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Part 5 of 8
Honest to God
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We're in the second week of a series called Honest to God—texts where people experiencing struggles nobody wants to talk about have encounters with Jesus. When they get honest with God, that's where He breaks the power of sin, cancels it, and sets the prisoner free. That's exactly what will happen in your life.
Last week we talked about doubt. This week we're talking about addiction.
Now, about 60% of you might think, "Addiction? That's not for me. That's for those other people—the crack addicts, the pornography addicts, the alcoholics." But here's what I want to point out: this sermon is for anybody who has ever had any habit or issue in your life where you think, "I want to stop. I know I should stop. I've tried to stop. I even stopped for a while, but then it came back and I'm struggling."
Let's be honest right now—and this entire series is about honesty. Who has ever had at least one issue like that? The people with their hands up are the sinners. The people with their hands down are the liars. This sermon is for every single person.
Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John. But here's an important detail: Jesus never actually baptized anybody himself. His disciples did. Why? Because in His divine omniscience, Jesus knew that if He baptized someone, people throughout history would say, "I got baptized by Jesus, and you got baptized by John—my baptism counts more than yours."
So in His wisdom, He didn't do it. Here's the big idea: it doesn't matter who baptizes you. What matters is in whose name you're baptized. We are all baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ because He is the sovereign King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and He rules over the universe.
Jesus left Judea and went back to Galilee. Now watch this: verse four says, "He had to go through Samaria."
But here's the problem with verse four—He did not actually have to. He didn't have to geographically. It was a three-day journey through Samaria, but it was a six-day journey if you went around it. At that time, most Jews took the six-day route because they hated the Samaritans so much they would walk three extra days through the desert rather than be around them.
Think about that. How much do you have to hate somebody to add three days of walking through the desert just so you don't have to be around them? Yet His "had to" wasn't geographical—His had to was divine. The Father told Him He had to go.
To understand why this matters, we need to know the history. Go back to the Old Testament. At the end of First and Second Kings, the Babylonian empire conquers Israel and takes the Jewish people into exile. When this happened, there were two groups of Jews.
Some obeyed God's command not to intermarry with other nations. Some didn't. Those who intermarried had children who mixed worship of the true God with Babylonian pagan gods. This syncretistic religion eventually became what we know as Samaritanism.
What these Samaritans did was take only the first five books of the Bible—the Pentateuch—and rewrote them to support their own practices. This is exactly how cults work: they start with truth but depart from it.
Fast forward to the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. These leaders were commissioned to rebuild the temple and walls of Jerusalem. When the Samaritans offered to help, God told them no. "You intermingled with pagan worship and you're unclean." The Samaritans took offense and stayed bitter for a thousand years. They built their own temple on Mount Garazim.
By the time of Jesus, there was ethnic hatred, political hatred, and religious hatred between Jews and Samaritans. Jewish historians tell us that Jews called Samaritans "half-breeds." They would walk six days through the desert rather than encounter them.
But here's what I want to make clear for our church: we should never say things like that or label people like that. There is no breed of people. There's one race—the human race—and everybody is made in the image of God and is fearfully and wonderfully made.
So when Jesus "had to" go through Samaria, His had to was a divine appointment. I have a theory—and this isn't in the Bible, just my theory—that Jesus walked those three days through the desert because He knew there was going to be this one broken Samaritan girl at the well, and He was like, "I want that girl."
Think about this: His culture told Him not to. His ethnicity told Him not to. His politics told Him not to. But the Father told Him He had to. And He did whatever the Father told Him He had to do.
Here's the question for this entire sermon: What is the Father telling you that you have to do? What's the thing you're afraid to do? What's the thing you're uncomfortable having not yet done? That's probably the thing the Father is telling you to do.
For some of you, every time we talk about forgiveness, a name pops up in your heart. You know the Father is calling you to pick up your phone and start the reconciliation process. What is the Father telling you that you have to do?
For some of you, when you see mission trips announced, something in your heart stirs. God is calling you, but you haven't answered yet.
For some of you in the next few minutes, you've never taken the public step of obedience to be baptized—to publicly declare that you're on team Jesus. What the Father is going to press on your heart is that today is your day.
For some of you, this entire message about addiction is hitting different. You've been enslaved to something for years or decades. The Father is going to show you the one step you must take to get freedom, but you've always been too scared. You will finish today knowing: the Father is telling me I have to do that thing. Today is your day.
So Jesus came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there. And Jesus, tired from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour—that's noon.
This is important. In the first century, they measured time by hours since sunrise. The sixth hour meant noon. Why is this a big deal? It's a very big deal.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Would you give me a drink?"
The Samaritan woman said to Him, "You're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan woman. How could you ask me for a drink? Jews do not associate with Samaritans."
Now, the scandal here has three layers. Number one: she's Samaritan. Number two: she's a woman—it was a divorceable offense for a married woman to speak to a single man alone. And number three—this is the big deal—she's there at noon.
In the first century, the tradition was that women and children would wake up and go to the well in the first hour of the day—the coolest part—carry the heavy water back in the cool part of the day.
But why would anyone be at a well at noon? If you're in Dallas in August—or as I call it, the Beast, the False Prophet, and the Antichrist—you'd only walk a dog at noon if you hated your dog and wanted it to die. So why is this woman doing the water thing at noon?
Here's what we're going to discover: this woman was essentially the first-century version of someone with a high body count, someone who had given her body to anybody she could get something from. She used to go to the well in the first hour, but the religious, judgmental girls from the city would be there mean-girling her the whole time—gossiping, making prayer requests about her. She got tired of being the butt of every prayer request. So eventually, she decided: "I'll go at noon so I don't have to be around you people."
Here's the big idea: She's a woman. She's Samaritan. She's shady. Jesus comes and sits down with the worst of the worst of the worst of the worst. He walks three days through the desert because He loves this woman and He wants to set her free.
I want to say this to everyone here: at all of our campuses, we have thousands of people. I don't know who you are. Somebody here is the worst person in this room. It's probably me. I think it's probably me.
But what this passage is showing us is that whoever that person is, Jesus would walk three days through the desert so He could sit down with you today because He loves you and He wants you and He wants to set you free. He loves you.
If you want to get set free from whatever is going on in your life, here's step one.
If you want to get set free from whatever is going on in your life, you must believe that God loves you right now. Not some future cleaned-up version of you. Not when you make yourself better, when you get out of that habit, or when you have your life together. He loves you right now.
This is critically important. If you don't believe God loves you now—if you believe He's angry with you, disappointed with you, and disgusted with you—you'll never come to Him for help. And He's the only one who can help you. When you come to Him, He wraps you up, puts a ring on your finger, throws a big party, and says, "Welcome home."
Lake Point has a ministry called Regen, short for regeneration. It's not just for people with addictions—it's for anybody with hard habits and hang-ups. All of us. When people are baptized after going through Regen, something shifts in the room. People in the lobby would tell me, "Those Regen people get a little crazy." But here's what people don't know.
That guy who looks a little uncomfortable? Six years ago he was in prison. Today he came to worship with his family. That group on the front row? Four out of five attempted suicide or were suicidal. Today they came in with joy, hope, and a future. That couple? His wife filed for divorce three years ago. God worked in both their lives, and I remarried them in the baptistry. Today they're holding hands worshiping together as a family. Those people were addicts, and now they're free.
There's a verse where Jesus says, "Whoever is forgiven little loves little, but whoever has been forgiven much loves much." The point is not that these people have been forgiven more than you. They're just more aware of how much they've been forgiven. They're not worse than you—they're more self-aware than you are.
There's much more that could be said about getting out of addiction, but here are three irreducible steps. Step two is this: You've got to understand the source of your addiction.
Jesus told the woman at the well, "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." The woman didn't understand. She said, "Jesus, you don't even have a bucket. How are you going to get water out of this well?"
But Jesus was saying something different: "It's not about what bucket you have. It's about what well you're trying to drink from. If you spend your entire life trying to be sourced by something that cannot supply, you will never be satisfied."
Throughout the gospel of John, Jesus uses physical analogies to illustrate spiritual truth. In John 3, when He tells Nicodemus he must be "born again," Nicodemus literally thinks Jesus means crawling back into his mother's womb. Jesus is pointing to something spiritual through something physical.
This woman had had five husbands and was living with a sixth man who wasn't her husband. Jesus was telling her: "You've gone to that same well six times and your soul is still dying of thirst. Why don't you try a different well?"
Most of us do exactly this. We say, "This bucket isn't working. Let me try a different bucket." We think it's about the bucket, but it's actually about the well.
New bucket after new bucket after new bucket. Jesus is saying: "It's not about what bucket you have. You've been drinking from the wrong well."
Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. I'm the one who has a fountain of living water. I can give you something that will satisfy that ache that you can't seem to shake.
Jesus is bringing this woman to what addiction specialists call the crystallization of discontent—the moment when somebody's will hardens and they make a decision to get out of what they're in.
It's the woman enduring abuse for years until that final strike when her will hardens and she says, "Never again." It's the person in and out of addiction, falling back into the binge, until something so bad happens that something crystallizes inside: "I'm out. Whatever it takes. My life has become unmanageable. I need help."
Step two: You must realize that you cannot satisfy an infinite thirst in your soul with finite drinks. You have to come to the place where you know: "That will never satisfy me. It will only destroy me."
This is the hardest one. When Jesus asks the woman to call her husband, she tries to deflect: "I have no husband." But you can't juke Jesus. He responds, "You're right when you say you have no husband. The fact is you have had five husbands and the man you have now is not your husband."
Instead of getting defensive, something shifts in the woman. She says, "Sir, I can see you're a prophet." She's starting to understand who Jesus really is.
Then Jesus declares, "I am the one who am speaking to you." In the Greek, He says ego ami—"I am." For Bible scholars, this echoes back 2,500 years to when Moses stood before the burning bush and God revealed His name: "Tell them I AM sent you." This woman realizes that the God who was in the burning bush with Moses is the one standing in front of her on this mountain. He has the power to set her free.
Step three: I must bring my issue into the light.
For some of you, there's a distinction that matters. When you're struggling with sin and you try and try to get out of it but can't, you're not just struggling with a sin—you're experiencing a stronghold. The New Testament word for addiction is a stronghold, referring to a demonic stronghold.
A demonic stronghold happens when you've given yourself over to something or allowed permission from the enemy enough times that there's a demonic influence. There's an evil force stronger than you using that thing to enslave you.
Yes, I 100% believe in the reality of demons and the demonic. That's a real thing.
When you're struggling with sin and trying repeatedly to get out of it but can't, you're not just wrestling with a sin—you're experiencing a stronghold. The New Testament word for addiction is a stronghold, referring to a demonic stronghold. This happens when you've given yourself over to something or allowed permission from the enemy enough times that there's a demonic influence at work.
A demonic stronghold means there is an evil force stronger than you using that thing to enslave you. Yes, I 100% believe in the reality of demons and the demonic. That's a real thing.
You may already believe in the reality of demons without realizing it. In our culture, we often call demonic manifestations by other names: addictions, depression, demonic strongholds. Think about what addicts say about their experience:
What is that? I call it a demon—a supernatural spiritual force at work.
Here's the good news: if you're a Christian, you can be oppressed by a demon, but you can never be possessed by a demon because you are a blood-bought possession of the living God.
If you're in an addiction and you've tried and tried but can't get out of it on your own, you're absolutely right—you can't. That's why you need the great I AM. You need someone more powerful than you, someone who can break the power of sin and set the prisoner free. Jesus had an overt theology of the demonic. He spoke of Satan and demons as "a strong man," and He came to earth to bind the strong man so all the captives could walk away free. Jesus wants to do that in your life.
Jesus did something crucial with the woman at the well. She had this part of her life she was trying to hide: "I have no husband." Jesus said, "Go call your husband," and He dragged it out into the light.
Here's why He does this—and this is the most important thing I'll say throughout this series, repeated for emphasis: If you try to fight the devil in the dark, you're always going to lose because the darkness is his domain. Every single time, you will lose in the darkness.
But the Bible says in 1 John 1: "If we walk in the light, as Jesus is in the light, the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from sin and frees us from unrighteousness."
When Jesus tells this woman, "Go call your husband," He's saying, "Bring the hidden thing." What Jesus is saying to some of you right now is: "Bring that thing to me that's been enslaving you, that you've been keeping a secret forever. You don't have to die a slave."
To get free, you must find spirit-filled men and women—people who love God's Word, people who are in a battle that matters for eternal purposes of God. Gather those people around you and take this thing you've been hiding in shame. Say, "I believe that God loves me. I don't have to walk in shame anymore." Drag that thing out into the light where Jesus is, and let Him reign victorious over it. That's what Jesus does—He will set you free, but you've got to drag it out into the light.
Jesus is saying to you: "Bring that thing to me that's been enslaving you. Bring me the secret drinking. Bring me the pornography addiction. Bring me the substance abuse. Bring me the secret eating. Bring me whatever that thing is that's become enslaving. Bring me the depression. Bring me the anxiety. Drag it out into the light and let me set you free from that thing, because I'll do it."
If you've been a Christian for a long time but have something hidden that's enslaving you in the dark, text the word "group" to 20411. Get into Re:Gen—a family, a dysfunctional family that loves sinners, where these people can gather around you and help you get free from what you're enslaved to.
For some of you, what I've just said is step two, but you need to do step one. Jesus said that step one in following Him is to be baptized in water as a visible representation of the invisible reality that you've been cleansed from sin.
If you've never been baptized since you had a real, living relationship with Jesus—not infant baptism or sprinkling when you were three, but since you actually developed a genuine, living relationship with Jesus through your own decision of repentance and faith—you need to take this step. You need to be baptized in obedience to the Father.
Don't worry about practical concerns. We have everything you need: towels, shirts, shorts, underwear, head coverings. We have sizes from extra small to extra large. And if you're concerned that the people you came with will be upset while you go get baptized, remember: if they love you and Jesus enough to come to church with you, they will celebrate when they watch you step forward in obedience.
