Good morning, local. How are we today? Good,
good. So good to be here with all of you. If
I haven't had a chance to meet you yet, I'm Paul
Ballington, and I get to be a lead pastor here
at local and church. Really just going to start
us off strong today. I got a confession to make.
I like waiting a little bit. It really builds
attention. My mom and my bonus mom are in here
right now, so they're sweating bullets right
now. All right? All right? Hey, this is my confession.
You guys can relax. It's nothing too crazy, okay?
This is my confession, though, is that there
is a whole lot of things in life that I enjoy.
If you've been with us for any amount of time,
you know quite a few of those things, okay? I
enjoy public skate, enjoy the Raiders, the Florida
Gators, hunting, World War II history, surfing,
my awesome, wonderful wife, Nicole, our four
beautiful, healthy children, and lasagna, all
those things. That pretty much covers it. Publix
cakes was at the top of the list, though. There's
a lot of things I enjoy in life. And I feel like
most of us can make a pretty decent list of all
the things that we enjoy in life. We got our
hobbies. We got our sports teams. We got our
families. We have our interests, and we enjoy
them. And there's nothing wrong with that whatsoever.
But I want to ask you this, church. Do any of
those things bring you satisfaction? Think about
that for a second. All those things and those
places and those people that we enjoy, do they
bring us satisfaction? Maybe it'll help if we
clearly define satisfaction. This is what the
dictionary has to say. Satisfaction, fulfillment
of one's wishes, expectations or needs, or the
pleasure derived from this. Honestly local? That's
the dictionary's definition, and we should throw
it in the trash. It's watered down garbage. Here's
what true satisfaction really means. Biblical
true, which is the truth, always has been and
always will be, to be truly satisfied, it means
that something fills your soul. To really have
true satisfaction, your soul will be filled to
the brim. You get so filled with joy, peace,
hope, and love that you are truly satisfied.
And that is satisfaction local. And it's a wonderful,
beautiful way to live. And here's the reality.
All those things that I just listed that I thoroughly
enjoy. All those things that you listed that
you thoroughly enjoy. They will never bring true
satisfaction. Sure, we enjoy them, but those
things, those places, and those people, they
will never bring us true satisfaction. Now, don't
get me wrong, local. Sitting in my living room,
eating Publix cake next to my awesome, incredible
wife, watching the Florida Gators, I love it,
and I enjoy it, and it makes me happy. But, there's
only one way to have true satisfaction, church.
There's only one way to truly fill our soul.
And here's the great news local. It's available
to every single one of us that truly wants it.
And that one way to have true satisfaction is
exactly what we are going to dig in today into
our scripture that we're going to study in our
time together. And not only Well, we see and
experience the real source of true satisfaction
today, but we're also going to see how God creates
spiritual momentum out of that satisfaction once
we have it. So local, if you're ready, if you
got your Bibles or devices with you, we're going
to be in John four verses one through 42. You
can also track along in the program you should
have received on your way in. And what we are
doing today. today is week six of our Momentum
series as a church and what we have been doing
so far this year as a church is we've been looking
at different scriptures and verses in our Bibles
of how God moved in these massive ways through
cities and people and he created monumental spiritual
momentum that changed the world and still is
to this day. And what we're doing as a church
right now is we are just humbly recognizing that
God has blessed local with momentum. And what
we're trying to do as a church is we do not want
to get in the way of what God wants to do here.
We want his momentum to keep flowing through
us as individuals into our families and into
our community. And today we're going to be studying
and we're going to be looking at an awesome interaction
between Jesus and a woman. And that interaction
and what Jesus does and how it leads to an entire
region being forever changed. And even though
this happened 2000 years ago, This scripture
is going to do the same thing today in Mims,
Florida that it did 2 ,000 years ago. Church,
here's how it starts. John 4 verses 1 through
6. Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard
that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples
than John. Although, in fact, it was not Jesus
who baptized, but his disciples. So he 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 Sikkar, near the plot of ground
Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob's well
was there and Jesus, tired as he was from the
journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
So here's where we're at scripture. We're in
the Gospel of John. John was a disciple that
lived with and he walked with and he experienced
all that Jesus did in his Ministry while he was
here on earth and God inspired John to give us
this account of Jesus's life and John was inspired
by God to specifically write this account in
a way so that we would know when we read and
we study it, we would walk away knowing for sure
that Jesus is the Savior of the world. And up
to this point in John's account, Jesus is pretty
early in his ministry. Jesus had been baptized,
he starts gathering his 12 disciples, he performed
his first public miracle at the wedding by turning
water to wine, and then he's even started to
cause some trouble. Believe it or not, Jesus
actually caused quite the disturbance in his
time here on earth. Actually, the biggest disturbance.
So for all my men here this morning, Jesus was
the strongest, toughest man to ever live. And
when you follow him and you give him your life,
you don't have to check your testicles at the
door. You don't gotta do it. Okay. All right.
I know some of you guys need that encouragement
this morning. If you want to know more about
that man, you need to get on that QR code for
that men's breakfast, February 27th, and you
need to register right now. All right. So. Right
before chapter four, Jesus had fashioned a whip
and he drove some people out of the temple. And
then he also confronts a bunch of religious people
that know all about him, but they actually can't
recognize Jesus when he's standing right in front
of them. And right after that is where we pick
up in chapter four, and as we just read, Jesus
is back on the road. Jesus and his disciples,
they've left Jerusalem in this area known as
Judea and they're headed back to Galilee where
Jesus grew up. And it gives us an important detail
and it tells us that he had to go through Samaria
and he comes to a town called Sakar. This place
has some history. It tells us that Jacob, whom
God used in part of his plan to create the nation
of Israel back in the Old Testament, this is
where Jacob had gifted some land to his son Joseph
and then there's a well there. And it tells us
that Jesus was tired. He sat down to drink from
the well. It's the dead middle of the day. And
then remember, it tells us that Jesus had to
go through Samaria. It's an important detail
that we're going to see more about here in a
second, okay? Verses 7 through 10 tell us this.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus
said to her, will you give me a drink? His disciples
had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan
woman came to him and said, You are a Jew and
I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for
a drink for Jews do not associate with Samaritans?
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. Local, these 42 verses that
we're walking through today are so incredibly
gospel rich. Right here what we just read. Jesus
is being very, very intentional. None of this
is happening by coincidence. Jesus is the only
perfect one to ever walk our planet. Everything
He did had purpose. He's doing every bit of this
to create spiritual momentum, and He starts all
of this off by Him going and speaking to the
Samaritan woman, and He's right outside the town
of Sakar in Samaria, and it's in the dead middle
of the day. As we just read, It says, for Jews
do not associate with Samaritans. Now, this is
a big deal. If you got your paper Bible with
you right now, you're going to see a footnote
down at the bottom of the page, and it says,
or do not use dishes Samaritans have used. Point
being, church, Jews and Samaritans, they absolutely
despised each other. This hatred, it goes all
the way back to 722 years before the birth of
Jesus. And it's this racial, political, religious
rooted kind of hatred, like really putting it
lightly this way. It was, it was gnarly. It was
gnarly between the Jews and Samaritans. Like
that's putting it lightly. It's like Gator fans
and Seminole fans times a million church, okay?
Times a million. And what we see with Jesus,
he totally breaks the cultural norm of his day
and he is the first to speak to the Samaritan
woman. This would have been very, very radical
in the time that Jesus does it. So much so that
even the decision Jesus makes to intentionally
travel this way is a big deal. Most Jews back
in Jesus's day Making their way from Jerusalem
to Galilee. They would have taken a completely
different route to go there that would have taken
two days longer Just because they didn't want
to come that close to Samaria, but not Jesus
Everything he does has purpose And then also
that point that the scripture tells us about
it being in the middle of the day and when this
woman is there getting water It's a big deal
tells us a lot about this woman and more about
her that we're gonna find out real soon But what
we see is Jesus starts this dialogue with her
He's doing this to lead to a point. He asked
her for water and then he just straight up tells
her He says if you knew who it was that was asking
you if you knew the gift of God Which is Jesus?
Then you would ask him and Jesus would give her
living water See Jesus is building up to this
powerful powerful moment. But as we're about
to see this woman, she's still not tracking with
him This is how she responds, verses 11 and 12.
Sir, the woman said, 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 this well and drank from it
himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?
So this woman, she's still thinking about the
actual physical water. Her mind is on satisfaction,
but not the right kind of true satisfaction.
Just like a whole lot of us right now We want
satisfaction, but we're looking in all the wrong
places for it We're either taking the things
and the places and the people that God places
around us and we're trying to fill our soul with
them Which they can never do or a lot of us right
now We're taking this to the even next level
and we're trying to find satisfaction in sin
and local We're chasing a lost cause Because
on the other side of sin, there is never satisfaction
If that sin goes undealt with, all sin actually
leads to death, is what scripture tells us. See,
Jesus, he is driving all this dialogue to a climax,
to this big massive point. We're going to continue
to see this unfold in the text, but Jesus is
trying to help us see that real, true, soul -filling
satisfaction only comes one way. We will only
find true, soul -filling satisfaction in our
Savior, not sin local. That's our first takeaway
here today. Satisfaction in our Savior, not sin.
Now we're going to completely unpack this point
and this truth here in a minute, but before we
do, I want us to first read these next words
from Jesus. Verses 13 through 18, they say this,
Jesus answered, everyone who drinks this water
will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the
water I give them will never thirst. Indeed,
the water I give them will become in them a spring
of water, welling up to eternal life. The woman
said to him, sir, give me this water so that
I don't get thirsty and have to keep coming back
here to draw water. He told her, go tell call
your husband and come back. I have no husband,
she replied. Jesus said to her, You were right
when you say you have no husband The fact is
is you have had five husbands and the man you
now have is not your husband What you have just
said is quite true So Jesus He speaks to the
physical water, but just like he's been intentionally
doing this whole time He's working this way to
speak to her about true satisfaction biblical
satisfaction soul Filling satisfaction and there's
only one way to have it local and that's through
Jesus now before we really break this down It's
very very important that we notice Jesus does
not start all of this by calling out her sin
He first starts by telling her about his grace
the living water Now Jesus, as you study his
life and you read the Gospels for yourself, you
will see that he perfectly towed the tension
of grace and truth at all times. And after he
tells her about this living water that he has
to give her, of course she responds and says
she wants it. So Jesus uses this opportunity
to tell her, hey, you've been looking for true
satisfaction in all the wrong places. Jesus is
using physical actual water in the well to point
to the greatest truth in all of existence, church,
that he is the savior of the world. And if we
place our trust in him as savior, we will have
true satisfaction. See, Jesus knew exactly who
he was talking to. He knew exactly how this conversation
was gonna go. This woman was at the well in the
heat of the day. Because she was ate up with
sin from her past shame that she had been carrying
on She didn't want to go to the well early in
the morning with the rest of the women because
she knew she wasn't welcomed But then here comes
Jesus He's meeting her right where she's at Not
to shame her but to offer her grace There's somebody
here that needs to hear this truth this morning
You've walked into here carrying some shame You've
got some sin in your past, maybe you've got some
sin right now that's undealt with. And somehow
you think the enemy's got you twisted up, making
you think that you're never ever gonna get past
it. Do not believe that lie, church. Jesus wants
to offer you true satisfaction. You can never
disqualify yourself from the gospel. In fact,
me and you, the only thing we bring to the table
with Jesus is our sin necessary for his sacrifice
that he had to go to the cross for. Me and you,
We can have this living water. Listen to how
the rest of their conversation plays out. Verses
19 through 26. Sir, the woman said, I could see
that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped
on this mountain, but you Jews claim the place
where we must worship is in Jerusalem. Woman,
Jesus replied, believe me, time is coming when
you will worship the Father neither on this mountain
nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what
you do not know, we worship what we do know,
for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is
coming and has now come when the true worshipers
will worship the Father in the Spirit and in
truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the
Father seeks. God is Spirit and his worshipers
must worship in the Spirit and in the truth."
The woman said, I know that Messiah called Christ
is coming. When he comes, He'll explain everything
to us. Jesus declared, I, the one speaking to
you, I am He. Jesus is Him, church. He's the
Alpha and the Omega, the beginning of the end.
He's the source of salvation, and He is the source
of true satisfaction. Neither sin nor anything
else that we try to fill that hole with will
ever get us there. It's only through Jesus. We
see here that this woman, she finally realizes
something's different about Jesus. She thinks
he's a prophet. Then she brings up some legalistic,
like religious stuff, talking about the difference
between temple worship and the worship that Samaritans
do on the mountain. And then Jesus brings her
to the truth that yes, salvation comes through
Jewish lineage, which is Jesus. who's standing
in front of her, speaking to her. And then Jesus
is saying, hey, it ain't about the temple. It
ain't about the mountain. It's all about Him.
And we can worship Him anywhere, at any time,
at any place. And because of Him, we can have
not just salvation, but we can also have true
satisfaction local. True, soul -filling satisfaction.
We find it in Jesus. Not in the good things that
He allows us to enjoy, and definitely not in
sin. This is what Jesus is telling the woman
and it's what he wants to tell every single one
of us right here, right now. Here's how this
plays out in our lives today. We're going to
first, we're going to talk about how we try to
find true satisfaction in the good things that
God allows us to have. And then we're going to
talk about the sin that we try to find true satisfaction
in as well. And every single one of us, every
single one of us is guilty of this in some way,
shape or form. Here's what this looks like. With
the good things that God allows us to have I'm
gonna use a Jesus centered marriage as an example
a Jesus centered marriage is a wonderful beautiful
Life -giving blessing from God. He invented it.
It's his idea He gifts it to us and good Lord
church like if I start talking about my wonderful
wife Nicole enough up here I promise you I'm
gonna start crying like a baby. Okay, but I'm
gonna share a few things with you real quick.
Okay She's awesome She loves Jesus with all of
her mind, her heart, her soul, her strength.
She loves me and puts up with every bit of my
stuff. And some of you know that's a lot of stuff.
She's a, easy mom. She's a wonderful mother,
wonderful mother, right? All the things. She's
a launch pad for me, church. There's no way that
I'd be the man that I am today without her in
my life, okay? But. It's a big but. She's not
Jesus. And I cannot look to her to do for me
what only Jesus can do for me. Lord knows Jesus
absolutely uses her to help sanctify me. That
happens every day. But she cannot save me and
I cannot save. her. If I start looking to her
as my source of true satisfaction, and if she
starts looking to me as her true source of satisfaction,
we are in the fast lane to some real trouble,
and it ain't going to work for long, local. If
me and her are actively drinking from the living
water of Jesus, it is not going to go well. There's
going to be a whole lot more disappointment and
tension than there already is, and now it ain't
going to get resolved. until we start drinking
from the living water of Jesus. Husbands, this
is what this looks like. It looks like this,
you go to Jesus daily and you ask him to help
you to be the husband that he's called and created
you to be. It looks like us as men and husbands
reading God's word and doing what it says and
loving our wives as Christ loved the church and
he gave himself up for her. That's us. That means
her needs become come before mine that means
I am to be the chief servant of my household
And if I don't have the living water of Jesus
steadily flowing through me I am gonna be so
off the mark. It is absolutely gonna lead to
destruction church wives same thing You are to
submit to your husband's leadership just as the
church submits to the leadership of Jesus and
you are to respect your husband's and Submit
to his godly leadership and what happens is church
is when both of us are looking to Jesus and where
both of us are fully submitted to him and his
plan and his will for our life the true source
of soul -filling satisfaction one it leads to
incredible marriage and two those Jesus centered
marriages They are one of the most powerful forces
that God uses on this planet to advance his kingdom
and stomp out the darkness in our community.
This is one of the good things that God allows
us to have. Now you could take all these other
good things and you could put them in the place
of marriage and it's the same, same deal. You
can do this with our kids. We can do it with
our careers. We can do it with our hobbies. All
of those things are good local, but they are
not the greatest. Jesus is, and he is the only
way to have true satisfaction. See, I could even
put Publix cake and lasagna in this place, okay?
Sure, it's gonna be great in the moment. But
if I try to find true satisfaction in that, like,
it ain't gonna be long, church, before I can't
get off the couch, okay? All right? Like, you
can do it with anything, okay? Here's the second
trap that we fall in with pursuing true satisfaction
outside of Jesus, is when we start to try to
replace Jesus with sin. And it's a massive truth
that Jesus is communicating to the Samaritan
woman and to every single one of us today. Now
Jesus uses the actual physical water as an analogy
to first tell this woman about the grace that
he offers. But then he also brings the truth.
Remember church, a grace that saves us is a grace
that absolutely changes us. And what has this
woman been doing? She's been looking for true
satisfaction. through relationships outside of
a relationship with Jesus, the text tells us
she's had five husbands that didn't work, and
now she's cohabitating with another man that's
not her husband. Jesus is telling her and he's
telling us true satisfaction is never found in
sin. It's only found through Jesus, our Savior.
And here's how it always works with sin. It's
gonna come through three ways. The enemy always
works the same three ways. It's gonna come through
the pride of life, The lust of the flesh or the
lust of the eyes, okay? To make it real simple
for us today, a lot of times it's gonna look
like money, stuff, and sex. The enemy is always
trying to get us to place those things in place
of our Savior Jesus in our lives. And church,
it will never ever truly satisfy. If you try
to do money the world's way, and all you will
do, you'll end up doing, is you will chase, chase,
chase, and you're gonna get, get, get, and if
you never look to Jesus, For your true soul -filling
satisfaction, what's going to happen is you're
going to die on your deathbed completely empty
with a full bank account. That's what's going
to happen. You try to do it with stuff. Same
thing. The enemy will dangle those carrots all
day long. You really should get that giant house
that you really don't need, that you can't really
afford. Why have one side by side when you can
have one for each member of the family? Even
though you got to finance every single one of
them and you can barely make the payments each
month, sure, it'll absolutely be fun in the moment
when you're out riding. But eventually you're
gonna be completely empty the side -by -side
is gonna break down and it's gonna be in the
garage and it's gonna stop getting used We can
do it with sex local Probably the most prolific
false satisfaction of them all the enemy is gonna
throw this at us all day See we have this God
-given desire to be sexually fulfilled, but we
don't want to do it God's way Instead we're gonna
let the world dictate us to us how we should
do sex And we have no idea the destruction we
are causing in our own lives and the lives of
others. And all of it, any bit of sin that we
look to for true satisfaction, it always leaves
us empty. And if we don't get to Jesus in time,
it'll absolutely lead to death. Matt Carter,
awesome pastor out of Texas, he put it like this,
the root of sin is pursuing happiness in something
other than God. sin produces an ever -increasing
craving for an ever diminishing pleasure. Pursuing
sin for our true satisfaction will never ever
work church. It'll never fill and all it does
is just produce this stronger craving that will
never ever be met. Now I want to follow all of
that with this. Is it wrong to have money? Absolutely
not. God is the giver of every good and perfect
gift, and He allows us to have money to fit a
purpose in our lives. But it is not to take the
place of Jesus. And when it doesn't, and we honor
Him with the money that He allows us to have,
church, we can enjoy it guilt -free. Is it wrong
to have stuff? Absolutely not. Church, God has
blessed me and my family with a really nice home.
I got a hunt and lease in Georgia. I got a safe
full of guns at the house. Got all the things,
okay? But it's never to take the place of Jesus.
Is it wrong to have sex? Absolutely not. Sex
is a gift from God. He's the one that invented
it. And when it's done within the covenant of
marriage like God designed, it is an act of worship,
church. Praise God. We got plenty of married
couples worshiping at local. As you can see,
local kids is blowing up. Four babies born this
week. Awesome, right? But it is never to take
the place of Jesus. And let me tell you all this.
As your pastor, I am just as guilty as anyone
of pursuing all of these temptations and these
sins outside of the will of God at some point
in time in my life. And every time I did, it
left me feeling empty, may have been fun in the
moment, but at the end of the day, all it did
was drain my soul and it never filled it local.
If we look to Jesus, And we depend on Him for
true satisfaction. If we drink His living water
daily, we will have true satisfaction. We will
have full souls. We will live in the abundant
life that Jesus died to give us. It's what He
wants for us, church. It's why He died for us.
And when we find satisfaction in our Savior and
not in sin, Jesus takes it and He creates spiritual
momentum that cannot and will not be stopped,
church. Listen to how the rest of this event
plays out. Verses 27 through 30. Just then his
disciples returned and were surprised to find
him talking with a woman. But nobody asked, what
do you want? Or why are you talking with her?
Then leaving her water jar, the woman went back
to the town and said to the people, come see
a man who told me everything I ever did. Could
this be the Messiah? They came out of the town
and made their way toward him. Couple things
happening here in church. One, Jesus is breaking
the system. He's meeting the sinner right where
she is. The disciples can't believe it. They're
all Jewish men as well, and they would have never
talked to a Samaritan woman, but here we got
Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior
of the world. He's doing it, and they can't believe
it. And then what do we see this woman do? She's
experienced Jesus. She leaves everything to go
tell her people that she's met the Messiah. She's
found true satisfaction in Jesus and Jesus is
using it to create spiritual momentum. It goes
on, verses 31 through 38. Meanwhile, his disciples
urged him, Rabbi, eat something. But he said
to them, I have food to eat that you know nothing
about. Then his disciples said to each other,
could someone have brought him food? My food,
said Jesus, is to do the will of him who sent
me and to finish his work. Don't you have a saying,
it's still four months until harvest? I tell
you, open your eyes and look at the fields, they're
ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps
draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal
life so that the sower and the reaper may be
glad together. Thus the saying, one sows and
another reaps is true. I sent you to reap what
you have not worked for. Others have done the
hard work and you have reaped the benefits of
their labor." Basically, Jesus is saying to disciples,
he goes, look, he goes, here they come. They've
heard the truth that I can, I'm the only one
that could truly fully satisfy. I'm the only
one that can give eternal life. Jesus ain't worried
about eating. Jesus just revealed himself to
the Samaritan woman. She's experienced him and
Jesus is causing spiritual momentum that's going
to change the region. Why church? Because when
Jesus satisfied, momentum multiplies. That's
our final point together today. When Jesus satisfies,
momentum multiplies. See, what happens is when
people truly experience Jesus and they drink
His living water and completely rely on Him for
true satisfaction, Jesus is going to give it
to you. He's going to church. He wants to do
it. And when He does, and then we as God's people,
we all live this out as Jesus' church, His body.
He's going to create spiritual momentum that
cannot be stopped. Here's the rest of this event.
Here's how it ends. Verse 39 through 42. Many
of the Samaritans from that town believed in
him because of the woman's testimony. He told
me everything I ever did. So when the Samaritans
came to him, they urged him to stay with them,
and he stayed two days. And because of his words,
many more became believers. They said to the
woman, we no longer believe just because of what
you said. Now we have heard for ourselves and
we know that this man really is the savior of
the world. What happened local? The Samaritan
woman, she found true satisfaction in Jesus.
She goes and tells everything because that's
what happens when you truly experience Jesus.
You're going to tell people about him. You experience
that kind of true soul -filling satisfaction,
you will not be able to keep it to yourself.
And Jesus takes the work that he's done in her
and he multiplies the momentum and many more
became believers. They were saying, now we know
for ourselves that this man really is the savior
of the world. Jesus, he took the time to meet
a woman right where she was. She's in this sinful
mess. He pours out grace and He offers her living
water, eternal life. And when Jesus satisfies,
momentum multiplies local. Here's the deal. What
Jesus did in Samaria, a little over 2000 years
ago, He wants to do right here in Mims, Florida,
in Norpervard, right now, local church. Will
you let Jesus give you true satisfaction? He
wants to do it local. You got to stop looking
for the good to the good things and you got to
stop looking to the sin and let Jesus do it See
as I as God allows me to preach and teach you
guys every week And I think about I do what preachers
call like kind of setting the table Like who's
gonna be here? I? Know I'm gonna have typically
you know when I'm preaching a message like this
There's probably about three different people
represented like where we're at where we're at
in our walk with Jesus, where we're at in our
life. And I feel like with a message, any message,
there's a response we can all respond to in some
way. But as I was preparing this week and preaching
the first service and now being able to preach
and teach to you guys, I still feel like there's
three people represented in this room. And after
hearing the Word and God working through the
worship and everything, there's three different
responses here. The first is this. Some of you
have been following Jesus for a long time. You've
confessed Him as Lord and Savior of your life.
You believe that God raised Him from the dead.
You believe that His blood has covered your sin
and makes you righteous in the sight of God.
And now when God looks at you, He does not see
sin. He just sees Jesus and you've been faithfully
following Him for years and praise God for it.
Praise God. And for years you've been going to
Jesus and you know that true soul -filling satisfaction
only comes from Him. That's awesome. I want to
ask you, are you allowing that true soul -filling
satisfaction? Are you allowing Jesus to fill
you up with it? And are you allowing Him to use
it to multiply momentum? This is something I
think about all the time. You can never get over
the gospel. You just can't. Because what I know
is all of us, no matter how long we've been walking
with Jesus for habit, I still need Jesus just
as much today as the first day I met him. Every
day. And if we continually seek Him as His people
and ask Him to fill us up and tell Jesus, I want
this living water. I want the abundant life.
And I don't just want it, Jesus, because I want
to enjoy it for myself. I want it so that you
can use me to reach others with a life -changing,
life -saving message of Jesus. That's our first
people here. I want to encourage you, as Tyler
and the team, as they lead us in praise and worship.
Worship. Worship your tails off. As we're worshiping,
you can pray right there in your seat. God, fill
me up. Fill me up, Lord. It's the first day of
the week. Send me out of this building just ready
to take on the world, ready to influence anyone
and everyone I can for the kingdom of God. Do
it. Pray and ask Jesus every day. Would you give
me the living water? See what he does. See what
he does. The second person I feel like I'm speaking
to this morning is this. The second response
is maybe you've been following Jesus for some
time. Maybe you've been following him for 25
years, maybe a year, maybe six months, but maybe
over the course of time, something's changed
and you've grown distant and you don't feel like
you've tasted the living water for quite some
time. I want to ask you, what good thing? that
God's allowed you to have, or you placing in
place of Jesus in your life, or maybe what sin
have you allowed to come in and put up a barrier
in between you and Jesus and your intimacy with
Him? There's a whole lot of us that are in that
place right now. I want to encourage you, your
response as we worship and we conclude our services
for the day, is you just need to come up here
and do some business with Jesus. For those of
you that have been with us for some time, we
got these carpets up here. We've tried to make
it really, really comfortable. And I just want
to encourage you, whatever anxiety or fear or
doubt you have that's maybe keeping you from
responding up here to the front and placing yourself
in a posture to really just be you and Jesus,
that's from the enemy. Don't believe that lie.
Nobody care why you're coming up here. That's
between you and Jesus. You don't got to share
that with anybody else. You just come up here
and do some business with Jesus. Let Tyler and
our team. sing worship and praise over you as
you just come up here and spend some time repenting.
Remember church, this is a prayer Jesus answered
100 % of the time. You come to Him and you repent
and you turn from that sin and you turn towards
Him. He's going to answer it 100 % of the time
because forgiveness is always there, church,
always. The last person I want to speak to is
maybe you came into this place and maybe it took
everything in you to finally show up to a church.
For years, you've been battling. You've heard
about Jesus. You've heard about church. You're
like, man, let me try it today. And you came
in here and you're carrying some sin. You're
carrying some shame. And right now, it has been
so hard to just sit through this. But I hope
and I pray that God through His Word and the
power of the Holy Spirit that you felt comfort
in knowing that there's nothing you could ever,
ever do to disqualify yourself from receiving
the love. of Jesus, the grace that He freely
pours out day after day after day. If that's
you, friend, and you've never ever tasted the
living water of Jesus, today is the day of salvation.
Do not leave this place without coming to Jesus
and saying, Jesus, I want you. You're my Lord
and Savior. My life is no longer mine. It's yours.
Use me how you want to use me. I want the living
water. Friend, do not walk out of this place
with that sin and that shame. Jesus did not create
you for you to walk with. Amen, church. We all
got a response. Again, I know how it is. I didn't
become a pastor until I was 28 years old. I didn't
start getting plugged back into church until
I was in my mid twenties. I grew up in church
a little bit. I remember sitting in the seats.
I remember hearing the pastor being used by God,
trying to help people respond. I'm not trying
to manipulate anything, but I just want to encourage
you as a church, us as a church, do not let fear
and anxiety keep you from coming and responding.
Today is the day. Stop putting it off. There's
a reason you're here. God will ordain this moment
for you to hear His word, to be a part of His
church. because He wants to do a work in you
today because He wants for you to taste this
living water today, church. I'm going to pray
for us. The team is going to lead us in worship.
We're going to respond. Would you stand with
me as we pray? Dear Lord, we love you. We're
so grateful for you. Your never ending love and
grace, your word that is perfect. the plan that
you have for each and every one of our lives.
Thank you for all the things that you were doing
in and through our church, the baptisms, the
babies being born, Lord, the salvations, all
the things, Lord. It's all because of you. Jesus
Local is your church. We do not want to get in
your way. Lord, would we respond the way that
you were calling us to respond this one? Lord,
we love you. We thank you. We pray all this in
Jesus' name. Amen.