The Truth Hurst - Devil in the Details Pt.2

Good morning and welcome to True Worship Church. I am excited about what God is doing at our church! This the part 2 of the sermon series titled “Devil in the Details.”

Last week, I dealt with how God deals with our surface stuff 1st in order to get to the more intimate aspects of our lives. We saw how Jesus purposefully changes His route to Galilee to show up in somebody’s mess. He’s shows up in the mess of this Samaritan woman who is drawing water from the well at a time when nobody else would be there to get water because it was too hot.

Jesus is good at getting our attention! He gets her attention by talking to her. That’s it. He talks to her because the custom was not to talk to women in public especially a Samaritan woman.

He deals with a surface issue first before going deeper with her which brings us to part 2 of Devil in the Details.

State the Obvious

We all may have obvious things that are wrong with us. We have issues. We are creatures of habit. We have our quirks and people who spend time with us know it. People you spend time with know when you do weird things, say weird things. They know how much you can handle and what will send you over the edge…

Nina knows when something is going on with me because I get quiet. She may not say anything the 1st time she notices it but after a couple of days, she will say, “Are you alright?”

Sometimes, I don’t even realize it because I am a creature of habit. I’m so use to going on regardless of what I’m going through that I’m focused on what’s next.

This can be a problem because we can be so focused on what’s next that we don’t deal with what is going on with us right now.

So if we are not aware, we’ll keep doing the same things over and over, and over. Anybody know what I’m talking about?

Stuck in a Rut

We can go through these recurring season of getting stuck in a rut.

A rut is a long deep track made by the repeated passage of the wheels of vehicles.

A couple synonyms for rut are ditch and crater.

Here’s an even better definition: a habit or pattern of behavior that has become dull and unproductive but is hard to change .

What habits or pattern of behavior do you practice that is unproductive and is hard to change?

This is what the woman at the well was experiencing. Life was dull and unproductive. She had some bad habits and a pattern of behavior that just keep producing the same results.

How do I know?

She was Man-Handled

She had been man-handled 5 times!

Jesus tells her in The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

17 “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband.

18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

She must have been a bad person to have been married 5 times right?

Was she married 5 times? Maybe not!

Jesus says you’ve had 5 husbands and the one you are with now is not your husband. Think about this. You’ve had 5 husbands and the one you are with is not yours.....

The one you are with now, He is a husband, JUST NOT yours!

This woman was in a rut. Failed relationship after failed relationship, wondering what’s wrong with me and am I good enough?

Back then, a husband could divorce a woman for any reason. So what appears to be a bad girl living off the consequences of bad decisions could be something totally different. We could be missing something here.

Did you notice there was no mention of children in this passage? She had been in all these relationships and they didn’t have condoms and the pill back then.

Let’s get in to this story ladies and gentlemen. She was probably divorced for not being able to have children. In the 1st century, failure to have kids turned the beautiful ugly.

She had promise and potential but if she couldn’t have children, her life was worth nothing. Can you imagine how this must have made her feel? She was left to try to make it on her own when woman depended on the support of a husband. She was left to believe that her condition was her fault.

The #5 Means Grace

Sometimes we can get stuck and it’s not our fault. It wasn’t her fault not being able to have children because that was the card she was dealt so what happens. Jesus shows up! Notice Jesus waits to show up on the 5th husband (5 is symbolic for grace) to let her know no matter what she goes through, God’s given her the grace to grow through.

You may have hit a rut that has you stuck but God is so gracious and kind that he teaches us while we’re there because he know the plans that He has for us. That is not our final destination!

Stuck in the snow illustration

Have you ever gotten stuck in the snow? Do you know if you don’t have experience driving in snow, you can cause yourself to get stuck.

Sometimes we think if we hit the gas and give it more power, we will be able to get ourselves out but it does the total opposite. It creates even more ice and digs us deeper in to the snow.

There are a couple of ways to get out being stuck:

Have people push you out

add weight in the trunk (rear-wheel drive) like bags of sand or dirt or try to put something under your wheels like a carpet to get some traction

But what if you don’t have anybody to push you and no bags of dirt or sand?

Wouldn’t be so cool if you always had what you needed when you were in trouble?

The last way to get out of being stuck in the snow is to create momentum.

Jesus shows up in her life to rock her world! She wants this living water Jesus has to offer and she realizes that this man is no ordinary man but He knows everything about her. He is creating movement within her spirit. Her hope is coming to life, she’s starting to think of the possibilities, she not feeling so down anymore, she’s getting her excitement for life back. Jesus shows up to give her the push and momentum she needs to get out if the rut she’s in.

A Changed Life

When you get out your rut, your life changes!

Her life had changed so much that she leaves her waterpot and her old routine to become and evangelist. She goes back to town to tell everybody about Jesus.

Her thinking had changed. If your stuck in a habit or pattern of behavior that is unfruitful and unproductive, you just need to let Jesus start feeding your thoughts.

When you look in the mirror, do you see what you see or do you see what Jesus sees?

You have to start seeing what Jesus says! That’s all that happened to this woman at the well. She stopped seeing her life for what she thought is was in exchange for what Jesus said it was.

Elephant Illustration:

When elephants are babies, they are tied to a tree stump. The elephant will try to pull itself away until its programmed in its mind that it can’t. An adult elephant can weigh up to 13,000 lbs. If you tie that elephant up to that same stump, it will believe it is not strong enough to pull away. Its owners can use a stump to control the massive animal that if it knew its strength, could pull the stump and its root up from the ground.

Today is about those of you who have been tied to the stump of depression, let down, insecurity, low self-esteem, disappointment and unforgiveness.

Those of you who have been tied to the stump of lack and poverty, tied to the stump lonliness and being alone. God has shown up in it all to tell you that it’s not your fault and that you are good enough to be amazing.

Maintenance/Self-Care

After you find out God has cleaned you up, there are some things you have to do now. He’s cleaned those hard to get stains out with the right product but what is my responsibility? We get saved and feeling good about ourselves. Can’t tell us nothing and then Monday comes, that first crisis comes, the first fight comes, that first break up comes. This is not how I thought it was going to be.

When you get your car detailed, one of the last thing they will do is apply some wax. This wax will make your car shine like new but it will do something else. It will protect the coating and the paint. Tell your neighbor, “You need the Holy Ghost!” He is our protector, our seal. They will also put this paper down on the floor as proof that the detail has been done and to protect your carpet. The Holy Spirit is our proof God is with us and that Jesus is coming back again.

Self -Care a good auto detail business is going to tell you when and how often you need to return for this type of attention. They will tell you what to use to clean inside and outside of your car in the meantime.

You need to be in fellowship with the saints for accountability and to be loved

You need to be in your word daily (devotion)

You need to pray and be in prayer

You need to make yourself available to God

You need Sabbath (rest)

You need a church home

You need to serve (The Samaritan went from her old habit which was unproductive to a new one of telling people the Good News as an evangelist) -You’re new thing will be in your serving God!

God is in the Details

31So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

This sermon series really had nothing to do with the devil at all but everything to do with God. God wants to be all in your details. This sermon series was all about God in our details. The truth makes us free and our bondage comes from lies we’eve been told over our lifetime that we’ve accepted as true.

God wants us all to be free because He paid for it with His life! We owe it to Him to take territory for His Kingdom and destroy every demonic thing that tries to get in the way of His will for you, me and the world.

There is no other option than the kingdom of this world becoming the kingdom of our Lord!

TWC Detail Shop/Closing

As a demonstration of our faith and all I’ve talked about these past 2 weeks, I’d like for us all to experience God. God desires true change, real change. Change never happens apart from our participation. The Samaritan woman went to the well one way but left another way. She left changed.

When you go to get your car washed, you go in one way and come out better than you went in.

As a sign and a demonstration of our faith. I’d like for us all to do something. The TWC Detail Shop is open for business. I’d like all of you who are ready to get out of that rut you’ve been stuck in and you want change for your life, you want God’s change for your life, I want you to come and line up at the entrance. We are going to go through to the other side. We’re going to come in the entrance and leave out the exit. We are going to come out better than we went in. When you go through, I want you to talk to God and let Him take what He wants, be open to any revelation He wants to give. If you feel you need the Holy Ghost going through, ask for him. If you feel the need to shout and give God praise, you can do that too.