our text for today comes from the Gospel
of John chapter 4 verses 1 through 26
but before I read you know what I'm
going to ask Bible checked by will check
yes let's oldham up wonderful wonderful
wonderful wonderful once again we
encourage you to bring your Bibles when
you come to the house of the Lord
especially in this type of setting this
corporate setting alright John chapter 4
beginning with the first verse I'll be
reading from the New International
Version this is what it says the
Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining
and baptizing more disciples than John
although in fact it was not Jesus
baptized but his disciples when the Lord
learned of this he left Judea and went
back once more to Galilee now he had to
go through Samaria
so he 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 was tired as he was from
the journey sat down by the will it was
about the sixth hour when a Samaritan
woman came to draw water jesus said to
her will you give me a drink his
disciples had gone into the town to buy
food the Samaritan woman said to him you
are a human and I am a Samaritan woman
how can you ask me for a drink for Jews
do not associate with Samaritans jesus
answered her if you knew the gift of God
and who it is that
ask you for a dream you would have asked
him and he would have given you living
water sir the woman sitting you have
nothing to draw with and the well is
deep where can you get this living water
are you greater than our Father Jacob
who gave us the well and drank from it
himself as did also his sons and his Fox
and his herders
jesus answered everyone who drinks this
water will be thirsty again but whoever
drinks the water I give will never
thirst indeed the water I give will
become in him a spring of water welling
up to eternal life the woman said to him
Sir give me this water so that I won't
get thirsty and have to keep coming here
to draw water he told her go call your
husband and come back I have no husband
she replied jesus said to her you are
right when you say you have no husband
the fact is you have had five husbands
and the man you now have is not your
husband what you have just said is quite
true sir the woman said I can see that
you are a prophet our fathers worshiped
on this mountain but you Jews claim that
the place where we must worship is in
Jerusalem Jesus declared believe me
woman a time is coming when you will
worship the father neither on this
mountain nor in Jerusalem you Samaritans
worship what you do not know we worship
what we do know for salvation is from
the Jews yet a time is coming and has
now come when the true words
worship the father in spirit and in
truth
but they are the kind of worshipers the
father seeks God is spirit and his
worshipers must worship in spirit and in
truth
the woman said I know that Messiah
called Christ is coming when he comes he
will explain everything to us then Jesus
declared I who speak to you a.m. he
friends this is the word of the Lord let
us pray
what we think you today for your
blessings all that you have done and for
this time this opportunity and you have
afforded so right now make me this now I
mean a decrease so that you can increase
and become more and to fix us by
clearing our - opening our hearts and
unstopping our ears so we can hear from
you and upon hearing from you we want to
leave this place better than the way we
arrived yes we want to walk out of it
better and the way we walked in the
Christ we ask it on a man a man my
friends today we begin a sermon series
called the emulsification series it's
going to carry us through this month so
if you would please turn to a neighbor
look at them good and repeat after me
friend do they serve in this car
not segregation separation or amputation
any man you know whenever I read this
text there are three things that arrest
me immediately
first is the racial and religious
tension found in this text if you see
Samaritans were actually Jews they were
actually Jews several hundreds of years
prior to this text
many Jews began to marry persons who
were not Jewish and of course they had
children and these children had children
and continued to have children so by the
time we get to our text on today those
who consider themselves to be pure Jews
looked at the Samaritans as half-breeds
mama rules of sorts they do not gonna
have anything to do with them
the second thing that arrests me in this
text it's the fact that whereas there is
racial tension obvious racial tension in
this text Jesus doesn't run from it no
Jesus does that run from it manufacture
scripture says now he had to go through
Samaria there were in these three other
routes he could have taken but he chose
this one he had to go through Samaria
and then he sits at a public well where
he knows he's going to be engaged some I
was gonna say something too he's gonna
be put in the position where he's going
to have to talk to someone the third
thing that arrests me about this text
yes all those the racial tension is
obvious that Jesus does not run from is
that Jesus knew he could
oh hello somebody jesus knew he could
fix it his last words in this text I who
speak to you am Here I am the one you're
looking for I am the one you have been
waiting for now many of us when we read
this text we focus on the barriers that
the Samaritan woman puts up barriers
like her identity her personal
relationship with the man that she's
staying with barriers like worship
barriers like a willingness to be
content to not know some obvious things
that she should be aware of when it
comes to racial harmony in this country
especially in this country there are
also some common barriers that we see in
the text identity is one identity they
don't want to know us and we don't want
to know them personal relationships yeah
that's more you see all my friends are
just like me all my family is just like
me and we want to hang around folks who
look like us believing that those who
look like us will have the most in
common with us worship worship is born
but dr. King said in the 60s the early
60s is still true today the most
segregated hour in America is 11 o'clock
on Sunday mornings usually it's kind of
like sharing a meal we only eat with
folks that we know but we prefer to eat
with folks there we know that
so that we don't know we treat worship
the same way to a degree we prefer to
worship we folks that we know not those
we may not know at all times the folks
that know we believe they come from the
same wings where you come from here's
the reality there's only one God should
have been about six or seven a man's
right there only why God just one God
and the longer we perpetuate is nonsense
we continue to say that there must be
something other than the one God who we
have and then another barrier that we
have in this country is being content or
being ignorant I don't know them now
don't want to know why why is this
perhaps is because if I don't get to
know them I'll discover that they're
very much like me very much like me and
that's not what I thought that's not
what I have believed you see on a if you
will multi basic level folks the folks
people are people we all have the same
wants same desires we all want to be
healthy we all want to be comfortable we
all hope better for our children we all
want to be happy we all want who we all
want shit
we all need some form of companionship
but also perhaps of that same multi
basic level we all have struggles we all
deal with death a little somebody dead
there's no respecter of persons we all
deal with death we all have
disappointments great and small we all
have struggles each and every one of us
and it doesn't matter how much melanin
is in your skin we all have to deal with
these things but we can't see this but
we don't want to see this and
unfortunately the basic realities of
life my friends are not enough to rid
this world of racism systemic
institutional racism and it should be it
should be enough the basic realities of
life are not enough to keep us from
teaching our children how to hate rather
than love have to despise someone based
upon how they look but what is perceived
sadly these basic realities of life are
not enough to keep us together this is
the first sermon in the emulsification
series now I would love to tell you that
I've known this word for a long time but
that's not true I have not matter of
fact I'll tell you how this word was
introduced to me my wife reminded me
after the first sermon in the morning
how this was introduced to me
Jonathan our son Jonathan had a hard
time sleeping as a baby that's not true
he slept at the wrong times as a baby
which meant we had a hard time sleeping
and the only thing we lived in in Waco
Texas at this time and television
programming was not what it is today and
one of the few things that we could
watch regular that was somewhat
interesting in those crazy hours in the
morning was the Food Network flow
Network now my wife into it a lot of the
shows on the Food Network diners
drive-ins and dives was my show
Guy Fieri that was my show right there
all the food that I wanted to eat was
only that dance show but I was
introduced to this word emulsification
through the Food Network that it's the
process of taking two things that will
not mix they will not mix please don't
know and then you introduce another
agent that will bind them together keep
them together
if you ever make pancakes you have to
use all the water you can make them from
scratch oil in water but if you ever use
all in water they don't mix do they I
mean you can pour oil on water and
assist there won't break down when to
anything just sits right there on top of
the water they won't miss hi Emma if you
introduce an egg if you put an egg in
there the egg has the ability to take
whatever is a part of this pancake in
its formative stage and bring it
together bind it together in such a way
that you cannot separate it again every
sermon in this series will introduce
some things that seemingly will not work
together or seemingly don't want to work
together but the answer to the question
what will buying these people what will
buying these things together the answer
to the question for each of these
servants is the same the answer is the
blood of Jesus
it's the blood of Jesus here in this sex
this woman is willing to wait for the
Messiah to come before she makes these
significant changes in her life
oh and this is true for so many of us
it's going to take a move of God for us
to change how we see each other move of
God to change how we feel about each
other
it's going to take the Lord to show us
the truth about our selves in order for
us to change see some of us have to
learn that we have racial prejudices and
biases and that's not right
some of us have to learn that every
negative decision we make in dealing
with a person from another race is based
on a past experience which this
individual had nothing to do with
nothing at all
but we can't can't we can't get past
these things on our own it's very
similar to what Reverend LC Oldham
shared with us last year during our
revival that's stayed with me since I
heard it at that time he said we've got
to stop trying to handle spiritual
issues with secular solutions we've got
to stop doing that
you see racial harmony that's what the
Lord wants that's what God wants racial
harmony now racial harmony doesn't mean
that we will never disagree with a
person from another race but it does
mean that they're being from another
race will not be the reason why we
disagree with them racial harmony also
doesn't mean that when racial tensions
increase we run and we hide and we wait
until it blows over
the text says Jesus had to go through
Samaria he had to do this
you see God does not want us to amputate
or get rid of those we don't like or rid
ourselves of those we don't like God
does not want us to legally keep them
away or be away from them God wants us
to live together and to stay together in
a harmonious fashion betting tolerance
y'all that's now the disease this means
I have a genuine concern for your
well-being and you have one for my about
a year or so ago here and a half or so
ago one of my friends white clergymen
I've been friends with for a long time
was a little perturbed with me because I
did not speak out against the black
lives matter was upset with me he was
upset with me because he knows who I am
and he knows I'm about racial
reconciliation and social justice this
is who I am this is what I do and it's
apparent I haven't seen any posts from
you about things I haven't heard from
you about this you haven't said anything
about this don't you care about what's
going on this black lives matter
movement is divisive it's hurting the
country it's hurting all of us and
you've said nothing
that was finding two dogs I understand
your cinnamon your angst
I can see the passion that you have for
this your argument I can understand why
you would tell me that all that matter
and this is what I should be yelling and
screaming right along with you but then
I told myself but here's the truth if
all lives truly mattered there would
have never been a black lives matter
speech that a lot of black lives matter
movement you see what it will take to
truly make all lives matter in the
hearts of all people in the midst of all
that life throws at us what it will take
to make sure that a white man in
Charleston South Carolina who kills
black folks in the church and a black
man here in Dallas Texas who kills white
police officers to believe that all
lives matter it's the same woman that
will lead a Samaritan woman in the town
of Sekar to tell the entire village
about the one they should follow and
that they would do that
what was it gonna take to
well he told her at Jacobs well I who
speak to you a.m. he
I'm the one you've been waiting for and
I'm here I'm the one who could handle
this
and I'm here Jesus but great emulsifier
when I was a kid you would sing about
this from time to time what can wash
away my sin nothing but the blood of
Jesus what can make me whole again
nothing but the blood of Jesus
Oh precious is the flow that makes me
white as snow over found I had no
nothing but the love a man
