Sunday Service at Radiant | August 23, 2026

Hey, good morning radio church. Let's all stand up. We're going to enter into worship today. Let's say a prayer for us as we get started. So good to see you all. Got some new RSM students in the house. Yes, we love you guys. Lord, here we are. We're here before you. We love you. We say welcome, Holy Spirit. We want you. We say we invite you into this house. Come and fill this place with your presence, your glory. We love that as we draw near to you, Lord, you draw near to us. And so we say, draw near today, Lord. Come and have your way. Come and take the throne and our praises. We lift you high. We give you all the glory. All of our love is for you, Jesus. Amen. Let's worship. All our efforts left us empty. Our best is left as dry on its own. A branch yields nothing when it's separate from the vine. You know our weakness. Well, see now and you say your birds lie. Yeah. The frame we've carried is far too heavy. Our strength alone can't hold. Our hearts been laden with religion. We need rest inside our souls. You know I we well you say your burdens. Praise grace. Oh praise grace the heavy oh God. The heavy oh the heavy oh. Praise brace the heavy oh. The heavy oak. The heavy oh. Praise. Praise the heavy oh the heavy oh the heavy oh. Praise. Praise the heavy oh. The journeys fil with hills and valleys. The testing of our faith. Highest sights and deepest canyons. But each season marked by grace. You know I'm weakness. You say your word is my praise. Praise the heavy praise. The heavy praise praise the heavy the heavy praise the heavy giving us joy instead of morning today. Morning turning into joy. Heaviness for roads of grace. Ashes get exchanged for beauty at the mention of your name. Prison doors are wide open. Broken shackles testify. The true voice in thanks to Jesus who once was dead. Now I see that morning turning into joy. The mention of your name wide open shift your voice thanks to Jesus once more now back to life. Praise praise. See now heavy the heavy yoke. Praise praise the heavy yoke. The heavy yoke. The heavy yoke. Praise. Praise. The heavy yoke. The heavy praise. Praise the bra. Brao praise praise prophesy this morning turning into joy. If you come in here with heaviness, God has a full of praise for you. Let's sing it. Morning turning into joy. Heaviness for roads of praise. Ashes get exchanged out at the mention of your name. All prison doors are flown wide open. Broken shackles testify. So lift your voice in thanks to Jesus. What once was dead now back to life. Morning turning into joy. is for aesthet. Yes. So your voice thanks to Jesus who once was dead now back to life. Cuz praise, praise the heavy yoke. Sing it out. Praise. Praise the heavy yoke. The heavy yolk. Sing it out. Yes. Praise. Praise. We declare that today, God. Every yoke broken. Praise. Praise the heavy yoke. The heavy yoke. Come on, lift up a shout of praise in this house. We give you the praise. Shout to God with a voice of triumph. Shout to God with a voice of praise. Jesus, the man of your name. We just thank you for the cross today, Lord. When I survey, when I survey the wonderous cross on which the prince of glory died, Pride, richest gain. I count the but loss and pour contempt on all my pride. Oh, did it Lord that I should boast? Save in the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that John why sacriice them to his See from his head. See from his hand. His hands. falling down. And there's such love inside me. Oh thorns come home. So rich with a. Oh, we remember and we respond today, oh Lord, to your cross, your mercy. We respond today, oh Lord. Oh, your cross demands in space. We sing word the whole realm of nature mine. That were a present far too small. Yeah. Oh, love so amazing. So divine. Yeah, it's my Oh, I surrender. Oh my savior. I surrender. You see I surrender. I surrender. I surrender it all to the blessed Savior. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. This is your I surrender all. It's the right response. Yeah, it's the right response to And I surrender all. Oh, I surrender all. Oh, to thee, my blessed Savior I surrender. Oh, I surrender all. Yeah. Every voice lifted up. I surrender all to thee my blessed savior I surrender all. Just think about who you are now. the work the Lord has done in your life. Who you were before you knew him, before you met Jesus, before you encountered his love, his power, the freedom that you found in him. Think about the cross. A Jesus, son of God, lived a perfect life and loved us so much that he laid his life down in obedience to his father. He endured the cross. We just remember what you did today. We remember your mercy, your kindness that's led us to repentance. We remember how we were dead in our transgressions and you made us alive. How you reconciled all things in yourself. Just say, "Thank you, Jesus. We surrender to you right now. We just sing that chorus one more time. I surrender all. I surrender all. Oh, I surrender. All to thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender. Oh, you're worthy of it, Lord. Oh, I surrender all. Oh, I surrender all. and all to thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all. You are worthy when the wor of the world is keeping me from sleep. You are worthy when the fear of what tomorrow brings is thundering. You are worthy. And the silence and the symphies, the quietness and anguishing. When all I see is pain and suffering, the only thing I know to do is say hallelujah. Hallelujah. My refra will always be. Hallelujah. Jesus, you are everything to me. You are worthy when the strongest of foundations breaks beneath. You are worthy with the answers that I need to far away from me. You are worthy. When the tears I hide begin to fall, I know I'm barely hanging on. And I can't find the strength to stand at all. I know there's only one way to respond. Hallelujah. My friend love will always be. Hallelujah. Jesus, you are everything. Hallelujah. Jesus, you are everything. Jesus, you are. Oh Jesus, you are everything. And even in my darkest night, even when my heart feels tired, I will praise. Oh, I will praise. Even when my faith is weak and even when I don't believe, I will praise. Oh, I will praise. And even in my darkest night, even when my heart feels tired, I will praise. Oh, I will praise. Even when my faith is weak and even when I don't believe, I will praise. Oh, I won't praise. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. and praise. Hallelujah. My refrain of love will always be. Hallelujah. Jesus, you are everything to me. >> Jesus. Right now, can you just in your own words, in your own heart, just between you and him, say, "Jesus, I love you. Jesus, you are the guest of honor this morning. This morning has nothing to do with us and everything to do with you. If this morning is not unto meeting and meeting with you, it's worthless. So Jesus, we need you and love you in Jesus' name. Well, church, I want to continue in this posture of worship and prayer as we welcome and pray for some new members of our Radiant family that I'm excited to introduce this morning. This Sunday is the first Sunday for our new RSM class that's starting this school year. There are pictures on the front. You can see their amazing faces right there. And I would I just love this morning if you could just extend your hand to the screen. Just want to pray over them and bless them this morning. And so Jesus, we pray for these incredible students, Lord, who have come from anywhere, Lord Jesus, to come to this school. And I thank you, Lord, for the doors that you have opened for them to be here. I thank you, Jesus, for the calling on every single one of their lives. And Jesus, we as a body come together and pray a blessing over them. Lord, we pray that you would bless their faith in this next school year, Jesus. That they would come to know you more in a year from now than they do today. Father, we pray that you would bless their finances as they're figuring out how to pay for housing and and pay and work for school. Jesus, we pray that you would bless them and their finances. And God, I even just pray for their friendships that they would have friendships that last a lifetime from this school. And so Jesus, we love you. We praise you and ask that you would bless them this morning in Jesus name. Everybody said, "Amen." Amen. Well, hey church, thanks for worshiping with us, if you could before you uh take a seat, if you could turn around and just uh say hi and tell the person next to you how excited you are to see them. Alrighty. Well, good morning. Good morning. How's everyone doing? >> Good. Okay, come on. Well, my name is Landon McDaniel. I get the joy and privilege to serve as the middle school director here at Richland. It's literally one of the greatest joys of my life to hang out with your students and get to disciple them on a weekly basis. And so I absolutely love it. But I know I introduced myself, but hey, we would love to meet you and to get to know you. And so if you if it's your first time or you've been coming for a while and have found a way to sneak out back, uh we would love to shake your hand and and get to know you. And so on the seat back pocket in front of you, there's a really cool connect card that if you would, I would love for you to take that out and to fill out all the information that you can. Uh, and after directly after service, you can drop those off on the cool wooden boxes on the back of the sanctuary or you could head on over to Radiant Central uh where we would love to give you a no strings attached uh gift and and get to know you. So, uh, with that, I also have just two cool announcements and things that are coming up in this, uh, this next, um, this next month that I would love to make you aware of. The first one being our be radiant class, which I have right up here. So, this class is a one-time class for anyone who is interested in uh, in leading or serving, getting more involved at Radiant or becoming a member. And so, uh, it's again a onetime class. And as well as if anyone woke up this morning and for some reason had like this innate desire for barbecue, I'm the answer to that prayer. We will be having barbecue, uh, at this event. So, um, please, you can sign up by scanning the QR code if you want to be old school or the, uh, nice handy dandy tap thing on the back of your, uh, seat. You can tap your phone, go straight to our app, and sign up right there on the app. The second announcement I want to give this morning is for anyone who is a young adult in the room. You are my people. Um I'm a young adult and this uh September 6th at the Portage location, we are going to be having a young adult gathering. This is uh a time for you to come with your peers and worship Jesus. It's a worship night. It'll be a great place to find community and even find a small group as we enter into this next school year. here. So, I want to invite you to that on November 6th at 6 p.m. at the Portage location. At this time, I'd love to invite the ushers forward as we return the tithe and give of our kingdom builders offering. Uh, I going to be reading from Malachi 3:10, which says, "Bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of Hosts, if I will now open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need." I don't know about you, but when I first read this verse, um I actually was pretty blown away because when I read Put Me to the Test, uh I was I always thought that that was like against the rules that you should like never put God to the test. Um but as I read it and meditated on it more, I realized that this verse actually has more to do with God's character than it has to do with our hand. Who knows that God is the most generous God on the entire it just he's the only God and he's the most generous God. Uh it's not just something that he does. It's who he is as his nature. And you and I as Christians, as little Christ, are invited to partake in God's generosity by giving of our resources to our neighbor, our brothers and sisters in the faith as well as the house that we are a part of. And so today, as you prepare to give, I want to uh invite us all that we would look more like Jesus in living a life of generosity. We have many ways to give here. You can give by uh tapping your phone in the seat back in front of you or by cash or check in the buckets about to be passed or on our website at radiant.urch/g. Please bow your head with me as I pray for this offering. Jesus, we love you. Father, I thank you that this our resources are not our own but are yours. Jesus, I pray God that we as a body of believers would begin to look more like you as we give freely to one another and to our church. And so God, would you bless it? Would you impact our brothers and sisters through this giving? In Jesus name we pray. Amen. >> Why don't you tell me the story of the woman at the well? Um, once there was a wound at the well, the Pharisees had found out that Jesus was baptizing more people than the disciples and John the Baptist. And on his way to Galilee, he stopped in Samaria. And he went to Jacob's well while the disciples stopped in town to get some burgers. It was around noon that day. So, he sat down by the well and a Samaritan woman came to him. Well, to the well with a bucket and she um was at the well at that time cuz um people didn't want to be around her um cuz she was with somebody that wasn't her husband. And um Jesus begged her for some water and she's like, "Why are you talking to me? You're a Jew." And he said, "If you knew how much God loves you, you'd be the one asking me for water. How would you give me water?" She said, "You don't even have a bucket or a rope." >> Jesus said, "I can give you a different kind of drink. >> I can give you the water of life." Good job. The woman was so excited to see Jesus that she went back to the village and told the people. >> That's it. You did it. >> You did it. >> Great job. High five. >> High five. >> Yeah. Good one. Well, good morning, Radiant. Anyone else stopped up? Uh, you need to take a little Well, hey, welcome to Radiant. Uh, it's my privilege today to introduce our speaker for this morning. If you didn't know, across both of our locations, we have something we do every year called Emerging Voices. is and we have young communicators that come and and they share the word of God and so you're in a treat today uh for the word. I've already got a privilege to hear it once and so I'm just asking that you would receive be prepared to receive today and so um Dawson's going to be sharing and I wanted to say we're just so privileged to have him here on our team. He oversees our student ministries here at Richland. Uh him and his wife Lily, they moved here about 10 months ago from Denver uh to be with us. And let me tell you, they've been just such a gift. Uh to our church, to our staff, uh even to my family. My kids absolutely love and adore Dawson and Lily. Uh they desperately begged me to come in and listen to Mr. Dossi as he preached today. Um but more than that, more than my kids adoring him, he is an excellent communicator of God's word. He's passionate about the next generation. And so, would you stand with me and help welcome Dawson as he comes and communicates the word today. Thank you. Good morning. Oh, so fun to be with you. Hey, I love you. Uh, it's so so great to be with you. Hey, if we haven't gotten the chance to meet yet, my name is Dawson. Uh, I get to serve as the students director here at Richland. Hey, if you aren't radiant students, would you make some noise if there's some radiant students in here? All right, we got a couple. Come on. Uh, so fun. God's doing a great thing on Wednesday nights and so it's been so fun to be a part of. Uh, I do just want you to know, uh, that even if I'm new to you, uh, you're not new to me. Uh, church that I came from, uh, Pastor Lee is an overseer. Uh, and so I've known Pastor Lee my whole life. Uh, and just felt felt really grateful for you and loved you for a long time. Uh, Pastor Lee gave me a Bible like he I'm sure he has for many of you, but when I was 15 years old, he gave me uh a Bible and that kind of marked one of, you know, was one of the most significant spiritual seasons of my life and uh that Bible is a treasure to me and it's got his name on the front line and so it's just you've been a real gift to me for a long time. Um, and so I love you. It's so fun to be with you. Um, really quickly, can we honor your pastors, Pastor Caleb and Rachel? They're incredible. um just coming on the team, they they've just been so good to Lily and I. Uh and so we love you. We feel feel so welcomed. Uh just love serving on the team with Pastor Nathan and Pastor Preston. Uh and my wife's on the front row. Her name's Lily. She's beautiful. She's the locations coordinator here. Um and so everything you see that that helps make your Sunday experience awesome, uh she's got a hand in that. And so anyway, we love you and uh super fun. Hey, turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 4. Uh today we are reading Have you loved the summer? The encounter series? It's been pretty awesome. Um but uh today we're reading from John chapter 4. This is Jesus's longest dialogue with anyone in all of the Bible. And so we're going to read uh John 4:3-42. Uh you heard that right. And so buckle your seat belt. We're going to dive in. Say, "I'm hungry." >> Hungry. >> Students are better than you guys at that 100%. All right, here we go. John chapter 3, chapter 4:3. He left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. Wow. Had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Saikar near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. And Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. And it was about the sixth hour or noon. And a woman from Samaria came to draw water. And Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy McDubbles. And the Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, asked for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? For John gives us the handhold, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans." And Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it was that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would given you living water." He would have given you living water. The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock." And Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. And the water that I give in him, give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. And this woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water." And Jesus said to her, "Go call your husband and come here." And the woman answered him, "I have no husband." And Jesus said to her, "You're right in saying that I have no husband, for you've had five husbands, and the one that you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true." And the women said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you're a prophet. It's a brilliant insight. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain. But you say that in Jerusalem is the place where we ought to worship." And Jesus said to her,"Woman, believe me, the hour is coming, 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 knew what we know. For salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshippers will worship the father in spirit and truth. You've heard that before. Aren't you happy to be at a spirit and truth church? It's pretty awesome. >> For the father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ, and when he comes, he will teach us all things. And Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he." Just then his disciples came back and they marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you seek? Or why are you talking with her?" So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, "Come see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this man be the Christ?" And they went out of the town and were coming to him. And meanwhile his disciples were urging him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." But he said to them,"I have no I have food to eat that you do not know about." So the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought him something to eat?" And Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work." Do you not say, "There are yet four months and then comes the harvest." Look, I tell you, lift your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life. So that the swer and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, one sws and another reaps. I sent you to reap that which you did not labor. Others have labored and you have entered into their labor. Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me all that I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. And they said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe. For we have heard ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the savior of the world. Do you just take a moment and close your eyes? Take a deep breath. Would you just invite the spirit of God to speak to you this morning? Ask that in the middle of whatever your circumstance is that the spirit of God would meet you and that the spirit of God would speak to the deepest places in your soul. Do you ask that the word of God would go forth onto good soil and that Jesus would meet you this morning? Jesus, we want to meet you. We love you. Would you just ask him, "Speak to me." Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Uh I grew up serving in kids ministry. Um and so I I'm I'm a church planters kid. And so one of the things about being a church planters kid is you do everything. Uh, and so I uh I I I served in kids ministry, you know, pretty much from the time I was out of kids ministry. And uh when I was probably 18 years old, I remember this one Sunday. It was a pretty normal Sunday. Um and this woman walked in with her son. They were probably 15 minutes late. And I remember them walking walking in and and uh both of them looked pretty sad, but the son definitely more than the mom. And I remember um thinking to myself, "Oh yeah, I got this." Like he's going to come out with a smile on his face. I'm gonna crush this, you know. And uh and so this this this boy walks in and his mom drops him off and then she leaves and and uh I'd never seen anything like this boy because this boy walked in and and uh he just he went straight to the corner, got crisscross applesauce, looked in the corner, put his hands in his face, and just sat here like this the whole service. and I would go up and try and talk to him and he wouldn't say anything. Um, tried to ask him his name, didn't get his name, only knew because of his name tag. Um, couldn't get anything out of him. And I'd never experienced a student like this where you literally couldn't get them to talk. He just sat in the corner, face in his hands, and cried. And praise God, the you know, time passed and the Sunday was over and uh his mom came, picked him up, he left, and what do you know, but 15 minutes in to the next week's service, there he was again. And I tried to get him again, and it didn't work. He walked right into the corner, put his face in his hands, sat crisscross applesauce, and lost it, crying over. And so a third week came and the exact same thing happened. I couldn't get him to participate. I couldn't get him to do anything. I'd come to the end of my rope. And by the time his mom came to pick him up, uh she she asked if he told me. I said, "Trust me, no. Uh he hasn't told me anything." And uh she began to tell me her story. She told me that her name was Sylvia and that she was from Chile originally. She was born in Chile and grew up in Chile and loved Chile and thought that she would die in Chile. Uh until one day uh when she was a teenager, there was an American missionary that came uh a group of American missionaries and they put on a program at her church and uh she developed a little crush on one of the American missionaries that came. Um so they talked, they had a little conversation, he got her address, uh and they became pen pals. And uh for the next for the next five or six years uh they they started dating him from the United States, her from Chile through mail. Uh and so they would send each other letters every week and they'd go back and forth until eventually one letter she opened, he proposed uh and invited her to come start a new life with her with him in the United States. um she sent a letter back and said that she would love to come be his wife in the United States. And so she came along with her best friend and and while she was in the United States, her best friend met this man's brother. His name was Ryan. And uh Ryan her best friend meets Ryan's brother. And uh her best friend and Ryan's brother get married. And so her best friend from Chile that she grew up with. And these two brothers begin their lives in THA, Kansas. And um each of them have four kids and they decide to homeschool. They decide to live in the same neighborhood. And uh they're they they grow up together. They're the cousins become like siblings. They they're they're close friends. Um until um it it was it was one summer day and uh in in the middle of summer while they were still homeschooling cuz that's the most homeschooler thing you can do. Um, all the kids are inside. She's homeschooling and and Ryan's out working on a project in the yard. Ryan's climbing up a tree and with a scream, a thud, a 911 call, and a last breath, and an ambulance, Sylvia walked out of a hospital that summer day in a land that she wasn't born in, raising four boys that she had with the man that she loves, without the man she loves. And so we get to John chapter 4 and John's been building. John's an artist. And if you read the book of John, John's painting a picture where the synoptics are are telling you the story of Jesus. So John's painting. And so John's doing a couple things. Number one is is we're dropping in uh chapters 1 through 11 are are called the book of signs. And John's building out seven signs pointing to Jesus being the Messiah. He's building it through seven festivals where you get seven different Jewish calendar events that he's building it through. And he's building it with seven I am statements where Jesus is building his messa messianic identity through these seven I am statements. Um, and so just to give you a little bit of historical context, Jesus is going through Samaria on his way to Galilee. And the way to Galilee would be about here to Grand Rapids, not not quite exactly. Um, and and and right in the middle was Samaria. And Jews hated Samaritans. John obviously tells us that, but but Jews hated Samaritans for a number of reasons. Jews hated Samaritans because the Assyrians had come in and and they had conquered the the kingdom of Israel. So you've got Israel and it's divided into two nations. The southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel. The northern kingdom of Israel obviously you know the story. They're unfaithful. They're unfaithful to to the Torah and to the commandments. And so God sends judgment and and Assyria comes in and they they conquer the kingdom of Israel. Now, what they do that's not totally normal is they decide we're not going to take everyone and we're not just going to conquer the land. We're going to go ahead and we're going to take the best that we possibly can. So, we're going to take the most intelligent, the most athletic. We're going to take the people that could be somebody and we're going to leave everyone else. And so, the intelligent and the high class and the athletic and the strong, they get taken off to Assyria. and the low lives and who would they who they would have considered the nobodies get left in the southern kingdom of Israel and they form this place called Samaria. Now, they viewed the attack from Assyria as God judging Israel. And that that now the people that remained in the southern kingdom of Israel or the the the southern part of the northern kingdom of Israel, Samaria, that they became true Israel. And so they rejected the prophets and the writings. So what you and I have with the book of the pro the books of the prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel, or the writings Psalms and Proverbs. They rejected all of that and said, "We're we're going to keep to what we think is the real thing, which is just the books of Moses, the Torah, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy." And we actually think that God meant all of the promises about Mount Zion and Jerusalem. We actually think God's talking about Mount Garazim, which is right next to where we live. And so, we're just going to keep the Pentatuk. And they they developed what's called the Samaritan Pentatuk. And and they still exist today. Actually, there's there's just under a thousand of them. They live along the West Bank. Um and they still celebrate Passover. They still read the Samaritan Pentatuk. Um and they they said we we're true Israel, but Assyria had come in and they'd forced the Samaritans to enter Mary. And so Jews would have said, "You're adulterating the blood of Abraham. You're not real." They they would have considered them half breeds. I mean, just blatant racism. You're half breeds. You've adulterated the blood of Abraham. And Samaritans would say, "You've adulterated the Torah. You've taken these other books and you've added it on to God's inspired revelation." And so it's my v mountain versus your mountain. And these this got really heated. Um there's there's in the intertestamental period, there was a Jewish leader who went in and and burned down the Samaritan temple on Mount Garazim. And in around the and around 6 CE or AD, we have um we we we we have a we have a story about the Samaritans taking human bones, bringing them into the temple during the week of Passover and spreading the bones around as to ritually defile the temple during the most important week of the year, hatred. And so Jesus, he doesn't go in neutral. Jews would go around. It's about here to Grand Rapids, which which if you're walking uh is about 3 days if you go through and most of the time they would add an extra 2 to three days in order to go around. It's like if you didn't take 131 to Grand Rapids, but you went around on the back roads. And Jesus says, "I've I've got a meeting at a well. Even though it's dangerous, even though there's hatred, we're going through, I've got somebody to meet." And uh I don't know about you, I um I love musicals. Big musical fan. Just just love love musicals. And um one of the things in musicals is a lot of times you can tell what's about to happen. You know, um, in La La Land, Sebastian meets Mia at a party, right? You've seen this before. Sebastian and Mia meet at a party. Hamilton, Alexander, and Eliza meet at a party, right? Westside Story, Tony, and Maria meet at a party. Somebody goes to a party and you know what's about to happen. You know what's about to go down. Now, if you're steeped in the Jewish scriptures, you know Genesis 32, Isaac meets Rebecca about noon at a well. Genesis 39, Jacob meets Rachel at a well. Exodus chapter 2, Moses meets Sapora at a well. So, if you're steeped in the Hebrew scriptures and you see Jesus going up to a well, you're going, "Oh, Jesus, really? It's about to get interesting. Jesus goes to a Samaritan well. Jesus, what are you doing? A woman with five husbands living with the sixth. Jesus. This woman really hasn't painted this woman in the best light. Um, most of you and and I grew up most mostly thinking of this woman as a harlot, taking the the five husbands living with the sixth and using her coming at noon um as a way to say she essentially didn't want to be around people. recently uh in in in the last several years biblical scholarship for the most part has has moved away from that traditional understanding um for a couple reasons and and we don't know but but probably there there's a couple things that don't quite line up. Number one, uh if you're new to the Bible, you you know that Jesus isn't or if you're not new to the Bible, you know Jesus isn't quite the type to beat around the bush about sin. you know that Jesus Jesus is going to take that thing take the bull by the horns and address sin. And so actually in John chapter 8 we we do have a story of Jesus meeting an adulterous woman. And what does he say to her? Go and sin no more. Jesus doesn't address this woman's sin. Just straight up. It's not in there. It's the longest dialogue between Jesus and anybody in all of the scriptures. He had 40 something verses to do it and he doesn't. Number two, she's theologically literate. Like she takes on a Jewish rabbi. She brings up the theological debate. Jesus doesn't bring it up like, "Oh, look at how much I know." She goes, she takes on the Jewish rabbi and so goes, "Okay, Rabbi, Garazim or Zion, fight me." You know, scholars agree that this conversation is theologically on par with Jesus's conversation with Nicodemus in John chapter 3. Nicodemus the Pharisee. Number three, the town the town all comes to hear this woman's story. If this woman is really had five husbands, living with the sixth, and she starts talking about another man, you think it's in one ear and out the other. Somehow the whole town of Saikar has enough to respect for her to when she says this is the Messiah, they they go out to meet him. Number four, Leviate marriage laws basically said that um if if you're married to a Levite and and or to someone from from the tribe of Levi um and he dies, you would go to his brother and his brother would have the option to either take you in or reject you. It's what we see in the book of Ruth um where they could she could be taken in or she could be rejected or she could be rejected later. And number five is that women couldn't initiate divorce. Only men could initiate divorce. This kind of patriarchal society, all of the power is weighted towards the man. And so having the option of an out wouldn't wasn't even on the woman's plate. Like it's she doesn't even have that. And a man could divorce for pretty much whatever reason he wanted to. We have record of men initiating divorce simply for burning dinner. Every day, many Jewish men would wake up and pray, "Thank you, God, that I'm not a sinner, that I'm not a slave, and that I'm not a woman." And so it's possible, it's possible that this woman is not a harlot and a sinner like we've traditionally painted her to be, but that this is a deeply hurt, deeply broken, potentially abused woman. This woman's probably seen some death. probably been divorced with for something that was so small and insignificant. She thought surely their love was stronger than that. It's also it's it's it's absolutely in the cards that infertility is part of this story because her her worth in that culture was not more than her ability to bear children. And so it's historically possible that when you hear this story, the first thought probably was not, "Oh, you wretched sinner." It's probably, "What happened to you? Who abused you and used you and used you up? Who cast you aside? Jesus goes out of his way to meet the most racially rejected. She's a Samaritan. She's racially rejected. Society oppressed, probably patriarchally abused, and familiar with the sting of death woman that he could. Jesus comes to the most broken, hated, rejected, and acquainted with death woman probably in the worst season of her life. Five husbands, one arrangement, because they probably said, "Well, when you get married, it doesn't go very well for you." So, one arrangement to probably keep her off the streets. Five husbands, one arrangement, and here comes the seventh man. It's possible John when he's writing this, he has a picture of Genesis chapter 16 in his mind with Hagar. Hagar, society oppressed, patriarchally abused, sent out into the wilderness to go find a spring of water. She finds the spring of water and she's the first person to give God a name. She names him Elroy. You're the God who sees me. So Jesus becomes that spring of living water. Jesus comes as a fulfillment of all of her desires that she's been searching for and offers her living water which John is later going to define as the Holy Spirit. Jesus in the middle of her worst season of her life, the most pain that you can possibly imagine. All of those levels of rejection offers her the comforter, the Holy Spirit. He says this isn't about temples and mountains. This is about the Holy Spirit coming and the Holy Spirit is going to fill every hole that those men left. Jesus satisfies her deepest need with the Holy Spirit, the promise of that level of comfort to come from this person. And that means that even in the midst of whatever the brokenness of your real difficult story, however you landed in the seat that you're in, whatever brought you to Kalamazoo and then to Radiant Church, whatever the pain in your story that maybe landed you in the seat you're in today, feeling either better than ever or more broken than you've ever been, Jesus wants to meet with you. Jesus wants to invite you to a well. Not some version of you that's better and prettied up, but you in the midst of your pain. Pain often can feel like the place where God is least present. And I want to invite you. Jesus will go out of his way, go through dangerous Samaria to meet with you in the middle of your pain. Susanna Wesley uh talks about she she Susanna Wesley, she's the mother of John and Charles Wesley, who you'll hear about a lot if you stick around very long. And uh there's there's there's this story where uh she asks asks which one of her 19 she's asked which one of her 19 children is her favorite. Talk about pain. And the story has it that that she responds the one who is sick, lost, hurting, or forgotten. And maybe that's some of you this morning. I don't know your story, and I don't want to pretend like I know your story, but I do know that it's possible that some of you walked in carrying things that you never thought you'd have to carry. There's a level of pain that you didn't think your story would ever include. Now, I think John 4 might just be the longest dialogue in in the New Testament just to give you this. He He wants to meet you at the well in the middle of your insanely difficult circumstance. You who are sick, lost, hurting, and forgotten. Jesus wants to meet with you. Jesus isn't scared of your pain. He wants to walk right into it and offer you a promise of the Holy Spirit. Water welling up, living water, rushing water would have been how they understood it. rushing water springing up in your inner being. Jesus. Um what what's fascinating about this story is is John is a painter and uh Jesus looks at this woman and in Greek he says this phrase he says ego ami and um ego ami is is the Greek translation for the Hebrew I am what Yahweh speaks in the bush in Exodus to Moses is Jesus speaks for the first time. Not to Nicodemus in chapter 3. Not to the person with the degree, smart person who's got all the position to a racially rejected, acquainted with death, patriarchally oppressed, probably abused, familiar with death woman, and goes for the first time, "Hey, I'm going to let you in on my secret. I'm the Messiah. And if you're here this morning and you're in pain, you're experiencing a story, I just want to invite you. Jesus wants to reveal himself to you that it's actually the most broken that God is disproportionately drawn to where he goes, I I want to meet you at the well. And then this woman becomes the first evangelist. The gospel that we proclaim out Radiant every single Sunday was first proclaimed by this woman. She goes back into the town of Saikar and proclaims to the town of Saikar that the Messiah had come. She's the not Peter. That would have made sense, but no. Not Nicodemus. That would have made sense. But no, not John. That would have made sense. But no, this woman, the woman without a name, the woman who brought her pain to the well. I walked with Sylvia and her family for a lot of years. And um she was processing the death of Ryan. And uh we would do the the church would host prayer meetings um every morning, Monday through Thursday. And uh at 8:30, bunch of young people uh would come and we'd pray through the psalms and sing together. And and um I knew that whoever came to that if nobody came to the prayer meeting, there would always be at least two. And without exaggeration, every morning, no exagger, every morning, Sylvia showed up to the well. Sylvia and and her sister Alejandra, they were there every single day. She could have brought her pain a lot of other places. brought her pain to her phone, to someone else, to a bottle, who knows? But she brought her pain to the well, and Jesus met her at the well. So, would you stand with me? Um, I want to read to you this little excerpt from um, Ephraim, the Syrian, a church father from the 4th century. And uh he said this he said, "Blessed are you, oh woman, drawer of ordinary water, who turned out to be a drawer of living water. You found the treasure, the source from whom a flood of mercies flows." Today, some of you are in the deepest moments of pain that you ever thought possible. You, like this woman, I don't know, all the ways that you've been oppressed or abused or I don't know what your story is, but I want to invite you. Bring that pain to the well. Don't go anywhere else with that pain until you first brought that thing to the well and let Jesus give you the promise of the Holy Spirit and the comforter living water help to bring healing and restoration even to the most broken parts of you. No matter how broken or unworthy or wrong you feel just for being here, let Jesus meet you in the middle of your story. So if that's you and you're going, you know what, Jesus, I want to I'm going to bring my pain. The part of my story that I'm scared to tell people I don't want people knowing about me. I'm going to bring it to the well. Would you just hold out your hands like this? Spirit of God, I ask you that you would bring comfort to each one of these men and women, Jesus, as they bring their pain to the well vulnerably, painfully, bring all the stories and memories and all of the things that made them who they are. Jesus, I ask you that you would meet them with the promise of the Holy Spirit, not with condemnation or anger, but with compassion and love. And would you reveal yourself to them and give them mission just like you did for the woman at the well? Jesus, thank you. We take our pain to you. Don't take our pain anywhere else. We take our pain first to you. So meet us at the well this morning in Jesus name. Amen.