WEBVTT - Plot Twist 0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:04.560 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation 0:00:04.840 --> 0:00:07.080 Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank 0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:10.440 you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope 0:00:10.440 --> 0:00:12.480 it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:17.480 see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message today. 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:19.880 We're here together, sharing in God's presence, and I want 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:21.440 you to go with me to John four. Of course, 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:25.800 two weeks ago I preached a sermon about how I'm 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:29.400 tired on the inside, and then I took a week off. 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:34.120 I thought it was appropriate to preach I'm tired. And 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:38.720 our friend Robert Madou preached such an excellent message last week, 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:42.000 and I'm thankful for it. But God told me that 0:00:42.080 --> 0:00:45.640 we should go back to the well for Father's Day, 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:52.200 and I thought, Lord, that's I don't mean to argue 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:55.480 with you. You You are the Lord el should I the 0:00:55.520 --> 0:01:00.040 maker of heaven and earth? But it's Father's Day and 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:03.520 John chapter four is about the woman at the well, 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:07.800 So this is Lord, maybe an appropriate text for us 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:11.080 to visit another time. But then he showed me that 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:14.319 he's kind of smarter than me, and he kind of 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:18.240 wrote the Bible and I I just preach it, and 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:20.920 it's good to have my daughter, of course, Holly, but 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:28.000 my daughter Abigail means father's joy. That's exactly exactly what 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:30.640 you are. And I love you so much, and I 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:33.440 love how you laugh at all. My dad jokes up 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:36.959 here preaching it just encourages me because there's only I mean, really, 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:39.600 there's one, two, three, four, five, six, seventy ninety. There's 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:42.360 eleven people in the room. And so if they start 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:47.000 getting rowdy, just know that they're trying to overcompensate and 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:49.760 you'll probably hear LB get loud in a minute. Don't 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:52.480 put any comments about he's too much, all right, The 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:55.200 world is too much right now, so excuse us if 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:57.400 we're too much trying to keep a little bit of joy, 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:01.080 had a little bit of faith. So if you need 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:03.240 to clear out a few chairs and do your think, 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:06.480 because this message today, wow, this is really, this is 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:10.160 really powerful. What God showed me. In John chapter four, 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:14.240 we see Jesus going through an unexpected place, and the 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:16.560 Bible says in verse four, now he had to go 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:20.119 through Samaria. And last week we dealt with that extensively, 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:23.520 or two weeks ago, rather the last time I was preaching, 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:28.720 I said that Samaria is a geographical term, but you know, 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:32.200 you could also use wordplay and say that we all 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:38.360 have some area. And for the Jews, you know, they 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:43.520 they kind of divided themselves and Samaria represented a place 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:46.120 that they didn't want to go through, and they would 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:48.800 often they would often double the time of their trip 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:52.680 just so they wouldn't have to go through Samaria because 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:55.960 it represented division and resentment. And not only was there 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:59.359 ethnic tension in Samaria, but we are about to see 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:05.680 Jesus break a religious boundary and a Gendrey bounder. So 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:10.360 Jesus is a barrier breaker, and the sooner we realize that, 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:13.960 the less disappointed we are going to be when He 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:18.360 blesses and uses people that we don't even like and 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:22.680 people that don't look like us. And so, if you 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:24.360 want two points to write down just to get the 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:28.880 momentum flowing today, you don't get to choose who God uses, 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:32.079 and you don't get to choose what he does. And 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:34.840 that is on full display in John four. Because he 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:39.680 had to go through some area, and so do you, 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:43.960 and so do I. We all have to go through 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:49.320 some area, some areas the area of our life that 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:51.760 we kind of want to keep, you know, beneath the 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:54.080 surface that we kind of want to cover up, that 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:57.200 we want to work around, walk around. You know, we 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:01.640 develop all kinds of ways and coping meccan and excuses. 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:05.360 We don't really have real relationships because to have real 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:10.640 relationships we would have to go through some area where 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:15.880 we've been hurt before, where before we've been disappointed, and 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:20.280 so now to avoid being disappointed, we go around, we 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:23.800 work around. We never really hope for anything, because if 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:26.039 we don't really hope for anything, we can't be hurt 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:29.320 by anything. We all have some area that we want 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:34.719 to avoid. Jesus went straight through it. But I told 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:37.200 you that two weeks ago, so I know you already 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:44.000 mastered that class. The next versus may reward further study, 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:46.640 though in verse five it says, so he came to 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:49.880 a town in some area called Psychar, near the plot 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:54.320 of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's 0:04:54.320 --> 0:05:00.360 well was there, and Jesus tired, Jesus exhausted. Jesus fully God, 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:06.159 Jesus fully man, Jesus all authority, Jesus, all empathy, Jesus 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:09.680 the word made flesh. Jesus who came through over forty 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:13.599 generations just to be with us and to pay for 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:18.599 our sin. Sat down by the well. It was about noon, 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:22.400 and when a Samaritan woman verse seven came to draw water, 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:27.040 Jesus said to her, will you give me a drink? 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:29.599 And now they say Jesus is the answer, But the 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:33.039 answer just asked a question. My God. This is getting 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:37.080 this is getting rich. And in the tension of this text, 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:42.359 John parenthetically inserts his disciples had gone into town to 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:45.239 buy food. That was the biggest thing on their mind 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:50.839 was a meal, but Jesus was looking for a harvest. 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:54.599 They were thinking about a meal, and Jesus was thinking 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:58.840 about a harvest. They were thinking about a burger, and 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:02.960 Jesus was saying, thinking about a breakthrough. You know, God 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:08.000 has Ephesians three twenty kinds of ways of exceeding your 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:14.240 expectations and violating them in the process. Because nothing in 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:19.120 this text was expected. Even the woman was shocked. In 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:21.760 verse nine, she said to him, you are a Jew 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:24.640 and I'm a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:27.360 for a drink? For Jews to not associate with Samaritans. 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:31.400 And Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God, 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:32.680 and who it is to ask you for a drink, 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:34.200 You would have asked him and he would have given 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:39.919 you living water. Now, please skip with me all the 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:42.880 way past the conversation, because it's a good one. It's 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:47.239 a good conversation. This woman is not shy. This woman 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:50.159 does not accept easy answers and cliches and slogans and 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:54.720 bumper stickers and quotes on Pinterest. She just keeps asking questions. 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:59.360 It's a deep well. It's a deep well. And I'm 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:02.359 not talking about physically, although this well is one hundred 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:04.400 and six feet deep. You know it is because it's 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:07.000 still there. You can still go to Jacob's well to 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:10.920 this day, and you can actually drink from Jacob's well 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:15.200 to this day. But it's a deep well in her heart. Yeah, 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:20.440 it's a deep well in her belief. It's a deep well. 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:26.200 And after Jesus kind of spends some time with this 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:33.400 unlikely woman who was so ridiculed by society that she 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:35.520 had to sneak to the well during the hottest part 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:38.680 of the day, but so valuable to the creator that 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:42.920 he went out of his way to speak with her, 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:47.120 something pretty interesting happens in verse twenty seven, this is 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:49.920 what I want to preach about. I thought you were 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:56.600 already preaching, not at all. Just then, his disciples return 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:02.679 and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:06.760 But no one asked what do you want or why 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:10.560 are you talking with her? Then you're ready leaving her 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:13.720 water jar. The woman went back to the town and 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:17.760 said to the people, come see a man who told 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:23.400 me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah? 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:25.520 And they came out of the town and made their 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:29.480 way toward him. Just then verse twenty seven, the disciples 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:35.040 returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:37.880 And I know it's an odd Father's Day text, but 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:40.320 God told me to talk to you today on the 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:48.720 topic plot twist, Plot twist. I am officially deeming twenty 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:56.280 twenty the Year of the plot Twist. This year was 0:08:56.400 --> 0:09:02.160 written by Stephen King and directed by Lucifer the Year 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:07.720 of the plot Twist. And you know, I was gonna 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:10.600 ask you because the disciples thought that they were just 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:13.640 going to get lunch, and they had no idea that 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:18.080 Jesus was going to break cultural barriers and every taboo 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:20.000 He was just gonna step through it like tick or 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:22.960 tape and not even care about the expectations of the 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:25.360 religious elite and talk to a woman as a Jewish 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:28.240 man with a Samaritan. They just wanted to get some food. 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:32.760 Plot twists. You know, just like we thought twenty twenty 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:35.880 we were just gonna do some crunches and lose fifteen pounds. 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:40.600 You didn't know you were gonna lose fifteen weeks. I 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:42.000 didn't know I was going to be preaching in an 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:44.920 empty room. For I don't mean that it's not empty, yell, 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:48.160 aren't nobody. It's just emptier. I didn't applot twist though, 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:52.480 plot twists. That's why I wanted to come out and 0:09:52.520 --> 0:10:02.920 preach the sermon early, because you know, following Jesus, you 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:08.200 had to kind of like surprises to really follow Jesus, 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:13.880 not to worship a religious tradition, but to follow Jesus. Yeah, 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:17.640 there's a difference, big difference everybody put in the chat, 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:22.040 big difference with extra eyes in the middle of big 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:32.079 big difference between you know, worshiping a tradition and pursuing truth. 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:39.440 And so Jesus is Jesus is Ah. He's constantly keeping 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:44.920 his disciples guessing, you know, constantly keeping God is constantly 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:52.240 keeping us guessing, isn't he? Do you like surprises? You 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:54.960 may have had a different answer if I had asked 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:59.160 you six months ago do you like surprises? But now 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:02.000 we're like, you know what, No, I'm good. I'm good 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:06.959 on surprises until twenty thirty two. I'm good on surprises. 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:09.000 But you're gonna be surprised about some things when you 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:13.000 get to heaven. One thing you're gonna be surprised about, 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:15.960 maybe is who is your neighbor in heaven next door 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:19.760 in the condominium. And you might be surprised who has 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:22.880 a bigger house than you in heaven. You know, who 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:27.000 God really used on Earth will not always be whose 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:32.839 name we knew, And even on earth, Jesus was, he 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:36.560 was full of surprises. I like that the disciples were 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:39.400 surprised because it lets me know that it's okay that 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:42.720 sometimes I get caught off guard because I thought God 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:44.560 was going to do this, and then he does that, 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:47.040 and I thought my life was going to look like this, 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:49.480 and then it looks like that, And I thought this 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:51.200 person was always going to be my friend, but I 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:53.080 didn't know they were gonna kind of stab me in 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:55.199 the back and go take what I tried to give 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:58.040 them and do something else with it. But that's okay 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:04.040 because his disciples were surprised too, and God is constantly 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:09.920 keeping us guessing. I almost wish I could read John 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:13.320 chapter four again for the first time, because now I 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:16.240 know how it ends, and it would have been cool 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:20.640 if I could have kind of, you know, wiped your memory. 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:23.920 Don't you wish you could see shawshank Redemption again for 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:27.240 the first time. It would be amazing just to see 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:32.440 Andy Defray crawl through the sewer to hear Morgan Freeman 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:36.440 narrate the life of Tim Robbins again, just for the 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:39.559 first time. It's still good, but I wish I kind 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:41.320 of wish I could see it because I didn't see 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:43.640 that coming the first time. Have you ever been watching 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:46.559 a movie and you just thought you knew exactly where 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:50.800 it was gonna go, but then you know, out of nowhere. 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:54.720 I remember the first time I saw a Beautiful Mind? 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:57.880 Did you see that movie? And I remember the first 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:00.320 time I saw it, it messed with my mind. I 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:04.040 did not see that coming. Have you ever been going 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:08.400 through your life, going through your day, just minding your 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:12.120 own business, like the disciples, trying to go get a burger, 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:16.560 and all of a sudden, God disrupts your expectation of 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:19.960 how your day was supposed to go. And sometimes God 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:23.920 doesn't even let you know it's him doing it. Now, 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:29.840 every disruption is not recognized as divine because the disciples 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:33.160 had no idea what he wanted. They still thought he 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:38.480 wanted Chick fil A closed on Sundays, but they didn't 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:41.800 know he was doing something much bigger than the number one. 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:45.640 He was doing something much bigger than a drive through. 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:49.800 And don't you know that God has scripted a much 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:55.440 bigger art for your life than how you feel this week. See, 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:57.920 we never know any given day, any given day, we 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:01.280 never know how any given we wake up, and we 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:05.079 never expect. It's never. It's never the things you expect 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:06.719 that set your life in a different direction. Have you 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:10.400 noticed this, It's never the things you expect. When you 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:12.319 came to that lunch and you sang me that song, 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:14.559 and then you never knew that we'd be writing songs 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:16.840 for elevation worship. You were just coming to the lunch. 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:18.840 You were just a new staff member. It's just the 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:20.760 little things. But you came to the lunch and you 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:22.440 were one of the first twelve in there and I 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:24.840 say who are you? And you say, and I say, 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:26.600 how do you doing? You? I see you seen me 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:28.280 a song, and you had a song. But you didn't 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:31.160 know when you woke up this morning. You never know. See, 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:35.200 that's why we have to continue to approach each day 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:38.280 like it is the day that the Lord has made, 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:43.440 because you never know. You never know. That woman didn't 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:47.440 know she was about to meet her maker. She didn't 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:52.560 know that she was about to meet a man who 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:55.200 could not only tell her everything that she had done, 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:57.840 but could show her what was within her that others 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:03.680 did not see. Plot twist. You came to get water, 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:09.680 but you're about to meet the well. Plot twist. Plot twist. 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:15.800 You accidentally clicked on this YouTube channel, but you're about 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:19.840 to get a word from God. You accidentally. I'm telling you, 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:23.640 it never ceases to amaze me the way that God 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:27.400 kind of sets things up. And just about when you think, 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:29.800 I mean, it's new, it's the hottest part of the day, 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:33.520 there's nobody around, nobody's expecting it. Jesus isn't supposed to 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:35.880 even be talking to this woman as a rabbi, And 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:40.320 just when she expected it, the least she received the 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:44.920 greatest revelation of her life. Now, for me, on Father's Day, 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:47.920 my dad was crazy in a good way, in a 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:51.280 bad way, It's like. And my relationship with my dad 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:55.920 was really really great, and it was really complicated. And 0:15:56.840 --> 0:16:02.880 when he was diagnosed with als Lugarry disease and he 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:04.720 realized that he would die, but we didn't have an 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:10.800 exact timeframe for it, some really bizarre events transpired in 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:13.760 our house. And I don't like to talk about all 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:16.000 of it because it's not completely my story to share. 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:21.600 But even within my mom's decision to forgive him for 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:25.280 some things that he did during that period, there was 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:27.520 a little while and I was just reflecting on this 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:31.359 for Father's Day because me and Graham were throwing the baseball, 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:34.080 and you know, you connect all of that like to 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:36.440 when I was twelve and my dad throwing the baseball, 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:39.000 But then also I connected it to when I was 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:44.720 thirty two and we weren't even on speaking terms, and 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:48.240 how one Father's Day I hadn't spoken to him in months, 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:51.320 and every time we would speak, it would get into 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:53.800 a shouting match. And I don't think I had the 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:55.640 wisdom to know how to relate to him through his pain, 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:58.920 and he was and he was being a jerk. I mean, 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:00.880 I put that on the record. You know, he's in 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:03.000 heaven now. He made it in but he was being 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:05.760 a jerk and I was probably a little immature as well, 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:11.760 and it put us in a weird spot. And do 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:14.920 you remember where we were coming from? Was it Florida? 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:17.880 And we were coming on Father's Day? And I asked 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:19.920 you to drive and I made the list and I said, 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:22.520 I'm going to write a list of you know, thirty 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:25.800 two things that I remember from my dad that are good, 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:30.800 and let's take it by his house. And we stopped by. 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:33.600 And I won't tell the full story now many of 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:35.680 you have heard me tell it before, how I kind 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:37.440 of shove the list at him with a bad attitude 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:41.320 of happy Father's Day, you know, And it opened the door. 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:46.640 And really, through my mom's grace and compassion and forgiveness, 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:50.760 I was able to be a part of his life 0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:52.480 like he was a part of mine as a boy 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:55.200 in the very last days. But but what I wanted 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:57.280 to tell you about, and I don't know who this 0:17:57.480 --> 0:18:00.000 is for, because I didn't want to preach a messag. 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:05.080 It's just for fathers. But on Father's Day it got 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:09.199 me thinking about the plot twists of our life and 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:12.720 how important it is that we be attuned to what 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:16.240 the Holy Spirit is doing in us, because we never know. 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:22.879 Because I was preaching in twenty thirteen on a series 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:26.600 called the Expectation Gap, I shall probably pull that one 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:29.119 back out, because that's where we're living right now, the 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:33.000 gap between what you expect and what you experience. And 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:35.240 listen to this, Lucius. I don't know if you've heard 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:39.040 this story or not before, but it's the craziest story, 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:42.640 maybe that I've ever experienced. Because I preached the nine 0:18:42.720 --> 0:18:48.359 thirty at Elevation Blatney and I usually preached the eleven thirty, 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:50.439 and we were about to go on our family vacation 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:56.280 for June, and something told me to just instead of 0:18:56.280 --> 0:19:01.119 preaching the eleven thirty, to run the sermon back. You know, 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:03.199 I don't go with every idea that I had and 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:04.840 just call it the Holy Spirit. I'd be in prison 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:08.560 if I did that, because sometimes I think some really 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:10.439 crazy thoughts and some days I'd never get out of 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:12.240 bed if I just went with what I felt. Somehow 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:14.600 one of those guys, but I just felt it. It 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:16.720 was like, you need to just play the thing back, 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:18.920 and I thought, you know again, I'm arguing with God, 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:21.280 you know, like you're not supposed to go through some 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:24.760 Maria Jesus, we don't do that. I'm like, well, God, 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:27.399 I'm going on a vacation for a few weeks. I'm 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:28.880 about to get a break. I don't need a break 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:31.280 at eleven thirty. So I just preached that and then 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:33.560 I'll get a break. But something told me to leave. 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:38.760 As I was leaving, something told me to stop by 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:44.159 and see my dad and my mom. And when I 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:47.919 walked in, my dad was so surprised. In fact, he 0:19:48.040 --> 0:19:52.639 was just completely confused because his disease had progressed to 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:55.320 the point where he had very little movement, and my 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:58.080 mom was kind of doing everything for him, and hospice 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:01.879 was involved. But his mind was still very sharp. But 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:05.240 he had his iPad out and he was watching he 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:08.880 was about to watch the eleven thirty service of Elevation Church, 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:15.359 sorry worship experience we call it. And just as on 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:18.159 the iPad, I was coming on stage, I was walking 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:23.639 in his house. Anyway, you know, he couldn't move his 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:25.399 head around too much, but he looked back at the 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:27.159 iPad and looked at me and looked at the iPad, 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:29.159 and he said, how are you here? You're here, but 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:32.639 you're there, But you're here. How are you who's preaching? 0:20:32.640 --> 0:20:36.760 If you're there? I said, Dad, I said, I decided. 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:39.200 I just decided to come over and see you, and 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:41.080 they're going to run back the nine thirty and I'm 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:44.159 going to watch myself preach with you. Because one of 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:47.640 the things that he had asked me for when we 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:50.240 were not speaking to one another, just just before we 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:53.880 stopped speaking to one another, he had asked me if 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:56.359 I could show him how much he meant to me 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:00.679 by canceling something that was important, to show him that 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:04.600 he was more important. And I thought, well, that's childish. 0:21:04.640 --> 0:21:06.199 Of course I care for you. I mean, look at 0:21:06.200 --> 0:21:07.600 all I try to do for you, and I'm a 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:10.480 good son and this and that I'm a good good son. 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:14.320 This is who I am. He went having it, and 0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:17.600 when I walked in, I realized, this is that moment 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:20.879 for me to be with him. And I sat on 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:24.520 the edge of the bed and he watched the sermon. 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:28.159 And it's really awkward watching yourself preach. It's painful. I 0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:31.040 don't like to do it, but I did it. And 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:34.600 when I finished and walked off the stage, I promise 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:35.960 you I'm going to go back to John four in 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:38.919 a minute. But when I walked off the stage, my 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:43.120 dad said, preach your man. Gone out the back door. 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:47.240 Time for Hubacca because Larry Hubatka would come out and 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:49.280 do the clothes and I'd go this way and Larrybaka 0:21:49.320 --> 0:21:51.640 would go that way. And I hugged him. I said, 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:53.600 I love you. I'll see you when we get back 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:59.720 from vacation. And my mom called me at one am 0:22:00.240 --> 0:22:04.359 and said, your dad only has hours to live. He's 0:22:04.359 --> 0:22:09.080 not speaking. You need to get here quick. And we 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:11.800 got there in the middle of the night, and we 0:22:11.880 --> 0:22:16.760 sang his favorite hymns and then I ran out of 0:22:16.800 --> 0:22:23.280 hymns and I started singing CCR and I ran out 0:22:23.320 --> 0:22:26.080 of classic rock songs, and we sang and we sat 0:22:26.119 --> 0:22:29.679 with him and and we sat with him, and I 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:36.520 was with him when he breathed his lass bread. But 0:22:36.640 --> 0:22:43.320 I told you that because you never know. That's why 0:22:43.320 --> 0:22:48.840 I told you that, Because you never know. You must 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:54.480 go through some area and this woman who's just coming 0:22:54.520 --> 0:22:59.040 to get water finds out that while she's trying to 0:22:59.080 --> 0:23:04.000 fill her are God is trying to fill her, and 0:23:04.160 --> 0:23:09.919 she becomes the first evangelist to the Samaritans in the 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:15.600 time of the ministry of Jesus. Plot twist, plot twist. 0:23:18.000 --> 0:23:19.720 But that's not really what I wanted to preach to 0:23:19.720 --> 0:23:25.240 you about today. What really got my attention for Father's 0:23:25.320 --> 0:23:31.840 Day was in verse five, because verse five says, so 0:23:31.920 --> 0:23:38.840 he came to a town in Samaria called Psychar, near 0:23:38.880 --> 0:23:43.879 the plot near the plot of ground Jacob had given 0:23:45.119 --> 0:23:55.720 to his son Joseph near the plot near the see. 0:23:55.720 --> 0:24:00.560 When I read that verse, I realized this is national. 0:24:03.760 --> 0:24:07.160 I mean, of all the sermons that I have heard 0:24:07.200 --> 0:24:10.320 preached about this woman who had five husbands and she's 0:24:10.359 --> 0:24:13.080 living with the six, and you know, she's loose and 0:24:13.119 --> 0:24:16.359 she's thirsty. And I realized that this did not start 0:24:16.400 --> 0:24:20.800 with her. I realized that the conflict between the Samaritans 0:24:20.840 --> 0:24:25.160 and the Jews did not start in John chapter four, 0:24:26.920 --> 0:24:30.119 and even the phrase it said on the plot of ground. 0:24:30.280 --> 0:24:34.520 And why would John, who only had so many chapters 0:24:34.560 --> 0:24:37.600 to tell, only twenty one chapters to tell us who 0:24:37.720 --> 0:24:41.520 Jesus was, his glory full of grace and truth. He 0:24:41.560 --> 0:24:44.280 only has so much room, and he stops to tell 0:24:44.359 --> 0:24:47.399 us that it happened. I mean, I know about the woman. 0:24:47.680 --> 0:24:50.400 I know about her past, I know about her history. 0:24:50.600 --> 0:24:52.679 I know that Jesus taught her that they that worship 0:24:52.760 --> 0:24:54.800 the Father must worship in spirit and truth. And I 0:24:54.800 --> 0:24:56.680 know it's not about whether you're worship on this mountain 0:24:56.760 --> 0:24:58.919 or that mountain. I've read all of that, but I 0:24:59.000 --> 0:25:02.680 never took the time to realize that it was near 0:25:02.720 --> 0:25:08.600