SnowBlast #1

Juniors, I think you are taking more in, you may have had some past dating experiences that have made you wise, or maybe bitter towards dating, maybe a little baggage as well.

And the seniors, you want to hold on to every single moment, because you don’t know when the next time you will be here is?

You want to soak it all up and do as much as you can and learn and ask all of your questions.

Because next year at this time you will have a semester of college under your belt, or maybe you have a job that could be a career?

The next year you will change the most out of everyone here.

It is exciting, and scary, and the future is scary,

Now all the juniors are like oh my goodness— that is me next year and you won’t hear another thing I probably say.

The truth is we all have expectations and we all assume different things.

I hope that you expect this week to be awesome, because we do have a fun and exciting week planned out.

But i want to just say this before we start, you get out of this week, what you put into it.

If you participate, and are engaged, then you will get a ton out of this weekend.

If you are a bump on a log, and isolate yourself guess what this week is going to suck for you.

And here is the deal, sometimes you may need to get away for a few, thats fine we will check on you and see how you are doing, and ask if there is anything we can help with.

But don’t stay in that funk, be active, have fun, and enjoy this lovely trip we call SNOWBLAST!

Let’s Pray then the worship team is going to lead us in singing out to our glorious creator God Almighty.

PRAY

Message:

So in planning out snowblast we want to cover so much yet we have so little time.

So we came up with we wanted to study Ruth.

Which we are going to be jumping into that tomorrow.

Which I am super excited for that.

But our first night together, we wanted something a little different.

You see we could come up here and talk all about our earthly relationships and learn a ton, decide to never date again and go home.

We would share in lots of laughs and memories it would be great.

Yet something would be missing.

The most important aspect of our relationships is our relationship with God.

This matters the most.

Our vertical relationship matters more then all of our horizontal relationships.

This is not a joke, this is real, life.

Your relationship with God matters the most.

If you leave here without looking at your relationship with God and diving more into that, then we as leaders would have done our job, which is it point you to Jesus.

*If you walk away from here without knowing where you stand with God, then we have failed you.

We do not want to fail you.

So tonight we are going to be looking at a story you probably have heard before, Called Jesus and the Samaritan woman.

Now I ask that you have a personal Bible with you, because, Expeditions rule is no cell phones.

So maybe you forgot your in the cabin, that is fine, please bring it tomorrow, with a notepad and pen.

If you forgot any of those things, you should tell me and I will make sure that you get those things before tomorrow.

So we are going to open up to tonight.

As you are flipping there, let me telling about a saying I heard at Hy-Vee a lot.

Before I started to really pack on some weight at work, I would have customers say, you can never trust a skinny baker.

If you were asking someone a

You have all have seen my track Zach Photo, you know I was a little stick sure, and I really didn’t start to fill out until the last couple of years.

So the heart behind what they are saying is, because of your appearance, we can’t trust you.

You don’t eat enough of the product to tell us that this is good.

HOWEVER, I ate back there all the time, If my dad was here, he would tell you.

Yet based on how I looked people didn’t think that I was going to be helpful for them.

We all do this to some extent.

I am not going to ask parenting advice from any of the students here because one you don’t have kids, but even if you did they would be young, and you most likely would only have one .

You want to know that you can trust the person.

You want to know that they are leading you straight.

Now here is the deal.

I have seen this picture of Jesus often, and for awhile this is how i pictured Jesus.

He is pretty, delicate, flowing, glowing, angelic, and spiritual spiritual.

Anybody else?

Or is it just me?

I see a few of you.

This image of Jesus, if we are honest he doesn’t seem to helpful.

Here is what I mean by this, If Jesus is clean, elegant and more like he is floating carefree and not on the ground in the brokenness, in the muk in the dirt, where it hurts— then We can learn some principles about him but how do we take those principles and put them on the ground where I am?

If Jesus is beautiful, delicate, and floating above us and he is not in the blood, in the dirt, in the grim with us then I am not sure that He is any help to us.

And the writer of John gives us a picture of Jesus right in the middle of the grim, and the broken, and the messiness that we find ourselves in today.

He is on the ground.

HE IS WITH US.

Emmauel

Right, we just talked about this at parents night.

God with us.

Back in the Garden God was present.

To God being present with is people in the tabernacle, and then in the temple, to where Jesus puts on flesh and dwells among us, to when the Holy Spirit comes inside the apostles at Pentecost so that HE CAN DWELL WITH US!

AND one day, Jesus is going to be coming back and it will be GOD WITH US FOREVER AND EVER!

This image of Jesus, if we are honest he doesn’t seem to helpful.

This is the story of the Bible.

John the writer here, wants us to have picture of God’s grace, which was not for those who had their act together, not those who pretend they have it all figured out.

But it is right into our wounds, our hurt and our pain that is what John after in this story and that is where Jesus wants to be at with you tonight.

So let go ahead and read

I think in Christianity today we see pictures of Jesus that looks like this, and in our minds think he can’t help me in my messy, broken, world.

How does this dude know what I am dealing with?

I mean if this is the image we get when we are praying, and we don’t think that Jesus

John 4:1–6 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.

John 4:1

Do not forget verse 4 as that is a pretty important verse that we will be coming back too.

I just want to pause for a moment.

Here is the deal, I think we all have this image of Jesus in our mind, but not very many of us have this image of Jesus.

Where it says that Jesus was wearied from his Journey.

Jesus was doing this:

Hands on his knees, gasping for air, just going, please I just need to sit down!

He was sweaty and he was dirty, he wasn’t just floating around all over the place like some spiritual guru.

He was tired and he was worn out!

oh and by the way it was NOON, the highest point of the sun, he was virtually in the middle of the desert and it was hot, and it was noon.

Okay lets read on:

John 4:7–30 ESV

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.” Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the town and were coming to him.

John 4:7-

We are going to skip this conversation with the disciples, not because it is not important but we are looking at more how Jesus interacts with this woman.

John 7:39–42 ESV

Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?”

John 4:39–42 ESV

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

John 7:39–42 ESV

John

John 7:39-

Okay lets start with verse 4:

John 4:4 ESV

And he had to pass through Samaria.

Now growing up I heard often that the Jewish people hated Samaria so much, they despised them so much that they would not even walk in their country.

They would go around, to avoid being in that country.

Which then of course when it says he, Jesus had to pass through Samaria, we go ah I see, he is showing love.

Yet, when I was studying this passage, something didn’t seem right.

I grabbed my Bible and looked to see where Judea was and where Galilee was and then where Samaria was.

They are literally stacked on top of each other.

I mean the only way to avoid Samaria was to go around.

Which a route existed.

However according to lot of different commentaries, and articles, going through Samaria was the most common route because it was the shortest!

Look John, I don’t think wanted us to get hung up on where Jesus was traveling, I think John was conveying this point to show that Jesus, being led by the Spirit was heading to a divine appointment and he HAD TO GO!

Jesus keeps His Appointments

He had to pass through Samaria— he had no choice, even if the disciples wanted to go a different way too bad— Because Jesus HAD TO GO!

No other options.

Because there was a women their who was in desperate need of salvation.

I think this is why he had to go.

Nothing to go with short routes or long routes, but Jesus was on this path to meet with broken, wounded, and hurt people.

Just like he is today!

He wants to meet with hurt, and broken people because only he can heal, only he can fill that void that we try to put other things into it.

Things like:

drinking, sex, drugs, porn, dating relationships, money, gossip:

We are kings and queens of filling this emptiness with things that do not last.

Let go on, because as tired Jesus is waiting at the well, guess who shows up at a time when NO BODY ELSE WAS COMING TO WELL.

Look, it is noon, the hottest time of day, and this Samaritan woman comes to the well to get water.

Most women got water in the morning and in the evening.

They traveled together, its a woman thing— like going to the bathroom together.

Yet this woman— was alone and getting water when no one else was around.

A couple things we can take from this:

She was trying to avoid people.

She knew no one else was present and we can suggest that she had some baggage that she felt shame from.

HOWEVER on this day, Look who is at the well just waiting for her.

Not only was Jesus waiting for her but then he strikes up this conversation:

Give me a drink.

Now if you were a Jewish man, there were some prejudicies you would have had.

The New Bible Commentary 4:4–42 Jesus in Samaria

Jesus’ action overcame two Jewish prejudices—conversation with a Samaritan and conversation with a woman.

It was as if Jesus was trying to start a conversation and thank goodness his disciples were not around— wasn’t that convenient that Jesus sent his disciples into town.

But Jesus treated this woman like a normal person: and he even ask for a drink.

Her response is a little confused:

John 4:9 ESV

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.)

Yet Here is the response to Jesus: who does not acknowledge her question.

John 4:10 ESV

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.”

John 4:

Living water— is water alive?

Huh?

I am sure that many of us would answer this way back:

AAAA you do not have any water on you, why would I ask for water. You literally just asked me for water and you have this living water this whole time?

Here is Jesus response:

John 4:13 ESV

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,

John 4:13–15 ESV

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.”

John 4:13-

Jesus offers something that we can never get on our own.

Living water.

Jesus Provides Living Water

Water that we will never have to thirst again.

Which for us, may not seem like a big deal.

I mean if I am thirsty then i go grab a bottle of water and drink, but for a woman who was drawing water at the hottest part of the day to avoid people because of her shame and guilt— this living water sounds amazing!

And this woman is like yes! Give me the water! I do not want to be thirsty again.

You see the writer John is showing that Jesus is saying over and over again that I am better than Jewish promises— which we do not have time to get into but I would love to share these with anyone who wants to listen.

Jesus the lamb of God= No more lamb sacrifices

New Wine= Better than jewish ritual of purification

Temple=No physical temple- dwells inside of us

New life= born out of ongoing belief and repentance.

Now Jesus is saying look even water that draws us back to drink again and again, is going to be done away with, because we will have this living water!

GIVE ME THIS WATER!

I want eternal life

The woman is on board!

She wants it, easiest alter call ever!

What does Jesus say next?

Here is when things get a little awkward right!

Jesus says go and bring your husband here!

Here is their interaction

John 4:17–18 ESV

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.”

John 4:17-

And some of us may step back and go, Jesus just give her the water, whats the hold up?

Jesus she wants the living water, give her the living water, who cares about husband.

Jesus you are being mean, actually he is being loving.

We have to understand what Jesus is doing here.

We live in a deeply broken world and when we live in a broken world—We all have these deep wounds.

We live in a broken world and when we live in a broken world—We all have these deep wounds.

Everyone in here has these wounds, they could be based off of choices we have made, it could be our present circumstances, no matter, you see we all have these wounds.

Some are deep and these wounds cause us to hide.

When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden what did they do?

They hid.

This women is at the well at noon because she is hiding.

Jesus is saying go and get your husband, she says she can’t she doesn’t have one.

Yet Jesus knows the whole truth.

You are not, you don’t have one, the one you are currently with he’s not your husband.

You have had five.

Why did Jesus bring up her husband?

Because the way to experiencing grace is through the wound, it is through the addictions, it is through the hurt and the hang ups, through the weakness.

It is not through your power nor your strength.

Luke

Luke 5:32 ESV

I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Luke 5:31–32 ESV

And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Luke 5:31 ESV

And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

Jesus came to heal the sick!

Jesus heals the Sick

Oh and if you are thinking I’m well and I don’t need a be healed or fixed.

Romans 3:10 ESV

as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;

Which means that we are all broken and in need of healing!

This woman is broken and if Jesus just makes her feel better, that means nothing!

He sees her hurt!

He sees her wounds and he wants to give her living water that heals deep wounds rather than just lip service that a month from now she is going to be back at the well at noon!

Jesus came to those who are sick and who is not righteous.

If you want living water then go get your husband.

This is the same way God works today!

You want to have living water which leads to eternal life;

You want to be free

Bring your relationships in here

Bring your porn addiction in here

Bring your snapchat in here

Bring your lies

Bring your self-harm

Bring your eating disorders

THIS IS WHERE JESUS GOES!

It is not about being a better person!

Bring that brokeness and get it in here and let’s talk about it!

Jesus doesn’t ask for a better version of you— just you!

But my goodness we fail to get real with each other.

We fail to bring our brokenness to the cross.

If you are hiding sin and you cannot get over that sin— it will be impossible for you to receive love, affirmation and grace from anyone.

Why— because you will convince yourself that if they knew about this sin this one thing no one would ever be able to love me, or care for me they would reject me.

So what do we do we find.

WE GO TO THE WELL AT NOON!

When we get to this level where our sin is out in the open— here come the defenses:

Look at what happens when Jesus wants to go there to fix the wound.

She defends.

She say this:

John 4:

John 4:19–20 ESV

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.”

She doesn’t want to talk about her sin and her brokenness, she puts up this wall and says let’s talk theology.

She is dodging!

Jesus has the power to heal yet we want to talk about doctrine and theology rather than getting to the wounds.

Jesus doesn’t back down, she may not have answered him but he will answer her.

John 4:21–24 ESV

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.”

How we understand God matters

John 4:21-

Verse 23

John 4:23 ESV

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.

This is the Gospel!

How we understand God matters.

Jesus is still staying on track yet he is going to answer her, and she knows that the Messiah is coming.

Jesus

And in

Jesus reveals himself to her.

John 4:26 ESV

Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

Look we can talk relationships, and what dating is suppose to be like, and what is love, and isn’t just so wonderful.

We can talk all about that— yet i feel like we are doing a disservice because if We fail to bring our brokenness to the cross.

We fail to bring our brokenness to the cross.

If you are hiding sin and you cannot get over that sin— it will be impossible for you to receive love, affirmation and grace from anyone.

Why— because you will convince yourself that if they knew about this sin this one thing no one would ever be able to love me, or care for me they would reject me.

We hide it, we hide ourselves and we find ourselves at the well at noon.

So what do we do we find.

WE GO TO THE WELL AT NOON!

I know I have spoken for a long time but if we do not get a grasp on our hurts, and hangup and we do not allow Jesus to work those things out, then we will keep going back to those wounds over and over again.

Here’s the deal when you allow Christ to heal the wound you will experience grace like you have never experienced before.

When I chose to give up my porn addiction to Christ; oh man did it hurt, my relationships were compromised, and hurt, and they were wounded.

Yet the peace, and joy, and grace that I felt was unbelievable.

We don’t sin to get more grace, don’t misunderstand me.

But we are wired to hide ourselves away.

We want to hide in the dark and we want to keep holding on to that sin and when Jesus comes to address it we talk about other things.

When someone ask how is it going? We lie

You see in order to drink from this living water

When we share dem burdens we say things like I struggle a little pray for me, but the reality is you are barely above water!

You believe this lie that the devil tells you that no one will love you because of your hurts and everyone will leave you.

You don’t fight the devil in the dark.

You don’t fight the devil alone in the dark.

If you fight the devil in the dark he will knock you out.

But if you bring the devil into the light, with others, you have a better chance of fight him.

The way of experiencing grace is through the wound.

A wound you either pull back or push forward

A scar is healed with a story

Bring the brokenness.

If you have some brokenness that you need to allow Jesus to heal, now is the time. don’t wait.

Kevin is going to lead us with a few songs and man if you want to experience grace come on up here, and offer it up to Jesus.

If you are hiding sin and you cannot get over that sin— it will be impossible for you to receive love, affirmation and grace from anyone.

Why— because you will convince yourself that if they knew about this sin this one thing no one would ever be able to love me, or care for me they would reject me.

So what do we do we find.

Your leaders will be up here, but if you just maybe need a moment to hash things out with God the alter is always open.

WE GO TO THE WELL AT NOON!

And if you need to talk to someone man grab your leader or grab a leader and chat with them.

When we get to this level where our sin is out in the open— here come the defenses:

I believe that we will be bad in relationships if we do not get a handle on our brokenness, yes Jesus loves you where you are, which is why we went to where the Samaritan woman was, but he refused to let her stay in her brokenness.

How we understand God matters

Pray

Related Media

Related Sermons