The Secret Fountain of Youth

"No one who drinks the water I give will ever be thirsty again.  The water.. is like a flowing fountain that gives eternal life." (John 4:14)

Text: John 4:5-42

Deep down inside everyone wants to be young.  The young feels they will never die or grow old.  The not so young want be young again.  It is that deep drive within us to embrace life and living and never let go of it. Even to our last breath we fight for it.  The legends and  myths of a fabled fountain of youth really gets its fuel from this primal urge to live.  But the myth and fable of perpetual youth is not only driven by a deep desire for living.  It is also accentuated by a frustration and suffering of what is now... the absence of a true experience of life.  Many of us really don't know how to live.  And so we struggle in trying.

We chase this fountain of youth like an elusive mirage in this desert of broken and disappointing promises.  We buy into the latest fads and advertising that promises youth and vitality.  In our story today a Samaritan woman in this very same predicament meets Jesus.  Here she is offered a simple way to life and living.  To give Jesus a drink... a drink of her life... as imperfect and messy as it is.  Jesus was thirsting for her vulnerability and transparency... to worship not just in spirit but in truth.  And in return the woman is offered the secret fountain of youth... a life that is full, free, and bubbling from within... like a fountain.

The woman found what she was looking for.  She got it.  The secret fountain of living large is found in an open and authentic commitment to the supernatural.  Her line: " this (supernatural) man told me everything that I ever did".  Translation:  He took a drink of my life- even the bad and ugly parts... and connected with me deeply anyway... and I took a drink of His life.. eternal and full.  If we can only get it.  There will be more truly happy persons in the world!

"Lord I am tired of drawing water from a life that is living me dry and thirsty.  Jesus here... take a drink of my life... I hold nothing back  Let me get a drink of your life... Lord... this is life!  Living around your presence.. honest, true, and free!"

The Formula For Supernatural Intimacy

"The Lord said to Abram: leave your country, your family, and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you... he obeyed and left..." (Genesis 12:1,5a)

Reading: Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

Just imagine: leaving everything behind you that you know; to journey toward a place you have no idea what or where... taking with you your loved ones who probably are seeking from you, some kind of guarantee of security and stability... and all you can say is- "because the Lord said so."  Have you ever followed someone's direction when that very direction advised by this someone requires you to sacrifice everything and take a big risk with no guarantee other than that person's word?

If there is any lesson Abraham's life (Abram) teaches us it is this:  the only way to experience intimacy with the supernatural and experience the supernatural deeply is to make an unconditional decision to trust.  This kind of trusting requires us to surrender all that we are.  It calls us to respond in complete vulnerability, risk, and authenticity... to say yes to the supernatural presence.  What this kind of faith does is build and nurture an intimacy that is completely supernatural and spiritual.  It gives us what we are all looking for: a complete and whole life... where someone beyond becomes an intricate part of our lives and we become an intricate part of that someone beyond ourselves.

This is the same kind of trusting and believing that builds relationships... a lasting marriage... a strong friendship... a solid community.  Biblical scholars and theologians have a word for this.  They call it- a saving faith.

"Jesus I want this to be my story... my song.  I desire and seek to trust you Lord beyond reason... beyond conditions... beyond my own self interests.  Let me be close to you and you close to me.  Jesus that is all I ask."   

The Supernatural Answer To Temptation

"Jesus answered: Go away Satan! The Scriptures say- worship the Lord your God and serve only Him." (Matthew 4:10)

Reading: Matthew 4:1-11

This story reflects the only time the devil saw Jesus as just a man... and only a man.  (Why would one bother to tempt God?)  But Jesus resisted and fought temptation also as a man... and only as a man.  (How could he be tempted just like us if he was tempted as God?)  So how did Jesus do it?  (As a man and only a man).  I need to understand the nature of satan's temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4 in order to grasp the way that Jesus responded to temptation.  Temptation really has one two-fold purpose: to separate me from intimacy with God by going against His heart and by going against His lordship.

The devil tempted Jesus three times.  Twice he tried to get Jesus to deviate from the purpose that his Father had for him.  And that one time the devil tried to get him to replace his Father's lordship in his life.  As  Jesus cultivated his spiritual relationship with God, he realized that he had a special relationship with Him.  God was his true Father.  That made him God in human flesh.  But as a man and only a man... he could only live that truth in an intimate relationship with God... where he experienced God as his Father.  The temptation then was to break this intimacy with God by deviating from God's heart and desire... and by throwing off God's lordship in his life.  Satan's temptation measured the depths of the intimate relationship that Jesus had with God.  This depth is reflected in how much Jesus lived and breathed his Father's revelation in Scripture. 

Jesus did this as a man and only a man.  Now I can answer temptation as a man... and only a man.

"Lord what an awesome display of strength in the thick of temptation.  I only want to stay intimate with you Lord.  Help me resist what is not your heart and desire in anything I encounter and experience.  Stay in the center of my life where you belong."

  

The Supernatural Power of Good News

"I am proud of the good news!  It is God's powerful way of saving all people who have faith..." (Romans 1:16)

Text: Romans 1:16-17, 3:22b-28

What kind of supernatural power comes with good news?  The good news that says I can come to an intimate and real experience of God 's presence and grace by trusting in the saving presence of Jesus Christ who sacrificed his life so I can be intimate with God.  That is good news and it really does imply something supernaturally incredible that I can taste and experience.  But I have heard all this before.  Many of us have heard this preached... proclaimed... and sometimes crammed down our throats.  How does the Lord make this sink in so it means what it really means to this current and present era?

My daughter Olivia is almost two years old.  She loves to sleep cuddled in her daddy's arms.  When she wakes up and senses the absence of her daddy... his scent... his breath... his arms... she begins to cry and call out to him.  Sometimes she actually gets out of her bed goes to daddy's bed where he sleeps.  Then she positions herself in his arms where she feels his cuddling presence... then she's back asleep.

What is supernaturally powerful about the good news of Jesus Christ?  I don't have to wake up alone.  Trusting in the presence of Jesus means that when I come to him I am coming to my daddy's arms.  I can rest in his presence and be covered by his scent... his breath... his arms.  This is where my leap of faith is.  I can rest asleep in my supernatural daddy's arms because I trust what Jesus said two thousand plus years ago.  "I am the way, the truth, and the life... without me no one can go to my daddy" (John 14:6).  

This is true.  All I have to do is trust that Jesus was speaking truth and reality when he said it.  When I do... I just climbed into my daddy's bed and I'm resting in his supernatural arms.  That is supernatural power.  That is good news.

"Jesus I know you spoke the truth when you said that believing you and trusting you would make God real to me.  So here you are present and alive... I am in your presence.  Lord I love your scent... your breath... it is your loving arms that is around me.  I am at peace."