.430 I think what Jesus is describing here. 00:25:31.105 --> 00:25:32.545 Has to be connected back. 00:25:32.545 --> 00:25:34.974 And this is always good biblical interpretation. 00:25:35.335 --> 00:25:44.484 Uh, our tendency is, is to, is to lift a text out of its context and just make it apply to whatever we want to make it apply to. 00:25:44.484 --> 00:25:59.634 But good biblical exegesis always requires context and, and so I think good biblical acts of Jesus and understanding of what Jesus is describing here requires of us to go back to what he was dealing with previously. 00:26:01.150 --> 00:26:18.039 The Samaritan woman, the miracle that, that she experienced, she went back after putting down her water pot, verse 38, verse 28, went to the city, said to the man, come see a man who told me all things that I've done. 00:26:18.849 --> 00:26:21.039 This is not the Christ is it. 00:26:22.299 --> 00:26:26.950 And all of those men, they, they went out of the city. 00:26:28.420 --> 00:26:32.500 And we're coming to him now. 00:26:32.500 --> 00:26:56.109 I think as Jesus is dealing with these disciples and their understanding of, of this kind of food for which they should truly long for, I think he looks across that field and he sees the men of Samaria coming from that Samaritan city wearing their white robes look. 00:26:58.105 --> 00:26:59.454 Here's your opportunity. 00:27:01.464 --> 00:27:15.505 A people that you would dismiss, a people that now you, you are understanding that God is going in the, in the redemptive purposes of God, he is even going to save the Samaritans. 00:27:15.505 --> 00:27:18.474 Well, if that's true, uh, listen, it's gonna take a long time. 00:27:18.474 --> 00:27:22.434 It's gonna truly take a work of God for the Samaritans to come to faith. 00:27:23.755 --> 00:27:25.884 I know they have no interest in the things. 00:27:26.484 --> 00:27:27.085 Of God. 00:27:27.085 --> 00:27:29.545 If God's gonna save him, he's gonna have to do it himself. 00:27:29.545 --> 00:27:33.444 Jesus is saying, no, there's an urgency about this moment. 00:27:34.494 --> 00:27:35.904 The fields are wide into the harvest. 00:27:35.904 --> 00:27:36.414 They're coming. 00:27:36.414 --> 00:27:38.035 This is the opportunity. 00:27:38.454 --> 00:27:48.865 Now, he realized the importance of these, these kinds of providential moments. 00:27:50.950 --> 00:27:55.750 You see the awareness that we ought to have in our, in our existence as the people of God. 00:27:55.750 --> 00:28:08.079 Every one of us in the truest sense are missionaries that we're, where our feet are planted and at, at any course of the day, we are the presence of Christ in that moment. 00:28:08.079 --> 00:28:09.400 I have a sense of vocation. 00:28:09.640 --> 00:28:17.289 In any moment, I have an awareness, uh, that, that any encounter could be a, a providential encounter. 00:28:19.210 --> 00:28:32.500 And to exist that way, the way that Jesus did just, uh, the routines and the highways and the by waves of everyday life and how he could turn those moments into something for the kingdom. 00:28:35.019 --> 00:28:39.994 Oh, don't, you know, it's a, it's a nutritionally rich existence. 00:28:40.184 --> 00:28:45.670 It's what gives meaning and purpose to life far beyond anything, this world. 00:28:46.329 --> 00:28:50.259 Can offer us in its temporal awareness. 00:28:51.609 --> 00:28:56.079 Which brings me to a final element of this nutritionally rich existence. 00:28:56.799 --> 00:29:03.009 Not only is it vocational and in and and insatiable and providential, but it's also communal. 00:29:03.009 --> 00:29:07.450 Notice it's communal acts aspect in verse 37. 00:29:08.049 --> 00:29:10.960 For in, in this case, the saying is true. 00:29:12.970 --> 00:29:14.410 One sows and another. 00:29:16.134 --> 00:29:19.015 Don't, don't ever underestimate your providential moments. 00:29:20.575 --> 00:29:23.214 Don't ever underestimate these providential encounters. 00:29:23.214 --> 00:29:25.255 These men from the Samaritan city are coming. 00:29:25.255 --> 00:29:32.575 Don't ever underestimate the don't, don't think that that, because you don't, don't dismiss them saying they have no interest in things of God. 00:29:32.724 --> 00:29:33.984 The woman told them about it. 00:29:33.984 --> 00:29:34.579 They're coming to see. 00:29:38.275 --> 00:29:42.325 Here's your opportunity for, in this case, the saying is true. 00:29:42.325 --> 00:29:44.545 One soaps, one soaps in another. 00:29:44.545 --> 00:29:48.654 Reaps I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored. 00:29:49.285 --> 00:29:53.305 Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor. 00:29:53.305 --> 00:30:02.964 You've got to see yourselves as a part of a community experience of what God is doing, what God is accomplishing through his people, the totality of his people. 00:30:03.670 --> 00:30:28.390 Not just you at the brochure on a street corner, but how is God going to use my encounter with some individual that I may not even know And your encounter with that person, uh, 200 miles from here, a person that you don't even know who can even imagine how God is going to use the communal aspect of his people. 00:30:30.414 --> 00:30:41.335 To bring individuals into a life and relationship with him, that my witness and your witness, God uses all that. 00:30:41.484 --> 00:30:45.654 You know, only time in eternity will measure all of this. 00:30:47.109 --> 00:30:49.150 Joining in another man's work. 00:30:49.150 --> 00:30:53.140 I mean, that's the very thing John and Peter did in Acts chapter eight. 00:30:53.200 --> 00:30:56.049 You know, Philip was already working among the Samaritans. 00:30:56.559 --> 00:30:59.559 That Samaritan revival there in Acts chapter eight. 00:31:00.069 --> 00:31:05.650 Well, John and Peter came and, and validated that God's spirit is moving upon. 00:31:05.680 --> 00:31:06.069 Yes. 00:31:06.075 --> 00:31:09.190 Even the Samaritans bill was already working. 00:31:11.650 --> 00:31:14.134 Collectively, that's what we're doing as a community. 00:31:14.785 --> 00:31:18.924 Of faith, it's understanding who I am, vocationally. 00:31:18.924 --> 00:31:24.144 It's understanding how my life is a part of the providential purposes of God. 00:31:24.295 --> 00:31:37.224 And when I have this understanding, and all believers have this understanding, there is a communal quality that comes to bear on this great salvation that God is accomplishing. 00:31:40.615 --> 00:31:42.295 So you're, you're here this morning. 00:31:44.109 --> 00:31:51.819 I'm, I'm standing here this morning because of an untold number of people that would impact my life. 00:31:53.380 --> 00:32:06.039 Could've been your grandparents, your parents, some pastors, some Sunday school teachers, some classmates, some coworker that was a believer, and you watched and you observed, you asked questions. 00:32:08.019 --> 00:32:33.984 In a way, unbeknownst to you, this community of believers God used in providential ways, in this faith that is yours now that that goes back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to the judges and the kings, the disciples to us here today. 00:32:36.184 --> 00:32:50.634 We're all here because of of others, because of how God used a community of people to accomplish his salvific purposes. 00:32:51.865 --> 00:32:55.134 Alex Haley name, you're familiar with the author of Roots. 00:32:56.815 --> 00:32:59.394 Alex Haley was a successful author, writer. 00:32:59.394 --> 00:33:00.295 He said whenever he. 00:33:01.884 --> 00:33:26.154 He said, whenever I started becoming a little too full of myself, being pleased with who I am and what I accomplished as Alex Haley, when I would feel pride welling up in me, he said, I would sit in my office and I would look at a, a picture that I had framed on my wall, and it was always very humbling. 00:33:27.805 --> 00:33:29.575 It was a picture. 00:33:30.759 --> 00:33:33.880 Of a turtle on a fence post. 00:33:36.519 --> 00:33:47.440 It was a reminder that if you ever see a turtle on a fence post, someone put it there because turtles don't climb fence posts. 00:33:51.095 --> 00:33:58.450 We are where we are because we stand now on the shoulders of others. 00:34:00.099 --> 00:34:09.940 God has used in a communal way to be a part of his salvific purposes. 00:34:11.199 --> 00:34:14.469 You and I are here because of others. 00:34:17.170 --> 00:34:24.550 I wonder as we sit here and talk about this, who will come to faith because of you? 00:34:27.039 --> 00:34:30.489 Who will come to faith because of you. 00:34:30.519 --> 00:34:33.369 Now that, that's a question for which there is no answer. 00:34:35.349 --> 00:34:37.360 'cause I think time Eter eternity. 00:34:37.360 --> 00:34:47.710 I think you and I are going to be shocked when our life comes to an end and we are immediately in the presence of God when then we shall know fully as we have been fully known. 00:34:48.880 --> 00:34:51.789 When no longer are we seeing through a glass dark lake. 00:34:52.059 --> 00:35:11.050 Yeah, but now face to face, I think you and I are going to be shocked, never imagining the impact and the influence that we had in others coming to faith that we can't even imagine. 00:35:14.885 --> 00:35:18.864 See, when you, when you and I have that sense of vocation. 00:35:21.114 --> 00:35:48.505 When we have that sense of providential importance, when I have this insatiable appetite for the things of God, when I understand the importance of my presence, of how God uses my presence in any moment of the day to influence others, and together we have this communal impact, well it's then it's then. 00:35:50.199 --> 00:35:57.880 You and I have a nutritionally rich existence as the people of God. 00:35:58.809 --> 00:36:03.130 Let me have a word of prayer, and as I'm praying we'll pass out our communal elements. 00:36:03.699 --> 00:36:05.409 Our Father, how grateful we.