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ARE YOU SATISFIED?    

CHRIS KHOURY - SERMON SUMMARY - Sunday 15 March 2020

Are you satisfied? With your life, your relationships and circumstances, with where you are in your relationship with God.

I will give you a moment to let that question sink in. It is the type of question that you need to reflect upon when you take it seriously. Are you satisfied, or are you too busy chasing the next big thing that you desire or believe will satisfy?

I am referring to a satisfaction that is not dependent upon external circumstances or relationships but rather to a satisfaction that is in the deepest centre of your heart and soul.

There is a story in the Bible about a woman that was not satisfied with the circumstances in her life, that is, until she had an encounter with Jesus. I am talking about the woman at the well. Read all of John 4:5-42

For the Jews, Samaria was a place to be avoided. The animosity between Jews and Samaritans goes back over 1000 years. During Solomon’s reign the regions of Samaria and Judea were part of a united Israel. After his death the northern kingdom rebelled and the kingdom was divided into north and south. The northern kings were unrighteous and led the people away from God and into idol worship. The Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom and brought in foreigners as slave labour. (2 Kings 17) They inter-married and even had the nerve to build a temple to the True God on Mt. Gerizim to rival the one in Jerusalem.

By the time of Jesus, the Jews consider the Samaritans (as the people had become known) to be half-breeds. The Jews avoided them at all costs or else be bitten by temptation.

The animosity, prejudice and hatred ran deep between them. But Jesus breaks all the social norms by engaging in conversation with the woman.

In the story, John leaves out many of the details. We have to read between the lines to fill in the gaps. Only Jesus is identified by name.

Let’s meet this nameless woman, who we are told is a Samaritan. She enters the story at high noon. Midday. In the heat of the day she is coming to the well to draw water. Significantly, she is alone. Something is not quite right. Normally the woman from the town would come together to draw water and to socialise. They would do it early morning or later in the day when it was cooler.  Why was she alone, coming in the heat of the day to draw water? It would seem like moral barriers had been erected between her and her community. She was an outcast. Then she meets Jesus. He meets her at the well, sharing her thirst and loneliness. Jesus is a high standing Jew. She is a Samaritan woman of questionable moral standards. They are alone!! Jesus does the unthinkable. He starts speaking to her and even asks her for a drink of water. Jesus breaks down all the social barriers between him and the woman. Gender, racial and moral.

She wants to know his intentions.

Jesus asks her to fulfil his need for a drink of water. When he refers to her husbands she now recognises him as a prophet and not a suiter. She then redirects her questions around issues of worship. She seems to be seeking her satisfaction with the external circumstances of her life. Looking for the perfect husband, seeking the correct place to worship. Jesus wants her to focus on the internal matters of her life, not the externals.

The water I will give will become a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.

John 17:3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”

At the deepest centre of our being we are made for a relationship with the Father, Son and Spirit. Outside of this reality all other striving ends in disappointment, and our thirst remains.

So, I will ask the question again. Are you satisfied? Or in your quest for a life of satisfaction are you chasing the externals? A husband, a job, the latest i-phone, a raise in salary...??

Can you identify with the woman? Continually searching for satisfaction but never finding it. Looking for the perfect man, for the correct place of worship... She in turn questions Jesus. Wanting to know who is his man?

So, who is Jesus? He is a man, tired and thirsty from his journey but relaxed and at peace even in the heat of the day. He reveals himself as the long-awaited Messiah. Only Jesus can satisfy. Finally, in her long journey of searching, she has joyfully found satisfaction in Jesus. How do we know this?

The woman leaves her water jar at the well with Jesus. She returns to the very community that has shunned her. She becomes a blessing to them. Leading others to Jesus and to salvation. She joins him in his mission to evangelise Samaria. She has ‘water’ welling up in her that is now overflowing to others. Her search is over, her satisfaction complete. The woman and Jesus are filled with “living water”. She becomes a blessing to her community as they accept her back and respond to her testimony. They invite Jesus to stay. He stays two days with them and we are told, many believed that Jesus really was the Saviour of the world.

Jesus is the foundation of our lives. So rather than focusing on the external facets of our life, seeking satisfaction, contentment, happiness, fulfilment, let’s rather place our trust in our relationship with Jesus. He offers us a spring of water that gushes up to eternal life. When he is the foundation of our lives, when we join Jesus in ministry, despite the external circumstances that we face we can still be satisfied. Jesus is enough!

CORPORATE PRAYER

Pray for your circumstances. Take a piece of paper. Write down what it is in your life that you are chasing (looking for satisfaction) and give it to Jesus. Ask him to fill your life with living water that overflows to others in ministry.