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Prairie Lakes welcome, um, and Happy Father's Day to all of you. I know we probably already, already shared that, um, in, in the room at some point, but if not, just from me to you. Um, happy Father's Day. Okay. Hey, uh, we have got summer in full swing around our house.

I know, and around our church, I'm sure. But, um, I'm, I'm just real glad that even though you're probably in that summer rhythm, now that you're here, um, whether, whether at a campus or joining us online, hey, we're gonna be finishing, uh, up a series, uh, today that we began a couple of weeks ago, a few weeks ago now, series called Anchors.

Okay? And here's where we've been and, and, and here's where we're going. Okay? So, um, the idea that's carried us through this whole series is living the practices that keep us from drifting away from God. That's what we want, okay?

Living the practices that keep us from, from, from drifting. Our natural inclination, I think is, isn't to drift towards God, but our natural inclination is always, I think to, to, to drift away. And, uh, just like, just like Pastor John illustrated last week, these are some of the things that're gonna keep us, keep us anchored.

So, week one, um, in our relation, our personal relationship with God, Bible reading and prayer keep us anchored. Uh, last week, pastor John talked about how we need to be, be, be anchored, um, in our relationships, uh, with one another. Okay? Um, we need these anchors of Sunday worship and then deep friendships around Jesus.

Okay? So, so this week, here's, here's where we're going. Uh, we wanna talk about, um, this area of our lives that, that have, have, have a little bit more to do with, with us and, and God's mission. And, uh, we have a, a tendency sometimes to, to drift off mission, um, tendency to drift away from living out, um, this purpose that God has for our lives.

Alright? Now, before we talk about the drift, okay, what I'd love to talk about is the mission. Let's be clear on what we mean by that, okay? Before we talk about what it's like to miss the target, potentially, let's talk about what we're, what we're aiming for.

Um, so here's, here's the mission, okay? Here's our purpose. Here's our marching orders. Uh, here's what we're supposed to be all about. Uh, here's what Jesus put in front of us to accomplish. Here's what it looks like to drift towards the mission. This is from Matthew 28. Here's what Jesus says.

He goes, Jesus came to them and he said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded.

And surely I am with you always, even to the very end of the H. Okay? So there it is. This is the last, is like one of the last things Jesus says, before he ascends into heaven, uh, he says, I'm coming back, but while I'm gone, this is what you're supposed to be doing, okay?

And these verses are, are, are most commonly referred to as the great commission. 'cause it's Jesus giving us submission. You know, it's, and, and then he's just, he's just telling us, Hey, go, go do it. I'm, I'm with you, I'm gonna help you.

You know, but my mission is now your mission, okay? And so here at Prairie Lakes, here at Prairie Lakes, we use a couple of phrases that we, we feel like captures that, that mission. And this is just what it looks like for us today around here, okay?

Here's how we, we put this mission into, into practice. Here's how we make Jesus's great commission our mission. We talk about we want to be a no matter church, but really in this context, we wanna be no matter followers, we wanna be people who, who, no matter who you are, where you've been, what you've done, what's been done to you, we want you to know that God loves you.

And then so will we. Okay? So as we, this is this really how we act. We act as no matter followers. Um, as we what, as we reach, as we reach into our big Iowa through campuses, as we reach into our little Iowa, as we do missions, you know, we, we wanna be no matter followers as we reach and help people become disciples of Jesus.

Okay? So, so, so that's what it looks, that's what it looks like around here. When we talk about being no matter followers and reaching into our big eye, reaching into our little Iowa doing missions. This is how we say yes to making Jesus's mission our mission.

Okay? Now that in mind, okay, that's the target. That's what it looks like. Let's start talking about what it looks like when we, uh, when we kinda drift off course. Um, because, because drifting in this area of our lives, in this missional area, drifting can sometimes it can sometimes be a little bit harder to see.

Um, and it can be real hard to see, especially when you're anchored in some other areas. Okay? So, so, so, so maybe you're pretty anchored when it comes to your Bible reading and prayer with you. And God, maybe you're pretty anchored there.

Um, and maybe you're pretty anchored when it comes to, uh, coming to church on most Sundays and, and developing deep friendships. But the question we're wrestling with this weekend is, Hey, is the mission of your life? God's mission is the purpose that God has said to us, Hey, here's what's most important.

Here's what you're supposed to be about. Is, is that purpose the most important purpose to us? 'cause here's the thing, okay, just, just, just one more time, right? You can be very well anchored in your Bible reading and prayer, and you can be very well anchored in your biblical community.

And at the same time, be drifting here in the mission. It's, it's totally possible. And, and, and here's the thing, okay? If we are great at this one and this one, but not so much here, not so much in these relationships with disconnected people who were, we're trying to reach as we're becoming no matter followers, watch out.

Okay? Because being anchored in Bible reading and prayer, and being anchored in attending church, frenches, being anchored in those two, while drifting off mission is a perfect recipe. It's a great way to become an accidental Pharisee.

Okay? Lemme explain, lemme explain that Pharisee is, were this group of people that was like Jesus's, I don't know, it was his foil at times. It was his arch enemy at times. It was, sometimes it was a positive example, but more often than not, these were, these were parties that were at odds.

And, uh, and it was really because these Pharisees, for the most part, they made Bible reading and prayer and friendships with Christians. They made that the mission. And what they didn't do as much was love people, especially people who are outside their tribe.

Okay? So, so take a look at what Jesus says about these kinds of people in John 5 39. He goes, Hey, you, Pharisees, you guys study the scriptures diligently. You're anchored there because you think that in them you have eternal life. You think that in Them is the mission, it's the purpose, it's the whole point, right?

You, so you study and you study and study. And, and these are, by the way, these are the very scriptures that testify about me. And yet you refuse to come to me in order to have life. Jesus is saying, Hey, you're, you're reading the book all the time, every single day that That talks about me. But, but you're not coming to me. You're not following me.

You're not doing what I'm telling you to do. You're, you're not on mission with helping the people in this world who are disconnected become connected to me. Now, listen, again, just be super clear On this. Does, does being anchored to God mean being anchored in Bible reading and prayer?

Yes. Does, does being anchored to God mean being anchored in biblical community? Deep friendships around Jesus get into church. Yes. And being anchored to God also means taking on the character of Jesus, of this, no matter follower, as you help people who don't know Jesus, become connected to him and become followers of Jesus themselves.

Okay? And if we're not really doing that part, then even with those other anchors, and maybe especially with those other anchors in place, we're gonna drift off mission and into accidental phariseeism. Okay? So none of us want that.

So here's, here, here's what I wanna do. I I, I wanna take a look at an example straight from Jesus' life where he lives this mission out so we can see exactly, exactly what he means by it. Sometimes it's just helpful just to see an example. Show me the work, so to speak, right?

So let's take a look at how Jesus as and really is our example and how he lives this mission out. Because Jesus was always drifting towards mission, always. He never drifted away. Alright, here's what we're gonna be John four, and we're gonna be looking really at verses three through, through through 26.

So, so if you've got a a, a physical Bible, just go ahead and, and open that up and find that, obviously it's more to the end, the not, um, some of us do Bible on our phone, that's awesome. You know, we're gonna have some of the verses on the screen here as well.

Um, but this is the story, okay? This is how, this is how Jesus lives out. The same mission that he gave us. Let's start in verse three. Let's, let's, let's read, okay. He left Judea and he went back once more to Galilee, and we'll talk about that.

Um, but he had to go through Samaria, he had to go through Samaria. So, so he came to a town in Samaria, Samaria's the region. Here's the town. The town was called Skar. Near the plot of ground. Jacob had given his son Joseph, we'll talk about this as well.

Jacob's well, was there, and Jesus tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the, well, it was about noon, so it was the hottest time of the day. He'd been walking all day. Okay? So let's set the scene, let's set the scene here.

'cause verse three says, he left Judea and he headed for Galilee, but he had to go through Samaria. Okay? So just, just, here's a great visual illustration of, of what. So Jesus is starting down here in Judea, in the south, there's Jerusalem down here.

You probably can't see that, but just trust me, that's, it's there. There's two routes. Red route and a blue route. The red route obviously is a little bit straighter, line shorter, right? The blue route takes you to the east here and then goes up and around.

And again, you, it's probably difficult for you to see, but this is the Jordan River, okay? And then up here at the very top would be like the, the dead or the Sea of Galilee, right? The Sea of Galilee is up here, dead seas down here, okay? So you could take one or two routes.

If you wanted to go from Judea to Galilee, you could go straight through Samaria, or you could take the long way around on the east side of the Jordan River and then come up and around. Well, why would you ever take the long way unless you just wanted something scenic?

Well, if you're familiar with this story at all, uh, you probably know that the reason that someone like Jesus, most people like Jesus would take the blue route is because, uh, Jewish people and Samaritan people did not get along. And that's an understatement.

Um, so you, so if you're familiar with this story, you probably know that, but you may not know why. Now, the, the thing I would probably love most in this world is to take the next 10 to 15 minutes and really get into the nitty gritty as to why this is, in fact, it was in my manuscript until I'm like, I have to cut that I don't have time.

You know, cliff notes version. At one time, Samaritans and Jewish people, they did get along. In fact, there was no distinction between them really at one time. 'cause they, they, they, they, they both traced their ancestry back to Jacob.

But Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the, the patriarchs of the Jewish and Samaritan faith, they were at one time, one people, but for various geographical and religious and cultural and, and, and really generational reasons, they had grown so divided and built up such animosity between one another that by the time Jesus arrives on the scene, they would literally add like hours and even days to their walking commute to avoid being in one another's spaces.

And that's the ancient story. But it's, it's not right. You may have relationships that are, that are like that. Um, but the point of this particular story is that that's not how Jesus operated. Jesus isn't a blue line guy. Jesus is a red line guy. Why? Why? Why did Jesus not live his life in the same direction that the rest of his culture did?

Why? Because Jesus had a clear mission. He had a clear mission, clear purpose. He wasn't there to follow the waves and the trends and the, the waves of the currents of culture. What he was, was sent to go into the world, not around it, but into it.

And not just to the parts and the people that he liked, and not just to the parts and the people who liked him, not just to the people he was alike and shared values with. He was, he was sent into the world. And because he was on that mission that God gave him, he took that route.

Verse five. So Jesus came to a town in Samaria called Shar, near the plot of ground. Jacob had given his son Joseph, okay? And this is, by the way, it's a story you could find in the Old Testament. Jacob's well was there, Jacob's well was there.

And Jesus, as tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the, well, it was about noon. So there's the, there's where we, where we left off. Now, let's keep going. When Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, will you give me a drink? His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.

So it's just him. The Samaritan woman said to him, well, you're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan woman, so how can you ask me for a drink for Jews? Don't associate with Samaritans. Now, I don't know if you've ever, um, felt or, or really experienced discrimination, and I know that's a loaded word, but just hang with me.

Um, and, and maybe if I use a different word, I don't know if you've had the pleasure of walking into a room where you knew for sure that you are not liked, that you are not welcomed, and that you are not well respected.

I don't know if you've ever had that experience, but if you had, okay, here's what you probably did. You probably like braced yourself for whatever was coming your way. And, and, and you knew something was coming your way, right? Because someone was gonna say something or do something and, and you, you just were gonna be on, on high alert, right?

I mean, some of us approach like our family gatherings that way. You know what I'm saying? Okay. And, and that's exactly what this woman was doing, right? Because she was just bracing because whatever, whatever she usually got from people like Jesus, whenever she crossed paths with a Jewish person, was gonna sound something like, you're not living, right?

Uh, you're not believing what you should believe. Um, you don't share our values. Um, you are what's wrong with the world today. I mean, that's what she's bracing for, right? Because that's what she always got.

And yet, Jesus, what does he do? He, he walks toward her, he engages with her. He even has a drink with her, and he doesn't do any of the things that she's bracing for, which is very disorienting to her. And then as we're about to see, Jesus has, uh, an unexpectedly long conversation with her.

Uh, why? Because Jesus is on a mission. Jesus is trying to make disciples. He's trying to help people discover who God is, what it's like to follow him. He's trying to do what God sent him to do. Now, I think it's notable that we have a record of the entire conversation, uh, the entire one that Jesus has with this woman.

I mean, Jesus, John, the guy who writes this, okay? John's one of the, the original 12 disciples. And, and church tradition tells us that John, of all of the 12, John lives by far the longest. He lives probably into his nineties. And so he writes this book from his ripe old age.

And, and, and, and of all the things that he could have spent precious parchment space on, 'cause like he's not just writing a note. I mean, like, this is, he's making a deli. He's, he tells us about this interaction. And so what we're gonna do is we're just gonna take our cue from John, and and we're gonna spend some of our precious time today just listening in on their conversation.

So let's start in verse 10. We're just gonna read the story, okay? We're just gonna read it 10 through verse 26. All right, here we go. Okay, this is John four. Are you along with me? In verse 10, all the way down to 26, Jesus answered her.

Okay? So she goes, Hey, you. How do you, what, what are you doing here? Here's what he says. If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you'd have asked him, and he would've given you living water, sir.

The woman said, you have nothing to, to draw with, and the well is deep. So where can you get this living water? Are are, are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself and, and did also his sons and his livestock?

Jesus answered, everyone who drinks this water that I'm talking about, this water that, that we're, we're drinking, uh, will will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water that I'm talking about that I will give them will never thirst. Indeed the water that I give them will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

Well, the woman said to him, sir, gimme this water so I won't get thirsty, and I have to keep coming here to draw water. And so he told her, go, call your husband. Come back. Well, I don't have a husband. She replied. Jesus said to her, you're, you're right when you say that you don't have a husband, fact is you've had five.

And the man you now have isn't what you said is quite true, sir. The woman said, I, I can see you're a prophet. Now our ancestors worshiped on this mo, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem down south.

The woman, woman, Jesus replied, believe me. And by the way, when he says that, I know that to our ear sounds weird. Like it's just, it's just, it's like, man, okay, ma'am, believe me, a time is coming when you worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, you Samaritans worship.

What you do not know we worship. What we do know for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth, for they're the kind of worshipers the father seeks.

God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. And the woman said, I know that Messiah called Christ is coming. So she's tracking a little bit. She knows the story a little bit, and when he comes, he's gonna explain everything to us.

'cause she's still like, I still am not tracking. And Jesus declared I the one speaking to you and me. So there's the story, okay? There's the conversation. Now, couple things, um, that we gotta dive into, um, uh, before we dive deeper and pull some stuff out, okay?

Um, it is easy. I think it's easy to, to, to read about an interaction like the one Jesus has here and, and go, must be nice. Jesus must be, must be nice to just kind of magically know all this stuff about people and, and say these super clever spiritual things at just the right time must be nice, you know?

Um, but I'm not the son of God. So, you know, and, and I get that. If that's your impression, I like, like you're reading this story kind of like, Hey, this is just something amazing that, that only Jesus can do, um, because of his like, special Jesus powers.

Okay? In other words, if, if that's what it looks like to accomplish the mission, if this is the model, then it seems like it's the kind of mission that only Jesus can accomplish. Not, not so much me, but what I'm about to challenge you to do is to see this conversation as a model, as something that you and I can do.

In fact, I think John included it in his gospel because here's what he's showing us. He's showing us that these aren't just the conversations that only Jesus can have. They are the kinds of conversations that Jesus is commissioning us to have.

I think that's why he spent so much time and space, including it. Let me build my case as to why I think that, okay? And we're gonna start with just some very quick Christology. I know it's a big word, right? But just some good theology or beliefs about who we believe Jesus is historically.

So we believe that Jesus is God, Christians, Orthodox Christian, faith, doesn't matter the brand, okay? We, we believe that, that Jesus is God by nature, God, he's a distinct person, is his own kind of personal identity, but it's the same substance. So that's what we believe. But we also believe that when the eternal person of Jesus took on flesh, called the incarnation when he came to earth, we believe that while he was always still by nature, God, he never stopped being God.

That he became fully human by emptying himself of his divine power without chain changing his person, without changing his nature. He willingly chose to live within the constraints of humanity, separating himself from accessing his divine power.

And, and, and here's how you see this kind of played out, right? You see it at the bookend of his ministry when he first began his public ministry for those three years, he was tempted by Satan in the desert.

And one of the things Satan says to him is, what make these stones, if you are the son of God, make these stones into bread, right? But he doesn't. And then at the end of Jesus' ministry, he's hanging on a cross, and his accusers are saying, if you are the son of God, come down, save yourself.

Call the armies, end this whole thing. And he doesn't, he didn't feed himself from the desert, desert. He didn't save himself on the cross, because why? Because he willingly emptied himself from accessing his divine power while he was a human being.

Which prompts this question. And it's one I love to ask my kids whenever we're reading a story of Jesus performing miracles in the Bible. I like to reinforce this. I'll ask him, Hey, if Jesus emptied himself of his divine power, and I know this is a very nerdy pastor question that the pastor asks his pastor kids, I get it, okay, by ask him, like, if, if that's the case, then, then how did he perform all these miracles?

Okay? How did he have the kinds of conversations like he did with a Samaritan woman where he just knows things about her? If you can't access his special Jesus powers, how does he know? You know? And the answer to that question is both super simple, but super challenging for us.

And that is this, Jesus did them by remaining connected to God and His Holy Spirit as a human being. He did them as a human being who was connected to God, who kept in step with God's spirit. Which is why John, same guy that wrote this story later on in his gospel, he records Jesus as saying this to us.

Here's what Jesus says. 'cause Jesus thinks this as well. He goes, very truly, I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works, will do the works that I've been doing. And they'll do even greater things than these because I'm going to the Father.

So, so Jesus is commissioning us to have these kinds of conversations and even cooler conversations. 'cause he believes that we're gonna have access to the same power that he does. And then even after this, in John 14, John 15, he goes and talks about the vine and the branches.

'cause I'm the vine. You're the branches remain connected to me, right? And if you do, you'll bear much fruit. So here, so summarize it real quick here. Jesus is saying this, you're empowered to do this mission. You're empowered to have these con conversations. Why?

Because God, the Father has empowered me. I can do all these amazing things that you're reading about because I stayed connected to God. And then he also says this, take it one step further, and if you stay connected to me, you'll be able to do even greater things, all right?

I mean, we could say it this way. Jesus expects us, he expects us to have the kinds of conversations He had With the kinds of people He did. He does. He expects that. Now, I won't get weird about this.

I'm not trying to say that this is gonna mean that you will supernaturally know everything about everybody else. I mean, I hope not. That's horrifying, right? Don't, don't look at me that way. All right? Um, but I do want to, and this is how I kinda wanna close here.

I think there's a few things that Jesus does in this conversation that we have, that we can absolutely do as well if we use Jesus as our model. And I think, I think that as we do these things in the way that Jesus did, I think God's gonna empower us in supernatural words.

I think you'd be shocked At the doors that will open if we take Jesus and follow him as our example here. Okay? So here's what I'm gonna do. I just wanna capture some things that we can draw, um, out from this conversation that are transferable to some, some of these same conversations today.

This is what it's like. Okay? These next two slides are gonna be what it's like to, um, to keep in step with God's spirit and to drift towards the mission just like Jesus did. Alright? This is how Jesus did it, okay? Here's what he does. If we wanna make disciples like Jesus, here's what he did.

He, he, he goes towards her, and we talk about that quite a bit, and he gets comfortable in her world versus what? Versus asking her into his, and which I'm not saying like, maybe they did that down the line, I don't know.

Right? And we, and we talk a lot about that. We talk about that, Hey, invite people to church, invite people into your life. And I think that's awesome. But sometimes, like the first step is to just, you gotta go towards them. Where are they comfortable? Where are they going?

Where are they at? There's an example that came to my mind. I'm just, oh, it's gonna be too loaded, right? So yeah, I'm, uh, you can even sense right now, I'm, I'm kind of praying, okay? We all have different convictions about this area, okay?

And so I, I'm gonna share this and I'm gonna share it. I'm gonna share it deliberately with you. Hopefully, knowing I'm not judging you if you don't share our conviction, but, but here's one way, here's one way that my family lives this one out. This is a little bit why this is a little bit why for us, we have our kids in public schools.

'cause we wanna be at the places that the people that we're trying to reach are now know. Not everybody has that conviction. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not getting weird about that, okay? But I'm just telling you that's how, that's one way we, we want to go and we wanna be in the spaces that the people we're trying to reach are So we can build the kind of relationships that Jesus wants us to build.

Okay? That's, that's one thing we can get from this story. And that's one way just for us. We live that out. Okay? Here's the next one. Jesus looks for common ground. Where does he go? Jacob's? Well, they both know, they both know that place. You know, in fact, they both kind of believe similarly about it.

Not a hundred percent similarly, but he is looking, he's looking for things they have in, in common because she, he knows she's bracing. He knows she's, she's expecting him to come with judgment and everything else like that. And he just, he wants, he wants a place where they can just talk pretty freely, pretty openly about something they're both familiar with.

Okay? Uh, what else does he do? And these, these are, these are models for us. He looks for openings to go from normal life to deeper spiritual longings. Now, he, he does this living water thing that she's kind of confused about, but you can see where this conversation ends up.

Here's what that looks like for us. You know, if you're a human being and you're married, you could have a great healthy marriage. You could have a, a very unhealthy marriage. But we all know everybody has ups and downs in marriage. If you're employed, right? You could love your job.

You could hate your job. Here's what we know. Boy, the, the more you, the more things change, the more things stay the same. The things that you think are most personal about your job are actually pretty universal. Everybody's probably dealt with them.

And each of these things that you get to know people will provide you an opportunity if you're kind of going in with that purpose, that mission to go from here's what you're experiencing on a surface level to maybe sharing part of your story, maybe sharing a little bit of what you're God's teaching you in this area, how you've relied upon him.

And there's, there's always a chance to go from here to here a little bit deeper, okay? All right, let's keep going. Okay? Um, he, he is willing to tell the truth without judgment or condemnation. And that's a great, you watch Jesus do this in this conversation.

He isn't water on the truth isn't affirm everything that she's saying. He's very clearly says, Hey, we, we believe this. And I I think we're right. And you believe that. And I, and I recognize that, and I don't think, I don't agree with you, okay?

So he's clear on that, but he doesn't judge her or condemner. And so how dare you, you pagan, right? Like he doesn't, he's clear on the truth, but he doesn't judge or condemn. He's willing to be judged without responding defensively.

She does. She she gets on him. You ju say that we have to worship down there and rah, what's the deal with that? And he just, he weathers it. Yep. Yep. I know, and probably you got some stones thrown at you on that, but he doesn't overreact.

He doesn't come back. He doesn't start fighting her, he doesn't start arguing, right? Okay. He knows her past, but he doesn't put off by it. He, he knows, he knows. But it didn't stop him from relating, didn't stop him from loving, didn't stop him from, from teaching, right?

Final thing is this, he lingers long enough, he lingers long enough. Let's sit down. Let's have a drink. In fact, if we went and kept reading the story, he stays for like two days with her and her friends. Just some things that if we wanna make disciples like Jesus, we wanna drift towards the mission that he's given us.

We're gonna do it in the same way that Jesus does. We can, um, let's not be people who are just anchored in Bible reading a prayer in church and church friends. Let's be people who are living on mission so that we don't drift into accidental phariseeism, but we drift towards the mission that God's given us.

All right? Lemme pray for us. Father in heaven, thank you so much, uh, for this whole, this whole series. God help us to kind of go back to it throughout the summer, God, even throughout the year, as we have a tendency to drift and, and God make this fruitful, um, produce things God that are well beyond our efforts, but in line with our obedience.

And Jesus, we pray all of this in your name. Amen.