I Am - Someone Who Sees You | Crossroads Students

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Hey, what's up, guys? It's Brittany. You can call me Britt. So glad to be back here with you guys. We are in the middle of our series called I Am, and I am all about getting to know who Jesus is and what our understanding is of Him. And I've got a question for you real quick to get to know you. What's your favorite game? What was your favorite game growing up? Did you like playing, like, tag, freeze tag? Like, I'm talking when you're little. Like, what was your favorite game? Some of y'all, maybe it was Candyland, if you're kind of, like, lame. I don't know. I was really into hide-and-seek. Like, I was almost too good at hide-and-seek. Like, I was that friend who kind of ruined it for everyone because I would go find a really good spot and then everyone would be like, what happened to Britt? Is she okay? You know, like, I was there forever just waiting for someone to find me. So I loved hide-and-seek. I got real into it.

But have you ever played hide-and-seek with, like, a toddler who doesn't really get it yet? They're real cute, but let's be honest. They're super dumb. They just are like, yeah, I'm hiding, and they just covered their face and that's it. And you're like, girl, I see you. You're standing right there in plain sight. They're hiding in plain sight, and they think it's fine. There are animals in the wilderness who hide in plain sight, too, okay? I've gotten to go to Africa a couple times, humble brag, and on a safari, I got to see a few different animals. And something I noticed is that all the animals that live in the African savanna have, like, this tannish, sandy color on their fur, and it helps them blend in with their surroundings so they can, like, hide, you know? But there's one animal specifically who is, like, toast out there because not only do they not have sandy fur, they have literally black and white stripes. You know what I'm talking about, right? A zebra, right? Like, zebras, what are they supposed to do? They're out there in the savanna, black and white stripes, just standing out, hoping they don't get eaten. So their plan of attack is they go with other zebras

and just kind of, like, hang out together and hope that they blend in together so that when the lion comes, they can't tell which zebra's which, and hopefully they'll be fine. They're out there just hiding in plain sight, hoping for the best. And the reason I bring that up is because in middle school, I was living life like that. I was hiding in plain sight. What do I mean by that? Like, literally, I would show up in a friend group, and I was the quietest one in the friend group, which might be hard to believe now, but I was so quiet because I was so nervous about what people would think of me, and I thought, well, if I say something stupid, they're gonna think about it the rest of the day, and I'm gonna think about it the rest of the day, so I'm just not gonna say anything at all. Or maybe there were some days where I had a really rough thing happen at home with my parents, and instead of sharing about it with my close friends, I would just act like everything was fine, and I was hiding in plain sight. I would even do that sometimes at church. Like, I would show up to places like this and just kind of, like, sit there.

And if someone made a joke, I'm like, ah-ha-ha, like, you know, cue the laugh, but it wasn't real. I was hiding in plain sight. And if you can relate to that feeling of hiding, then you can relate to the woman in my story today. This is the story of the woman at the well. And it's a real story that really happened, and it's in God's word in John 4 in the Bible, so if you ever wanna look it up for yourself, you can totally do that. And I love this story because it shows us a little bit of who Jesus is. So a little back story for you. This woman, she was a Samaritan woman, and she had been living her life not in the traditional way that most people did. A lot of women of that time would find their husband, settle down, do the thing. For her, she had had multiple husbands. We're not really sure why, but a lot of people in her community would have judged her for something like that. Like, oh, there she goes. We know that she's had five husbands, like, whispering behind her back. And she started to feel embarrassed and ashamed, so much so that when it was her time to go to the well to get water, because back then they didn't have, like,

a sink in their house. They had to go to the well and get water. She would choose the time of day that no one else was going to be there. Like, the Bible literally says she went at noon, in the middle of the day, the hottest time of the day. Everyone else is inside because they're going to be sweating bullets if they go out at noon. But she picked that time because she didn't want to be around anyone else. She was hiding in plain sight. But Jesus had a plan, and he showed up at the well at the end of the day. exact time that she did. This is found in John 4, John 4, verse 6 through 9. Why was that the first thing she said to him? Well, here's the deal that makes this story even crazier. These two should have never been hanging out. Like, literally, back in that time, Jesus, a Jew, would not have been talking to this woman, a Samaritan woman, because those two groups of people did not get along. They had big beef. They did not talk to one another. The second reason they wouldn't have been talking to one another was because Jesus at that time was a rabbi, a religious leader, and religious leaders who were men usually did not talk to women one on one. So this conversation, like, should have never happened,

which shows that Jesus sought this woman out when no one else was willing to. And as the story goes, Jesus does two crazy things. The first thing is He tells her, I know everything about you. Here's how it goes, OK? John 4, verse 16 through 18 says Jesus told her, Go, call your husband and come back. And she said, Well, I have no husband. And He said, You're right. The fact is you've had five. And the man that you're with now is not your husband. So basically, Jesus is saying, Actually, I already knew all of this stuff about you. And I came here because I want to spend time with you. That's how Jesus looks at us. He knows everything about us. For those of you who are like me and have spent some time hiding in plain sight, the thing is you don't have to hide because Jesus already knows you. The second thing Jesus does after He tells her, I know everything about you, is even more beautiful than the first. And it's this, He says, I want to know you. And we know this because He offers her something incredible. Here's what He says. John 4, verse 13 through 14. Jesus answered, Everyone who drinks this water at the well will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will well up to eternal life. You see, up until now, the Samaritan woman had been going to this well day after day

at the hottest time of day by herself, all alone, and then going back to her same life. And nothing really changed. She wasn't leaving different. She wasn't leaving impacted. She was actually leaving feeling not satisfied at all and quite alone. And I think for some of us, that is how we are living our life right now. If we have been hiding in plain sight, we just keep doing the same thing and nothing's really changing. It's not until Jesus showed up in her life that that flipped the script and something completely different happened because He was offering a relationship with him. He saw her. He saw everything about her. He knew her. And He said, I still want to be close to you. Some of you guys, if you've been feeling far from God, the truth is you're not far from God. You're just hiding from Him. And I hate to break it to you. You really can't. You can't hide it from God. He sees you and He still wants a relationship with you. And it's sometimes hard to grasp because maybe in our past we've experienced like the other way around. I know I have, where you say something dumb to somebody and it's hard for them to forgive it and you lose that friendship, right? Or maybe there's a relationship in your past that just didn't end well and you're like, I just really don't want that to happen again. I'm going to protect myself. I'm going to stay hidden.

Maybe for some of you, you're hiding in plain sight right now. Like you're sitting here as students in the back row or maybe you go to your C group and you're like, it's time to share. And you're just kind of sitting there like, I don't really know what to say. I don't want to say anything dumb. I've been there, right? And we've gotten used to hiding. But this is my invitation to you. And it's an invitation to say, God, I accept that you already know me. And for that reason, I don't need to hide anymore because you love me just the same. He loves you just the same. And that's the I am statement for today. When we're learning about who Jesus is, He is someone who knows you and who loves you. So here's what I want you to do with this information. So I want you to think about where is it that you're hiding? Is it an insecurity that you've been hanging on to for a while? Is it something in your past that you're like, man, I've just been carrying this thing and I don't want to talk about it? Is it just that you feel nervous around new people and you're like, I don't really want to talk to anyone in my C group or my coach. I don't really know them like that. Where are you hiding? Where are you hiding? Think about that, because today could be the day that that starts to change.

I invite you to find a coach or a trusted friend that you can just share, hey, this is the one. one thing that I've been hiding and pray about it together. Invite God into that with you and say, hey, I don't want to hide this anymore. I want freedom from this because I know that I have a God who loves me just the same. So if you've been hiding from God, here's your invitation to stop hiding in plain sight because he wants to be close to you. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this opportunity. Thank you that you see us and still love us. Thank you that you are a God who calls us to higher, not in a way of judgment, but in a way of deliverance and freedom and healing. I pray if there's someone today who has been hiding in plain sight that they can take that first step to be fully known and loved by you. We pray this in your name. Amen.