1 00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:04,160 Our scripture reading today is John chapter 4, verses 4 through 2 00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:07,640 10. Now he, that is Jesus, had to go 3 00:00:07,640 --> 00:00:10,880 through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria 4 00:00:10,880 --> 00:00:14,760 called Sykar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his 5 00:00:14,760 --> 00:00:17,920 son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and 6 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:21,600 Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. 7 00:00:21,960 --> 00:00:25,520 It was about noon when a Samaritan woman came to draw 8 00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:28,200 water. Jesus said to her, Will you give 9 00:00:28,200 --> 00:00:30,920 me a drink? His disciples had gone into town 10 00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:33,760 to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to her, 11 00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:37,200 said to him, You're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan woman. 12 00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:41,360 How can you ask me for a drink? For Jews do not associate with 13 00:00:41,360 --> 00:00:43,920 Samaritans. Jesus answered her. 14 00:00:44,440 --> 00:00:48,000 If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a 15 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:51,880 drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you 16 00:00:51,960 --> 00:00:54,960 living water. May the Lord add His blessing to 17 00:00:54,960 --> 00:00:57,680 the reading and the hearing of His word. 18 00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:01,720 Question for today. I just take a moment. 19 00:01:01,720 --> 00:01:05,560 I think if you ponder hard, you can guess the question for the 20 00:01:05,560 --> 00:01:06,640 day. Yes. 21 00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:08,640 What is this feeling? What is this? 22 00:01:08,760 --> 00:01:10,200 We're talking about feelings today. 23 00:01:10,680 --> 00:01:13,760 The song What is this feeling is what Elena and Emma are going to 24 00:01:13,760 --> 00:01:16,280 be singing soon. And it's a good question to ask. 25 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:19,680 Feelings are important, feelings are significant. 26 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:22,360 There's there's kind of an old school of thought, particularly 27 00:01:22,360 --> 00:01:25,960 for men, that we should repress and deny our feelings and just, 28 00:01:25,960 --> 00:01:29,160 you know, go through life with no emotions at all. 29 00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:33,400 Bad plan. God gave us emotions and to 30 00:01:33,400 --> 00:01:36,160 pretend that they're not important and they don't matter 31 00:01:36,160 --> 00:01:39,440 and that they should be suppressed is a recipe for 32 00:01:39,440 --> 00:01:42,320 disaster. They find their ways out one way 33 00:01:42,320 --> 00:01:44,480 or another. We can, we can either express 34 00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:47,200 them in ways that are healthy and productive or in ways that 35 00:01:47,200 --> 00:01:49,600 are destructive, but they always find their ways out. 36 00:01:50,040 --> 00:01:53,520 But asking what is this feeling? What is it that I'm feeling is 37 00:01:53,520 --> 00:01:57,520 an imortant thing to ask? And also asking ourselves, why 38 00:01:57,520 --> 00:02:02,200 am I feeling this way? Because as as important as 39 00:02:02,200 --> 00:02:06,640 feelings and emotions are, it's just as important that we don't 40 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:10,199 put too much weight on them or ask them to do things they 41 00:02:10,199 --> 00:02:14,320 weren't designed to do. Our feelings, our emotions, were 42 00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:19,120 given to us by God as incredible measures of what is going on 43 00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:24,160 inside of us. They are lousy as a tool for 44 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:29,440 determining external reality. For example, friend of mine from 45 00:02:29,440 --> 00:02:31,600 back in the days when I lived in Tiff, and I'm going to call him 46 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:33,120 Bob. Bob is not his real name. 47 00:02:33,120 --> 00:02:36,080 Since I'm messing up names today, should be easy for me to 48 00:02:36,080 --> 00:02:44,280 call him by the wrong name. Bob is about 6 foot 7 and the 49 00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:50,040 high end of 6 foot 7 and he's broad shouldered and he's lean 50 00:02:50,040 --> 00:02:52,720 and he's muscular. He's not there, probably. 51 00:02:53,160 --> 00:02:54,800 I mean not. I'm not sure you had an ounce of 52 00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:58,800 body fat on him when I knew him, but not as skinny dude, not 53 00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:04,640 super bulky, fit and strong. A white dude covered in tattoos 54 00:03:05,760 --> 00:03:10,480 and and Bob used to say to me, Scott, I don't understand. 55 00:03:11,600 --> 00:03:15,440 People see me in town and they act like they're scared of me. 56 00:03:16,640 --> 00:03:19,920 Little old ladies will cross the street to avoid walking past me. 57 00:03:20,120 --> 00:03:23,240 So Scott, just the other day I was waiting at a crosswalk, 58 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:26,920 waiting for the light to change so I could cross this direction. 59 00:03:26,920 --> 00:03:30,200 A woman came up the other direction and, and, and she saw 60 00:03:30,200 --> 00:03:33,120 me and she looked at me and she rolled her window up like she 61 00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:37,160 was afraid of me. Now there's two parts of this. 62 00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:40,000 One of the things I wanted to say to Bob but I didn't say to 63 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:43,640 Bob was of course you're scary looking. 64 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:47,200 He was scary looking. He really, really was. 65 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:52,040 It was not surprising that people reacted to him that way. 66 00:03:52,200 --> 00:03:55,560 But here's the thing. Bob was one of the gentlest 67 00:03:55,560 --> 00:04:01,200 people I have ever met, full of kindness and compassion not only 68 00:04:01,200 --> 00:04:03,520 to those he knew, but to those he didn't know. 69 00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:07,880 Now, Bob could be. I'm sure I never saw him this 70 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:11,440 way, but I I'm betting that if you threatened his wife and his 71 00:04:11,440 --> 00:04:14,560 kids, you would meet a side of Bob that was neither gentle nor 72 00:04:14,560 --> 00:04:18,560 compassionate. But I never saw that part of 73 00:04:18,560 --> 00:04:21,800 Bob. And, and most of us will react 74 00:04:21,800 --> 00:04:24,000 strongly to protect those that we love. 75 00:04:24,920 --> 00:04:29,840 But the fear that those folks felt when they saw Bob, while 76 00:04:30,240 --> 00:04:35,600 perfectly understandable, their fear was a horrible measure of 77 00:04:35,600 --> 00:04:39,360 their external reality. They were never in any danger 78 00:04:39,360 --> 00:04:42,760 from Bob, ever. Wouldn't harm a family. 79 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:48,920 Wouldn't harm a family. Feelings, when we use them for 80 00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:51,760 what they were intended and designed for, to help us 81 00:04:51,760 --> 00:04:56,720 understand what's going on inside of us, rather than using 82 00:04:56,720 --> 00:04:59,840 them to tell us what's going on outside of us. 83 00:04:59,960 --> 00:05:03,360 Feelings are very, very helpful, very, very useful. 84 00:05:03,520 --> 00:05:07,920 Part of growing up and maturing is learning to distinguish those 85 00:05:07,920 --> 00:05:10,800 things. Now back to Wicked. 86 00:05:11,280 --> 00:05:13,760 Elphaba and Glenda grew up separately. 87 00:05:13,760 --> 00:05:16,440 They didn't know each other growing up, but when they got to 88 00:05:16,440 --> 00:05:20,520 college they were assigned to live together as roommates. 89 00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:23,120 Two more different roommates would have been difficult to 90 00:05:23,120 --> 00:05:25,880 find. Although my initial freshman 91 00:05:25,880 --> 00:05:29,480 year roommate was just about as far apart as Glenda and Alpha 92 00:05:29,480 --> 00:05:36,840 were, They got together and they had very strong emotional 93 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:40,240 reactions to each other. And that's what the song, what 94 00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:42,320 is a feeling? That's what that song is about. 95 00:05:42,320 --> 00:05:46,320 South Elena and Emma are going to come up and sing. 96 00:05:46,840 --> 00:05:49,280 At this point in the sermon, we listened to Emma Taylor and 97 00:05:49,280 --> 00:05:52,320 Elena Buckley singing What is this feeling from the movie 98 00:05:52,320 --> 00:05:55,160 Wicked? Emma and Elena did a great job 99 00:05:55,160 --> 00:05:58,080 with it, but due to technical limitations I was not able to 100 00:05:58,080 --> 00:06:00,000 get a good recording of them singing. 101 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:04,040 You can find the Ariana Grande Cynthia Revo version on YouTube 102 00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:06,920 and all major music platforms though, and I hope you'll listen 103 00:06:06,920 --> 00:06:08,960 to it. It's a fun song about two young 104 00:06:08,960 --> 00:06:12,280 women who, upon first impressions, loathed each other. 105 00:06:12,520 --> 00:06:21,400 Now back to the sermon. Great job, ladies. 106 00:06:22,320 --> 00:06:25,520 Loathing. Unadulterated loathing. 107 00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:29,640 That's what Glenda and Alphabet felt for each other when they 108 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:32,680 first met, and they were convinced it would last forever. 109 00:06:33,080 --> 00:06:35,800 They were convinced that that initial feeling, that initial 110 00:06:35,800 --> 00:06:39,080 reaction told them everything they needed to know about the 111 00:06:39,080 --> 00:06:41,120 other person. And they couldn't have been more 112 00:06:41,120 --> 00:06:45,640 wrong. Now Glenda had the the second 113 00:06:45,640 --> 00:06:48,360 problem was that she had a lot of support. 114 00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:51,720 The crowd was behind her. They all said, hey, you, you 115 00:06:51,720 --> 00:06:53,880 should loathe elf about for sure. 116 00:06:53,960 --> 00:06:55,960 We loathe her too. She's terrible. 117 00:06:55,960 --> 00:06:59,280 She's awful. This is only evidence of a 118 00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:04,720 simple truth that is profoundly impactful in our world, that 119 00:07:04,760 --> 00:07:10,160 that focus groups and the crowd also get it wrong when they use 120 00:07:10,160 --> 00:07:13,160 their emotions to measure external reality. 121 00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:16,920 Their emotions told them what was going on them. 122 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:22,560 They each reacted strongly to someone who looked, dressed, 123 00:07:22,560 --> 00:07:25,320 thought, acted significantly different than they did. 124 00:07:26,720 --> 00:07:30,000 But they took that to mean that the problem was with the other 125 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:33,840 person, that there was something wrong with them, that they 126 00:07:33,840 --> 00:07:37,640 deserved to be loathed. They used their emotions to 127 00:07:37,640 --> 00:07:43,160 measure external reality rather than internal reality, and it 128 00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:46,640 created problems. On the other hand, I left my 129 00:07:46,640 --> 00:07:49,200 clicker someplace. It's it's probably in the back 130 00:07:49,200 --> 00:07:52,440 somewhere. Where is it? 131 00:07:53,080 --> 00:07:55,440 Did I leave it in the Pew? I did with my coffee cup. 132 00:07:55,480 --> 00:08:04,720 OK, thank you. The simple fact is that Alphaba 133 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:08,440 and Galinda though, they worked through those initial feelings 134 00:08:08,680 --> 00:08:13,480 and they became close friends. And in so doing it, they give us 135 00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:18,440 an example of God's way of relating to people and the way 136 00:08:18,440 --> 00:08:21,400 they did that and the way they got past those emotions. 137 00:08:21,640 --> 00:08:25,840 They got past those feelings and they saw the other person as 138 00:08:25,840 --> 00:08:30,880 they really were, and they came to love one another as fast and 139 00:08:30,880 --> 00:08:34,120 close friends and ways that changed their lives 140 00:08:34,120 --> 00:08:37,679 significantly for the good, for the good. 141 00:08:39,480 --> 00:08:43,520 God's way of relating to people is very different than the way 142 00:08:43,520 --> 00:08:46,520 that Glenda and Alpha were doing it initially, very different 143 00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:49,760 than the way that the woman at the well did when she approached 144 00:08:49,760 --> 00:08:51,720 Jesus or when Jesus approached her. 145 00:08:52,400 --> 00:08:57,400 God's way of relating is to not use emotions to define external 146 00:08:57,400 --> 00:09:02,080 reality, but instead to look deeply at the other person to 147 00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:05,280 get to know their heart, who they really are. 148 00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:07,560 That's God's way of relating to people. 149 00:09:08,160 --> 00:09:11,360 Think about David when David was first chosen. 150 00:09:11,360 --> 00:09:13,760 There's a new David movie out. Has anyone seen the David movie 151 00:09:13,760 --> 00:09:15,440 yet? I'm hearing good things about 152 00:09:15,440 --> 00:09:16,760 it. I haven't seen it, so I don't 153 00:09:16,760 --> 00:09:19,200 know if it's it's good or not, but I'm hearing it's a it's a 154 00:09:19,200 --> 00:09:22,080 good retelling of the story of David and his and his young 155 00:09:22,080 --> 00:09:24,320 life. But David when he was young and 156 00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:27,480 Samuel, Saul was king. Saul had screwed up. 157 00:09:27,480 --> 00:09:30,360 God said we're going to have a new king and he sent Samuel to 158 00:09:30,360 --> 00:09:33,840 David's family and all of David's older brothers came out. 159 00:09:33,840 --> 00:09:37,720 David wasn't even called. He wasn't even, he said one of 160 00:09:37,720 --> 00:09:41,680 your sons is going to be king. And, and, and Jesse didn't even, 161 00:09:42,080 --> 00:09:44,200 didn't even put David on the list. 162 00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:47,080 He brought out all of his other sons and they were older, they 163 00:09:47,080 --> 00:09:51,480 were taller, they were stronger. And, and, and God had this to 164 00:09:51,480 --> 00:09:55,080 say. The Lord does not look at the 165 00:09:55,080 --> 00:09:59,160 things people look at. People look at the outward 166 00:09:59,160 --> 00:10:01,960 appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. 167 00:10:02,840 --> 00:10:06,600 Those outward appearances can provoke emotional responses, 168 00:10:06,600 --> 00:10:10,200 very strong emotional responses, sometimes very negative 169 00:10:10,200 --> 00:10:14,120 emotional responses, sometimes very positive emotional 170 00:10:14,120 --> 00:10:17,160 responses. But neither the positive nor the 171 00:10:17,160 --> 00:10:22,040 negative are good indicators of the reality of the one or of the 172 00:10:22,040 --> 00:10:25,200 group that we're encountering that we're seeing. 173 00:10:25,400 --> 00:10:28,400 And this is what God is telling us through the prophet Samuel, 174 00:10:28,960 --> 00:10:30,520 that God looks at people's hearts. 175 00:10:30,680 --> 00:10:34,280 And this isn't some sort of romantic, you know, fiction kind 176 00:10:34,280 --> 00:10:36,560 of thing. That's not, it's not looking at 177 00:10:36,560 --> 00:10:41,240 their heart in a, in a fluttery sort of, you know, ROM com way. 178 00:10:42,360 --> 00:10:45,800 This is, this is looking at the heart and the way that the 179 00:10:45,800 --> 00:10:49,440 ancients understood the heart. And when they used that term, 180 00:10:49,440 --> 00:10:52,240 they weren't talking about emotions, at least not just 181 00:10:52,240 --> 00:10:54,520 about emotions. The heart was the seat of 182 00:10:54,520 --> 00:10:57,360 emotions, but it was also the seat of intellect. 183 00:10:57,640 --> 00:11:01,600 It was the seat of reason. It was the person's character. 184 00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:06,320 It was who they were on the inside, who they were when the 185 00:11:06,320 --> 00:11:09,120 lights were off, who they were when nobody was watching. 186 00:11:09,360 --> 00:11:12,120 The reality of who that person is. 187 00:11:12,320 --> 00:11:17,800 God says that's what I look at, not of these external things 188 00:11:18,040 --> 00:11:21,360 that provoke emotional responses in One Direction or another. 189 00:11:21,600 --> 00:11:25,240 I look at a person's heart. I look at a person's heart. 190 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:29,880 King Saul failed at this over and over and over again. 191 00:11:30,520 --> 00:11:33,560 When King Saul and his armies were confronted with the 192 00:11:33,560 --> 00:11:36,800 Philistine armies and their champion, Goliath, they were all 193 00:11:36,800 --> 00:11:38,600 afraid of Goliath. They didn't want to fight 194 00:11:38,600 --> 00:11:40,320 Goliath. They looked at Goliath and they 195 00:11:40,320 --> 00:11:42,400 were afraid. When David came up and said, 196 00:11:42,400 --> 00:11:45,160 I'll fight him, they looked at David and they laughed. 197 00:11:45,320 --> 00:11:47,320 They held him in contempt and disdain. 198 00:11:47,440 --> 00:11:50,920 Here's this little farm kid, this shepherd boy, this scrawny 199 00:11:50,920 --> 00:11:53,320 little run. How can he face a professional 200 00:11:53,320 --> 00:11:58,280 soldier 10 feet tall? Their feelings said there's 201 00:11:58,280 --> 00:12:00,760 nothing in David. We'll let him out. 202 00:12:00,760 --> 00:12:02,400 We'll send him out, we'll let him try. 203 00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:04,400 But this isn't going to work out good. 204 00:12:05,840 --> 00:12:08,280 And then it worked out great. And David killed Goliath at the 205 00:12:09,120 --> 00:12:11,880 part They don't put in the Sunday school lessons. 206 00:12:11,880 --> 00:12:14,080 Is he? He cut Goliath's head off with 207 00:12:14,080 --> 00:12:17,360 Goliath's sword and carried Goliath severed head around him 208 00:12:17,360 --> 00:12:20,080 the whole day. I bet that's not in the New Kids 209 00:12:20,080 --> 00:12:25,240 movie about David. But David defeated Goliath. 210 00:12:26,160 --> 00:12:29,200 And then David continued to prove himself not only as an 211 00:12:29,200 --> 00:12:32,800 able soldier but as a skilled leader, and he began to get more 212 00:12:32,800 --> 00:12:36,560 praise than Saul the king did. And then Saul's emotions told 213 00:12:36,560 --> 00:12:39,040 him David is not someone to be held in contempt. 214 00:12:39,240 --> 00:12:41,400 David is someone to be feared as a threat. 215 00:12:42,920 --> 00:12:47,400 And his emotional response to David was to fear him and see 216 00:12:47,400 --> 00:12:50,760 him as a threat and to try to eliminate him, to assassinate 217 00:12:50,760 --> 00:12:53,640 him, have him killed. He tried to kill David. 218 00:12:53,640 --> 00:12:58,160 He threw a spear at him himself and sent his military to get him 219 00:12:59,680 --> 00:13:02,440 because he was afraid of him, because he saw him as a threat. 220 00:13:03,920 --> 00:13:09,160 What Saul was never able to do was to get past his emotional 221 00:13:09,160 --> 00:13:13,840 response and see David's heart, the heart of someone who would 222 00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:17,360 not betray his king. That even though God had told 223 00:13:17,360 --> 00:13:20,760 him he would be the next king, he was not about to kill the 224 00:13:20,760 --> 00:13:25,640 current king to take his place. He was going to trust in God to 225 00:13:25,640 --> 00:13:28,080 work things out. But Saul never got there. 226 00:13:28,920 --> 00:13:32,360 Saul never did the hard work of examining what his emotions 227 00:13:32,360 --> 00:13:35,920 really meant. That he was insecure, that he 228 00:13:35,920 --> 00:13:41,240 was anxious, that he was fearful, his internal reality. 229 00:13:41,640 --> 00:13:45,080 Instead, he put it all on David. David is a threat. 230 00:13:45,880 --> 00:13:52,800 I should be afraid of him. God's God invites us. 231 00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:56,360 God calls us. I debate on whether to put it up 232 00:13:56,360 --> 00:13:58,680 there. I put God calls us to relate to 233 00:13:58,680 --> 00:13:59,840 other people. God's way. 234 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:03,080 It's really stronger than that. The other word I was going to 235 00:14:03,080 --> 00:14:07,400 use was God demands us to relate to God's to other people God's 236 00:14:07,400 --> 00:14:09,680 way. But but I don't know that felt a 237 00:14:09,680 --> 00:14:13,160 little too strong, but it's somewhere in there call demand. 238 00:14:13,440 --> 00:14:16,800 This is not this is not just something God would like us to 239 00:14:16,800 --> 00:14:18,680 do. God says if you're going to be 240 00:14:18,680 --> 00:14:23,600 my follower, this is how to do it relate to people my way. 241 00:14:24,360 --> 00:14:28,440 He gives us that example in Jesus with the the the Samaritan 242 00:14:28,440 --> 00:14:31,160 woman Jesus traveling through Samaria. 243 00:14:31,400 --> 00:14:35,240 He stops at a well, it's noon, hottest part of the day, and he 244 00:14:35,240 --> 00:14:38,120 sends his disciples on into town to buy some food, go get some 245 00:14:38,120 --> 00:14:41,560 lunch or dinner, whatever. And he's there and it's just him 246 00:14:41,560 --> 00:14:44,960 and the woman, and she's there to draw water. 247 00:14:44,960 --> 00:14:48,160 And she's come in the middle of the day whenever all of the 248 00:14:48,160 --> 00:14:50,440 other women in the village you were drawing water come early in 249 00:14:50,440 --> 00:14:51,880 the morning while it's still cool. 250 00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:54,800 But she doesn't want to deal with all the gossip and all of 251 00:14:54,800 --> 00:14:56,720 the hating and all of the backbiting that's going to 252 00:14:56,720 --> 00:14:59,000 happen in the snark. And there's this stain she'll 253 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:02,480 get from the rest of the town because of their perceptions of 254 00:15:02,480 --> 00:15:04,920 her. So she comes at noon, and 255 00:15:04,920 --> 00:15:08,240 there's Jesus. And Jesus speaks to her and asks 256 00:15:08,240 --> 00:15:12,560 her to draw water for him. And her first response is almost 257 00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:15,000 certainly an emotional response. And it's ick. 258 00:15:15,640 --> 00:15:19,080 Oh, this Jewish man is talking to me. 259 00:15:19,840 --> 00:15:22,600 First of all, Jews don't talk to Samaritans. 260 00:15:22,600 --> 00:15:24,600 Samaritans don't talk to Jews. It's gross. 261 00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:29,720 They're gross. Oh, and second, men don't speak 262 00:15:29,720 --> 00:15:33,920 to unrelated women in public. This is also gross. 263 00:15:34,480 --> 00:15:39,840 It's also, it's also it. And how does Jesus respond? 264 00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:43,120 Jesus responds just the way we've been talking about. 265 00:15:43,120 --> 00:15:47,440 Jesus answered her. If you knew the gift of God, and 266 00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:52,080 if you knew who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have 267 00:15:52,080 --> 00:15:54,560 asked him and he would have given you living water. 268 00:15:55,720 --> 00:16:01,000 Jesus is saying look past the surface, get past your, your 269 00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:05,960 visceral initial emotional responses to my Jewishness and 270 00:16:05,960 --> 00:16:14,400 my maleness and see my heart, and then you will be asking me 271 00:16:14,400 --> 00:16:18,560 for living water. See the heart. 272 00:16:19,040 --> 00:16:20,960 And that's how Jesus responded to her. 273 00:16:21,600 --> 00:16:23,800 And she was out there at noon in the heat of the day all by 274 00:16:23,800 --> 00:16:27,680 herself to avoid the others because of her past and her life 275 00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:31,320 and, and the contempt and the anger and the animosity and the 276 00:16:31,320 --> 00:16:34,720 resentment and the judgment and all of these negative emotional 277 00:16:34,720 --> 00:16:37,600 responses she was used to getting from the community and 278 00:16:37,600 --> 00:16:43,360 she expected to get from Jesus. But Jesus saw her heart and knew 279 00:16:43,360 --> 00:16:48,040 who she was and reached out to her and spoke to her and treated 280 00:16:48,040 --> 00:16:51,160 her like the child of God in person of worth that she was, 281 00:16:52,760 --> 00:16:55,880 and invited her to look at others that way. 282 00:16:56,960 --> 00:17:00,520 First Him. But then it naturally spread to 283 00:17:00,520 --> 00:17:01,960 others. And then this woman who'd been 284 00:17:01,960 --> 00:17:09,480 avoiding the community ran back to tell everyone about Jesus so 285 00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:14,960 they could know him too. Seeing past the surface, working 286 00:17:14,960 --> 00:17:18,240 through the emotions and seeing people for who they really are. 287 00:17:19,280 --> 00:17:21,839 This was this is not Jesus has an advantage. 288 00:17:22,680 --> 00:17:27,359 He's God in the flesh. You and I are not. 289 00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:31,880 And and so Jesus can do this instantly. 290 00:17:32,440 --> 00:17:34,160 He can look at you. He can look at me, look at 291 00:17:34,160 --> 00:17:37,080 anyone else and immediately know our hearts for us. 292 00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:39,120 That doesn't work that way for us. 293 00:17:39,120 --> 00:17:41,720 It requires work. It requires effort. 294 00:17:41,920 --> 00:17:46,960 It requires seeing our emotional responses, recognizing what 295 00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:51,720 those emotional responses are and labeling Him as such, and 296 00:17:51,720 --> 00:17:54,480 then setting them aside long enough to be able to see that 297 00:17:54,480 --> 00:17:58,920 other person's heart so that we can see them rather than our own 298 00:17:58,920 --> 00:18:03,400 feelings. His disciples who were with him 299 00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:07,520 for years struggled with this. We don't know for sure the 300 00:18:07,520 --> 00:18:10,240 timeline because this story's in John and the next door I'm going 301 00:18:10,240 --> 00:18:14,280 to talk about is in Luke. But if it it probably happened 302 00:18:14,280 --> 00:18:17,560 afterwards, after, after Jesus's encounter with the woman at the 303 00:18:17,560 --> 00:18:20,640 well, which Jesus, you know, later explained to the disciples 304 00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:23,440 what was going on, that another time they're passing through 305 00:18:23,440 --> 00:18:25,640 Samaria and they want to stop at a village. 306 00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:29,400 And the village says, oh, no, Jewish people, you don't get to 307 00:18:29,400 --> 00:18:31,120 come here. We don't like you. 308 00:18:31,480 --> 00:18:35,560 Yuck. And his disciples have an 309 00:18:35,560 --> 00:18:40,200 emotional response. Jesus, shall we call down fire 310 00:18:40,200 --> 00:18:44,600 from heaven to kill them? All escalated quickly. 311 00:18:45,680 --> 00:18:48,920 Jesus said no, actually, we don't know what Jesus said. 312 00:18:49,240 --> 00:18:53,920 I suspect it's unprintable. This I suspect because all we're 313 00:18:53,920 --> 00:18:56,960 told is Jesus rebuked them. We got none of the text. 314 00:18:57,160 --> 00:18:59,280 I'm thinking it was a pretty strong rebuke. 315 00:18:59,520 --> 00:19:01,960 And God's like, OK, we're going to leave the exact words out, 316 00:19:03,480 --> 00:19:05,680 but Jesus rebuked them and they just went to a different 317 00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:07,680 village. They were still acting out of 318 00:19:07,680 --> 00:19:13,520 emotion. These people, we don't like 319 00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:15,800 them. They're icky, they're yucky, and 320 00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:19,440 they've insulted our leader. Now we're going to pray that God 321 00:19:19,440 --> 00:19:24,440 will kill them, right? Just no, no. 322 00:19:26,880 --> 00:19:30,560 Get past your emotions. Recognize them, see them for 323 00:19:30,560 --> 00:19:33,120 what they are. You feel threatened by them, you 324 00:19:33,120 --> 00:19:36,120 feel anger at them, you feel superior to them. 325 00:19:36,600 --> 00:19:39,320 And so when they insult you, you feel it particularly 326 00:19:39,320 --> 00:19:42,440 significantly. All these emotions said a lot of 327 00:19:42,440 --> 00:19:44,840 things about what was going on inside the disciples. 328 00:19:44,840 --> 00:19:48,280 It said nothing at all about the Samaritans they wanted to kill. 329 00:19:50,520 --> 00:19:54,040 And Jesus came to die for those Samaritans, not to kill them. 330 00:19:55,800 --> 00:19:58,640 And he was looking for a relationship with them, not to 331 00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:01,440 destroy them. And that's how he invites us to 332 00:20:01,440 --> 00:20:06,320 live and to treat other people. That when we encounter others, 333 00:20:06,320 --> 00:20:09,200 whether it's an individual or it's a group, and whether the 334 00:20:09,240 --> 00:20:11,520 whatever the differences are, whether it's differences in 335 00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:14,360 gender, whether it's differences in politics, difference race, 336 00:20:14,360 --> 00:20:17,640 different language, different ethnicity, different tradition, 337 00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:20,320 different morality, whatever the differences are. 338 00:20:20,720 --> 00:20:24,280 That we recognize that our emotional responses to those 339 00:20:24,280 --> 00:20:27,000 differences tell us nothing about them. 340 00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:32,720 Lots about us. And we examine those. 341 00:20:32,720 --> 00:20:36,000 We look at him, we see what's really going on inside of us. 342 00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:41,040 One of the things that happens if I'm walking down the street 343 00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:45,040 and I see someone and I say, you know, that person looks a little 344 00:20:45,040 --> 00:20:47,880 scary to me, I think I'll cross and go on the other side. 345 00:20:49,440 --> 00:20:54,160 At the very least, that tells me that I don't trust God quite 346 00:20:54,160 --> 00:20:57,960 enough to keep me safe from that person, even if they are a 347 00:20:57,960 --> 00:21:03,520 threat at the very least. And those are the questions we 348 00:21:03,520 --> 00:21:07,400 ask, what does this emotion say about me and my faith and my 349 00:21:07,400 --> 00:21:10,080 relationship with God and how much I trust God? 350 00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:16,400 What does it say there? And once we work through that, 351 00:21:16,560 --> 00:21:19,920 then we have an open door to be able to begin doing the hard 352 00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:22,880 work of seeing that other person's heart or that other 353 00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:27,360 group's heart and responding to them accordingly. 354 00:21:27,800 --> 00:21:29,680 This is the work Jesus calls us to do. 355 00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:33,160 The good news is, is Jesus is very good at this work. 356 00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:36,720 And this is the kind of thing because Jesus has called us to 357 00:21:36,720 --> 00:21:40,200 do it and asked us to do it. Something we can depend on. 358 00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:43,320 When we ask God for help doing that, we can depend on getting 359 00:21:43,320 --> 00:21:47,680 that help and being able to see people as they are and love them 360 00:21:47,840 --> 00:21:52,040 as they are and respond to them in that way, just like Jesus in 361 00:21:52,080 --> 00:21:54,400 Jesus name, Amen. Amen.