We're all seeking something in our life. Perhaps this last week or this month, you're seeking a new opportunity or a new job, or maybe you're seeking an apartment or a new house, maybe you're seeking a future, you're seeking to get through to retirement, but there's something that you are seeking. And if it's not something, then it's someone. Maybe you are seeking a friend. Like school year has started, you're feeling lonely, I just want a friend. Or you're seeking a new roommate, or maybe you're in the pursuit of a spouse, or you are seeking a new job as a new employer, or perhaps you are the employer and you're seeking a new employee.
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Who is God seeking? Would you be the someone he's interested in? Like, if he had a set of qualifications, do you match them? Do you not match them? Or perhaps even to back it up further, like, is he a God that's seeking anyone? I thought he was just like aloof. He was the creator of things, but it was our job to seek and find him. Who is God seeking? Would you be that someone he would be interested in?
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The Gospel of John, again, gospel means good news. And it's the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God who came. According to John, John was one of his closest disciples. And we have four of these Gospels. And just a reminder, they are historical, reliable, eyewitness accounts of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, so that you can read and know what has been recorded is trustworthy and true, and that you might believe and have life.
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We recognize that Jesus is truly human. We say that Jesus is fully God and fully man, or truly God and truly human. We oftentimes pay more attention to his divinity than his humanity. But it is true that he is embodied. So you can find that Jesus is understandings of his seemingly but he is and flesh. And so he knows what it is to be human. He knows what it is to be tired and weary. Here it says, worn out, wearied from his journey, he has to take a break and sit down to be refreshed by the well. He knows what it is to be embodied, what it looks like to rest in the evening, to be hungry, to be thirsty. He knows the pains of what it is to be human.
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Jesus has an appointment he cannot miss. Jesus is on mission to display the love of God and gather all those who are lost. And he has an appointment at noon with a woman at a well.
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And what Jesus is saying, I have a water that nourishes not just your physical needs. But your spiritual needs so that you would have eternal life. How important is it that you drink water? Is it more important that you have water or food? Water. You can live for about three days without water. And what Jesus is saying is there's a type of water that you will perish from unless you have it.
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And what Jesus gave to his disciples upon his...defeat of death and the resurrection is the spirit of God, the presence of God indwelling every single believer. And so we're drinking in the spirit of God to take up residence in our life that we would experience life now and forever. And so what he is speaking to this woman about is not water really from the well. It's the water that wells up to eternal life.
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The scripture would say, like, unclean. Someone who the community says is, you know what? We're not interested in. You don't qualify to be part of what we are doing together. And so Jesus brings it to light. Here's John chapter 3. Light comes in, and what does light always do? It reveals. And here he's revealing something that's true about her. And I love what she does because she doesn't retreat. If everything about me was exposed, I would run. But she doesn't run. She continues the conversation, but kind of, like, tries to direct it over here, meaning saying, okay, well, I can see that you're religious, but here's another religious obligation, a problem, another boundary, so to speak.
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Again, Jesus doesn't get distracted on these boundaries that we try to erect, but he comes back to her heart. And so he says in verse 20, 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 do know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father Father in spirit and. truth. For the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
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First and foremost, when we hear the word worship, we often catalog that in spiritual talk. So if we were to say, worshipers are religious people, we kind of nod our head thinking, yeah, it's a spiritual activity. But if you've been around Calvary long enough, you've heard me say this, and I'll say it again today, worship is not a spiritual activity. Worship is a human activity. Every human being worship something. When you recognize what worship is, it is simply finding something that you view as greater than yourself. Perhaps you find an identity from it. It's worthy of your attention. It's worthy to give resource to. It's worthy to schedule in your calendar. It's worthy of your time, talents, treasures.
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And what God is saying is the greatest place to worship is that the only one who has the church. true value above everything, which is God himself. There's nothing worth worshiping because God is the greatest of all. If we worship anything besides God, we worship something of less value. And honestly, it's not worthy to worship.
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Now, what does it mean that you would worship him in spirit? Well, God is spirit, Jesus says. So many people say, where's the holy place to worship? Or where's the holy time to worship? And Jesus says, there's coming a time, in fact, it's here now, where God's not interested in a holy place or really a holy time. He's looking for a holy people. And a people become holy when their sins are forgiven by Jesus Christ and are indwelt with the Holy Spirit.
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The second is that we worship him in truth, which means this. We don't get to worship God as we imagine him to be. or we think he could be like this or should be like this or shouldn't be like that. No, we worship him as he's revealed himself to be. And the way in which we worship in truth is to worship through Jesus Christ.
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And you know what's amazing is both of those are accessible to anyone. They start crossing all of these boundaries.
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If you're making this stuff up, this is the worst way to build a case to believe. And here's Jesus telling this woman, the one that you are waiting for, I'm right here. The one you're waiting for to teach you, to reconcile you. And here's Jesus telling you, to thequel. I do believe this. is sitting with you right now.
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And I love that she runs into town and she invites all of those people to come and see. You see that down here in verse 29? Come and see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? But she takes her experience with Jesus and then just goes, shares that with other people with this invitation. Come and see. Like, come see for yourself. If I have seen correctly, if perhaps this is the Christ.
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Now what you've seen here are all these different boundaries. of why some would say they're not qualified. They're not the kind of person that God is seeking. So you have a geographical boundary, down south, up north, those who are in Jerusalem, those who are in Samaria. You have a gender boundary, men and women. You have a religious boundary, you say this mountain, mountain, we say that mountain. You have a boundary of ethnic, you're from this tribe, I'm from that tribe. What we might say is, this woman lives on the other side of the tracks, so to speak. Or you might say, she's on the other side of the aisle. Or she's on the other side of the issues. Or she's in the out group, and I'm on the in group. She lives in the wrong place, she's born to the wrong family, she's showing up at the wrong time.
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And what John chapter 4 teaches, teaches us about who God is seeking is this, that there are no boundaries that the love of God will not overcome to find a receptive heart. The only thing that keeps someone from Jesus is not receiving him, which is such good news, which means you weren't born in the wrong place to the wrong family. It doesn't mean you don't have the right resume. I mean, if we've just posted your life resume of all that you have done, God knows it all. He knows all about the decisions you've made, all the places that you've been, and those aren't boundaries that keep you away from the love of God.
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What you see here is genuine faith, personal faith in Jesus Christ. I love this. This is such a great text for any of us who are trying to help people see Jesus, but their faith is linked to our faith right now. So perhaps for parents, it's like you have kids that believe in Jesus because you believe in Jesus, but the goal is not to have them connected to Jesus necessarily through you, but directly to Jesus.
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And so we opened up with this question, who is God seeking? He's seeking you. He's seeking you. if you would receive it. Jesus was sent on a mission to seek and save all that are lost. If you don't know Christ today, know this about him. He's looking for you. He wants you to be part of his family of life. It's why he came.
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Now, for many in the room who have already received Christ in their life, let me tell you the answer to this question. Who is God seeking? It's probably the very person that you gave up on and have created a boundary with to say they're beyond the love of God. When we use us and them language, who is God seeking? He's seeking them too. And you can be an instrument in helping them bump into Jesus.
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And for us to be instruments, witnesses of that, like the woman went back into town and said, here's my story with Jesus. Come and see. So perhaps who have you given up on who lives on the other side of the tracks that you can go to with the story of John 4 or even your own story and say this, I have met Jesus, the Christ, the Savior of the world. Come and see that He is seeking you. and the only obstacle is a receptive heart. There is no boundary the love of God will not overcome to find a receiving heart.
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