Loyal Love (Northminster)

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Scripture Readings:

Micah 7:14–20 NIV

Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, which lives by itself in a forest, in fertile pasturelands. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in days long ago. “As in the days when you came out of Egypt, I will show them my wonders.” Nations will see and be ashamed, deprived of all their power. They will put their hands over their mouths and their ears will become deaf. They will lick dust like a snake, like creatures that crawl on the ground. They will come trembling out of their dens; they will turn in fear to the Lord our God and will be afraid of you. Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. You will be faithful to Jacob, and show love to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our ancestors in days long ago.

The New International Version Chapter 4

4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “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.)

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 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.”

15 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.”

19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 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. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Silent Prayer…Amen

Intro: Good morning

It is good to be back and with you all virtually

Hope you had a great Christmas and New Years!

Today I am inviting us to look at the loyal love of God through the story of scripture, specifically in John chapter 4, but also into our own lives.

When I say loyal love what do you think about?

It’s a kind of love and commitment that is unwaveringly dedicated through an emotional covenant on 1 or more parties behalf.

This word “Khesed” get’s translated to “steadfast love” or “lovingkindness” because there is no word in English that represents the wholistic nature of how God feels for us. It combines love, generosity, and a covenant commitment into one word. Think about that for a second. We have no English category for how God relates to us in his unrelenting covenant love.

Comes from Exodus 34:6

It is the most quoted piece of scripture because it reveals to us who God is.

Loyal Love or Steadfast love is one of the most attributed characteristics of God in scripture and

John takes this and says over and over that God is Love…not just our idea of love, but this idea of love.

Story of Love

Love is rooted in experience, it is not just theological. John wants us to see this.

Walk through John 4

It is John that chooses to focus on the Divinity of Jesus so much in his Gospel.

He has the 7 “I AM” statements in his gospel

He focuses on Jesus as the word in the beginning, always existing with God, not created. All things were created through him.

Funny enough, this Jesus is weak and exhausted from a journey when he meets this woman.

Woman is at this well at noon

outcast from society, avoided people by going to the well at the hottest time of the day.

“The mutual hatred of Jews and Samaritans intensified in the postexilic period when Zerubabel refused to allow the Samaritans to help rebuild the Temple (Ezra 4). So around 300 BCE the Samaritans built their own shrine on Mount Gerizim as a rival to the Temple in Jerusalem; John Hyrcanus (jewish high priest) destroyed the shrine ca. 128 BCE.”- Theologian Teresa Okure

Jews and Samaritans Hated each other. They avoided each other at all cost…But not Jesus.

Jesus get’s into a conversation about living water. Living water was water that flowed, obviously a well isn’t flowing water. She isn’t a PHD philosophy student, she thought Jesus was talking about flowing water.

Jesus turns the conversation

Jesus had a beautiful way of turning conversations from earthly idea’s to his kingdom idea’s.

We need to learn from Jesus.

Are we looking for opportunities to turn earthly conversations into Kingdom conversations that Jesus might use?

Quote

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 1.7: St. Augustin: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies Tractate XV

But He who was asking drink was thirsting for the faith of the woman herself.

This womans faith and faithfulness leads her whole village to Christ.

What does this have to do with Loyal Love?

Look at vs 1-3

Jesus is killing it, baptizing more people than John.

Why stop and leave?

American church would fire someone for doing this. Leave that to go through Samaria?

Jesus desires for all people to follow him

He had a plan for this woman than wasn’t dependent on her faithfulness to God.

His Loyal Love for these partly connected part Jewish people was not dependent on them. Abraham’s covenant in Gen 12 was that all people would be blessed.

This fulfills what Jesus says is the 2 greatest commandments

Love God

Love neighbor

Loving our Neighbor includes our enemies and this is where I want us to get a little uncomfortable and dig into Jesus’s radical Kingdom Vision for people.

Jesus talks about this at length and in a variety of ways.

As Christians we MUST, MUST love those we hate. Loyal Love to those unloyal.

We must identify, through prayer, meditation, and allowing the Holy Spirit to search our heart, who our neighbors are that we hate and then ACTIVELY MOVE TOWARDS LOVING THEM. THE TYPE OF LOVE GOD HAS FOR US. UNCONDITIONAL, STEADFAST, RADICAL, GENEROUS LOVE.

Story of Anson, Why do Christians hate people so much?

People get hurt when our allegiances go to systems rather than King Jesus. I deal with it and hear it from kids all the time.

Application: How has the Gospel made your God’s friend, because as paul says, we were dead in our sins and enemies of God.

How have you loved your neighbor in a tangible way, especially those that you consider your enemy.

God’s Loyal Love is radical and was able to see past this woman’s earthy life. He say the Kingdom potential and what God could do through her.

Let us Pray

And this time, Oh, God, we pray to you for those who are in special need. We pray for...

Here these prayers now as we pray together as your people. Praying the prayer that you taught your people. we are bold to pray:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.

Jesus taught us it is more blessed to give than to receive so let us present our tithes and offerings to the Lord.