The Story of 4
1 Peter 5:7
Everyone has a story, a past, a present and a future. Many of us have a past that we buried some with alcohol, or drugs, work, hobbies and other sorts of objects. Healing the old wounds does not come, so we bury them deep.
Meet Amy
She is a lesbian; she has been in and out of relationships for years. She and her current partner Rachel decide to visit a church one Sunday
1. They figure they will shock the people and thereby show they are not really welcomed there
2. Each week they moved closer and closer to the front, holding hands, or maybe putting there arms locked together, anything short of kissing, to show they are in love.
3. They figure sooner or later they are going to be rejected.
4. When they found they could not shock the people, they stopped trying and something amazing happened. They started learning.
Meet Zacchaeus
1. he is from Jericho
2. Probably bullied as kid because of his small stature
3. Tax collector
4. He got wealthy by stealing even from his neighbors.
Meet the Woman at the Well
1. She was divorced 4 times
2. She is now living with a man not her husband.
3. She comes to the well at noon because she is tired of the ridicule and rejection.
Meet the woman with the sinful lifestyle
1. She was well known in her town for her sinful lifestyle
2. She was rejected, bought, sold, her mud was public knowledge.
Each of these has a past or a present they would much like to bury.
Amy
1. She was raped at age 9 by a bully and his friends, since her father was known for his affairs, she was considered trash, rejected and her story thought to be a lie.
2. Her sexual struggle was hidden for years.
3. She learned to use people much like they used her in the past.
4. She started to learn that Jesus took her on a journey, to show her that He knew more about her than she did.
Zacchaeus
1. Heard Jesus was coming to Town, he wanted to see what all the fuss was about Him.
2. Because he was small he could not see over the crowd. He climbed a Sycamore Tree.
3. Jesus came to him, Come down Zacchaeus I am coming to your house today.
4. I am sure the townfolk were upset with that. If Jesus really was who they say he is, he would not go to that man’s house.
The woman at well
1. Surprised Jesus spoke to her
2. When she questioned him she found out he was the Messiah
3. GO fetch your husband…
4. Jesus revealed how much he knew of her.
The weeping woman
1. Jesus was at Simon’s house
2. She crashed the party
3. Instead of scene, she sees Jesus and she falls at his feet weeping.
4. Hope broke the dam of her muddy past, broke through all the pain.
5. If He knew what kind of woman was touching him….
All of these have a past, a muddy past. All of them had a close encounter with Jesus. What did they find?
1. Not correction
2. Not condemnation
3. Not rejection
4. But LOVE
Jesus confronts the unloving attitude of Simon and his friends, probably the same with the crowd around Zacchaeus house, maybe even the crowd in Samaria. But for Amy, she found what she was looking for, someone to love her unconditionally. Her own testimony is that the closer she drew to Jesus the lesbian struggles fell away. Like the Zacchaeus, the woman at the well, and the weeping woman, Amy heard the words of Jesus, come unto me all who weak and heavy burdened and I will give you rest. they came close to Jesus and saw the LOVE, and left a changed person.
It was not a love that ignores the mud, but a love that restores. Come and get that love, and you will find yourself falling in Love with Him again.
