If You Only Knew - John 4 - Sam Pollard at St Cedd's

Devotional

Day 1: The True Question of Faith: God's Goodness, Not His Existence

The struggle for many is not a logical argument about God's existence, but a heartfelt question about His character. When we look at the world and our own experiences, we can wonder how a good God could allow such pain and difficulty. This internal conflict often centers on whether God can truly be good. The invitation is to move beyond intellectual debate and into a relational trust in His inherent goodness. [04:32]

The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
Exodus 34:6-7 (ESV)

Reflection: When you consider the challenges in your life or the brokenness in the world, what specific doubt about God's goodness tends to surface in your heart? How might acknowledging that doubt be the first step toward encountering His love?

Day 2: Our Natural Disposition: Made to Trust God's Goodness

We are created not to prove God's existence, but to live from it. Our original design is for a life of trusting God with open hearts, much like a child naturally trusts a parent. The world around us—the sky, the breath in our lungs—points to a Creator whose goodness is our starting point. Hardening our hearts is an active choice against this natural, God-given disposition to rely on Him. [13:48]

And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 18:3 (ESV)

Reflection: In what area of your life has growing older or experiencing disappointment made it more difficult to maintain a childlike, trusting heart toward God?

Day 3: Finding Rest by Softening Our Hearts in Difficulty

It is possible to find God's rest even in the most barren deserts of life. The Israelites were led by God into a place with no water, and their conclusion was that He was not good. The alternative is to soften our hearts, to choose trust even when our circumstances seem to contradict His goodness. True rest is found not in the absence of trouble, but in the presence of a God we believe is good within it. [15:01]

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
Hebrews 4:1-3, 7 (ESV)

Reflection: What is one current "desert" circumstance where you feel tempted to believe God is not good? What would it look like to consciously soften your heart and choose trust in that specific situation today?

Day 4: The Proof of Love: Christ Died for Us While We Were Sinners

The ultimate proof of God's goodness is not a perfect life, but a cross. He demonstrated His love decisively by sending Christ to die for us when we were still His enemies, trapped in our sin and mess. This act moves us from being slaves to being free, from being enemies to being forgiven children. If He did this for us at our worst, how much more can we trust Him with our present needs? [16:36]

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8 (ESV)

Reflection: How does remembering that God's love was proven at your worst moment, not your best, change the way you approach Him with your current failures and needs?

Day 5: Worship as an Invitation to Draw Closer

God's call to worship in difficult times is not a demand for performance from a distant deity. It is an invitation to draw closer. When we choose to pray, to read His Word, or to gather with others even in our pain, we take our eyes off our circumstances and fix them on Him. In that place of drawing near, He often reveals more of Himself to us, transforming our perspective and our purpose. [19:11]

The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
John 4:25-26 (ESV)

Reflection: Is there an area of pain or disappointment where you have felt resistant to worship or pray? What would it look like to approach God in that area not with a demand for explanation, but with a simple desire to be closer to Him?

Sermon Summary

Unbelief often traces not to a lack of evidence but to a refusal to accept God’s goodness. The narrative insists that the glory of God is his goodness and that recognizing that goodness reshapes everything. Biblical memory—the Red Sea, daily manna, and the quail—stands as testimony that God provides even through bewildering circumstances. Yet people repeatedly harden their hearts when provision looks like a desert, choosing judgment over trust. The natural human posture, presented as made for openness, deteriorates into suspicion; children more easily trust, while experience often calcifies doubt.

A call to enter God’s rest hinges on keeping hearts soft. Rather than proving God’s existence, the text urges a posture of receptivity: do not harden the heart but remain open to God's steadfast faithfulness. Romans 5 anchors this appeal in grace—Christ died for the ungodly, demonstrating love while people still stood as enemies. That free grace reframes discipleship: devotion and obedience flow from being loved, not from having earned acceptance.

Worship serves as a pathway back to trust when suffering tempts resistance. Even amid pain and isolation, choosing to worship, pray, and read Scripture functions as an act of proximity—an intentional turning of the heart away from circumstances and toward the Father's goodness. The encounter at the well models this: a marginalized Samaritan woman meets Jesus, receives living water, and becomes the first announced witness to the Messiah. The unexpected choice to reveal himself to the rejected reframes missional priority—grace finds the unlikely and dispatches them to testify.

A church’s forward movement requires trusting God’s goodness more than striving for control. The prescription is simple and humble: when doubts about God’s goodness rise, confess the hardness, ask for the Spirit’s pouring of the Father’s love, and choose trust afresh. That renewed choice invites rest, renews witness, and releases people from performance into lived experience of God’s generous character.

Key Takeaways

1. Doubt centers on God's goodness Unbelief typically springs from a disputed moral claim about God rather than an intellectual gap. When suffering feels unjust, people conclude God cannot be good, and that moral judgment eclipses prior reasons to trust. Reframing doubt as a moral struggle opens a pastoral route: address the wound, not merely the argument. [03:50]
2. Soft hearts enter God's rest Rest requires an interior posture, not a set of behaviors. Remaining open to God's faithfulness prevents the hardening that turns provision into proof against God. Choosing softness becomes spiritual discipline: it allows ordinary signs of grace to serve as rest-giving proofs of God's nearness. [10:43]
3. Grace meets people where broken Grace arrives while people remain unworthy, not after merit appears. The cross demonstrates love toward enemies, which reframes identity and mission—people move from slaves to children before they earn belonging. This truth dissolves performance-driven religion and frees authentic witness. [16:17]
4. Worship reorients the suffering heart Offering worship during pain shifts attention from circumstance to Christ and invites proximity that heals doubt. Worship does not manipulate God; it reorders the worshiper’s perception, enabling trust amid unanswered questions. Practicing worship in hardship becomes a resilient means of abiding in God’s goodness. [17:58]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[03:50] - Unbelief and God’s Goodness
[04:32] - Can God Be Good Here?
[10:14] - God Will Make Goodness Known
[10:43] - Entering His Rest
[11:09] - Exodus Reminders of Provision
[13:18] - Natural Disposition to Trust
[14:18] - Finding Rest in the Desert
[16:17] - Grace While Still Sinners
[17:29] - The Woman at the Well
[19:11] - First Revelation to the Rejected
[20:21] - Vision for the Church
[23:15] - Choosing to Believe Afresh
[23:33] - Prayer and Response

Bible Study Guide

Based on the sermon transcript, the primary text was Exodus 17:1-7, which details the Israelites' testing of the Lord at Massah and Meribah. The sermon also heavily alluded to Romans 5:8 and John 4:1-26. These passages form the core biblical foundation for the discussion.

Bible reading
Exodus 17:1-7 (ESV)
1 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Romans 5:8 (ESV)
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

John 4:10, 25-26 (ESV)
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” ... 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

Observation questions

In Exodus 17, what specific need did the people have, and what was their immediate reaction when that need was not met?
What two names were given to the place in Exodus 17:7, and what did each name mean based on the people's actions?
According to Romans 5:8, at what precise point in our relationship with God did Christ demonstrate his love for us?
In the encounter at the well in John 4, what was the woman’s social status, and what profound truth did Jesus choose to reveal to her first? [19:11]

Interpretation questions

The people in Exodus 17 had recently witnessed the Red Sea part and received manna from heaven. Why do you think they so quickly shifted from awe to accusing God of bringing them into the desert to die?
The statement "The glory of God is his goodness" suggests that God's character is most clearly displayed not in power, but in faithful love. [10:14] How does this idea change the way we might interpret difficult circumstances?
Romans 5:8 states that Christ died for us "while we were still sinners." How does this timing—that his act was unearned and undeserved—fundamentally reshape the motivation for Christian obedience and devotion?
Jesus revealed his identity as the Messiah to a socially marginalized woman before his own disciples. What does this unexpected choice communicate about the heart of God and who he prioritizes?

Application questions

When a difficult circumstance arises, what does it look like practically to question God's goodness versus questioning his plan? How can you tell the difference in your own heart? [03:50]
The natural human disposition is to trust, but experience can calcify doubt. [13:18] What is one area of life where past disappointment has made it harder for you to maintain a soft, open heart toward God's goodness today?
Grace meets people where they are broken, not after they get their act together. [16:17] How might believing this truth right now free you from a sense of having to perform or earn God's favor before you can approach him?
Choosing to worship, pray, or read Scripture during pain is an act of turning your heart toward God. [17:58] What is one specific, practical way you can do this in the next 24 hours when you feel resistance or hardness rising up?
The first step when starting to doubt God's goodness is a simple confession: "Lord, I'm sorry." [23:15] Is there a situation in your life currently where you need to honestly confess a struggle to believe in his goodness?
The woman at the well, once met by grace, immediately became a witness. [19:51] How does understanding that your belonging is based on received grace rather than earned performance make you more willing to share your story with others?

Sermon Clips

They harden their hearts because they look at the situation around. God's led us into a desert. Yes, he did. God's led us to a place with no water. Yes, he did. Therefore, God is not good. You can find rest even in the desert without water. You can find rest in the circumstances where you don't have enough. You can find rest in the challenges and in the pain and in the difficulty when you don't harden your hearts to the goodness of God, but we soften our hearts [00:14:35] (82 seconds) #FindRestInTheDesert

Most atheists, when you really sit down, in my experience, so you can correct me if know, sitting with a pint and having an actual conversation, it doesn't really come down to whether there's reasons to believe that God exists. It comes down more to whether we believe that God is good. It's not so much about the existence of God, but about the goodness of God. Can God really be who different people say he is and this be my experience? Can God really be good and this be the world that we live in? [00:03:50] (57 seconds) #GoodnessOverExistence

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If You Only Knew - John 4 - Sam Pollard at St Cedd's - 8th March 2026