Emily Howard, Writer

Note: This was my first ACTUAL SERMON. I was asked by my pastor to speak at Ford’s Chapel UMC on May 21, 2017. Sure, I was “third string”… both Calvin and our student pastor were out of town…but it was a very exciting thing nonetheless. It went very well, and I wasn’t nearly as nervous as I thought I would be, as I had been in the past doing much less than this. I prayed for peace and got it. I prayed for strength and He gave it to me. It was an amazing day. Don’t EVER think you’ll never be able to do something. You can do anything.

You can also see the youtube video of the sermon here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVrBUeN6jUs

The sermon starts at 28:28, although I encourage you to watch the whole service and enjoy the music as well!

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Also, here is the Woman at the Well poem mentioned within the sermon: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y2GlmTxpkM

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The Woman at the Well: To Be Known Is to Be Loved

Hello/Welcome: Hi! You may notice that I am not Calvin Havens. He is visiting with his granddaughter today and several weeks ago he asked if I would be willing to give the message today. I said yes. And while I have done much more public speaking in the last year than I have in my entire life, because I asked God to “help me grow” (eye roll)…I am the number one example of “be careful what you pray for”…I have certainly never “preached a sermon” before. But I am honored to have the opportunity and I hope that you will give me lots and lots of grace. Thanks in advance.

OK, true confession time. Today I am going to talk about how God knows every little thing about us so I wanted to start out by sharing some things about me that you might not have known.

1. I love scary books and movies and 90s hip hop music.
2. I am completely addicted to salads from Chipotle and it is making me broke because I want to eat there every day.
3. Since Mark always loves to tell lawnmower stories, I’ll share this: I have never mown the grass in my life. Never even touched a lawnmower.
4. I am terrible at math.
5. When I was pregnant with Connor I craved pickled okra and chocolate milk. Not a good combo.
6. When I worked as an Army journalist at Fort Hood, Texas, I got to meet such prestigious celebrities as the country band Lonestar, Laura Bush, Jim Caviezel, and Robert Englund. If you are not familiar with those last two, Jim Caviezel played Jesus in the Passion of the Christ and Robert Englund played Freddy Krueger. Sums me up pretty well…since I love Jesus and I like scary movies.
7. When I went running in the village of providence last week I got lost. It took me a long time to get back to where I started. In my defense there was a lot of new construction and those roads are not on gps yet. So…not good at math or directions. Can’t be good at everything.

Now, these things were not very difficult to share with you. But we all know that there are some things about our personalities that we are very reluctant to share with others.

Today we are going to talk about the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. Her story is found in John chapter 4 verses 1-30. If you have your Bibles, follow along with me (I will be reading from the New International Version).

Read scripture John 4:1-30

So, when reading these stories from the Bible I try to think, “How has this text impacted my life?” I have a lot in common with the Samaritan woman. I really identify with her in the fact that she feels isolated by the things that she has done. She’s made bad decisions in the past and that makes her ashamed to be around others she feels are “better than her”—and to be honest, in her time, those people would likely not want to be around her either.

There was a time in my life, not too long ago, that I felt ashamed and isolated by the choices I’d made (and was still making). Everyone else seemed to have it all  together and I most certainly did not. But I was very good at hiding and putting on appearances. Anyone who saw me at the grocery store or in the car rider line, which were about the only places I felt comfortable going when I was at my lowest point, would see just another wife and mother in a ponytail and yoga pants. No one knew me, not really. Not even my husband knew the darkest parts of me.

How many people would you say really know you? Is there someone who knows your deepest thoughts, worries, hopes, or bad habits? If you are like me, you are afraid for people to know those things because you are concerned with what people think of you. This is something I have gotten better at but still struggle with on a daily basis. How would your life change if you were truly open with people? This is what happened with the Samaritan woman. There she was, at the well at the hottest part of the day because she didn’t want anyone else to be there. She knew she would be shunned. But here comes this Jewish Rabbi, asking her for a drink of water. After a brief exchange this man says to her, “I know you’ve had four husbands, and the man you are with now is not your husband.” Whoa. A-how did you know that? And B-if you know that, why are you still here talking to me?? He really saw her. He knew her.

This is the first thing I want you to take away from this story: God knows you. He sees the real you, not the you that is all fixed up and dressed nice and being polite. He knows every hair on your head and everything you ever did or thought of doing. Is that scary to you? It is to me. But. Here’s the second point, and write this down if you’re taking notes: He loves you anyway. He knows everything you ever did and he loves you anyway. He knows how mean you can be inside your head sometimes (or is that just me?), and he still wants a relationship with you. He knows you could never earn the gift of salvation yet he allowed his only Son to die on a cross to save you. Just let that sink in a minute.

–The poem says, “To be known is to be loved: this is why we believe small groups are beneficial. When we gather together regularly like we have been on Wednesday nights we get to know each other better and get to know God better. This helps us to love both each other and God better.

–To be known is to be loved. this is why we are having the United Together series starting next Sunday. So we can see each other in worship, all of us, Contemporary worshippers and Traditional worshippers. So for a few weeks we can just be … worshippers. We can be together and maybe learn more about each other. So we can know each other.

–To be known is to be loved: this is why we read the Bible. To know God more so we can love Him more. We can’t truly love God if we make no effort to get to know Him.

–To be known is to be loved: this is why we pray. Both to know God more and to share our most intimate heart with Him.

I want to share a passage from a children’s book you might be familiar with called  The Velveteen Rabbit by Marjorie Williams. It tells the story of a stuffed toy rabbit given to a young boy as a Christmas present. The velveteen rabbit lives in the nursery with all the other toys, waiting for the day when the boy will choose him as a playmate.

In time, the shy Rabbit befriends the tattered Skin Horse, the wisest resident of the nursery, who reveals the goal of all nursery toys: to be made “real” through the love of a human. One night we get to overhear their conversation..

‘What is REAL?’ asked the Rabbit one day, as they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, just before Nana came in to tidy up the room. ‘Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?’

‘Real isn’t how you are made,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.’

‘Does it hurt?’ asked the Rabbit.

‘Sometimes,’ said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. ‘When you are Real, you don’t mind being hurt.’

‘Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,’ he asked, ‘or bit by bit?’

‘It doesn’t happen all at once,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off; and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real, you can’t be ugly except to people who don’t understand.’

It is important to be real with God and with each other. To be known is to be loved is to be real.

So now that we know that God knows us, the real us, and loves us anyway…what do we do about this? I don’t know about you, but it creates such a grateful excitement in my heart when I really sit down and think about it. What did the Samaritan woman do? I love this part, in verse 28: “Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” …and then later in verse 39,  ^“Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony”. This is the third takeaway for today: When you receive this amazing gift, it is too much to keep for yourself. We want to share this good news.

This woman was so thankful and excited that she ran to town to share what Jesus had done. He knew everything she’d done, she said. He knew she was a Samaritan, and he knew she had sinned. Yet he accepted her anyway, with no conditions. He saw her thirst and offered her Living Water.

This woman’s deepest longing was to be known and to be loved. That day when she came to know Jesus and was known by him in the most intimate way, she was loved more deeply than she ever imagined. In being known and loved by him, others came to know Him through her.

There is a quote that says, “God loves us just the way we are, but He loves us too much to leave us that way.” Google seems unsure whether Max Lucado or Adrian Rogers or CS Lewis originally said this, but the idea is true all the same. God loves us just the way we are, but He loves us too much to leave us that way. So let’s not be content to stay the way we are. Now that we know the depths to which God knows us, and that he loves us in spite of all of it, let’s make it our priority to continue to get to know him back. As we go into our prayer time, think of ways in your daily life that you can prioritize getting to know the Lord, really know his heart and the plans he has for your life. Let’s listen to the music and meditate on the questions you’ll see on the screen. Let’s pray.

Questions to answer:

1. What are some areas of your life that you are ashamed that Jesus knows about?
2. How does the story of the woman at the well give you hope?
3. What has Jesus done in your life that you are ready to share with others?