A (0:01)

Oh, social fam.

B (0:02)

You look good.

A (0:03)

You sound good. Matter of fact, you look unshakable.

B (0:09)

Come on.

A (0:09)

If you're new to Social Dallas, you need to know that every single year, we start our year with a word. And our word this year is unshakable. We've been declaring that a crazy, shaky world needs an unshakable church. And we can be an unshakable church because we've received an unshakable kingdom. So every single Sunday, can you believe it? Every Sunday of this year, we have read this verse we're about to read today. Every single Sunday. Let me just pause for station identification. How many of you don't lie in church? How many of you got to memorize? You got to memorize. Come on. See, the devil don't like that right there. Come on. You gotta memorize. That is amazing. That is amazing. We're gonna do this every year of the church. I think next year we're gonna go to Leviticus. I'm playing. I'm playing. I will not do that to you. Come on. Hebrews, chapter 12, verse 28 and 29. Come on. Let's read it. Like we've been caffeinated and we're filled with the Holy Spirit today. You ready? One big family. One, two, three. Do you see what we've got? An unshakable kingdom. And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God. For God is not an indifferent bystander. He is actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn. And he won't quit until it's all cleansed.

B (1:34)

God.

A (1:34)

Him. Y'all sound good.

B (1:38)

I'm telling you. I don't know how it's possible, but.

A (1:40)

You get better every single Sunday. Social fam. You are in for a treat today. If you have more than one child, you know you are not supposed to have favorite children. Not supposed to have a favorite child. Rather, I think the same thing with guest speakers. We only get 52 weeks in the year, and I hope you know that as your pastor, I'm very strategic and prayerful and careful with who we allow to speak into your life and who's coming to the stage today. He's not a guest. He's family. But let's just say it. I think he's the favorite. He is the favorite, y'all. Dr. Manny Arango is in the building is his home church. We love him and his wife, Tia and Theo so much. Would you welcome as he comes to.

B (2:26)

Preach God's word today. Come on, Dr. Manning. Oh, come on. Who's excited to be in God's house? Come on, let's pray. Let's pray. Holy Ghost, we thank you that you're here. God, we thank you that you decided to show up today. God, your word says that where two or three are gathered in your name, there you are. God, if you're here, everything we need is here as well. God, if you're here, joy's here. If you're here, peace is here. If you're here, provision is here. If you're here, power is here. If you're here, then the delivering miraculous, miracle working power of God is also here. And so, God, we center our attention around you, God, like Samuel. Here's our prayer. Speak, Lord, for your servants are listening. We take authority over every ear and we say, be open here today. We say scales are going to fall from people's eyes today. We prophesy and say hard hearts are going to be soft and malleable and ready to receive today. God, we don't want to leave here saying, man, Pastor Manny gave a good word. No, we want to leave here saying, the Holy Ghost spoke to me in a real way so God would speak. We release you to do what only you can do. In Jesus name we pray. Come on. And we all said amen. Come on. With some authority, with some power. Amen. Amen. Amen. You can high five your neighbor. You can have a seat. And if y'all ready to eat, I'm ready to cook. Okay, let's do this thing. Let's do this thing. I don't know if I'm allowed to have a favorite service, but second service is my favorite service. Okay? It's a good service. And we've got hundreds of people right now in a watch party room over in that direction of this building. And so come on. Can we make some noise for our watch party space? No place like social Dallas. No place like social Dallas. And, you know, I don't know if you're allowed to have a favorite guest speaker. I don't know if I'm allowed to have a favorite service, but I know I got a favorite book of the Bible. Come on. Do you have a favorite book of the Bible? Do you have anybody got a favorite book of the Bible? I'm not gonna say Leviticus. I promise. It's not my favorite book of the Bible, but my favorite section of the Bible are the gospels. Okay. This is something me and Pastor Robert, I think we share in common. I love the gospels. I Love Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I love all four of them. I love Matthew, I love Mark, I love Luke. But, man, if I gotta be honest. Come on. I love John. I love John. John, my favorite of the four. Okay? The real baba nerds just clapped, okay? Because you already know John hits different, okay? I love John. I love John. One of the first reasons I love John, maybe this is carnal, maybe this is, I don't know, maybe this is just shallow. But it's just Matthew, Mark and Luke be repeating themselves a lot, okay? That's why we call those three the synoptic gospel. Sin like, synonym, optic like I. They see with the same perspective, okay? Matthew, Mark and Luke, they are the synoptic gospels. John is over here, the creator native of the bunch, doing his own thing, okay? And I like that. There's some key differences between the other gospels and John, okay? One of the first differences is that Matthew, who is a disciple of Jesus, all the disciples are scared and they run away during the crucifixion. I don't know if you remember this. At the end, when they arrest Jesus, there is nobody who watches with their own eyeballs the crucifixion of Jesus except John. So John is not telling us what he heard from somebody else. John saw them rip Jesus's flesh apart. He saw love displayed in flesh, which is why John is the only one that can write. For God so loved the world that he would give his only begotten Son, that we would believe in him and not perish, but have everlasting life. When John says love, he's not talking about goosebumps. When John says love, he is talking about the sacrificial power that he saw with his own eyes displayed on the cross. I love my man John. I love John. The other reason why I love John is because in Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus be talking to crowds of people. Thousands of people feeding 5,000 people, just talking. Sermon on the Mount. Jesus preaching, he preaching to crowds. But I love this that John begins to focus on individual encounters that Jesus has with individual people. So when you get to the book of John, he's going to dedicate almost a whole chapter to a conversation at night with a man by the name of Nicodemus. When you get to John, he's going to get to a pool of Bethesda. There's going to be thousands of people at the pool. But Jesus pulls up next to one dude and he starts asking him, why have you been here for 38 years? I love this because John does not just See the crowd, but he sees the individual person. Can I tell you something? Today, although we are in a large crowd of people, God has a word for you. He does not lose sight of the individual Jesus. Although God has you in a room with thousands of other people, I pray the Holy Ghost is right there on your row saying, this ain't for your cousin, baby. This is for you. Don't leave with a word for somebody else. Leave with a word for you. I love John. I love John. I love John. Cause. Okay, come on. We can be real. We can be real. The parables be confusing. Jesus just out here telling riddles. What kind of sermon is this? Okay, but, but, but John don't got parables. John has these long conversations with one on one people. Jesus is never so busy dealing with the crowd that he don't got time to sit down and have a conversation with people. One of the other things that I love about John, I love this about John, is that in the, in Matthew, Mark and Luke, you got miracles. It's like Oprah. You get a miracle. You get a miracle. You get a. Everybody get a miracle in Matthew, Mark and Luke. But, but, but, but in John, there's only seven miracles in the book of John. Ooh. Because God is actually saying that the same God that created the world in seven days in Genesis, that that same God is here and his miraculous power is recreating your life. This is that John. Don't call them miracles. John's real fancy. He calls them signs. Signs. Signs. Because by language is power and by calling it a miracle. Come on, come on, come on. You can get so used to the miracle that you think that God is a magician. So John is careful not to call them miracles, but to call them signs. Because when you see a sign that says Dallas, you know the sign is not Dallas, but that the sign is pointing to the direction, direction of Dallas. And the miracle is not God, but the miracle is a signpost pointing you to the grace and mercy and goodness and forgiveness of God. And so John is particular in one of these moments where John highlights a one on one conversation is with a woman who's a Samaritan and Jesus is at a well with this woman. This is the longest recorded conversation in the Gospels. And Jesus did not reserve the longest interaction with a seminary graduate or with a Pharisee or a religious leader, but a woman who had gone through rejection and pain and turmoil and heartache. Oh, he reserved a conversation with someone who's not even Jewish ethnically, but someone who does not deserve to have this dialogue with Jesus. But can I tell you something? You don't have a relationship with him him because of your accolades or what you deserve or what you did to get into it. This ain't no pyramid scheme, baby. You don't gotta pay to be a part of this. At the end of the day, God says, this is my undeserved, unmerited favor. And I'm going to talk to you because love longs to communicate. And so we're gonna camp out with Jesus and the woman at the well. The woman at the well. I, I, I have to bring to your attention that in the first century, women, oh. Are not even allowed to divorce men. So we've done this woman a great disservice in church. We make it seem like this just, she's just, she's just loose. We make it seem like she just, she's just some type of whoremongering kind of a woman. And guess what? That ain't the text. Because the Bible tells us that only men could initiate a divorce with women. So it's not that she loose. It ain't that she's got bad morals. It's that she's been rejected over and over and over and over and over again. And she's had five husbands. And she's got a past and a story. But can I tell you, Jesus is attracted to people with a past and with a story. Jesus sees past the stereotypes. Jesus sees past the labels. Jesus don't care how you came up in here. Jesus is happy that you're here. And like our pastor said, we not here to beat you up. We here to build you up, baby. We declare that your best days are ahead of you. You may have a past, but God don't judge you based on your past. He's got a future for you. We declare in the name of Jesus, you're about to walk in the best season of your life. I need an amen if you feel like your best days are ahead of you. Come on. Can I just scratch that itch real quick? Come on. Purpose is not about discovery, but recovery. You see, Pastor Robert be trying to get me to work out. And what I've been trying to explain to Pastor Robert is that I have abs. I don't need to, I don't need. I don't. It's not that I don't have them. I have them. They are there. It's just they can't be seen, but they are there. Can I help you? The anointing of God is there. It's not about discovery purpose is there? Oh, gifting is there. Oh, come on. Identity is there. You not walking through life hoping that you got something that you don't got. You need to walk through life going, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. God is the one that knit me together in my mother's womb. And the stuff I need, I. I got it. It's just that these habits and this sin and these cookies from crumbl is covering the abs that I got. But can I help you? When we say we're not here to beat you up, but build you up, we're actually here to help you discover that there's always been greatness on the inside of you. There's always been genius on the inside of you. And maybe, just maybe, you're coming into church today and you got a past, just like the Samaritan woman, where your first husband was a disappointment and your second husband was a disappointment, and your last church was a disappointment and your last job was a disappointment, and you've gone through this cycle of, I got my hopes up, and I'm disappointed again. And I got my hopes up, and I'm disappointed again. And I think it's going to be this opportunity. Oh, man. I think it's going to be this. And you are living in a constant cycle of, this is finally gonna be the marriage that works. And homegirl has had five husbands, and the dude she with right now ain't her husband. I can relate, because if I've been let down five times, by the time I get to number six, I'm like, we don't really need to go through the formalities. Come on. Can you put yourself in her shoes? I've done this five times. No, no, no. I don't want to be too nerdy, but it could be that all five men have died. It could be that they've divorced her. Whatever it is. We know that the woman is in an emotionally vulnerable space. We know that the woman has a lot of baggage and that she's in an emotionally vulnerable space because she is getting water in the middle of the day when it's hot outside. Get. Get John chapter four for me. Come on. Come on. You got a Bible? If you got a Bible, go to John, chapter four. John, chapter four. That's our text for the day. That's our text for the day. John, chapter four. John, chapter four. We're going to dig into the woman at the well that we also know as the Samaritan woman. Come on. Who's excited? Who's Excited. Where my Bible nerds at? Come on. Who's like, let's learn the word. Come on. There we go. Come on. John, chapter four. John, chapter four. It says this. Now, Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, although in fact, it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Where? Come on, say it with your chest. He left where? And went back once more to where now he had to go through. Okay, okay, okay. This is like saying, and I'm not about to bore you with no Bible maps. I'm not about to put up a map. Okay? But this is like saying he was in Dallas, he had to get to Houston. He had to go through Austin. That don't make no geographical sense. Okay, okay. There's a clear path from Judea to Galilee that does not involve Samaria. Actually, Jews didn't travel through Samaria because there's ethnic tension between Jews and Samaritans. Traveling through Samaria wasn't even safe. And so if you were in Galilee or Judea and you needed to get to the opposite, if you're in Galilee, you need to get to Judea, or if you're in Judea, you need to get to Galilee. Get this. There are other times where Jesus goes from Judea to Galilee and Galilee to Judea. And guess where. He don't go through Samaria. He goes through the path that is charted out. It's actually called the King's Highway. It runs up along the coast. Or you can cross the Jordan river, go all the way up and get to Judea. Either way, he does not have to go through Samaria for geographical sense. So the statement is not a geographical statement, but a theological statement. What Jesus is saying is not, I had to go through Samaria because the path led me through Samaria, but I had to go through Samaria because my love made me go through Samaria because there's a woman with a past. Oh, are you grateful today that Jesus had to meet you? When he met you, he didn't have to go to the club, but you was at the club. And so God visited you even though he didn't need to be at the club. Jesus went out of his way to make sure that a co worker invited you to church. Jesus went out of his way to reach you. Jesus went out of his way to make sure a YouTube link got sent to you so that you heard the gospel and responded to the Word. Anybody got the sense that God didn't have to come visit Me. But his love demanded that he visited me. Oh, my wife, my wife, my wife. My amazing wife who sings and leads worship. And she's called, and she can pray and she's awesome. My wife. My wife was a heathen in high school. A heathen. An uncircumcised Philistine. A heathen. Just a heathen. But she had a crush. Now, this is hard for me to even admit that she would ever find any other man attractive but me, but she hadn't met me yet, so I can stomach this. She was in high school, she had a crush on some dude. Some loser. Fails in comparison to the life I've provided for this woman. But anyway. And the dude was going to Morningstar Baptist Church. And this dude, you know, this is awesome. Wasn't about to date no heathen. And so the dude was like, well, if we gonna talk, you gotta start coming to church. So my wife didn't care nothing about Jesus, didn't care nothing about church, but really cared about this dude. And so she showed up to Morningstar Baptist Church. Well, do you know that God will do anything and will use anybody to get you where he needs to get you? And my wife heard the gospel preached, and my wife started going to Morningstar Baptist Church. And guess what? In a couple of years, that dude wasn't even in church no more. But guess who was. My wife was still there. Don't act like God won't use a cousin who ain't even with the Lord no more to minister to you. God will go through Samaria to get to you. You. You. He will divinely orchestrate stuff, play chess to get you exactly where he needs to get you. So that you overhear a conversation that wasn't even meant for you. You'll overhear invites that weren't even meant for you. You' in your spirit. I think God's after me. Oh, can I tell you, you may be in this room right now, and you may think you just here because you got invited to be here. You may be ashamed of what you did last night, but can I tell you the Holy Ghost got you here. That God's got a purpose on your life. That greater is he that lives in you than he that's within the world. And you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength, you in the right place on the right day. And God's got assignment on your life. God don't make no mistakes. He had to go through Samaria. He had to go through Samaria. Here we go. So he came to a Town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground where Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob's what well was there. And Jesus, tired as he was from the journey. I won't even get into the humanity of Jesus. That's a whole nother summer for a whole nother day. Come on, we're just gonna keep it moving. Jesus, ain't it crazy how he can still do good ministry even when he tired tired from the journey. Ain't it crazy how he don't use tired as an excuse to not stop you just. Ain't it crazy how we adults used tired as if ti. Ain't it crazy how we use real toddler excuses? You ever hear somebody talk about their toddler? I'm sorry, he got an attitude. He didn't have his nap. But then we, as adults, we use them same excuses like I'm sorry for my attitude. I'm just tired. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. You groan and you full of the Holy Ghost. I expect that your best ministry can still happen even when you a little burnt out, even when you a little tired, even when you bi vocational, even when you got away work two jobs. Maybe, just maybe heaven is on the other end of the line. Maybe, just maybe, there's something that can turn in another person's life. Even when you at your worst, maybe when you at your worst, God wants to show up at his best. Maybe, just maybe, maybe, just maybe. There's a whole bunch of volunteers who started their day at 4 o'clock this morning and they tired. But there's a watch party room. And church ain't built on the gifts of a few but on sacrifice of many. So what? You tired? Put your hand to the plow. We got a harvest. Come on, come on. We just, we just. I'm not going to talk about that. Tired as he was from the journey, he sat down by. What did he sit down by? He sat down by the well and it was about noon. It's about noon. And I don't know if you've ever been to Israel, but Israel, hot, hot, hot. You know, I wasn't ready when I moved to Dallas. I just wasn't ready. I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready. I was looking at the real estate prices, not the temperatures. I was like, look at how much house I can get. But then it was June and my AC broke, AC at the house broke. And I'm thinking I got this home warranty, no no shade on American home shield, but y'all foul anyway. And I thought. I thought, you know what I'm saying? I'm just gonna wait for the warranty to kick in so I don't gotta pay out of pocket for them to come pick the A fix the ac. We was in the house for a week in June in Dallas, and everybody who live here was like, you didn't get a hotel? I was like, I ain't from here. Hot. It's hot. It's hot. And so it's noon. And everybody who lives in Israel, they only get water in the morning time before the sun comes up or at sunset. But she's got a story and she's got a past and she's got some shame. And so she'd rather deal with the intensity of the heat than the intensity of the critics. And so she'd rather come in the afternoon when it's blazing hot to do an activity that should have gotten done at 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning. She's doing it at 12 o'clock in the afternoon when the sun is beating down on her, and she's hoping and wishing and praying, nobody better be there. I'm going at this time so that I can get my introvert time in. I'm married to one of these introverts. It's phenomenal. Me and my wife, we came up with a little system, you know what I'm saying? Because the first year of marriage, she was like, why do you talk so much? And I was like, I thought we was married. And so. And so. And so we had to create this little system. It's like, whenever you need quiet time, just say, hey. Don't just go quiet on me. I don't want to be blindsided by quiet. Just say, babe, I would like to be quiet with you. So we would just sit in the same room, quiet. And I'd go, how much quiet time do you need? She'd say, an hour. I'd be like, beth, I could do that. 60 minutes and 59 seconds. I'd be like, hey, what would you think about that last hour? She was like, this is not how it's supposed to work. So the woman. The woman is like, I'm gonna go in the afternoon. I don't want to see nobody I want to talk to. Nobody was gonna go in the afternoon. And who there sitting on the well because he had to go through Samaria. He knew she'd be there in the afternoon. He knew the exact condition of her heart. He knew that Although this fruit don't look right to nobody else. This is the exact window of time where she's about to have an encounter with the man that she should have had before she married man number one. I am about to completely change this woman's paradigm. Your sin does not intimidate God. Your baggage don't intimidate God. He is ready for you. Your secrets don't intimidate God. Who you've been dming don't intimidate God. Your sneaky links don't intimidate God. Your habits don't intimidate God. Your perspectives don't intimidate God. He will sit there, he will talk to you and let the Holy Ghost start working on you. Because he had to go through Samaria. He didn't avoid it. He wasn't confrontation avoidant. He confronts the woman head on. Love this. Here we go. Will you give me a drink? The woman is like, sir, I didn't come here for this today. Listen to her response. You are a Jew. I'm a Samaritan, woman. How can you ask me for a drink? Like you don't know we got beef. First of all, you a man, and you triggering me because I've had a lot of men ask me for a lot of things. And I didn't come here today to meet some other man's needs. I've had a lot of husbands ask me for a lot. And they said that if I did this, they'd stay, and they didn't stay. So how dare you start asking me if I could give you a drink. Secondly, you a Jew, and I'm a Samaritan. Let's not act like we ain't got ethnic tension. Please don't act like we voted for the same person. Please don't act like everything's just cool. Don't pretend like we ain't got a difference of opinion. You don't even think we're worthy to come down to the temple and worship with y'all. I got theological issues with y'all. You call us half breeds. You've got racial slurs about me. So don't act like there's not an iceberg of content beneath this social interaction. You a man, you a Jew. I'm a Samaritan. How dare you ask me for anything. Now, for context, Samaritans are technically half Jewish. They're a half breed. Because, come on, you know, I got this doctorate. I didn't waste it. I ain't wasting it. I'm about to waste this thing. Paid a lot of money for this doctorate. Okay? We're gonna get some use. We gonna get miles out of this thing. Okay? Okay. So 586 BC, y'all wasn't ready for no dates. Y'all was like, 586 BC, the king of Assyria comes to Israel and he exiles the people out of the region of Samaria. He exiles them out and he replaces the people who were there with heathens from all over the Assyrian Empire. The Jews that were left in Samaria start intermarrying with the groups that have been dumped into Samaria. So their blood, their Jewish blood is completely watered down. And the reason that God says don't intermarry is because when you intermarry, if your wife serves a God that's not Yahweh, you've now brought that God into your home and she gonna teach your kids to worship baal. So the issue is not raised racial. The issue is not ethnic. But by making an ethnic choice, you've made a choice to not worship the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And so Jews who are full blood Jews, they have a problem with Samaritans because you represent compromise. So there's tension, there's conflict. And so Jesus just asking a simple question, but he know he's stepping on a landmine. Can you give me a drink? And the woman is like, first off, you a dude, you a Jew, I'm a Samaritan. Before you brush past all this tension that exists between who you represent and I represent, let's get down to the brass tacks, that we are not on the same page. And I hope that we get to a place in culture where we stop seeing who people represent and get back to a place where I can see you for who you are, that I don't make caricatures out of people. But I get to know you and I get to know your story, because here is Jesus response. If you knew who was talking to you, you would not put me in a mailbox or a Jewish box. If you knew who I was, you wouldn't see me as a label or a caricature, but you would see me as the one who could change everything for you. Can I tell you that some of the people that have blessed me the most are people who are not like me. And if I had judged based on my prejudices, then I would have missed out on the gift of God that lived on the inside of somebody else. Oh, thank God that we're a part of a church where you may get ministered to Somebody up here at the front who don't look like you, who ain't like you. And this is the beauty of church, that here there is no longer Jew or gentile, slave or free, male or female, because the cross is the leveling ground. Here we go, here we go, here we go. How can you ask me for a drink? Jesus answered, if you knew the gift of God and who it was that asked you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Now, we over spiritualize this a lot in church because we don't actually have context for what living water is, but living water would have made a lot of sense to this woman because in Judaism, there is living water and there's dead water. Living water is water that is moving, moving. So a river is a living water. A lake is dead water because a lake is not moving. A lake is still. And still water can carry bacteria. Still water can be a cesspool for insects and all kinds of stuff. See, living water is water that's moving. And so Jews will only baptize in rivers, which is why Jesus gets baptized in the Jordan, because it's living water. Whoo. Living water. So a spring is living water. A river is living water. Come on, get this rain. If Jews have to baptize inside, they collect rain because here's how they see it. Rain wasn't manipulated by men. But you can make a man made lake, you can make a man made cistern. You can have a man made well. So a well represents dead water. A river or a spring or rain represents living water. So Jesus is not saying, hey, all water's cool. No, no, no. He's saying, you have built your whole life on well water. You keep going from husband to husband to husband because your whole life is dependent on well water. I want to give you living water. You can actually see this in the book of Leviticus. Go to Leviticus for me. Go to Leviticus chapter 4. We gonna be real. We gonna. Come on. You learning something in church today. Come on, come on, come on. Leviticus, chapter 14. Leviticus, chapter 14. Actually, give me. Perfect, perfect. Leviticus 14. I'm going to show it to you in the NASB Amplified New King James. And I'm going to show you that if you only read in the niv. Come on. That's my favorite is the niv. But if you read it in the niv, it's not very clear that living water has to be moving water. Here we go. Leviticus 14. 5. The priest shall also give orders to slaughter the one bird in an earthen vessel over what running water? Next, the priest shall order that the one bird be killed as a sacrifice in an earthenware container over what Fresh running water. Now, I need you to. I know you know this. I'm not trying to insult your intelligence. I just want to help you. There ain't no plumbing, so running water don't mean turn the faucet. If you need running water, you have to go down to a river or a spring to get running water. So when Jesus says, you've lived your whole life dependent on well water, and you keep asking me well water questions, I am here to supply something for you that is categorically different than well water. I have come to give you living water. I have come for a spring to come up out of some supernatural source and fill you in a way that only God can fill you. I don't know if you've ever gotten bougie about water. Can you bring my water out here? Can you bring my water? Have you ever gotten bougie about water? I wasn't bougie about water till I got married and I made a mistake one time. I made a mistake one time, and. And. And I came home with some water I thought was good quality water. It said Target. I love Target. Essentia. I like this. This tastes good. Came home, unloaded the groceries. My wife was like, that's tap water. I was like, it's essentia. She then uploaded, grabbed a reel from Instagram, because Instagram is the authority on all things, and said, brother, this right here is straight out the sink faucet. And then I said, okay, so Ann is plastic. She's like, there's microplastics that you drinking. I was like, you speak in words I don't even understand. She said. She said the best water is spring water out of a glass. She said, because it comes from a natural spring, it don't come out of the tap. If you want to tap water, you can just go get a Brita and make it yourself, and that will be your essential water. But you don't need that. You need this innocent glass, which means it ain't got microplastics. My wife gave me a whole little doctoral lesson about the quality of water. And then I realized, you know what? I wonder what well water tastes like in Chatgpt because I ain't country like that. I ain't never had well water. Said that well water can taste metallic because it's from the earth. It can taste like rotten eggs based on what's in the ground. It can actually taste sweet based on the minerals that are in it. Oh, well water can taste like all kinds of different things and there's a lot of us bringing spring water expectations to the wells in your life life. See, Jesus is saying wells aren't bad, but a well can never fill you like living water Wells aren't bad, but if you put godlike expectations on man made wells, then you will go from husband to husband to husband wondering, do you think I'm beautiful? What do you think about me? Oh, I now am going to a well to get selfish esteem when I should have gone to the source of living water to get my self esteem because I can't have spring water expectations for a well. Now I need you to, I need you to, to get this. And I'm going to be vulnerable because it's my home, church and I feel like we family, not I feel like we family, we are family. I remember I got married and after I got married, I needed to go to counseling, not because of my wife, but because of my family of origin. And I remember my wife asked me a very poignant question. She asked me, do you realize that your mother can emotionally manipulate you? And I was like, oh, this marriage is getting real. Okay. Cool. Said, no, I didn't realize that. So I got into therapy and my therapist taught me that in the soul of every woman and every man, the soul is asking a very different question. And this starts at the age of three, sometimes four years old, that the soul of every woman is asking this question, am I lovable and who will love me? That's the soul of a woman is asking that one question from the age of 3, 4, 5 years old. Am I lovable and who will love me? The soul of every man is asking a very different question. The soul of every man is asking this question, am I worthy and how will I prove it? The soul of every man, soul of every woman is asking two different questions. Which is why the apostle Paul didn't need no therapist. He just needed the Holy Ghost to say, women honor your honor. Oh, come on. Women honor your husbands and husbands love your wives because they need different things and their soul is asking for different things. But we're not going to talk about that. We just gonna keep moving. So he said, your mother, your mother didn't know her biological father. So the first man in her life that could have answered that question, is she lovable and who will love her? He failed to answer the question. Your mother was then sexually abused at the age of 12 years old by your. By her brother's best friend. So her brother failed to protect her, which means in her mind, her brother did not answer the question, am I lovable? And who will love me? Her abuser did not answer the question. My grandmother, her mother then made her marry the man who abused her. So now this man who abused her is her first husband. And her first husband is not able to answer the question, are you lovable? And am I the one who will love you? For reasons that I'm not going to talk about my older brother, then all these expectations get put on him. He can't answer the question. Then she marries my father, who ends up taking me to a crack house when I'm five years old. And because my dad is an addict, he is unable to answer the question, are you lovable? And who will love you? And so now the therapist is making me aware of the fact that this avalanche of expectations is falling on me. And I had to come to the realization that I cannot give my mother living water because I'm not God. The only thing I can give her is this well. Because a well is a microcosm of the human experience. You want to know how you get well water? You dig through dirt. You want to know what you're made of dirt. And so every person, you're just a well. And the reason you keep putting godlike expectations on your husband is because you ain't had living water yet. And if you got Jesus to answer the question, are you lovable? And who will love you? Then you would stop putting pressure on your husband to affirm you and love you and accept you and be God for you, because he can't be God for you dudes. Can I help you? You think that the job is going to prove that you're worthy. You think that the paycheck is going to prove that you're worthy. You think that the salary is going to prove that you're worthy. You think the car is going to prove it. You think the house is going to prove it? So you keep delaying joy. And one day, I like the life I got. And I'm here to tell you, you're never going to accept the wells in your life until you take a sip of living water from the spring of life. And. And Jesus is the only one who can stop the rat race, who can get you off of the carousel. You just keep running like a hamster on a wheel from one job to another job to another job, from one family to another family to another family. And now you Put expectations of your kids. You need them to fulfill certain things in your life. Now they're turned off from God because of pressure you put on them because you didn't get you good with God. Jesus says, you're so stuck on well level questions. You keep asking me about the bucket I got for the well and what I'm gonna do for the well. I. I'm not here to give you more well water. I'm here to give you living water. Because if I give you living water, you'll be able to appreciate every well in your life. Your job is a well, but it ain't the living water. Your marriage is a well, but it's not living water. Your children are wells, but they not living water. They are resources, but they are not the source. You need the source. And you gotta stop putting source level expectations on resources because now you're putting so much pressure on the resource that the resource can keeps breaking and breaking and breaking. And so now you on marriage number six. But you're not putting a title on it because you're afraid it's gonna end like everything else. And Jesus says it will until you drink from the fountain. That will never disappoint until you finally get this straight. Now here's what I love. Here's what I remember. I told you. Living water is what? Running water. Come on. Living water is running water. Maybe this is why Jesus gets baptized in living water. And while he gets baptized in living water, God has something to say. Can you put up Matthew? Matthew, chapter 3. Matthew, chapter 3, verse 13. Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be what by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, I need to be baptized by you. And you, why do you come to me? Next verse. Jesus replied, let it be now. So it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness. Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment, heaven was open. And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. Go ahead, give me the next verse. And a voice from heaven, Heaven said, this is my son, who I with who I am. Well pleased. Maybe that's my title. Well pleased. Well pleased. Well pleased. Well pleased. What does God do with Jesus in the middle of living water? He answers the question that every woman's soul is asking. Asking. He answers the question that every man's soul is asking. He gives Jesus love and affirmation. I, not only do I love you, but I'm pleased with you. I want you to start your ministry from a place of living water. So now you don't put godlike expectations on the wells that are in your life, but you are able to appreciate every well because you got your soul fixed first. Until I answer the question, am I worthy and how will I prove it? It don't matter how much my wife respects me, no matter how much she honors me, no matter how much money I got in the bank account, because the passage is actually about satisfaction. Can I help you, my brother? Your body count is never going to make you feel like a man. There is no woman beautiful enough that can make you feel like a real man. You need the window of heaven to open and for God to say, you are my son, I love you, I'm pleased with you. And until that moment happens, you will keep putting spring water, living water expectations on every well you come into contact with. This is a well. The goal is that this sermon's a well, but that in it you get livid water. And until the Holy Ghost starts talking, my words will always fail. I'm a well. Here we go. Let's land the plane. Holy Ghost talking to anybody. Jesus is able to fix this woman so good that she runs into the town to talk to people who she's been avoiding for years. She finally gets to the point where she says, I'm gonna get living water. I got living water. And now that I've got living water, I don't have to put pressure on this well that's in my life. God's well pleased, pleased with me. And if God is pleased with me, oh, then I can be a well to everybody in my life and I can look at everybody else as a well. I don't have to put idolic expectations on a pastor. Oh, no, no, no, no. I'm not here to idolize the pastor. I'm here to draw from the well. I get living water from Jesus. And I'm. I'm not here to put source level expectations on a resource. You want to know. In my research, AKA Chat GPT, I found out that the only wells with water that tastes good are wells that are. Because it is the source that provides for the resource. And maybe you're in the room today and you don't feel like you've ever heard those words from the Lord. You're my son. You're my daughter. You're looking for everything else to provide identity for you. But until you get identity from me, you'll put weight and pressure on wells, and wells will keep on breaking. Can I even Say this, Wells, take work. Oh, come on. Don't let the enemy get in your head and convince you that if we was really soul mates, it wouldn't be this hard. No, no, no, Wells, take work. But the work that you put in the relationship well is actually fueled by you getting identity as a wife, you getting identity as a husband, you getting identity as a girlfriend, you getting identity as a boy. You gotta get your source right so that when you actually come to the well that is relationship, you're not putting spring level expectations on something that can't sustain that. That. Come on. If you're in the room today and you're saying, you know what, Pastor Manny? You talking to me? You're talking to me. I can see every boss I've had, every pastor I've had, the churches I've had, the relationships I've had. I keep thinking they're a source, but they're not my source. I gotta get some stuff right with God. Come on. If that's you, wave at me. Come on, if that's you, wave at me. I can see that there's been brokenness in every area of my life. You wanna know when that therapist said that to me, it let me have empathy for my mom. She was someone that I was so frustrated with, so bothered by. And you want to know what? I had a messiah complex. I thought I could fix her, that I could be the surrogate spouse that she didn't have. And I realized that relationship dynamic was dysfunctional. I can only be a well. But because I've experienced living water, I know where to take her. I know where to bring her. Hey. I can't fix what your father didn't do. I can't fix what your brothers did. I can't fix what your abusers did. Oh, but I can take you by the hand. And I'm not trying to bring you to me. I can bring you to the one, cuz. What does the woman do? She goes out to the town. She said, you got to come find a man who fixed everything in my life. Oh, come on. Do you want to know what God wants? He wants living water to hit you so that you go out and you don't say, hey, I can fix you. I got the solution. No, no. I know a dude. I know somebody. Come on. If you need prayer, if you like. You preaching to me, Pastor Manny? You read my mail? Come on, I want to pray for you. Wave at me. Wave at me. I want to pray for you, God. I declare right now contentment over your people. True contentment. Paul says this. I've learned the secret of being content. Whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in lack. I've learned the secret of being content. And here's the secret that I've drank from the well of living water, not of this man made stuff. And he quenched my thirst forever. God, I ask that the stuff that makes us look thirsty, we would stop that, Change us from the inside out. Give us a new mind, give us a new heart. God, would you do something that a preacher can't do, but that we can make moments for you to do? God, would you touch us? Would you rearrange our thoughts? In the name of Jesus, we pray. Come on. And we all say together. Amen. Amen. Amen.