Jesus Speaks of Heavenly Things

Family at the Heart of Worship

Pastor Scott opened by sharing the joy he feels seeing God at work in our congregation. In the small, honest moments, like an interrupted conversation or a gentle word from someone in the church family, he finds the goodness of God made real. He shared that for him, someone who grew up without a family, hearing "that's what family's about" meant everything. Our worship together, starting with Psalm 95, set the tone: entering God's presence with songs and thanksgiving because "he is our God, we are the people he watches over."

The Us Versus Them Trap

Pastor Scott remembered his childhood, when a babysitter used fear-driven stories to push him toward faith. She spoke more about judgment and division than about hope or love. He described how this way of sharing faith breeds an "us versus them" mindset, where church becomes a private refuge from a world that is seen mostly as lost and deserving judgment. He was told, like many of us hear, that "knowing Jesus Christ is just going to save us while the rest of the world is getting what they've got coming." His concern: how can the world be changed if we guard grace and keep to ourselves?

"Those were the things that would drive me crazy because... it hadn't been that long ago that I was one of the people that was lost."

He challenged us to rethink separation: "I'm going to separate myself from the way the rest of the world thinks by not taking part in how the world thinks. Does that make sense? I'm not going to do the behavior that the world does. I'm going to do the behavior that should be going on by those who are in heaven right now here on this earth."

The Operating System: Earthly or Heavenly?

Turning to John 3, Pastor Scott traced Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus. Even someone like Nicodemus, a premier teacher, was "missing the kingdom of God because [he was] not born again." Jesus makes it plain: "To be able to see the kingdom of God, you have to be born again." This is something we cannot manufacture ourselves; "you have to depend upon God and His great mercy."

He read John 3:31-34 aloud, noting that those who are "from the earth" live by what is familiar, while Jesus brings testimony about something different:

"The one who comes from above is above all... He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony."

Pastor Scott compared this to having our lives hardwired with an "original operating system", one that naturally aligns with the world’s ways. Following Jesus means being born of the Spirit, running on a new life from above.

Through Samaria: Heavenly Things in Ordinary Places

He moved into John 4, showing Jesus reaching out deliberately to someone everyone else avoided: the Samaritan woman at the well. This is an intentional act by Jesus, He takes the direct route through Samaria, sitting, tired and thirsty, at Jacob’s well, a setting heavy with religious borderlines and personal shame.

"What's happening, it's during the heat of the day... it's like He has this intentional moment with this Samaritan woman."

Scott highlighted how Jesus speaks of "heavenly things" by:

• Talking with a woman (crossing cultural expectations)
• Engaging a Samaritan (a group despised by Jews)
• Meeting someone shamed by her own community (a woman drawing water alone at midday)

He related a story about his time substituting at a middle school, seeing firsthand how cruelly people can treat one another, especially those who feel isolated. "You can imagine this woman is trying to get away from all that kind of thing and go up there. I don’t mind walking up when it’s very hot to get this water… I just don’t want to be around anybody."

Jesus Reveals Himself, and Love First

When Jesus reveals Himself to the Samaritan woman, He meets her with unearned dignity and an offer of living water. She is baffled at first, thinking only of her immediate needs and seeing the barriers between them. But Jesus says, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."

"When the Lord showed up and he revealed himself to me, I knew he loved me. And that's what won me. It was his love."

This, Pastor Scott said, is the "red pill" the church needs, to rediscover that love, not fear or shame, is what draws people close. "We have to reveal Jesus to them."

Eternal Life: For Everyone

Jesus’s offer isn’t reserved for the insider. He gives living water to the outsider, the unwelcome, the misfit, intentionally. Pastor Scott wanted us to see this clearly:

"What's happening is He's speaking of heavenly things again to her. She doesn't understand that He's offering her eternal life."

He compared this to his own experiences as a farm kid, gulping down cold water on a hot day, emphasizing that Jesus’s "living water" isn’t stagnant. It’s "bubbling up and gushing out," meant to overflow from us to others. The living water is the Spirit, not just for our own survival, but given “so that we can talk of heavenly things for a world that's only capable of talking about earthly things."

Honest Love Names Where We Fall Short

Jesus does not ignore the woman’s past, but He doesn’t weaponize it either. He points out, "The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband." But the impact is not shame; it is freedom. She runs back to the community she was avoiding and says, "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did."

Pastor Scott shared from his own renovation moment in Indiana, where in the middle of building a home for his family, he "was redpilled", stopped by the realization that Jesus loved him in spite of everything. "Somehow His love come and revealed Himself to me through His love in such a way that I could not believe."

"If you see where you're falling short, Jesus gives you the opportunity to confess your sin. Confess your sin to Him and ask Him for forgiveness and say, 'Lord, help me to turn away from it,' I turn away from it. And do it and do it. He forgives you."

This is not about threatening with hell, but about a love that names our truth but does not abandon us in it.

Worship in Spirit and in Truth

Jesus tells the woman, "A time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth." Pastor Scott explained that the "living water" is the Spirit Himself, coming not as a rigid rule but as a presence who makes worship possible anywhere, at all times, not confined to a place or performance.

He showed that the "new operating system" leads us to see everything differently. We offer our lives, not just rituals; "instead of thinking about those worldly systems that we think are going to save the church, you know what's going to happen? We're going to worship in spirit and truth."

We are not defined by our past, our failures, or the labels others have put on us. Neither are we called to define others that way.

"You should be reminded of your sin before you're reminded of theirs. That's the way it is."

Living It Out: Carrying Living Water Into the World

We walk out this story by letting Jesus reveal Himself to us anew, letting His Spirit give us the kind of life that is impossible to keep to ourselves. The church is not a bunker, but a well, open in the heat of the day for everyone who is thirsty. The red pill is not a threat but the invitation to see with new eyes, worship with a new heart, and love with the energy of living water that wells up to eternal life.

Discussion Questions

1. Where do you see "us versus them" mindsets showing up in your own thoughts or church experience, and how does Jesus’s approach in John 4 challenge that?
2. When have you experienced or resisted the offer of "living water", the Spirit’s new life, because of shame or old operating systems?
3. In what ways does our worship together reflect the truth that God invites everyone, regardless of past or background, to know Him in spirit and in truth?