The Journey of Many - Mini Steps and Heart Barriers

Sermon Quick Summary
Jesus is love. Family, as a follower of Jesus, the love of Jesus is forever in our hearts in a process of a personal relationship that is too big to keep to ourselves. God calls us to share that love from Jesus. There are barriers on the journey towards making a decision for Jesus Christ. Those barriers are the will to surrender, the barrier of the mind, and the barrier of the heart. Let us read our biblical scripture text from John 4: 4-26. This is so much more than a conversation at a well. For this woman, this is a turning point. It can be a turning point for us in understanding Jesus and what Jesus came to do. It was and is today good news from Jesus for responding to emotional barriers of the heart. Jesus took the direct route through Samaria avoided by most Jews because of religious, racial, and political tension. The Good News is that Jesus came to destroy barriers. The Good News is that Jesus came to redeem and restore. The Good News is that Jesus came to inaugurate the Kingdom of God. The Good News is that Jesus came to reveal God with us. Family and friends, as followers of Jesus, we are commissioned to go and tell the Good News message of Jesus. Jesus came to show us the method of how to share the Good News. Let’s review three practices we learn from Jesus that serves to soften hearts and emotional barriers along the journey of many mini steps: 1)in responding like Jesus, be curious and stay open to the conversation. 2)in responding like Jesus, be compassionate and invite their story with empathy. 3)in responding like Jesus, be consistent as a safe and steady presence. Similarly, the Application for Activation for us today is curiosity (I see you), compassion (I hear you), and consistency (I’m not going anywhere else). 

Jesus is love. Family, as a follower of Jesus, the love of Jesus is forever in our hearts in a process of a personal relationship that is too big to keep to ourselves. God calls us to share that love from Jesus.
            Referring to the many-mini steps in a personal relationship with Jesus, people don’t come to Jesus all at once. The life journey with Jesus is small moments, conversations, and encounters that slowly move followers of Jesus toward Him. As followers of Jesus, the love from Jesus is forever in our hearts. This forever relationship with Jesus is too big to keep to ourselves. Even after we’ve met Jesus, this journey continues in many mini steps as we get to know Jesus even more in a personal relationship.
            In last week’s sermon, we walked with Jesus on the Road to Emmaus, where Jesus joined two people on their journey filled with doubt, disappointment, and grief. They were lost, confused, and unbelieving. Jesus simply came alongside as a companion giving them space to share their thoughts, feelings, and lamentations. They learned from what Jesus shared until their eyes were opened, and they recognized who Jesus was. As followers of Jesus, we are called to do the same as Jesus modeled in His earthly ministry. As followers of Jesus, we have been commissioned to go and make disciples and to share the good news of Jesus. It is important to remember that evangelism is a process, not a one-time event.
           
There are barriers on the journey towards making a decision for Jesus Christ. Those barriers are the will to surrender, the barrier of the mind, and the barrier of the heart.
            This journey most often means a process of walking with those God has placed in our lives. As we walk along the journey of many mini steps, we may find barriers to the decision for Christ. These barriers are barriers of the will, barriers of the mind, and barriers of the heart.
            For example, there is a man who as a young person was involved in church. He prayed. He served. He believed. Then, his life circumstances fell apart. He lost someone suddenly and tragically whom he loved. He had prayed for healing, protection, and for things to change. But nothing changed to what he had expected from God. In the dark days of grief that followed, he kept praying, searching for comfort, for an answer as to why God responded differently than the man had expected. The man only felt silence. Hurt and disappointed, the man began to crust into a shell of cynicism. When hearing people sing about a faithful God, all he could think was, “If God is so good, why I feel so alone; where was God for me?” After a while, he stopped going to church; he stopped praying; he stopped believing.
            His story is not unique. Often when we think about evangelism, we think about reaching people who don’t know Jesus. We often call them the lost, but the lost can also be people who actually met Jesus. They may have even had an experience with Jesus at one time. However, they have turned away, not because of an intellectual wall, but because of an emotional barrier. Life has made it hard for them to trust in Jesus or believe that God is good.
            For some, it’s unanswered prayers. They prayed for healing, for provision, for restoration, and nothing changed.
            For others, it’s disappointment. They may feel they did everything right. They followed God, obeyed, served, and they still ended up brokenhearted, or suffering.
            For some, it’s personal trauma. Their experiences of abuse, injustice, or deep loss make it feel impossible to believe in a loving God.
            For others, it’s the church itself. There are people who claimed to represent Jesus, but they inflicted wounds instead warmth and judgement instead of love.
            Whatever the reason, the result is the same: An emotional barrier is built regarding the things of God. You can hear it and feel it in their cynicism, sarcasm, bitterness, resentment, or anger. It can be hard to know what to do when walking with people with these emotional barriers. These barriers of the heart may have hardened over time from pain, wounds, and disappointments.
           
Family and friends, we may not know what to do about these barriers of the heart, but we serve Jesus Christ who can teach us on this journey of many mini steps.
Let us read our biblical scripture text from John 4: 4-26. This is so much more than a conversation at a well. For this woman, this is a turning point. It can be a turning point for us in understanding Jesus and what Jesus came to do. It was and is today good news from Jesus for responding to emotional barriers of the heart.
            John 14:4-8 (NIV) says, “ 4 Now [Jesus] had to go through Samaria.5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
            John 14:9-10 (NIV) says, “9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
            John 4:11-14 (NIV) says, “11 ‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?’ 13 Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’”
            John 14:15-18 (NIV) says, “15 The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.’ 16 He told her, ‘Go, call your husband and come back.’ 17 ‘I have no husband,’ she replied. Jesus said to her, ‘You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.’”
            John 14:19-26 (NIV) says, “19 ‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.’ 21 ‘Woman,’ Jesus replied, ‘believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.’ 25 The woman said, ‘I know that Messiah’ (called Christ) ‘is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.’ 26 Then Jesus declared, ‘I, the one speaking to you—I am he.’”
Jesus took the direct route through Samaria avoided by most Jews because of religious, racial, and political tension.
            We see that Jesus is intentional about crossing barriers. John 14:4 of the biblical text says, “He had to go through Samaria.” Jesus chose to go through Samaria despite the tensions between Jews and Samaritans. Most Jews avoided Samaria at all costs because of deep-seated religious, racial, and political tensions between Jews and Samaritans. When traveling in that region, most Jews would take a long way around just to avoid going through Samaria adding as many as 70 extra miles to their traveling.

The Good News is that Jesus came to destroy barriers.
            Jesus goes straight into Samaria, because Jesus crosses barriers people refuse to cross. Jesus enters into spaces of pain, conflict, and brokenness that some other people avoid. Jesus brings hope and healing. That is who Jesus is, and that is Good News!

The Good News is that Jesus came to redeem and restore.
            The Good News Gospel is a message of redemption and restoration. Jesus dignifies those the world diminishes and casts aside. Not only is she a Samaritan, but she’s a woman. In that patriarchal culture, she had two strikes against her. 
            Furthermore, she has a complicated past and present. She lived on the margins and in the shadows. She was drawing water at noon, in the heat of the day, probably to avoid the judgmental stares and sneers from others.
            Jesus doesn’t ignore her. Jesus doesn’t shame her. Jesus sees her, and He initiates the conversation. Jesus asks her for water. In a culture where Jewish men wouldn’t even speak to Samaritan women, Jesus invites her into relationship. That relationship is a meaningful conversation offering her dignity instead of shame, redeeming and restoring, and lifting her head to be the person God sees her to be. That is who Jesus is, and that is Good News!

The Good News is that Jesus came to inaugurate the Kingdom of God.
            Jesus offers her a new reality in her life of experiencing the Kingdom of God.  The kingdom is a new way of living and being. Jesus talks about living water. (See John 14:7-15). Jesus is offering her something completely new, not just a better religious system. Jesus is offering a new life by the power of the Holy Spirit. This intimacy with God isn’t about the right place to worship, but the right posture in worship. It is the posture of an open heart to worship in spirit and in truth.
            Jesus came to establish His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. His Kingdom is a way of being and living in this world according to God’s rule and reign in our lives, and that is Good News!

The Good News is that Jesus came to reveal God with us.
            We must recognize the wonder and honor that this woman from Samaria is the first-person Jesus openly tells who He is. Even before revealing himself to the disciples, Jesus revealed himself to a Samaritan woman against all norms.
            Jesus is the anointed one of God and the Messiah. Jesus is not just some religious leader, not merely a prophet as she called him. The Jews and the Samaritans were both waiting for the Messiah, a human being sent by God with diving power and authority to restore Israel’s Kingdom.
            When Jesus revealed Himself to the woman, Jesus was also declaring His divinity; Jesus is God with us. We can miss in our English translations what was captured in the original Greek text. Jesus simply said “I AM.” This is the same word God used to identify self as God to Moses at the burning bush. This means that Jesus is Immanuel meaning God with us. The Samaritan woman would have understood that.
            This is who Jesus is: God in the flesh seeking to draw every person to himself. No one is too far, too broken, too outcast, too forgotten, or too dismissed that the love of Jesus does not reach. No wonder she was so excited to share this Good News!

Family and friends, as followers of Jesus, we are commissioned to go and tell the Good News message of Jesus. Jesus came to show us the method of how to share the Good News.
            The message of Jesus is good news, is powerful, and is life-changing. The message is what we are commissioned to go and tell. But here’s where we need to be careful: Sometimes the message gets lost in the method. It’s not just about what we share, but it is also about how we share it. The method is about how we share; it is not a formula.
            We can see what happens when the method is off. Someone’s pain gets met with pressure. Someone’s questions get shut down with quick, simplistic answers. Some people feel like projects instead of persons. Even with the best of intentions, and a heart for God, we can unintentionally thwart the Good News we want to share by how we share it. Jesus didn’t just come to share good news, but Jesus also came to show us how to share it. This makes this encounter at the well so live changing. It’s not just the truths Jesus demonstrated and shared. It is also the method Jesus taught us in sharing.
There is a challenge for us in learning from Jesus when we read a text. There is so much we may miss. We may not hear tone of voice. We may not see facial expressions. We may not feel pauses, read body language, or experience the mood or sense atmosphere.
            The Chosen video for Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well helps us step into the biblical story and really feel the emotional layers. While The Chosen video series have taken some poetic license to bring God’s Word to life, The Chosen stays true to the truths of the Bible, the culture, the times, and a plausible background story line. You already read the scripture passage, so now let’s look at the dynamics under the words. Notice the barriers and emotional obstacles Jesus encounters, and how Jesus responds to them. Let’s view the Chosen video clip:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17GXsuqmNSE8Hktdjepp26oocM251Sxnt/view?usp=drive_link
Seeing the story dramatized do you notice anything you may have missed when we read it earlier? Did you catch her discomfort, her resistance, her cynicism? The Samaritan woman is guarded for the good reason that Jesus is a stranger, a Jew, and a man. Even underneath all of those things, we see Jesus meeting someone who has erected a protective cover around her heart. She has been hurt; that is often how emotional barriers happen. Emotional barriers are shields, not just reactions.  They are survival strategies people have built after years of hurt, disappointment, and feelings of betrayal. If we’re going to companion with people through the many mini steps to Jesus, love from Jesus is the work. Jesus taught how to stay present when hearts are guarded, when cynicism and sarcasm are high, and when trust is low. Jesus is our best teacher, not just in what He said, but in how Jesus engaged with her.
            How do we respond to emotional barriers like Jesus? Let’s review three practices we learn from Jesus that serves to soften hearts and emotional barriers along the journey of many-mini steps.

1)in responding like Jesus, be curious and stay open to the conversation.            
When people carry emotional barriers, they often react with sarcasm, skepticism, or resistance. Our instinct might be to push back, defend, or pull away; but Jesus doesn’t do that. When this woman questions Jesus, “Why are you talking to me,” Jesus stays open and curious to engage further. Our invitation is to also respond like Jesus. We practice curiosity with questions like: “Tell me more about that.” “What’s been your experience?” “What makes you think that?” Curiosity is a love method from Jesus that says, “I see you. I am listening. I want to understand.” It’s a welcoming method that invites openness and warmth, not judgement. It sets the table for people to share more instead of shutting down.
 
2)in responding like Jesus, be compassionate and invite their story with empathy.
            Jesus already knew this woman’s story. Jesus didn’t need her to tell Him how life had hurt her. We won’t automatically know the stories of those we walk alongside. We won’t know what’s behind the sarcasm, hesitation, or resistance. We cannot assume. So instead of assuming, we can invite their story. As we are curious, people may begin to share. That’s why the listening with care and eating together in the B.L.E.S.S. model is so important. It creates opportunities for people to share.
            It can take a long time before someone trusts us with their story. If and when they trust us, we have to honor that, sit with them, and reflect their experience back to them with compassion. We compassionately honor them with sentiments like “"I’m so sorry you experienced that. That should never have happened."
            We don’t want to respond by minimizing the story with a quick scripture or entering into a theological discourse about why their thinking about this is all wrong. This moves from a heart mode to a head mode. There will be time for engaging head later; the present moment is about connecting to the heart.
            One of the most healing things we can say when someone shares a distorted view about God is, "If I believed God was like that, I wouldn't want anything to do with God either." The purpose is to acknowledge the pain behind the distorted view of God.
            Empathy creates safe feelings where people can begin healing and consider that maybe God is different from the hurt they have experienced. So often, before someone can receive the truth about God, they need to break through their emotional blockade. They need someone to listen well enough to invite the whole story to be told. That’s essentially what Jesus did for the woman. Jesus recounted her story without judgement. Jesus simply shared what was. Like Jesus, we also can offer safety where people can share their stories for hearts to begin to soften. We follow the method of Jesus without judgement or argument and with the healing balm of empathy.

3)in responding like Jesus, be consistent as a safe and steady presence.  
People with emotional barriers are wondering "Can I trust you?" They’re paying attention to: 1) whether you show up consistently. 2) If you listen without rushing. 3) How you respond when they push back or pull away. People with emotional barriers may not articulate it or even be aware of it.
            Building trust takes time. Jesus stays steady with this woman. He isn’t thrown off by her resistance. He doesn’t take her sarcasm personally. He just stays present. People are watching to see if we will do the same. They’re wondering: Are you still going to be here if I don’t believe right away? Will you still care about me even if I don’t come to church? Are you here just to fix me, or are you here to walk with me? Being a safe and steady presence means: You don’t push too hard. You don’t take resistance as rejection. You prove, over time, that you are trustworthy.
        The beauty of this method is that as people begin to trust you, it might also open the door for them to trust God again. For someone dealing with barriers of the heart, your presence, consistency, and patience might be the first glimpse they have of a God who isn’t going to leave, who isn’t going to hurt them, and who is safe to believe in again. Sometimes, the simple act of staying present and not walking away begins to soften hearts. Before hearts are ready to believe, they often need to feel safe enough to trust again. God can work through us to create those safe feelings.

Similarly, the Application for Activation for us today is curiosity (I see you), compassion (I hear you), and consistency (I’m not going anywhere else).
            When we look at how Jesus responded to this woman, we see a process that still applies for us today. Curiosity opens the door (“I see you”). Compassion creates safety (“I hear you”). Consistency builds trust (“I’m not going anywhere else.”)
            When trust begins to grow, so does the possibility of faith. Before people are ready to believe, they often need to feel safe enough to trust again. Trust is not something we force.
            Softening hearts, removing barriers, restoring faith is the work of the Holy Spirit. That is why we pray. Only God can do what we cannot.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS INCLUDING FAMILY GROUPS          
Jesus is love. Family, as a follower of Jesus, the love of Jesus is forever in our hearts in a process of a personal relationship that is too big to keep to ourselves. God calls us to share that love from Jesus.
-In your personal relationship with Jesus what have you learned from Jesus about the method of sharing the love from Jesus to others in making disciples as an apprentice of Jesus?
There are barriers on the journey towards making a decision for Jesus Christ. Those barriers are the will to surrender, the barrier of the mind, and the barrier of the heart.
-How have you responded to God when God’s actions were not what you had expected and you were disappointed?
-What does Jesus teach us when dealing with others or even ourselves in the process of matters of the heart?
Let us read our biblical scripture text from John 4: 4-26. This is so much more than a conversation at a well. For this woman, this is a turning point. It can be a turning point for us in understanding Jesus and what Jesus came to do. It was and is today good news from Jesus for responding to emotional barriers of the heart.
-What biblical verse(s) from John 4:4-26 most resonate with you in understanding more about Jesus and how Jesus responded to emotional barriers of the heart?Jesus took the direct route through Samaria avoided by most Jews because of religious, racial, and political tension.
-Have you avoided any interaction with people in certain neighborhoods or communities by taking a longer route to avoid any contact with people in those communities? Why?  
-Based on what Jesus taught about taking a direct route as a Jew through Samaria, what is Jesus teaching you about loving and sharing the Good News Gospel to people in neighboring communities with a history of tensions between your group of people and the people in neighborhood communities?
The Good News is that Jesus came to destroy barriers.
-How can you follow what Jesus did and taught about breaking down pain, conflict, and brokenness barriers of the heart that some people avoid?
The Good News is that Jesus came to redeem and restore.
-Why did Jesus act in offering her dignity instead of shame, mercy to share the love from Jesus instead of punishing judgment?
-In what ways did Jesus invite the Samaritan woman into a personal relationship despite sins with the opportunity for redemption and restoration so that God can transform her heart into the person God created her to be?The Good News is that Jesus came to inaugurate the Kingdom of God.
-Why is worship and praising God so important bringing the reality of the Kingdom to others whether they are a friend or a despised opponent?
The Good News is that Jesus came to reveal God with us.
-Using the words of the original biblical language, in what way did Jesus clearly establish that He was Immanuel, God in the flesh, not just some religious leader or prophet, as falsely claimed by some even today?
Family and friends, as followers of Jesus, we are commissioned to go and tell the Good News message of Jesus. Jesus came to show us the method of how to share the Good News.
-From viewing The Chosen video of Jesus and the Samaritan woman, what did the drama help you see that you may not have noticed from reading the biblical text?
1)in responding like Jesus, be curious and stay open to the conversation.
 -In practicing curiosity, how would you best remain open in conversation with openness and warmth for people to share more. For you what would be good topics of conversation in listening?
2)in responding like Jesus, be compassionate and invite their story with empathy.
-As other people trust us by sharing their story, in what ways can you best reflect their experiences back to them with empathy that you heard what they went through as barriers of the heart?
3)in responding like Jesus, be consistent as a safe and steady presence.
-In what ways can you best demonstrate consistent presence with people so that they can trust you, and then trust the God that works through you for safe feelings of your steady presence?
Similarly, the Application for Activation for us today is curiosity (I see you), compassion (I hear you), and consistency (I’m not going anywhere else).
-Why is the Holy Spirit and intercessory prayer necessary in building trust in you and the God you serve in the heart issues of curiosity, compassion, and consistency?