Surface Cleaning - Woman at the Well

Intro

Good morning! Welcome to True Worship Church. It is so good to see all of you here today. I am excited about what God is going to do in this house today.

I just got back from New York for a conference and had a chance to spend time with my oldest daughter. Nina and I really enjoyed our time with her. It’s always good to see your kids even after they have grown up and moved away. I always try to look in to her eyes and see if she is really ok. So, as she is talking, I’m following her eyes to see if I can sense anything. The Bible says the eyes are the window of the soul.

I sensed she was doing good, so I was able to relax a bit. New York is a big city with I believe almost 20 million people. Just think about that for a minute. Detroit has a population of just over 600,000 people. That’s a lot of people doing a bunch of stuff every day. What I also saw in my time there was how many people need Jesus.

Mike on the train: When we were on the subway, I sat next to a young man named Mike. Mike is 19 years old. Beautiful soul! He was so nice and polite. He offered Nina and Kianee his seat on the train. He’s listening to some rap music on his phone and is playing it through the speakers on the phone. Anybody within an earshot, could hear it. It was full of cursing, doing drugs and describing sex acts, and anything else you can think of which might be considered inappropriate.

Mike asked me if I liked the music and I told him no. He looked at me with surprised and amazement because he just knew I would like it too. He asked me why I didn’t like it and I told him it had too much cursing and foul language for me. He asked me if he could play something for me and I said, “Yes.” He asked me what and I told him worship music.

This is when I knew was in the right place. He responded by saying, “What is worship music?”

20 million people in the city of New York and I’m sitting right next to a young person who probably does not know about the love of Jesus.

He missed his exit!- When you are sharing the love of God, it will make people miss where they want to get off.

We start a brand new series called “Devil in the Details.” I want to dig deep in to the details of our life, our secret places, those areas of our life we have deemed of limits.

The Details are Important

If we don’t take our time and deal with the details of our situations, we can get loss in our process. When we don’t consider the details, things get hidden. All of a sudden you’re hiding in life and don’t know why. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to wander in the wilderness for most of my life when God has sent me on a couple days journey. I want to experience my promise in this life!

Society makes it difficult to be free and to be who God has called us to be.

Our identities tend to come from other images we see. This affects church folks too. We see other churches, other preachers, other praise teams or anything relating to church and it becomes who we try to model ourselves after. I’m all for discipleship and sharing best practices but at the end of the day, God has called us to follow Him.

God told Hosea to marry a prostitute. If God tells you this, it’s not for a good time. He’s called you to ministry.

He told Abraham to leave his home, security, comfort and to go somewhere. He didn’t tell him where. He just told him to go!

He tells Paul to share the good news with Gentiles and you know how much hell that brought him.

We’ll be reading another familiar passage this week so let’s see how God want to work today.

KJV

7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.

8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)

9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.

10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?

12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:

14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.

17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:

Pray

Who goes to the well @ Noon?

The Samaritan woman went to the well at noon, the hottest time of the day. The women would normally go and draw water from the well either early in the morning or in the evening because it would be cool during those times. This was her routine to go at this time everyday. Why?

Why would she go at the most inconvenient and most uncomfortable time of the day?

Other women would have been at the well in the morning and in the evening because it’s the most comfortable time to go but this Samaritan woman went when she knew that no one else would be there.

What was she dealing with? What kinds of things make us want to avoid people? Guilt and shame will definitely! This is where the enemy tries to get us. When we deal with guilt and shame, it is a hard place to get out of. Common sense doesn’t make any sense here. She didn’t want anybody to question her about her life, how she was doing, or about her relationships. Have you ever been around a bunch of women??? You know women will talk and ask questions.

She went at the most inconvenient time of the day to avoid those conversations!

What are you willing to do that may be an inconvenience for you to avoid being around other people so you don’t have to put on the fake smile, where you don’t have to act like everything is alright?

Yeah, I know you go to church and got Jesus but you not thinking about no Jesus when you are going through a hard time. Let’s be honest… He’s just not our 1st option all the time. That’s sad but it’s true.

Think about some of the reasons you have taken a break from church for instance….

What were you going through? Who were you mad at? What did you do the previous days or even the night before church?

See, sin and sinful thinking will lead us away from those we need the most. Sin and sinful thinking will lead us away from the One we need the most.

Jesus shows up when others wouldn’t. See, even when you are running, God knows where to find you.

He shows up at the most inconvenient times and most uncomfortable places for me and you. Anybody in here want to the Lord to show up for you?

Turn to Jesus and say, “Jesus, I need you to show up and show out!”

The devil is in the details.

Jesus Breaks Rules to Get To Me and You

Jesus comes to get in to the details of this Samaritan woman.

He breaks tradition by asking her for something to drink. This was a no no in their culture. Men did not talk to women in public especially if it was a Samaritan woman because Jews looked down on them.

Why would she go at the most inconvenient and most uncomfortable time of the day?

Other women would have been at the well in the morning and in the evening because it’s the most comfortable time to go but this Samaritan woman went when she knew that no one else would be there.

Jesus will break the rules to get to you because you are more important to him than the traditions of man!

What was she dealing with? What kinds of things make us want to avoid people? Guilt and shame will definitely! This is where the enemy tries to get us. When we deal with guilt and shame, it is a hard place to get out of. Common sense doesn’t make any sense here. She didn’t want anybody to question her about her life, how she was doing, or about her relationships. Have you ever been around a bunch of women??? You know women will talk and ask questions.

She is so confused because Jesus spoke to her and that just didn’t happen. It’s about to get worse though. She asks Jesus why would ask me for water and Jesus doesn’t even answer that question. He says, “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.”

Her response lets us know she believes Jesus is talking about real water but He’s not.

She went at the most inconvenient time of the day to avoid those conversations!

What are you willing to do that may be an inconvenience for you to avoid being around other people so you don’t have to put on the fake smile, where you don’t have to act like everything is alright?

He’s talking about this water that only He can give that flows out of your belly, the Holy Spirit, the living water and whoever drinks of this living water will never thirst again.

Yeah, I know you go to church and got Jesus but you not thinking about no Jesus when you are going through a hard time. Let’s be honest… He’s just not our 1st option all the time. That’s sad but it’s true.

She wants this water!

In the auto detailing business this would be the surface cleaning. Jesus is just scratching the surface....He’s dealing with the stuff on top.

Think about some of the reasons you have taken a break from church for instance….

Notice here: 15 The woman said, “Sir, give me this water so I won’t ever get thirsty, won’t ever have to come back to this well again!”

- She wanted a life change, a complete overhaul. She was tired of living like she was. She needed change and Jesus was offering it.

16 He said, “Go call your husband and then come back.”

Before Jesus could give her this living water, He had to get in to her stuff!

He had to have a heart to heart with her about a private matter that was keeping her from her blessing.

Some of yall calling him bae but he’s somebody else’s bae.

Some of yall calling her wifey but she’s somebody else’s wifey.

He needed to deal with her details because with God, every detail counts!

“Surely things will work itself out”

She had being avoiding dealing with her situation for the longest because she just figured “It would just work itself out.” Anybody know what I’m talking about. You’ve been dealing with some stuff and just hope it just work itself out. Somebody say, “The devil is in the details.”

Jesus came to get in to our stuff. He didn’t come so we would stay comfortable in our mess and the lies we tell. The biggest lie you can tell is the one you tell yourself. You’re a pretty good liar when you start to believe your own lies. It’s humanities default to escape responsibility and accountability.

We don’t want people to get in to our stuff so we’ll do whatever is necessary to keep in front of you only what we want you see..

God wants full access! When I was growing up, our living room was off limits. We could not go in that room. We had really nice furniture, objects my dad picked up in his travels around the world when he was in the military. Our wall had this burgundy velvet wallpaper on it. We would get in trouble if we went in to that room if my dad found out about it.

As I got older, I realized it was a tradition in the family because all my aunts and uncles had a room nobody could go in.

Jesus came to do away with the traditions of old. He wants access to every room and every space we have. There is nothing he does not want to be a part of. He wants to be a prat of our marriages, our friendships, our finances, our and partnerships, our education, our hobbies, he wants in on all of our life ladies and gentleman.

For the next 3 weeks, you will be here at the TWC Detail Shop for spiritual renewal. God wants us healthy and he wants us to deal with our inner battles in a healthy way.

Detail Illustration

Car Detail Illustration:

I like to keep my car clean, inside an out. Some people only like to clean the outside of their car. Some of us show up to church every week with the outside of our cars cleaned. It looks good, wheels and rims shined up good but something is wrong. Some people know about and God knows. The average person couldn’t tell because the car looks clean.

I don’t really like when Nina drives my car because I always know when she’s been driving it. There will be coffee stains, used tissue in the cupholder and just the other day when we got back from New York, I noticed a bag in the back of the car. We drink smoothies and her cup with her smoothie in it had spilled on the floor in the back of the car. I was not a happy camper but if I clean the outside of the car only, you would think everything was good, everything was alright.

People riding around looking like everything is ok on the outside but on the inside, they need some work. I’m trying to help you today.

Most of us do that if even clean our car at all. We will just go through the $4-$5 drive through car wash where you sit in the car while it goes through the wash. You ride out and the guy is out there waiting for you to dry your car off.

Kids Illustration: For those of us who have kids, have you told your child to go and take a shower and you find out all they did was run water over them? What you tell them? Go and get yo tail back in that tub and use some soap! Get those creases crevices and wash them private parts!

Spiritually, we’ve jus been running through the water…….

This is what we call a surface cleaning.

God wants us to clean up the messes on the inside too. Come on Holy Ghost. I didn’t say fix yourself. We can’t do that. My point is God is concerned about the details of our lives. We have places in us we need to address because they need attention, so God can bring healing that we need.

What were you going through? Who were you mad at? What did you do the previous days or even the night before church?

This is what God is attempting to do

See, sin and sinful thinking will lead us away from those we need the most. Sin and sinful thinking will lead us away from the One we need the most.

I want to show you what God is trying to do.

Jesus shows up when others wouldn’t. See, even when you are running, God knows where to find you.

Illustration: Vacuum the dirty rug.

Looks clean right? The problem is that most of us don’t look like this, we look like this (spotted stained rug).

He shows up at the most inconvenient times and most uncomfortable places for me and you. Anybody in here want to the Lord to show up for you?

We’ve been only vacuuming our rug but what we really need is a detail.

Turn to Jesus and say, “Jesus, I need you to show up and show out!”

We need an expert, someone who knows a thing or two about detailing.

The devil is in the details.

Ask your neighbor, “When was your last detail?”

Illustration 2: Clean the stained rug.

Notice he put the right cleanser on there. If we don’t use the right stuff, it can damage the material or it won’t have the power to remove the stain.

Notice how as he is cleaning, it gets messy, it’s rough and hard. Sometimes you must scrub with strength to get down to the areas underneath to remove the whatever is causing the stain.

This can be painful. You probably asking yourself, “God why are you doing this to me? How long do I need to suffer this pain? Why me? Why do I have to go through this?

For this very reason, God is removing something that is affecting who you really are and how you are really supposed to be!

He must scrub you in different directions and that can be very painful, but God knows what He is doing.

Close & Altar Call

Altar Call, write down what areas of your life you are giving God permission to detail.

Bring it down and put it in the bucket. Don’t put your name on. Come down and place it in the bucket and we will pray for you.