The Woman Who Got Well

July 16, 2017 (2011)                NOTES NOT EDITED

“The Woman Who Got Well”

John 4:1-26; 39-42

SIS—The church must consistently and boldly offer the world the Living Water of the gospel.

We should on occasion take note of our wellness.  Once a man was asked upon greeting a friend, “How are you doing?”  This was his reply:

I’m fine! I’m fine!
There is nothing whatever the matter with me,

I'm just as healthy as I can be,​

I have arthritis in both my knees,

And when I talk, I talk with a wheeze.​

My pulse is weak and my blood is thin,

But, I'm awfully well for the shape I'm in!

My teeth eventually will have to come out.

And my diet, I hate to think about.​

I'm overweight, and I can't get thin,

But, I'm awfully well for the shape I'm in!

Arch supports I have for my feet

Or I wouldn't be able to walk on the street.​

My memory is failing and my head's in a spin.

I'm practically living on aspirin,​

But, I'm awfully well for the shape I'm in!

The moral is, as this tale we unfold

That for you and me who are growing old,​

It's better to say "I'm Fine" with a grin.

Than to let them know the shape we're in.

So it is with us all—young and old.  It was the same way with a woman Jesus met at a well.  The Woman at the Well was not, well.  She needed something desperately that only Jesus can provide.  Let’s read in our text to see what that was.  Jn.4:10-14.

¹⁰ Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God,  and who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would ask Him, and He would give you living water.” ¹¹ “Sir,”  said the woman, “You don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do You get this ‘living water’? ¹² You aren’t greater than our father Jacob,  are You? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.” ¹³ Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. ¹⁴ But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again—ever!  In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up within him for eternal life.”

1.  Everyone needs the Living Water

 

13  Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again.

Water is life.  Noted N.T. scholar, George Beasley-Murray stated, “The absolute necessity of water for life caused it to become a wide-ranging symbol in religious thought.”  (Word Bib Comm, 60).

Thirst is a universal experience for all humankind.  A man can live over 40 days or more without food, but cannot live for more than four days without water.  One Bible scholar explained the use of water as a symbol of life in this passage in this way:

Every living cell, of both plants and animals, depends on water.  Man, is essentially, water.  Of man’s five quarts of blood, three quarts are water.

Water is a universal need for mankind.  Everyone needs water.  Thirst is not quenched with one drink, but is a continuing need throughout life.  “Everyone who drinks . . . will thirst again.” Everyone!   Everyone needs Jesus, the Living Water, whether they admit it or not.  Spiritual thirst is a universal, and an eternal matter.  People may THINK they need this, that, or the other—food, clothing, shelter, wealth or health—and have all this and more in abundance but not have what they really need.  Sometimes, what we think we need and what we really need are two separate things.

Consider the man who rode on a camel through miles of the sun-drenched desert searching for some sign of life. His supplies were running low.  His water pouch was empty.  Then, his camel died. Now on foot, he desperately sought refuge from the heat, and, most importantly, a source for water. Suddenly, he came across a vendor in the middle of the desert.

"Thank God I found you!" the man cried. "Please help me. I'm in dire need of some water."  "Well," said the vendor, "I don't have any water. But would you like to buy one of these fine ties."  "What am I going to do with a tie?" the man asked.  "That's what I'm selling sir. If you don't like it, I can't help you."

The man left the vendor and walked on for many more miles, praying each minute that he would find refuge from the scorching sun. His eyes squinted a bunch of times when he came across a restaurant in the distance. Unable to comprehend a restaurant located in the middle of the desert, he assumed the place was a mirage, but decided to check it out anyway. As he approached the door, his mouth opened in amazement, seeing that the place actually existed.

The doorman stopped him before he entered. "Excuse me sir," the doorman said, "but you can't come in here without a tie!"

Sometimes, what we think we need and what we need are two different things.  In regard to church, we must realize that what we have, the Living Water, is exactly what the world needs—whether they realize it or not.

¹³ Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again.  ¹⁴ But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again—ever!  In fact, the water I will give him will become a well   of water springing up within him for eternal life.”

SIS—Everybody needs Jesus, and the church must boldly and consistently offer the Living Water to everyone we encounter.

Another issue arises in this encounter is: 

2.  Everyone does not have access to the Living Water (Vs 3 says)

³ He left Judea  and went again to Galilee.  ⁴ He had to travel through Samaria (CSB).  The KJV translates verse 4, “He must needs go.”  Young’s literal translation gives us, “it was behoving him to go through Samaria.”  

 
Jesus was compelled to go through Samaria by the will of God because Samaria did not have access to the Living Water.

884 million people lack access to safe water supplies; approximately one in eight people.  3.575 million people die each year from water-related disease. That’s 3.5 million preventable deaths. Diarrhea caused by unsafe drinking water kills more young children globally than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. 

The word translated “had to, must, or behooving” is, “dei.” This little word is used to describe Jesus’ travels from south in Judea to Galilee, through the area called Samaria.  Because the Samaritans were considered, “unclean” by Jewish Rabbis, Jews would take a longer route going North in order to bypass Samaria.  Pious Jews would cross over the Jordan and travel north through the region called, “Perea.”  [SEE MAP].

“Dei” represents one’s surrender to the will of God.  Notice the Lord’s words when his frantic parents thought their boy was lost and found Jesus in the temple.  The Lord, even at 12 years old understood his holy obligation to discover and obey the will of God.  Jesus said,

Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must (dei) be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49).

Jesus had a holy obligation to go to the land of the Samaritans.  The Samaritans are the group that split off from Israel after Solomon and became the “Northern Tribes.”  The capital of this area was called, Samaria. Eventually this entire region between Judea and Galilee on the West side of the Jordan became known as Samaria.

When the Northern Tribes were conquered by Assyria about 200 years after Solomon, Assyria sent some foreigners to mix with the Jewish community in Samaria.  So, culturally they were pagans to pious Jews.

Also, the Samaritans only accepted the first five books of the Bible.  So, they were also considered religious heretics by pious Jews.  The result was extreme hatred between the Jews and Samaritans.

“Dei” represents an “obligation,” not a geographical necessity.  “Dei” is a missional word with weighted theological significance.  It represents the burden of one’s heart to fulfill the Great Commission of the Lord by taking the gospel to person’s who have no access.

Most people used the route through Samaria as a short-cut—a matter of convenience.  Jesus used it as a mission opportunity—a matter of conviction. Sadly, too many churches are driven by convenience not conviction.   It was the love of God that compelled Jesus to go to Samaria.  They were thirsty for the Living Water and Jesus was compelled to deliver it.

The Jews looked at the Samaritans as unworthy of God’s love and the message of salvation.  As the church, we need to realize that God loves “the whole world” and the “whole world needs the gospel.”

God loves the Samaritans of the world as much as the Jews.  Sadly, for many reasons, groups are cut off from the supply of Living Water by several different types of barriers.

Some are hidden behind Geo-political barriers. Globally, every time you take a breath, someone passes into eternity.  Of those that pass into eternity, billions have never heard the gospel in their own language.

There are 2.8 billion people in the world that do not have a gospel witness.  2.8 billion.  They are often people with strange names from strange places you and I will never go.

Like the Highland Nung of Vietnam.  Or the Rajput of India (41m+).  The Majhi of Napal (84,000).  The Fulani of Mali (1mil+). The list of lost souls without access to the Living Water goes on and on.

There are 6,872 people groups that have no gospel penetration into the culture.  They have no access to the gospel.  They are behind invisible barriers.  They are the “Lost of the Lost.”

This does not count people who are behind barriers that have some, but very little access to a gospel witness.  Like the Japanese. The evangelical, gospel preaching population in Japan is less than 1%.

Not everyone has easy access to the gospel like we do here in America.  Even some people in America, like the N. West, are behind a barrier to the gospel.  Barriers come in many different sizes and shapes.  They are not all “geographical” in nature.  This is why as Southern Baptists we give a special offering for International Missions through the Lottie Moon Christmas offering and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering.  Some people are hidden behind geo-political barriers.

The greatest barrier to the gospel is a PERSONAL barrier.  That is, a person does not know a believer.  They are simply like this Samaritan woman who obviously had never talked to a Jew who cared about her before.  Look at verse 9:

9 “How is it that You, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a •Samaritan  woman?” she asked Him. For Jews do not associate with  Samaritans.

A version of the personal barrier is not that someone does NOT know a believer, but they DO know a believer who is NOT living a godly life.  I’m not sure which barrier is worse.

Another barrier is a CULTURAL barrier.  People can live in the same geological location but be separated by culture (especially language) issues.  We see this in our own town.  There are many people who speak an entirely different language in their home and social lives than they do most times.  

Another barrier is a RELIGIOUS barrier.  This is associated with a cultural barrier.  We see this again in the life of the Samaritan woman.  Look in verse 19:

19 “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain,  yet you ⌊Jews⌋ say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”

When it comes to worship, one size definitely does not fit all.  We need to be sensitive to the fact that people may have grown up with very different understanding of what should, or should not, be part of worship.

The fact is:  the Bible really does not give many specifics about what kind of music, what order of service, or even what times to meet.  The things that most divide people religiously are usually more a matter of personal preference than anything spiritual.

We should be cautious not to erect barriers where we should be building bridges.—especially not in the name of religion.

There is also a MORAL barrier that can keep people from freely drinking of the Living Water.  Look at the exchange Jesus had with this woman beginning in v 16:

16 “Go call your husband,” He told her, “and come back here.” 17 “I don’t have a husband,” she answered. “You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’” Jesus said.  18 “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”

Moral failures will keep us from getting close to Jesus Christ because we don’t want our sins revealed—and the Spirit of God will reveal them.  A great preacher once said, “This Bible will keep you from sin, and sin will keep you from this Bible!”

A while ago a pastor friend of mine mentioned that he had invited our waitress several times to church.  She always seemed interested, but never showed up. She went to the big non-denominational church up the road, even though she said it was so big she felt lost there.

Then he said, the last I heard she was living with a guy who was not her husband.  I said, “Well, there’s your answer as to why she hasn’t shown up in church.”  Moral issues can be a barrier to someone having access to the Living Water.

There are barriers separating people from the life-giving water of the gospel.  We need to pray down those barriers and deliver the Living Water where it is needed most.  Be assured of this, if we as God’s missionaries present the Living Water to the world,

3.  The Living Water will change lives (25, 39-42)

39 Now many •Samaritans  from that town believed in Him because of what the woman said  when she testified,  “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 Therefore, when the •Samaritans came to Him,  they asked Him to stay with them, and He stayed there two days. 41 Many more believed because of what He said.  42 And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior  of the world.”

Nothing changes a person’s life like the gospel, and nothing has more power for transforming our society than people with changed lives.

One of the biggest problems in America today is drug addiction.  Treatment and law enforcement related to drug addiction costs billions of dollars each year.  According to a government study, Most secular drug rehabilitation programs only experienced a cure rate of 1 – 15% of their graduates (National Institute On Drug Abuse, U.S. Dept of Health, Education, and Welfare).  That’s not success, that is a glowing failure.

Many of you have probably heard of Teen Challenge, and the movie of how it was started called, The Cross and the Switchblade.  Some of you younger folk have not seen this movie describing how one farm boy preacher from Pennsylvania impacted the gang culture of New York City.

1960 by David Wilkerson, an Assemblies of God pastor who left a rural Pennsylvania church to work on the street among teenage gang members and socially marginalized people in New York. Wilkerson established Teen Challenge and founded the Times Square Church.

Wilkerson once told a researcher he felt the Teen Challenge program was 70% effective.  Remember, the secular programs were only 1-15% effective.  This prompted the government study that when completed showed the success rate of Teen Challenge’s drug rehabilitation was NOT 70% as Wilkerson thought.  After completing their work a study was published presenting a 87.5% cure rate for Teen Challenge graduates!

That is 600% better than the best secular programs!  What made the difference?  Jesus.  Transformation is an “inside job,” and the Living Water of the gospel changes lives from the inside, out.  Paul declared,

¹⁷so that if any one is in Christ—he is a new creature; the old things did pass away, lo, become new have the all things. (2Cor. 5:17).

A few years ago, a man had a clock hanging on the wall of his office.  The hands on the clock were always off.  The man would continually adjust the hands to show the correct time, but it was just a matter of time (pun intended) before the hands showed the wrong time again.  No matter how many times he readjusted the hands of the clock, the clock would not keep the right time.  In frustration the man put a sign beneath the clock that said, “WHEN YOU LOOK AT THIS CLOCK, PLEASE DON’T BLAME THE HANDS.  THE PROBLEM IS ON THE INSIDE.”  Look closely at what Jesus told the woman,

Every one who is drinking of this water shall thirst again; ¹⁴but whoever may drink of the water that I will give him, may not thirst—to the age; and the water that I will give him shall become in him a well of water, springing up to life age-during.’

“Many believed because of the woman” because the woman’s words were reflected in her changed life--I love that, “many.”  When people really get saved, and really get their testimony out—other people get saved.  The gospel changes lives like nothing else ever could.

Let me summarize what our text calls us to do today.  Everybody needs Jesus and if we will share the Living Water of the gospel lives will be miraculously and eternally changed—and our church will grow.  In fact, we will not be able to keep it from growing.

We must realize today that our world is not well.  You and I are not well.  Our families are not well.  Our church is not well.  What we need is “Water from the Well!”  What we need to do today, in order for us to “be well,” and for others to be well, is to share the Living Water instead of just sitting on the well.

The world is not well.  Our families are not well.  Our own souls are parched and dry from drinking the saltwater of this world.  We need to drink deep from the well of Living Water in order to live well. 

I thirsted in the barren land of sin and shame
And nothing satisfying there I found
But to the blessed cross of Christ one day I came
Where springs of living water did abound

Drinking at the springs of living water
Happy now am I, my soul is satisfied
Drinking at the springs of living water
O wonderful and bountiful supply

God NOTS

July 9, 2017 (0511)

God Nots:  What We Don’t Have In Christ

Psalm 23

SIS: We are accustomed to thinking about how much we “have” in Christ, but another way of looking at our blessings as believers is what we do NOT have in Christ.

Someone once said, “There are two basic groups of people:  the haves and the have yachts!”

It does seem that the rich just keep getting richer and the poor just keep getting poorer.  Just recently I read a report that analyzed the growing gap between the “haves and have nots” in America.

Far More Americans Now See Their Country as Sharply Divided Along Economic Lines  by Jodie T. Allen, Senior Editor, Pew Research Center (September 13, 2007).

Over the past two decades, a growing share of the public has come to the view that American society is divided into two groups, the "haves" and the "have-nots."

The number of Americans who see themselves among the "have-nots" of society has doubled over the past two decades, from 17% in 1988 to 34% today. In 1988, far more Americans said that, if they had to choose, they probably were among the "haves" (59%) than the "have-nots" (17%). Today, this gap is far narrower (45% "haves" vs. 34% "have-nots")

Clearly, more people in America view themselves as “have nots.” Being in the “have not” group is not a good thing according to the world’s stands—particularly American standards.  But when you apply the “have not” test to a relationship with God in Christ, being a “have not” takes on a whole new meaning.  One way of looking at the blessings we have as believers is to consider: not what we have, but what we “have not.”  I call it the “God Nots—What we don’t Have in Christ.”  Let’s read about the God Nots together.  Psalm 23:1-6

Before we get into our text this morning, I want to point out something very important in understanding the Psalms.  Notice that most the Psalms have a “superscription” before what we call verse one.  In this case the “title” or superscription is simply:  “A Davidic Psalm.”  There are about 73 Psalms (not quite) half that are attributed to David.  As you know, David was the most significant King of Israel, and a preview (or type) of the New King, who Jesus Christ, that would come out of David’s line. 

While not all of David’s psalms are “messianic” in a strict sense, this foreshadowing of Christ is always present, in my humble opinion.  So, when we think of this Psalm as the Shepherd’s Song, as it is commonly referred to, we have to allow our hearts to move from David the King who was a good shepherd of Israel, to Jesus Christ who is The King and The Good Shepherd.

This Psalm is rich in blessings for the people of God.  I want to examine those blessings by looking for “What We Do Not Have in Christ,” or what I call:  “God Nots.”  In this Psalm we see that as children of the Good Shepherd who is Our King we “want not, fear not, and fail not.”

1.  With Christ as Our Kingly Shepherd, we WANT Not (1-3, 5b)

A child of God who truly trusts in Him never lacks for anything.  Let’s examine this Psalm again to see how we “Want Not.”

1 The LORD is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack. 2 He lets me lie down in green pastures;  He leads me beside quiet waters. 3 He renews my life; He leads me along the right paths for His name’s sake.   Then 5Bb:

………………………………..

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

It was customary in those days to receive a guest by anointing him with fragrant perfume and with a cup filled with a choice wine. In this way, the host indicated that nothing was to be considered too good for his guest.

A major emphasis of this Psalm, and an important theme throughout the Bible all the way up to the Banquet at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, when all of God’s children will be gathered, is the theme of God’s overabundant love and meticulous care of His Children.

Verse 1 states the matter clearly:  God’s children “want not.”  We lack nothing—absolutely nothing.  The picture the Psalmist paints with his pen is of a “contented sheep so full he lies down in the middle of grass he has gorged himself on.” 

An equivalent metaphor would be of someone at the Thanksgiving table eating himself or herself into holiday bliss and then taking a nap without a care in the world.

The word that comes to mind for me is: “satisfied.”  Absolutely satisfied.  Or, as Momma would say:  “stuffed to the gills.”

Are you satisfied?  Is the needle of your satisfaction meter pushing past full?  The key to understanding what it means to “want not” is to understand the difference between “pleasure” and “satisfaction.”

Many people get a lot of “pleasure” out of life.  I think of movie stars, sports stars, or politicians endlessly campaigning to stay on the public dole.   A lot of people have all the stuff money can buy – and then some – but they are still not “satisfied.”

Anyone ever hear of Mick Jagger, or the Rolling Stones.  The wrote and produced a little song that has gone down in Rock n’ Roll history as the #2 song of all time.  When one considers the title, the irony is hard to miss.  This song brought the Stones great wealth to buy even more pleasures.  The irony is the song is title:  “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.”

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards lived a riotous life of drugs and perpetual parties.  They indulged in every pleasure imaginable – but are they satisfied?  Not according to their own song. 

What great irony that lyrics like “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction would give you enough money to pursue and pleasure you can imagine – but never bring you satisfaction.

Rock stars, movies stars, sports stars, tech stars like Bill Gates and an assortment of other “stars” have all the pleasure money can buy, but all the money in the world cannot buy satisfaction.

Satisfaction is one of the God Nots:  we WANT not.  If you really want to know what it means to be blessed by God, then it is to understand that One of the things we don’t have in Christ is: want.

The word can me to “lack, be diminished, or to be inferior.”  As believers we lack nothing, we gain everything, and we are God’s special guest, “anointed with the oil of gladness.”

2.  In Christ there is something else we do not have:  we FEAR not (4-5a).

⁴ Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff —they comfort me. ⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

When God walks with us, we fear not.

It has long been known that “fear” is a major weapon in any war.  This is the whole point of “terrorism.”  To instill fear in the enemies of Allah.  The more gruesome the acts of terrorism, the more value those acts are to the terrorists.

That is why they have broadcast several beheadings of those considered enemies of Allah.  Using fear to gain an upper hand in conquest is as ancient as war itself.

One of the most feared warriors in history is Attila the Hun.  They rode across Europe in the late 4^th and 5^th centuries AD.  They were a fearsome people.  They would destroy everything and everyone in their path.  The reputation of the Huns almost rivals the mythical creatures like Dracula, or werewolves.  The very name:  Attila or Hun struck fear in the hearts of their opponents.

One custom of this strangely feared culture custom was to strap their children's noses flat from an early age, in order to widen their faces, as to increase the terror their looks instilled upon their enemies.

I point out the relationship between fear and warfare because we are in a war – a great spiritual war.  The Devil wants to paralyze God’s people with fear.  He does a pretty good job of it.  If the Devil can get us to live in fear, even if he cannot get our soul, he can paralyze our faith.

Yet, one of the God Nots – a major God Not – is we should “fear not.”  What does the Psalmist use as the ultimate example of why we should “fear not?”  Verse 4 in the King James version is perhaps one of the most often quoted and most familiar verses in the Bible.  We hear it all the time at funeral services:

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;

The words “of the shadow of death” translate one compound Hebrew word that refers to a “darkness so deep it is like being dead.”  The connection of this word with death has gained prominence in many ancient translations.  The word is also associated with “terror.”  It is just a very graphic word.

Let’s look at this darkness as indeed related to “death.”  Death is a formidable enemy and man has sought different ways to try to cheat death—none of which work of course.  Death is described in the Bible as a final, great enemy to be faced and conquered because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross.

Jesus died and gained absolute victory over death and as long as we are walking in His Presence, we have that same victory over death.  The Word of God says of this greatest of all enemies (1Cor. 15):

55 Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?  56 Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin  is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, death has been robbed of its sting—that is, it has not lasting power.  We have complete “victory through Jesus Christ Our Lord.”

Now, here’s my point:  if the greatest enemy we will ever face, that is the darkest valley we will every go through has been totally conquered by Jesus Christ, then what is left to fear?  Nothing.  One of the God Nots is “fear not” because “we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus who loves us.”

Notice in the text the word clearly says, “through” the darkest valley.  Just like death cannot stop our life in Christ, Christ will not leaven us, or abandon us in any challenge in life—however dark it may seem.  We “fear not” “because God is with us through Christ.”

THE LAW OF THE PENDULUM  In college a student was asked to prepare a lesson to teach his speech class. He was to be graded on creativity and ability to drive home a point in a memorable way. The title of his talk was, “The Law of the Pendulum.” He spent twenty minutes carefully teaching the physical principle that governs a swinging pendulum. The law of the pendulum is: A pendulum can never return to a point higher than the point from which it was released. Because of friction and gravity, when the pendulum returns, it will fall short of its original release point. Each time it swings it makes less and less of an arc, until finally it is at rest. This point of rest is called the state of equilibrium, where all forces acting on the pendulum are equal.

The student attached a three-foot string to a child’s toy top and secured it to the top the blackboard with a thumbtack. He pulled the top to one side and made a mark on the blackboard where he let it go. Each time it swung back he made a new mark. It took less than a minute for the top to complete its swinging and come to rest. When he finished the demonstration, the markings on the blackboard proved the law of the pendulum.

The student then asked how many people in the room believed the law of the pendulum was true. All of his classmates raised their hands and so did the teacher. The teacher started to walk to the front of the room thinking the class was over. In reality it had only begun. Hanging from the steal beams in the middle of the room was a large, crude but functional pendulum made from 250 pounds of metal weights tied to four strands of 500 pound test parachute cord. The student invited the instructor to climb up on a table and sit in a chair with back of his head against a cement wall. Then the student brought the 250 pounds of metal up to the teachers’ nose. Holding the huge pendulum just a fraction of an inch from the teacher’s face, the student once again explained the law of the pendulum he had applauded only moments before, “If the law of the pendulum is true, then when I release this mass of metal, it will swing across the room and return short of the release point. Your nose will be in no danger.”

After that final restatement of this law, the student looked his teacher in the eye and asked, “Sir, do you believe this law is true?” There was a long pause. Huge beads of sweat formed on his upper lip and then weakly he nodded and whispered, “Yes.”

The student released the pendulum. It made a swishing sound as it arced across the room. At the far end of its swing, it paused momentarily and started back. The student later testified that he had never seen a man move so fast in his entire life as the teacher literally dove from the table.

It was easy for this teacher to believe in the law of the pendulum when it was all theoretical. How easy it is for us to believe in God’s sufficiency in church on Sunday morning or in a Bible study. But in the real world where our lives are on the line too many of us demonstrate that our belief was only theoretical.

If you as a believer, or our church as a fellowship of faith, are going to overcome our fears and make real progress in growing in our faith, then we have to trust God when we face a dark valley.

God Nots include “Want Not, and Fear Not,” but

3.  Another God Not is “FAIL Not.” (4, 6)

⁶ Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in  the house of the Lord as long as I live.

This God Not is closely related to FEAR not.  So many people never succeed in life to the degree God wants us to succeed because we see FAILURE as the worst thing that can happen to us (short of death which we have already mentioned).

But, I’ve become thoroughly convinced that there is something much worse in life that can happen to a person than “failure.”  That is what we call status quo.  Status quo comes into English directly from Latin and means, “the state in which,” Status quo describes staying perpetually in the same state which you are in now.

Status quo keeps us from moving forward.  It keeps us from ever experiencing the thrill and exhilaration of accomplishing something new.  Status quo keeps us from “failure,” but at the expense of never making any progress or experiencing anything new – which if you ask me, is a fate much worse than failure.

When you read verse 6 really carefully something amazing simply jumps off the page:

6 Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in  the house of the Lord as long as I live.

Tell me, does that sound a lot like this verse from the Apostle Paul:

Rom 8:28 We know that all things work together  for the good  of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose

Friends I want to tell you one of the most remarkable truths I think God has ever revealed to me since becoming a believer:

“a believer doesn’t have to die to experience heaven!”

Because of the God Not of “FAIL Not” we can move out into a great adventure with God and experience unimaginable stuff we cannot even experience in our wildest dreams.  God, Himself invites us:

“Call upon me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things that you cannot even imagine”  (Jer. 33:3).

Oh, friends, I’ve had a little taste of heaven’s “goodness and faithful love” and it tasted sweet.  Oh how I want more.  We can reach out and experience life in a way that is stunningly remarkable because:

“failure is NOT an option.”

This week I watched a movie in which Aliens from outer space were invading our country, and they were landing in Los Angeles.  And, when aliens invade our shores, who do we send to drive them out – that’s right, the United States Marines.

I don’t need to tell you how it ends because we all know how it ends when the United States Marines arrive on the scene.  Why do we know how it ends?  Because when a Marine is given a mission there are may be many options on how to fulfill that mission but there is one option that is never an option and that is failure!

Failure is NOT an option for a Marine, and failure is NOT an option for a believer.

My dearest friends and church family, we have so much in Christ.  One way to understand just how much we DO have in Christ is to consider what we do NOT have in Christ.

In Christ we “want not, fear not, and fail not.”  These are God Nots.  These three “nots” can be thought of as the “k-n-o-t-s” that attach us to God through Christ.

I hope you will consider this morning to put your complete trust in Almighty God so that you will “want not, fear not, and fail not” as you make your way from here to eternity.

Let’s Pray.