Sermon Title: "Seven Deadly Sins: Lust" Part 7 of 7
Author's Name: Rev. Alex Knight
Our text today comes from the gospel of St. John, chapter four. It's the story of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well. I want to read just a portion of the story this morning. The events in the story occurred as Jesus is going to Galilee. He has to pass through Samaria and He comes to a village at noontime.
"A woman, a Samaritan came to draw water. Jesus said, "Would you give me a drink of water?" (His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.) The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, "How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?" (Jews in those days wouldn't be caught dead talking to Samaritans.) Jesus answered, "If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink and I would give you fresh, living water. The woman said, "Sir you don't even have a bucket to draw with and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this "living water"? Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?" Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst - - - not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life." The woman said, "Sir, give me this water so I won't ever get thirsty, won't ever have to come back to this well again. Jesus said, "Go call your husband and then come back." "I have no husband" she said.
"That's nicely put: 'I have no husband.' You've had five husbands and the man you are living with now isn't even your husband. You spoke the truth there, sure enough."What is it in life that you are truly passionate about? Is there something that if a program comes on TV, it is sure to capture your attention. If you are in a group of people and somebody starts a discussion and mentions a particular subject, it is sure to capture you attention? Are you going to be all ears at whatever they are talking about because you have a passion for that in your life? I have a friend that is passionate about fly fishing. He is so passionate about it that he does not mind if he does not catch fish. Sometimes, a fish will break and spoil the beauty of the moment - - - being in nature, the poetic way, the rhythmic way the fly cast is made and the line just floating through the air and laying on the water. If there is a program on TV or a story in a magazine or in a group and somebody says something about fly fishing, - - - you can just see his ears perk up and he is paying attention.
Life is not as exciting when you do not have a passion. I am sure you have something that you are passionate about in your life. It may be your garden. It may be your grand kids. It may be your work. It may be your spouse. It may be a child. There is something that gets that heart fluttering even, at the thought of it. It brings zest to your life.
Jesus was in this place called Samaria which at one time had been the capital of Northern Kingdom of the people of Israel. It was not a part of the Jewish territory any longer. These people were separated from the Jews. The Jews looked at them with disgust. Jesus is in Samaria and it is noontime. He sends the fellows with Him into town to buy lunch. He is waiting at this well for them to come back. Jacob's Well, mentioned in the text, was a short distance out of town and outside the projection of the city walls. The customs of the people were that the women went to draw well water at the first of the day and late in the evening. It is highly unusual for them to be drawing water at noontime. Furthermore, we know that there was a well within the city. The women of the village would go to the well within the city walls to draw water. Why is this woman outside the city walls at high noon drawing water? From what the text tells us, this woman was probably a prostitute. She would not have been welcome by the other women at the well within the city. They scorned her. They shunned her. They shamed her away from there, so she had to go outside the city at other times when people would not be around to do something as routine as drawing water. She had become an outcast from the other people because of the life that she was living.
Jesus has a conversation with her. Their words are included in the text. After Jesus established a relationship with her, He exposes the darkness in her life. She admits to Jesus the truth of what Jesus tells her about her life - - - that she is in an affair. She is living with a man that is not her husband. She has gone through five husbands previously. She has had a tough life.
What do you suppose she had a passion for in her life? The easy answer would be sex. She had a passion for physical relationships and she had an insatiable appetite. She just kept going from one to the other to the other to the other. In actuality I think the answer is probably deeper than that. I think her need was manifested in her many relationships but what she was longing for is the same thing that we all long for. To be loved. To be accepted. To matter to somebody. She was trying to get those needs met in the relationships she was having. She went from one relationship after another and none of them seemed to satisfy what she was looking for in life. She had a passion. She had a passion to be loved and to be needed. She just did not know how to get that need met.
Last summer a man was hiking along the Appalachian Trail. He was with people who were in their late teens' and early 20's. As they were hiking through the Appalachians he got to know them and he made some observations based on his experiences with them. He remembered one young fellow who told them about hiking down into a small town they were near to replenish his supplies. When he caught back up with the hikers again, he told about how he had been in the little supermarket and as he was checking out he met a young woman. She took a shine to him and invited him back to her apartment where he could shower, spend the night and stay there with her. First encounter. All of the dangers of having casual sexual encounters that have been communicated in the last several years, apparently fell on deaf ears. There was no fear at all in this person, with having a sexual encounter with somebody the first time they ever set eyes on them.
To be loved. To be accepted. To matter to somebody.
The man writing about this hiking experience, observed that it seemed that a lot of the young people believed in marriage, but they did not associate that sex and marriage went together. Sex was recreational to them. It was an activity that they could participate in. They would choose a sexual partner the same way you would choose a tennis partner. Somebody you enjoyed being with that was fun to be around. They saw no spiritual connection or commitment connection in sexual relationships.
I knew some people that lived up in a little small town in Georgia. This fellow was one of the pillars of his small community. Well-respected, active in civic affairs. He was a builder. He had married his high school sweetheart. They had a nice family and a nice little home. It was just small town Americana. They still associated with their best friends from high school. They got together every Friday night and played cards and socialized together. The two men were best friends, - - - they had been best friends growing up and now were best friends as adults. One time they agreed to swap wives. They gave each other permission to make a play for the other's wife. One guy tried but he chickened out. The other guy tried and he did not chicken out. The woman was willing. The consequences of this affair were devastating within that little community. You think that's what they do in New York. No, that's what they do in South Georgia, in North Florida, in Tallahassee, in Quincy. Sin has a way of getting around. It is not just in big cities, it's everywhere.
I was really astonished last summer. I was talking to a friend of mine who is a Christian counselor. He has known me for sometime and had known about my divorce and struggle with depression three or four years ago. He was intrigued to know that I had begun dating again. As he talked to me about this he asked me how I dealt with the intimacy issues. It became very clear that he fully expected that I would be having a sexual relationship with this person that I am dating. I looked at him and I said, "Have you lost your mind or forgotten who your Lord is?" He said, "You have to understand, you were married for a long time. Sexual intimacy is a part of life and I would understand you being intimate with some one you really cared about." I said, "Well you may expect that, but I don't. And my Lord doesn't. If that is going to be a block to intimacy, then it's just going to have to be blocked. But, I don't think it does. I think you can be connected to another person and enjoy a depth of soul and relationship without having a sexual relationship, if you are not married to the person. Our sexuality a gift of God. It is a gift of God that is to be enjoyed and appreciated in a married relationship."
Sin has a way of getting around. It is not just in big cities, it's everywhere.
I was shocked with that conversation because this friend is a minister, a Christian counselor that I had respected for a long, time. He had a very casual attitude and an acceptance, that this is the way life is - - - you are consenting adults, you get to do what you want to do. I was really surprised by his attitude. I thought he understood as we become Christians, we say that our life no longer belongs to ourselves. Our life belongs to God by creation and it belongs to God by redemption. We are not free as Christian people to satisfy every longing of our physical body in every way that we want. If we try, it will lead to our destruction. It will lead to the destruction of families. We see this truth in the Gospel text. Jesus encounters a woman who is hungering to be loved and to have her needs met. She has a passion. But, she has a passion for the wrong things. It is all right to be passionately excited about your spouse or about your children or about your work, but as Christian people we are called to be more passionate for Jesus.
The scriptures tell us about people who hunger and long for righteousness - - - right standing with God. We know that righteousness is Jesus, His blood, His life given for our life. Through Jesus we are connected again with God and can dwell with God in His kingdom. Through Jesus we are at peace with God, our creator. Through Jesus we allow our wonderful Creator, who loves us, to satisfy the longings of our heart and meet the needs of our life in ways that lead to life eternal. Our own self efforts destroy the quality of life and the relationships we have with people. We are called to have a passion for Jesus, the one person who truly satisfies the longing of our heart. Jesus said, He gives us the living water that satisfies our soul, where we thirst no more. It's a gift of God, It's a gift that we call grace. It's a gift of God to you and me that satisfies us and makes us whole. It's what Jesus meant when He told the people, "I come that you might have life and life more abundantly." We do not have to get our needs met in all manner of living. We can trust the God who created us, who redeemed us, who loves us, who stands by us, to meet our every need. He will satisfy the longings of our heart and soul to be loved and to be accepted and to have a sense of worth and value and dignity as human beings.
We have traveled together for seven long weeks and we have looked at seven deadly sins that take us away from God by causing our lives to be focused on ourselves and things around us. As we close this series on seven deadly sins, we want to remember that God's love for us is so great that nothing can separate us from the love of God for us which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. At the end of this story in John, the woman listened to what Jesus had to say. She became so excited about what Jesus had to say that she went back to the village, and even though she was a woman of ill repute, she told everybody she could see, "I have met a man and that man knows everything about my life and He is telling me some good news, that I don't have to be that way anymore." She led all of those people from her village back out to the well where they could see Jesus for themselves. Jesus talked with them that afternoon and they were so astonished and so much in a sense of awe and wonder at this man Jesus, they said, "Won't you stay with us." Jesus said, "OK, I'll interrupt my trip and stay with you" He stayed there two days. At the end of the visit, the people who previously would not have anything to do with this woman, they turned to her and they said, "Because of you, introducing us to Jesus, no longer to we believe on the basis of what you said, now we believe that He is the Savior of the world on the basis of our own personal encounter with Jesus." She brought revival to a whole town.
What wonderful things God can do in our lives when we turn our passions to Him and let Him fill our every need. Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we confess to you that it is so difficult to live in the culture and the world we are in right now. We find so little in this world and in this culture that resembles the kingdom of God. Attitudes have been eroded in sin. People take bits and pieces of your scripture and live by those and ignore other parts of your Holy Word. Father, one thing that we know is true, Jesus Christ has saved us from our sins. It is the life of Jesus Christ that has promised us eternal life and we want nothing else. We want nothing less than everything that you have for us Father. Through these seven weeks, we have examined our life for evidence of these deadly sins. We thank you for your forgiveness of our sins. We thank you Father that you cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We thank you that we stand before you blameless and pure and holy because of the blood of Jesus. Grant us grace Father, grant us grace that we can walk henceforth with a commitment that we only want Jesus, that a passion for Jesus will be the driving force in our lives. Amen and Amen.