Willow Welcomes | Megan Fate Erickson

It was fun thinking through this unique series of being welcomed. I went back to the very first time I was ever welcomed, and it was actually on a Wednesday night, mid-service, midweek service, remember those? And it was nine years ago, and I was looking back, and I was like, what did I teach then? And I looked at my notes, and I was like, oh, bless my heart. But I love that the word of God doesn't change. But have you noticed we do? And so I'm going to teach the exact same passage I taught the first time I was welcomed to Willow. And it was so beautiful to receive it afresh and new, and then I get to pray for you that you would receive it afresh and anew wherever you need to know it the most. John chapter 4 is where we're headed. If you have your Bibles, you can turn with me. And as you do, what Jesus does in this moment is he meets someone in a very personal way. At a well. A well where people would come, they would gather water for the day, and then they would return home. Nine years ago, I told you about my life illustration, and that was of a cup. I talked about how I grew up going to church, I was trying to introduce myself to welcome myself. I grew up going to church, and I always heard that God loved me, and that sounded great. And then I heard the command, so love him and love others. I said, yes. So I took my little cup of love, and I would splash love on people, thank you very much. And then I went to school, and I was on sports teams, and then I got my first job, and then I got married, and then I had kids. And more kids. And it wasn't till I had kids that I realized that though we are called to love people, I highly recommend it. I had developed a really unhealthy habit.

Here's what I would do. I would love people, that's good. But then I would hold out my now empty cup in their direction to be filled back up by their opinions of me, or approval of me, or acceptance of me. And I wouldn't just do it to people, I'd do it to my job, I still do it to my kids, I do it to Scott, honestly I do it to you. It's so easy, it's so weird, nine years later saying I still do it. Can you relate? Right? And it's weird because it kind of works, like if people like you, it feels good. If you like, I don't know, let's go with the youth for a second. If you guys post something, and everyone likes it, and you're like, hey, it kind of works, right? But what it does is it unintentionally makes you a slave to people's opinions, you just keep coming back, and back, and back, and more. And the problem is, especially with relationships, is you're holding your empty cup likely in the direction of people who are holding their cup in your direction too. So it kind of doesn't work. What Jesus does with this woman is he addresses the places she's been running to be filled. Because point number one, we're all thirsty. We all long to be filled. And so he loves her enough to address it. And then here's what he does, and here's my prayer, and I want to actually pray. He takes her cup, he tilts it upward, the way a cup was designed, ah, no, yes, no. Because think about it, this has no use. This has no use. You can't use this cup if it's on its side. So he tilts her cup upward, the way a cup was designed, and then he fills her, but he doesn't stop filling her. You know, it's interesting, like, here's one way I've even really thought through this,

maybe even more than I should, is sometimes I would, like, run to the Lord, and I'd get filled up, and then I'd splash it again, and then I'd run to the Lord, and it was exhausting. My spiritual disciplines became some massive burden. into me, it's something I had to do. But the beautiful thing about walking by the spirit is that it's constantly being filled and then the natural byproduct is love. You don't have to try to love, you just have to spend all of your energy and time receiving it. Imagine the baby cup underneath Niagara Falls. That's what he wants to do. And I wanna take a moment and pray. I wanna open up our hands. I wanna come expectant. I wanna seek the Lord because he promises to be found when we do. But I wanna seek him with all of our heart. I wanna seek him with all of our heart and I wanna see what happens. And then when we get to walk out these doors to the food fair, how beautiful would it be if we just loved a bunch of people first instead of waiting to be loved by them? How beautiful would that be if whatever you have planned tomorrow, you were to walk into that room secure and with eyes to go, who needs to be loved instead of am I okay? You know what I mean?

Can you imagine? You probably can't. No, you can. And I want you to. So let's take our sanctified imaginations. Maybe imagine the rooms you've been. Imagine where your body is placed right now and the relationships he has. Imagine the opportunities of influence that you have. And if you're open to it, would you open up your hands this morning as a picture of your heart or your cup in which direction you long to be filled? So will you pray with me? Father God, I wonder where everyone comes in. I wonder how full they feel right now. Just between you and them, Lord, I pray that they would search their heart and just confess if they're running on empty. To confess if your spirit is already doing a work of awareness of where they're running to be filled. Father, I pray that we would let you love us this morning. Let him love you. So Father, I pray, as Paul prayed in Ephesians, that you would fill us to the measure of all the fullness of you. We pray all this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. He begins in verse one.

Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John. Although, in fact, it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Quick geography lesson, you ready? Judea would be down here. We have a map. Judea, here. Do you see it down below in the green? Up top, you have Galilee. So he is going to be going from Judea to Galilee. Now, quick context. He is a Jewish rabbi. Jews do not associate in this day and age with Samaritans. So, if you notice the pink, right in the middle between Judea and Galilee is a place called Samaria. Now, Jewish men of that time would never, never, never do the fastest route. Because we know the fastest route between two points is what? Straight line. Nope, because that would require a Jewish man actually going through Samaria. So every Jewish man at this time would always go around Samaria. He would take the long road. And this is not driving a car, this is walking. He would go around. By the way, do any of you have people in your life

that you just kind of want to go? Me either. So that's, you know. Like you're at the thing and you just find yourself in a different room. No? But, look how other he is, verse four. Now he, that's Jesus, had to go what? Through Samaria. Every time I see that word through, you know what I think of as that little kid's book, the one that's like, you know the tall, wavy grass book? Anyone? You know the one where it's like, can't go over it, can't go. Gotta go, so it's like a nice jingle until you realize what it says. Because think about your life, think about the trial, think about the hard person. We wanna go over, around, but he had to go through. And here's, we'll find out why. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there and Jesus, tired, as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. Did you ever picture Jesus tired? Isn't that wild that it says that? Fully God, fully man. The only difference though between he and me

is he knows what to do when he's tired. He sat down. You know what I do? I get more coffee. But he sat down by the well. It was about noon when a Samaritan woman came to draw water. Now, the Samaritan woman comes to draw water. Thankfully, it's easier to teach this during the summer because it's a little bit hot, anyone? But we love it, right? We're about to go into not hot for a few years. But it's hot. Now, imagine the blazing heat of the Middle East. So if a woman needed to go get water from a well and had to hike in order to get there, what time would she go? Morning. So what do we know about the woman? If she's showing up at noon, what do we know about the woman? I love all the answers. Doesn't, thank you, nice and loud, thank you. Because everyone else was like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Doesn't wanna be seen. Can you relate? Or at seasons of your life, maybe this season? Maybe that's why you're viewing online, huh? Yeah, do you ever have those seasons?

She did. So she shows up at noon, thus telling that she is very relatable, actually, to us, but really relatable to the consequence of sin in general, right? I mean, think about if you're hiding, what always makes me go back to Genesis chapter three, right, Adam and Eve, what happens? They listen to another voice other than the Lord's, and their immediate response is that they hide and they cover, they hide and they cover themselves. They don't want to be exposed. It's kind of like why when someone's like, how are you? And you're like, good, how are you? You know what I mean? It's why you feel that effort to kind of like, just do better, do better, do better, do better, because we wanna cover anything that we don't think is doing good enough. You want to cover that not enough feeling by doing something that is enough for somebody else. That's what we carry, all those burdens, right? And so she experienced hiding and covering, and she was trying not to be exposed, why? Because she experienced, right, all the things, we talk about all the time, shame, guilt, fear, anxiety, all the very relatable words that are very common, why? We'll come to find out her story. But we already know it, because if we're paying attention as we read God's word, we go, why noon?

Why would it keep that in there? We keep that in there so that we can get to know her and why he had to go through Samaria. She was there at noon. Verse seven, when a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, will you give me a drink? I love this about Jesus. It is so practical. If you want to look more like Jesus, ask more questions. Have you ever, I just two days ago was with someone that's like, I feel like I really wanna share my faith, but I'm a little bit intimidated because I don't know the answer to all the questions. I don't know, and I don't even feel like I can go volunteer in kids' ministry, because I'm like, they're gonna ask the hardest ones. I don't even feel like I can go, and I find it so interesting. I found the stat. The stat was that Jesus was asked 183 questions. He asked 307, as recorded in the New Testament. He asked 307. He was asked 183, by the way, fun fact, of the 183 that he was asked, he only answered three directly. How frustrating. Why? Why ask questions? We feel intimidated not to share our faith because we don't know the answer,

but it seems like the guy that actually knew the answer to every single question that could ever be asked didn't give the answers. Why? Because he's not wanting you to just be after the answers. He's wanting you to follow him and be after relationships, which are way harder. They're messy. It's complicated, starts in the fall. Like, hear Jesus's heart here. Do you know what he wants from you? Not you to know all of the answers. He wants you to have knowledge, sure. Here's what he wants. A real relationship with you. Can I take a second as your pastor and ask, how is the relationship going? Like, is it intimate? Is it personal? Is it real? Are you engaged? I don't say that to shame you. I say that to just tell you his heart. He loves you, and he doesn't just wanna love you from a distance. In fact, all the commands that he gives are to bring us to relationship. Why would he say, like, confess your sins? Why would he do that? Because he's like, don't hide from me.

I already know. You don't have to hide from me. You don't have to cover with me. I know, and I love you knowing all of you. And so he walks up to this woman, and he engages in a conversation. Will you give me a drink? And she immediately responds, because that's what happens in conversations. And she actually, what happens when he approaches her with a question, immediately she feels exposed. How do we know? Because listen to what she says. 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. She feels kind of exposed. Questions can do that. 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. Gosh, divine encounters, like big ones, like the ones I get to talk about up here all the time. You wanna know how they start? Simple questions. That was the exact sentence I wrote nine years ago preparing for this message. And I remember where I was.

Randy and I had been married a few years. I had a little baby, and I went to this coffee shop called Recreation Coffee in Long Beach, California, and I took out my, remember these, nine years ago? Remember these? Kids are like, what are they? Don't worry. So you put them in, and you don't even have to charge them. How cool, how cool. Yeah, your earbuds don't work and that you lose them on airplanes, but guess what? These guys, they work all the time. And I put in my, what are they called? Headphones? Walkman headphones, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I put them in, because I was at the coffee shop working on this message, and I wanted to let all the people in the coffee shop know how social I was planning on being. So I put them in, and I started working, and that was the exact sentence I was typing. Divine encounters oftentimes start with simple questions. And I was trying to wordsmith it to sound really good. For you guys, you're welcome. And I'm like, ooh, that sounds good. Yay, it's so simple, okay, this is good. And this girl walks up to me and she goes, excuse me. And I'm thinking, bless her heart, she doesn't understand social cues. That's okay.

And so I gave her another one. Sorry, did you say something? She goes, oh, I'm so sorry, am I interrupting? What gave you that idea? And she goes, oh, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. I'm like, oh, it's okay. Divine encounters oftentimes start with simple questions. And then I moved on. It took me like 10 minutes to realize that she wanted to have a conversation. And then I literally wrote that sentence. I'll never forget, I was like, you know, you don't know why? Because I was on my way to do ministry. Remember, Jesus was on the way to do ministry. How interesting. We will miss so many invitations to be a part of God's plans if we're so consumed with ours. I almost missed it, thanks be to God I didn't because I walk over to this gal and I'm like, I'm so sorry. Did you need something? She's like, oh, yeah, I do. I noticed you had like a Macintosh computer. And I'm like, yep. Not sure who calls it that, but she does. And so I'm like, I do have a Macintosh computer. And so, and she goes, yeah, that's great. My boyfriend just gave me his and I don't really know how to use it and like there's like, you know, like the Word document, it all feels different.

And anyways, I'm like, I went back to school recently and I'm just like writing this paper, comparing and contrasting Islam and Christianity because I'm just like trying to find the truth. True story. And Maya and I sat there for a long time. Interruptions, especially when they're people, aren't interruptions. They're just not. They're kind of the point. I know you have to get stuff done. I know. I was on my way to doing ministry. Forgetting. Forgetting. Ministry. Forgetting. That my job, Ephesians chapter four verse 12, is actually to equip the saints for the work of ministry. We've created this unintentional hierarchy at church that like the most profound moment of ministry is here and this. No, my job's just to equip you for that. My job's just to equip you to become more like Jesus by noticing when you get interrupted, pay attention. This week, this week, and do something crazy, especially if you have like the little ones. Get on their level. Meet them where they're at. Give them your full attention and see what happens. That's what he does.

Ask questions. That's what he does. But the best part is he doesn't just want to do it through you. He always starts by doing it to you. So he said, will you give me a drink? She, her heart gets exposed. Why are you talking to me? And he goes, oh, if you knew who I was, you would have asked me and I would have given you living water. And then she knows like, okay, water, we're talking about water, we're at a well, this makes a lot of sense. So she says, verse 11, sir, the woman said, you have nothing to draw with and this well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us this well and drank from it himself as did his, also his sons and his livestock? Oh, can you imagine the moment for Jesus? He's like, I have living water. She's like, where's your cup? He's like, oh, you want to talk about cups? And then in verses 13 and 14, Jesus outlines the difference between drinking from a well that satisfies for a moment and drinking from the source of life that satisfies. Because point two, if point one is we're all thirsty, point two is that Jesus, what he's about to reveal is that Jesus is the source of life. Listen to his words and pay attention.

Jesus answered, everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. 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 welding up to eternal life. Like, it's not just that he gives you something to fill you for a minute. He wants to give you the type of relationship that fills you, period. See, Jesus doesn't want to just be a part of your life. He actually wants to be the whole thing. He wants to give this beautiful exchange. And he does it and he begins it and he models it with her. And so I love it. She doesn't quite get it, which is really comforting for me because I, too, can just kind of breeze past scriptures and not really think. And he's like, I have living water. She's like, great, can I get a little bit of that? Here's her words. The woman said to him, sir, give me this water so I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water. She goes, that sounds good. And honestly, I wish we could stop. I wish we could, but we won't. Stop the message right here because basically it would be this. Jesus, like, gets interrupted on the way to somewhere else. He gets stopped, interrupted.

Well, kind of, except the interesting thing is she wasn't even looking for him. You may have showed up to church and you're not even really looking for an encounter with God. You're just looking to be in the right place or put your kids in the right place that might be healthier for them and hopefully something happens. And Jesus is here, church. And Jesus is in the kids' ministry. The power of God. Wow, and she's like, sounds good, I'll take some of that. And it'd be really nice if it was just okay, and then here you go, splash, and then you leave and that's it. But Jesus goes a step further because like I said, he doesn't just wanna be part of your life. He wants to be your life. And so he goes further to find anything she has run to for life, because not only will that not satisfy, the people that you run to for life will shatter under savior-like expectations. They cannot hold the weight of your satisfaction or your security or your sense of belonging. Your friends can't hold it, a spouse can't hold it, kids can't hold it, Jesus can hold it. So he goes there, it's kind of gnarly, you ready? He told her, go ahead and call your husband and come on back. I have no husband.

She replied. Can I tell you a silly story? One time my friend, I wasn't planning on it, can I tell you the crazy story that happened a couple years ago? Friend of mine was single and she was like, really, really, really like longing to hear a word from the Lord. And she's like, I feel like, Lord, you're gonna do it. And then she went to Chick-fil-A and then there was a person with a visor that had like a Bible verse written on the visor. And she's like, I think that's gonna be a word for the Lord, that verse is for me. I think she actually read it wrong, but that's beside the point because she goes through the drive-through, and she parks, gets out, and looks up John four, verse 17, Jesus said to her, you are right when you say you have no husband. But anyways, sorry, Haley. The fact is you have had five husbands and the man you now live with is not your husband. What you have said is quite true, which by the way, if you're someone that loves studying the Bible and you understand the power of numbers, five means grace, then you got six. But for her, Jesus was the seventh man in her life. Perfect, complete.

So he says, go ahead and grab the thing you've been running to for the only thing I can provide. Go ahead and grab those things. She's like, I don't have a husband. He's like, you're right, it's not one man, it's men. And they've been running your life for years. Now I've sat, I can remember sitting on my beige couch and going, what do you have for me in this story, Lord? And so I sat there and I was like, for me, it wasn't like men. For me, I knew it was like other things, but I wanted to ask the Lord, I'm like, why did she run there? And then I realized something. She, just like me, why did she run to men? The Samaritan woman deeply longed to be loved. Can you relate? Like to really be loved. She, just like me, deeply longed to be accepted or acceptable. She deeply longed to be significant. She deeply longed to belong, to feel like she's a part of something, a family. She had these deep longings, and the weirdest part is so do I. And so what do you do with them? And here's what I found, because I said me too. I deeply long for the hierarchy of longings for what it means to be human

is to literally want to be accepted, significant, have security, belonging, and love. If you are longing for those things, you're not crazy, but they can be incredibly problematic when you search to have them satisfied anywhere other than the source of life. And so Jesus goes there because he loves. And he says, where have you been running? You can tell me the truth. Are you drinking from the wrong source for life? Gentlemen, it's, I know you feel that burden, like you have to provide and be enough, like do I have what it takes? Can I tell you something? He has what it takes. What if that would relieve you of the burden? and to have to have what it takes because you already have him. What if he has what you need afresh? What would happen? He has you, but it might require you engaging again, leaning in to the one who's moving towards you, came to you, lived the perfect life for you, and then died the death you deserve in your place so that by the power of his resurrection, by going from death to life, he proved that he can make anything dead within you alive again, and friends, shame has a heyday in darkness. It eats you alive, isolates you,

and tells you that you should never be really known. No wonder we cover. And Jesus goes, I already know, and I wanna uncover it so that my love can meet it, my forgiveness can demolish it, and my power can fill it. And it's not just for the men. Of course, we got a woman here, yay. But ladies, we run to all these different places, and it's so subtle, and it happens so quickly that suddenly you find yourself so dependent upon them. Right? I literally, my husband and I had this moment the other day where I was finding frustration, and so I just walked away to the restroom, which by the way, sometimes we need to do that because there's that fight or flight response that we have, and then suddenly we can't actually, I know, we can't actually love somebody because we're being so defensive and we wanna be right, so then you have to actually move away to allow your body to get calm. And I did, and I confessed, and I sat with the Lord. I'm like, what is going on? And I felt like the Spirit just convicted me to go like, oh, you're relying on him again. And it's not wrong to need my husband, but it's wrong to find my source of security from him. And it's so weird because I'm super secure, everybody. I really think that I am, and I too naturally like.

But you didn't say blah, blah, blah. I didn't get invited to so-and-so. Me too. And I love that Jesus goes, I love you. I know. Come on home, let me fill you afresh. And it's almost too simple, almost too simple. And it has to be repetitive for me. I have to come back. I have to acknowledge, oh, I've run there again. I literally walk into rooms that I could easily feel intimidated by or know that I wanna be filled by, and I have to walk into a room and I'll envision a cup and I'll put my back to the wall and I'll go, Lord, empty me of all the things I wanna be filled. Empty, empty, empty. And fill me. I am loved. I am chosen. I am adopted into your family. I belong at the table. And why can I do that? Here's why. Because a long time ago, I was invited to not just have beliefs about God, but to trust him. Trust him so much that I realized I didn't have to trust in myself, that what I could trust in is that his cross was for me.

That the moment I believe on him, everything that is unacceptable about me was already paid in full and the consequence was grave so that I might be free. And I believe not only did he take my sin, I believe that he gifts me his life in exchange so I can stand before I walk into a room and go, let me remember who I am because you're in me. And in you, I am enough. In you, I am secure. In you, I am loved. And in you, I am significant because I can walk into this room and overflow you to them. And I do it a lot. And this woman, I love it, he brings up the thing and then she brings up something else because what happens is when you're pursued in love, you kind of begin to get a little bit exposed and some people try to cover it up and she does that. She goes, she just starts talking about places of worship which is like the big controversy between Samaritans and Jews. She's like, you believe this and we believe this so which one's true? And he's like, ah, time is coming. She's like, you're right, time is coming when the Messiah will come and he will reveal all of this. And he's like. And then in verse 26, he reveals the ultimate mic drop when he says this, I, by the way,

the one who's speaking to you, I am he. Like she opens up. heart. He reveals who he is, and who is he? Love, Savior of the world, the Lamb of God who was slain to take away the sins of the world, but not just that, but to become your world, to place his own life at the core of your being, and then to move outward through your life. And the reason we know she gets it is not because she says, I believe. You actually just see the effects of the belief in her life. Verse 28 says this, then leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah? Did you see the change? Listen, the woman is going back to the town, to the people she was hiding from, and she's beginning the conversation with the very thing she was hiding. Your past, your sin, your trials, and your pain will either be Satan's greatest weapon, greatest weapon against you, leading you to further shame and isolation, or it will be God's most powerful tool for his kingdom. I have become convinced that my greatest witness is not my goodness, it's God's grace despite my badness. It's God's power amidst my weakness. And then he invites her into a significant life. How do I know? Verse 39 says this, many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me everything I ever did, so when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days, and because of his words, many more became believers. But it doesn't stop there. They said to the woman, we no longer believe just because of what you said. Now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man is really the Savior of the world. The way that faith flows is not to be a friend of a friend, or a distant relative of God himself. It's when you encounter him for yourself. Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him. Why? Because she was willing to tell the truth. Anyone else just need to tell the truth? The weird part is, I stand up here and I'm like, you already know what you need to do. I just get to make the invitation. You don't have to be alone. You don't have to run. The Holy Spirit wants to bring things to the surface, and maybe some of you, you

don't have a personal relationship with Jesus. You've been hearing this entire conversation, and you're like, I'd love to be filled like that. That sounds nice. What do I do? How do I do that? You just simply come to him. You respond, and you receive the free gift of grace. By the way, grace is unearned favor, which is why you can bring nothing. Because the grace, and the love, and the acceptance, and the significance that she's been longing for from men are ultimately found in him. Because not only are we all thirsty, and that Jesus isn't a source of life. He doesn't stop at giving you love, and acceptance, and belonging. He invites you, just like her, to play a significant part in his story. Because what fills you, flows from you. And friends, it's so easy to be full of ourselves. And so let's just be reminded afresh of who is your life. And if you've never received the Lord Jesus, today can be your day. When I say receive the Lord Jesus, I mean confess with your mouth, Jesus, I believe you are Lord. You died for me, and I believe in your resurrection from the dead to place your life in me. And you simply open up your heart wide for him to live. And the best part is, you don't just do that once. You keep opening up your heart over and over again, and he continues to fill it with absolutely everything you've been searching for everywhere else. So let's run to him again. Father God, here we are. And I want space here. Holy Spirit, have your way in us. You know, you know what needs to happen. to happen between you and them. It's so interesting, God, I feel this pressure to like guide it or direct it, but the truth is, Lord, you are our guide. So Holy Spirit, bring people home. Show them how much you love them. Reveal the places they've been running and fill them with your love. God, thank you for being in the habit of using broken people for your glory.

Use me, use them, use us. Interrupt us this week. Help us to live your life through us, we pray. And all God's children said, amen.