Thirst

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Welcome to Ypsilanti Friends Church today, and thanks so much for spending part of your weekend with us. My name is Jack...

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There are several things coming up for you and your family at YFC and we want to take a few minutes to share about them.

AUG 8 RALLY DAY WITH BIG BLAST

EFCER FALL RETREATS

MEN Sept 13-15

Women Oct 11-13

WOW GATHERING

Video

Roxane

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for spending part of your weekend with us.

[SLIDE 1] Introduction

Everyone, everywhere wrestles with what drives us

Accomplishment, Success

Learning

Being productive, solving problems

Feeling connected to someone or others

FOMO on a moment, experience, opportunity

Missing something

Other words for drive are longing, thirst...

We’re all thirsty

Longings:  we’re thirsty.  We all long for what God designed us to enjoy:  lasting, tension free relationships filled with deep, loving acceptance and with opportunities to make a difference to someone else.

be both autonomous and happily interdependent with others.

Daniel Pink, Drive

Autonomy

Purpose/meaning/significance

Malnourished

Dehydrated

How it Impacts Society

Self-absorbed people running around

Conflict - when one person’s goals compete with another’s

How it Impacts You and Me (Consequences)

Reach and swing

Church is the place people bring their longings, wounds, hopes, dreams to work them out, find solutions, relationships that satisfy.

Demanding

Find meaning in simply a feeling of belonging

Find meaning/significance in discovering and fulfilling purpose through a ministry

How We Try to Satisfy the Thirst/Hunger

Reach for it/take short cuts to get it:  try to get people to love us. If I do what you say/what you expect, will you be pleased with me? Will you love me? God? Will you? Give up? 

Push, everything is urgent - not the case

Accomplishment

Look for affirmation from others based on what we do

Settle, be satisfied in identifying as a member and expecting people to serve me

We were made for infinite love from Someone who needs nothing in return and for eternal impact through Someone whose purposes are the most important.  Only God can supply what my soul most deeply desires. 

Maybe do nothing…live with the longing.

What of those Efforts is On the Right Track But Not Quite There?

We long for life giving relationships and a high level of impact

Faith community is the place to go looking for the way to them

But no human being, no ministry, no success can ever provide.

We were made for infinite love from Someone who needs nothing in return and for eternal impact through Someone whose purposes are the most important.  Only God can supply what my soul most deeply desires. 

What Jesus Has to Say

John 4:1–26 ESV

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

Having picked the most direct and fastest route from Jerusalem to Galilee, it took Jesus through Samaria. Total of a three day trip. 40 mile to Samaria that took a day and a half. Arrived at the well around noon of travel day 2.

Sat down to rest. Hottest part of the day.

Disciples went to buy food. A woman came to draw water. Jesus starts a conversation.

What’s odd about this

6 - 40 miles journey. Would take a day and a half. He got to the well the second day of the trip about noon tired so he sat down to rest.

Jesus’ disciples bought food in a Samaritan town.

Jews and Samaritans didn’t interact with each other. For Jews, if you didn’t like another Jew you called them a Samaritan.

Jews and Samaritans didn’t interact with each other. For Jews, if you didn’t like another Jew you called them a Samaritan.

Risky for them. Not always welcome.

Women came morning or evening to draw water

She came alone

Avoiding contact with other women; felt a sense of shame…more on that later

Normally, women came to draw water in the morning or evening, the cooler parts of the day (; ). It is also strange that she came alone. Both these things suggest the woman felt a sense of shame and was avoiding contact with other women.

Men did not start conversations with women in public

it was strange for a man to initiate conversation with a woman in public, something noted by Jesus’ disciples later (27). The evangelist, either to offer some explanation as to why he asked her for a drink, or simply to set the scene for the private exchange between Jesus and the woman, adds, His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. It is at first surprising that the disciples, being Jews, would go to buy food in a Samaritan town, especially in the light of the evangelist’s comment in 4:9 (‘Jews do not associate with Samaritans’). However, a distinction was made by even the strictest Jews between accepting food given by those considered unclean and buying it from them—the latter being considered appropriate (1QS 5:14–20). Nevertheless, it was a risky thing for the disciples to enter a Samaritan town, as Samaritans did not always welcome Jewish pilgrims travelling through their territory ().

Nevertheless, it was a risky thing for the disciples to enter a Samaritan town, as Samaritans did not always welcome Jewish pilgrims travelling through their territory ().

[SLIDE 2]You’re Thirsty

Awkward social moment: Give me a drink. Why are you talking to me?

Give me a drink.

Why are you talking to me?

Beginning of Jesus not answering her questions and trying to draw her close

I have something for you…a gift. It will satisfy your soul’s thirst.

Gift of God that is living water: the Spirit. Nicodemus about being born of the Spirit, to the woman of Samaria he spoke of drinking the living water of the Spirit, and during the Feast of Tabernacles he invited the crowds in Jerusalem to come to him and drink, referring again to the gift of the Spirit (7:37–39).

It is living water - the Spirit of the living God.

Jesus is drawing her closer to himself.

What is this water of which you speak? Who do you think you are that you can get water better than Jacob who gave us this well.

What is this water of which you speak? How can you get it?

She implied that Jesus thought too highly of himself, as if he were greater even than Jacob who gave them the well.

The form of the question in the original language indicates a negative answer is expected (‘You are not greater than our father Jacob, are you?’). She implied that Jesus thought too highly of himself, as if he were greater even than Jacob who gave them the well and drank from it himself together with his children and animals.

The form of the question in the original language indicates a negative answer is expected (‘You are not greater than our father Jacob, are you?’). She implied that Jesus thought too highly of himself, as if he were greater even than Jacob who gave them the well and drank from it himself together with his children and animals.

Jesus repeatedly didn’t answer her questions.

13-14 Draws her closer - Forget this water…What I have for you - you will never long after anything again.

Trying to draw her closer again...Inviting her to a relationship with God.

Inviting her to a relationship with God. Life where all her relationship needs will be satisfied. 

Code for his Kingdom.

Eternal life - life in the kingdom of God. Now and in the future.

[SLIDE 3] Kingdom Already

The spirit and it will be a spring - The verb used for ‘welling up’ (hallomai) means literally ‘to jump up’, continually until you don’t need it any longer

13-14. It is a vivid metaphor for the activity of the Holy Spirit within those who believe in Jesus, reminding us of the experiential as well as the cognitive side of the Christian faith. The fulfilment of this promise (with its future-tense verbs ‘I will give’, ‘will never thirst’; ‘I will give’, ‘will become’) awaits the coming of the Spirit following Jesus’ exaltation (7:37–39).

The spirit (living water) will well up continually within the believer until it is no longer needed in the age to come.

His Kingdom come in the form of the spirit that will be a spring - The verb used for ‘welling up’ (hallomai) means literally ‘to jump up’, continually until you don’t need it any longer - when Jesus returns and brings it fully. While you wait, here you go.

His Kingdom come in the form of the spirit that will be a spring - The verb used for ‘welling up’ (hallomai) means literally ‘to jump up’, continually until you don’t need it any longer - when Jesus returns and brings it fully. While you wait, here you go.

Eternal life now and future where all her longings will be satisfied. 

Never thirst - Never feel dissatisfaction and always content? No. The satisfaction of the human thirst now is in the creating of intimacy with the Father and Son through the spirit. It’s a growing satisfaction. When moments of thirst/longing/drivenness happen, the spirit’s jumping up meets us in that moment.

Washes over us in spiritual practices…prayer, contemplation, worship, etc.

Slows down the inner voice that tells us what is not true so we can hear what is - perspective

My inner voice messages: accomplishment, have to act fast, opportunity is closing... For some of us, the inner voice might be telling us...

For some of us, the inner voice might be telling us...

Why I need time every day and extended times monthly, quarterly, yearly to slow down, allow the spirit to speak truth to my thirsty soul.

This is the relationship that lasts to eternal life and it is the human thirst for a relationship with God that the coming of the spirit satisfies now.

Yes, Please!

Hey, I don't have to come here in the middle of the day every day to avoid being around those other women who will shame me because of my living situation to get water!

Didn't understand what he meant by living water.

Wants the result without the relationship.

Sometimes we over spiritualize and sometimes we over practicalize.

16-18 - Again, Jesus didn't respond to her directly (never does in this conversation). Goes deep.

Get your man. Sore point. Jesus dialed into that longing in bringing up her husband.

Aner - husband or man (a male).

Husband - could have been married 5 times and each time, husband died or 5 divorces (divorce was male prerogative) and now she was living with a man who was not her husband (means someone else's husband).

Man - possible she has never been married but had a number of affairs with men leading up to where she is today. No way of knowing which one.

Either way, Jesus isn't bringing it up to create a sense of guilt, but to confront the pain, thirst that she has attempted to quench in her relationships with men.

You got me! You are a prophet of God to have known that about me. Shift conversation to church. Oh, he's a pastor...watch my language...what time are your worship services? I've been meaning to come by there on a Sunday.

Only a prophet would know these things about her.

And about us.

Her thirst is our thirst. Her drive is our drive. Her longing is our longing: meaningful relationship, purpose, meaning, significance.

Jesus knows what is in us. He knew her thirst. He knows ours.

[SLIDE 4] The Tipping Point - Implications Start to Set In

Do you know when something starts to sink in…the wheels start turning, inner conflict grows - I have a choice to make.

Like that in the time leading up to saying yes to Jesus.

Start asking more questions.

She was feeling a conflict emerging between the faith of her people and what she was hearing.

Samaritans were looking for the coming of the Samaritan messiah.

Samaritans too were looking for the coming of the Samaritan messiah.

Samaritan spiritual leaders worshiped on Mount Garazim (in view) but you Jews say the place to worship is the temple in Jerusalem. If I (and my people) want this living water, where do I give my allegiance/worship? What is the right place? God said he would choose a place to put his name and that's where people should come and worship and that place was Jerusalem (Mt. Zion).

Samaritan spiritual leaders worshiped on Mount Garazim (in view) but you Jews say the place to worship is the temple in Jerusalem. If I (and my people) want this living water, where do I give my allegiance/worship? What is the right place? God said he would choose a place to put his name and that's where people should come and worship and that place was Jerusalem (Mt. Zion).

Point of the question: what do you think about the long standing disagreement between Samaritans and Jews?

20 - Clear something up.

Point of the question: what do you think about the long standing disagreement between Samaritans and Jews?

21 - Things are about to change. There is a new day when the question of the correct place to worship won't matter.

Worship won't be localized in one sacred place.

There are no sacred places - not church buildings, holy cities, or holy sites.

Being in a church building doesn’t make us closer to God.

To think God's accepts our worship more because we're in a certain place or to think we're somehow closer to God when we worship in those places is to deny this truth.

22 - Worship that is based on revelation of God to his people is the real deal. That revelation was worked out through the Jewish people, not Samaritans.

Truth in Love

With heaping grace, Jesus told her unwavering truth. So, by default, the answer to your question is that up to now, Jerusalem has been the right place to worship.

You worship something now that you believe will fulfill your longing but we worship what has fulfilled us for generations.

So, by default, the answer to your question is that up to now, Jerusalem has been the right place to worship.

23 - Yet a time is coming (the time has now come…I’ve set things in motion) new worship: in the spirit and truth of my life and teaching

True worshipers won't need to go to Jerusalem.

Jesus' death, resurrection and sending of the Spirit would bring in a new way of worship. Could be translated, the time has now come because Jesus had already set in motion what would bring new worship in spirit and truth.

25-26 - Too much for her to understand (I know that the Samaritan Messiah/Christ is coming and he'll explain it all).

Jesus: I am the one speaking to you. I am he.

You have your own beliefs about the Messiah and I'm here to tell you that I am your messiah...for the Jews and the Samaritans.

I will satisfy longing of you and your people with my spirit and you will be able to experience and offer true worship by trusting in me.

You have your own beliefs about the Messiah and I'm here to tell you that I am your messiah...for the Jews and the Samaritans.

Admitting Her Thirst

I know that Messiah is coming.  I’m thinking you’re him. You’re right.

At the moment of admitting her thirst, her relational disappointments, unfulfilled life, lack of meaning, purpose, and significance and saying yes to the offer of the gift Jesus began the process of releasing her from everything that kept her longing, broken, beaten down, and thirsty.

As life begins to burst out from within her almost immediately, she can’t hold it in.  This is the (Samaritan) Messiah we’re looking for. No longer is she riddled with embarrassment and guilt. 

[SLIDE 5] What it Means for Us

The Father seeks worshipers who allow him to love us

Who Long for a quality of relationship and a level of impact that no human being can ever provide.

Long for a quality of relationship and a level of impact that no human being can ever provide.

We long for a quality of relationship and a level of impact that no human being can ever provide.

(v.24) - Are born of the Spirit

Worship is no longer restricted to sacred sites, practices

Worship is no longer tied to sacred sites.

Worship is no longer tied to sacred sites.

Who don’t restrict their worship to sacred sites, practices.

2. Worship is through the holy spirit that Jesus has given and according to the truth of God made known through Jesus and his teachings.

Who relate to God through the holy spirit according to the truth of God made known through Jesus and his teachings.

Relate to God through the holy spirit according to the truth of God made known through Jesus and his teachings.

Live in personal relationship with Jesus and covenant relationship with his body. Responsible to one another to be and make disciples. We need one another to grow, mature, serve.

3. The Father seeks people who will worship him in this way.

The Father seeks people who will worship him in this way.

4. Worship is not restricted to what we do when we come together in church but about how we related to God through the spirit and in accordance with the teaching of Jesus, and that involves our whole lives.

5.

Who live in personal relationship with Jesus and covenant relationship with his body. Responsible to one another to be and make disciples. We need one another to grow, mature, serve.

No man in her life has ever satisfied her deepest longings.

Practically at YFC

What are our longings? Personally? For our congregation?

.

Reach, grab, impatient?

Content waiting for someone to satisfy them?

Slow Kingdom coming

Slow Kingdom Coming

Even though they were mistaken about a number of things, Jesus recognized the longing of the Samaritan people would be satisfied (living water) and they would be able to offer true worship only by trusting in Jesus.

As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." (- Or... "I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land." ().

The Father seeks worshipers who allow him to love us

God moved into the neighborhood, lived among us. God is The Lord of the dance. Gospel is about him teaching us the dance. Like being in a jr high dance where the roof gets ripped of and Jesus enters, comes up to us, holds his hand out. What am I going to do with that hand? I don't know how to dance, be set free? I'm no good at this. He grabs your hand and says "trust me, I'll teach you to dance." We just have to let him lead us.

Admit it

Admit we have unmet demands from others that has left us disappointed.  

Choose to no longer requiring them to satisfy us frees us to love them for who they are without having to protect ourselves from disappointment.

Media: Woman at the well youtube monologue

Breakfast with Jennifer

Are you Thirsty?

Who Long for a quality of relationship and a level of impact that no human being can ever provide.

Woman at the well was thirsty. Parched. Not her mouth and throat but her soul. Always. Constantly. Relationally thirsty. In need of love. acceptance. 

(v.24) - Are born of the Spirit

The Woman 

Who worship anywhere, anytime and don’t restrict their worship to sacred sites, practices.

Woman had three strikes against her:  she was a Samaritan, a woman, and a sexual sinner.  She was the representation of her people at their best. 

She was at a spring or a well fed by a spring that had a wood or stone wall built around it wht a seat attached for tired travelers. 

Who relate to God through the holy spirit

Jesus was tired as he met up with the Samaritan woman at about noon which was an unusual time for a woman to be drawing water…sunset was the normal time.  Odd that she chose this well as there was a lot of water closer to where she lived. 

Who live in personal relationship with Jesus and covenant relationship with his body according to the truth of God made known through Jesus and his teachings. Responsible to one another to be and make disciples. We need one another to grow, mature, serve.

What I’ve learned...

The question caught her by surprise.  You’re asking me for a drink?  You, a Jew asking me, a Samaritan WOMAN for a drink.  You will drink from my dirty Samaritan cup?

Um, ok. This is awkward. “Could you give me this water so I won’t get thirsty (can leave now) and not EVER come back to this well?”  It Would be nice to not have to come here every day to get water. 

What I’ve learned...

 “I don’t have anything to draw the water up with.” 

God is drawing people…in their and his time.

“As good as it is, drinking this water might quench your thirst for now, but you’ll get thirsty again.  The water I give will quench your thirst forever.” Jesus is drawing her closer to himself. She wants to keep a safe distance.

Um, ok. This is awkward. “Could you give me this water so I won’t get thirsty (can leave now) and not EVER come back to this well?”  It Would be nice to not have to come here every day to get water. Wants the result without the relationship.

Go get your husband, I’d like to meet him.”  She’s not married and there’s more to the story.  How does she get out of this one?  Avoiding the conversation, putting up barriers – all her efforts to protect herself failed.  He didn’t take the hint and go away.

Damage control:  I don’t have a husband. 

Jesus knows her life.  He knows that she has had 5 husbands and is living with someone who either is her husband but it’s really no marriage or someone she’s not married to at all. 

Fully exposed.

We long for a quality of relationship and a level of impact that no human being can ever provide.

Urgency is overrated; listening and attentiveness isn’t

As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." (- Or... "I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land." ().

As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." (- Or... "I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land." ().

As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." (- Or... "I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land." ().

Yielding: coming clean. Serving Christ is not being good at what we're supposed to be good at, give the right answers. Manipulated so we could be good. Come to terms with own need to be affirmed and accepted.

At the moment of admitting her thirst, her relational disappointments and acceptance of the gift that was offered her and her simple act of surrender, Jesus released her from everything that kept her broken, beaten down, and relationally thirsty.

Crabb: underneath brokenness is a deeper river of God calling us to himself. We filter the truth of the freedom of Christ through the need to perform.

. We can display acts of holiness (and not be holy). God's required holiness is impossible by doing acts of righteousness. Can't make yourself holy as in Genesis. Law reminds us that we cannot do it/live up to what Christ wants us to be. Only possible by trusting him. Our job is to trust God. God's job is to make us righteous (this is discipleship). 5:6: this is social evangelism (trust expressing itself/produces love). Love is the outcome. Message of reconciliation is to be reconciled to/trust God. Apply trust to live circumstances. That's discipleship. If it doesn't produce love, it's not trust. How is what you're thinking and doing demonstrate/produce love? What does it mean to trust Christ that produces love?

As life begins to burst out from within her almost immediately, she can’t hold it in.  She’s got to tell somebody.  No longer is she riddled with embarrassment and guilt. 

. Context: set apart Christ as Lord. We don't need to defend him. Give an answer for the hope that you display. Do this with gentleness and respect. Hallmark of evangelism and discipleship. 

. Kind, gently instruct when people are softened to the Gospel. 

. God is at work in drawing people to himself. Our job is to be a witness to what God is already doing with kindness, gentleness and respect, etc. Are they hearing the voice of God and seeing him through the eyes of love.

Core of calling is to allow God to love us. 

Admit it

Admit we have unmet demands from others that has left us disappointed.  

Choose to no longer requiring them to satisfy us frees us to love them for who they are without having to protect ourselves from disappointment.