Thirst Trap Searching For A Feeling_ Easter at Transformation Church

0:58 Well, I'm gonna go ahead and get right into it. Because usually, every year at Easter, we do a huge production. Like, we do this huge thing. And this year, real quick, can we give it up for the worship team, the creative department, the band, like, everybody did a phenomenal job.

1:19 Love you guys. But this year, we intentionally decided to simplify. Because as I started going through the gospels you know Easter if you go to a church this is when we pull out pyrotechnics and we have people flying from the top of ceilings and we give everybody a tattoo that says he is risen like we we do all kinds of things but when I went back to the scriptures of how they did it back in the day they called it the simple gospel it was just good news and you don't really need like a billboard to tell somebody good news. Y'all know when there's a sale at your favorite store, you don't make a flyer to tell your friends. You just call them girl, express got a sale. Like, do you understand what I'm saying? And I just thought that maybe this year I would just share the simple truth of the gospel with you. I thought that this year I would share from my own experience and what God's doing in my life and what he's done in other people's life and answer probably the most blaring question that our humanity is faced with today. The whole reason we titled this thing searching for a feeling is because that's what everybody in this room is doing in some way. All of us are searching for some feeling that we don't talk about when we meet people. We don't introduce ourselves, hi, my name is Sally. I'm searching for your validation.

2:42 nobody does that but our actions line up with that many of you have jobs right now that you hate but because of the zeros it puts in your bank account and somehow you're searching for a feeling of success or worthiness you'll keep doing the thing you hate to have a momentary feeling of somebody else thinking that you that you're better than what you really are I'm coming straight for it today Because I was searching for feelings in my life for years And so I just got one question for you. What are you searching for? No, no, no, no, and this is not an ethereal question I hope you take some time this week or when you're at lunch or while you're sitting Down trying to watch some sports trying to get this out of your mind because I hope it stays in your mind Until you can't sleep no more. What are you really searching for?

3:38 because until we identify what we're searching for, we usually will just act out of however we feel. That's why we called it searching for a feeling. And most people in this room are searching for things that give them some type of feeling, like maybe searching for peace, searching for acceptance, searching for happiness, searching for success, love, respect, importance, significance, value worthiness meaning affection purpose some of y'all are just searching for hope and today i just came to tell you good news that everything you're searching for you can have the problem is humanity has a default setting that we search for what we want in the wrong places like like like so so after you answer the question what am i searching for the second question you need to ask yourself for real is where do i go to find fulfillment and i know you think this is for your neighbor right now you think this is for your girlfriend oh i'm oh my god i know that's why she's on instagram all the time posting those selfies because she wants somebody to validate how pretty she is but you're doing the same thing with religion. So, so, so you study the scriptures so that you know more than somebody else. So whenever they come to you, you can make them feel little or that you're so far away. What are we all searching for? And where do we go to find that fulfillment? The reason I'm asking you that question is because it's been the same thing since Adam and Eve in the garden. It, it, when Eve and Adam had given this amazing promised land from God, they were still searching for something else and they had the God of the universe with them right there. Why in the world would they be searching when the creator was right there with them? The problem is even when you go to Genesis three chapter six, it says that Eve, she was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful

5:48 and its fruit looked delicious and she wanted its wisdom. She wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and she ate it. Then her dumb husband was sitting there right with her and he ate it too. this is when sin creeped in and let me help you sin it seems so deep to everybody but when you really understand it it's very simple let me give you the easiest definition of sin sin is searching for the right thing in the wrong place that's all sin is eve wanted wisdom but she went to the serpent instead of to her father. My question is, you want to feel success, but where are you going to find it? You want to be worthy. You want to have esteem.

6:42 You want to be an impact in the world, but where are you going to find it? And the truth is that many people in this room right now, you put on your mask to come to church today, but you're going to go home with you. And you know you. You know why you do certain things. Many people in this room have more degrees than a thermometer and still don't feel like they're in purpose.

7:09 What are you searching for? Some people, they color their hair every other color every other day. Put a new wig, new weave, new hat, new whatever you want to call it. They do something brand new. But at some point, it's like, what are you looking for? Like what was the reason? Oh, oh, I just don't like being alone. Is that why you went from Richard to Ricardo to Ronaldo to Ray Wando? It was all the same motivation, but we're all searching for a feeling. And today, I just want you to know that nobody's excluded from that. The question is, where are you going to go to find it? And one of the cool things about searching is that after you search and you don't find it, then you start getting desperate. and have you ever met a desperate person like like when you get desperate you start doing things out of character okay let's be honest because there's a lot of there's an air of fake in the room right now and let's just go ahead and pop that bubble right now have you ever been desperate for something i don't care what it was whether it was sex money um acceptance whatever have you ever been just desperate and you started acting out of character because of your desperation hands in the building. Everybody over here that didn't raise your hand, you're lying. Okay.

8:35 Okay. So what ends up happening is I found that once you become desperate after you've been searching and you don't find it, then you become this word that the young people say today. It's a word called thirsty. Anybody know what thirsty is? Like thirsty, it's like somebody who's desperate for something, but they're not going to come out and say it. So they try really hard to put something out there that will get them attention and get them noticed, but not really say the core issue. And you're like, that doesn't make sense. Let me give you a perfect example. Like when somebody has been working out, but they don't want to say, hey, could you tell me I look good for working out? And so they post a picture with no shirt on, but they say, look at my smile.

9:20 You're thirsty, bro. What are you doing? Like you're doing something out of character to get something that you really need, but you're going about it the wrong way. What I found is people aren't just searching for a feeling, they're thirsty for it. They're thirsty to know that they're good enough. They're thirsty to know that they're loved. They're thirsty to know if I lose everything, I'm still worth something.

9:51 And our society lives so unplugged from who we really are that we spend our entire life thirsting for something that will never be quenched because we go to the wrong places to find it. And so today I just hope that I could share just a little bit from my own personal life because I've been thirsty for years. Yeah, I'm saying it, the pastor, like I was thirsty to be fulfilled and have affection, but I didn't know how to get it the right way and I didn't want to go through the process to get it the right way so I became addicted and married to pornography and I know we don't talk about this type of stuff but I became a liar a manipulator I became somebody who I knew I did not want to be but it was because I wanted to feel something that I did not want to go to the right source for And so I don't know what you are fulfilling your life with some of us. It's things you got every Jordan that's ever come out

10:54 Every single one or for somebody else your house is super beautiful But you got the house the cars and everything that you want, but you don't like going home You can't find peace. And all I'm saying today is my passion is that you would not leave this place still searching for something that has already been provided. So I found a woman who was searching in the Bible. And I want to talk through her story real quick so that we can see is maybe we we can see ourself through this lens and maybe find what we're all really looking for.

12:31 Go to John chapter four and we're going to meet a woman. You would know her if you've ever read the Bible as the woman at the well. OK, and this woman was literally thirsty, like not metaphorically. She wanted some water. And so she was going to get some water and she's about to come in contact with Jesus. She came for one reason, but she's to get a practical need met Like some of you came in here today to check off the the box like I came for easter I took a picture with my mom and i'm ready to go eat like it doesn't matter It's okay if you came for the practical reason, but when you encounter jesus He never wants to do a surface work in your life He always wants to do something. Everybody say deeper he always wants to do something deeper so this woman is about to fall into the title of my message today the thirst trap she's about to she's about to fall into a thirst trap because what god is doing is is he's setting a divine moment where this woman's humanity can meet jesus's divinity where where every bad part of her would meet all the good parts of god And let me set it up and tell you how this went.

13:44 So the disciples are on their way from one town to another and they're headed to Galilee. And in the moment, Jesus just hits this like fake, like faint in my mind. He's like walking and he's like, oh, I'm so tired. And the disciples like, Jesus, we got to keep moving. The next town is where the Chick-fil-A is. And we got to get something to eat before the day. And he's like, no, no, no, no, no. You go. I'll wait here next to this well. And the disciples like, bro, you tripping. We ain't since 9 a.m. We're going to go get some food. We'll bring you back an eight count. Okay. So, and Jesus sits here and the disciples are looking back like, why would he stay here? But my Bible tells me that God will forsake the 99 to go after one. So he knew somebody was going to come to this place that needed to encounter him And so we pick up in verse 7 Where you have to realize that this woman is coming to this well at noon the hottest part of the day Which if you're back in this time it's hot hot like like like it's hot in here, but it's hot hot Okay And you never went to the well at noon Unless you didn't want to see anybody because you would go in the cool of the day because it would be more comfortable.

15:12 But this woman was intentionally going to the well at noon because we'll find out later she had a reputation that was not that good. And everybody around her knew her for what she used to do. So instead of being around people who would judge her, she would inconvenience herself and go get what she needs when nobody was around her. Let me say it a different way, because Christians would judge people who had checkered past or people around. She said, I don't want anything to do with them. I'll go when nobody's there. And that's why I need to apologize for everybody who's been out of the church for a long time. Or maybe you've seen something that really turns you off, because a lot of people want Jesus, but they don't want nothing to do with Christians. and all i'm saying is not all of us but there's some of us that remember who we used to be and are and remember the grace that it took for us to come out of what we were in is there anybody in here that remembers who you used to be and and what god has done for you and so what ends up happening is jesus said i'm gonna go meet this woman at a place where no other person would come to. And that's where we pick it up. And, and it says soon as Samaritan woman came to draw water, she was thirsty. And Jesus said to her, check this out. He was like, excuse me, ma'am. Yeah.

16:31 Hey, hi, my name is Jesus. Um, could you please give me a drink? And this, this woman was kind of thrown off and I don't want to, I want to move on, but I can't because what you got to know is just in that one little sentence, we see the grace of God. See, the grace of God was that Jesus engaged her before the woman ever engaged him. Like the grace of God is that Jesus started the conversation. The grace of God was that even though you're messed up and you don't want nothing to do with God and you've been living a certain way, Jesus will set an appointment like today and say, hey, I still love you. Hey, I still have a plan for you. Hey, can I start up this conversation with you? And this woman acted like most of us would act when Jesus comes to our door. She said, you talking to me?

17:26 He must not understand that Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans. Verse nine, you're a Jew, baby. And I'm a Samaritan woman. It was a racial issue. Like like I'm white. You're black. Like we don't. why are you asking me for a drink? The MLT version remix, boo, why are you even talking to me? That's what she just said right here. Then Jesus replied, I want you to see it. He said, girl, if you knew the gift God has for you, and I just want to tell somebody who's been thirsty and coming to places that can't fulfill you, if you knew what God had for you, if you knew what he had planned for you if he knew if you knew what he had already put even with all the crap that has happened to you if you knew what god had for you and then he says something even more gangster he's like and if you knew who you was talking to baby you would ask me for a drink of living water you can read it it's the bible right here you would ask me for this live in water. And I bet she's saying something like this. Well, if you got your own water, baby, why did you ask me for some?

18:44 but I'm trying to put you here. And then she says, sir, number one, you don't have no rope. Number two, you don't have a bucket. And this well is very deep. What this says to me is this woman was telling Jesus, you don't have what I need to even get my need met. The part of me that's jacked up is deep. Like the part of me that, that, that, that needs that father issue that of my dad walking out or not being there. Or when I was, when I was cut from that team or when the thing, like I'm the 40 year old version of a four year old and my issues deep. You don't even have what I need to get my need met. Talking about living water. And this is how many people in this room feel when it comes to Jesus. You don't have what I know we sang praise and worship and read the scriptures, but what about the miscarriage? What about the loss? I had everything right here and they didn't accept me to the school. I was married and faithful and they walked out on me.

20:04 The well is deep and I don't know if you can meet the need. This is why many of us go to looking for other things that we can control to try to get our thirsty souls filled. Because somehow, if God was really loving, none of this stuff would happen in the first place. So this woman interacts with Jesus and he replies to her. He says, sweetheart, verse 13. anyone who drinks drinks like you've been drinking anyone who keeps netflixing and chilling anyone who just keeps trying to climb the corporate ladder to feel significance by the dollar signs in their bank account anybody who keeps going to the wells that you go to anyone who keeps drinking they will soon become thirsty again and this is the cycle of most people in America today is it's a bunch of thirsty people looking for a quick drink to just have to pay for something that was already provided in the first place.

21:19 Let me explain it to you. This right here is lemonade. Now, lemonade is an amazing drink, especially if you get it from the right place. The thing about lemonade is when I sweat and I perspire and I run up here and I do all this other stuff, I need to be hydrated because I'm thirsty. My initial reaction when I see this yellow bottle is to crack it open and to take a huge swig of it. The problem with lemonade is that it tastes good in the moment, but it makes me more thirsty after I drink it. What's happening with many of us in this room is we keep going to relationships.

22:11 And it's good for a moment. But as soon as we take a sip, I'm preaching this thing right now. We become thirsty again. And the problem is that after everything is poured out of this one bottle, the sad truth is no matter if I paid a dollar ninety nine or a thousand dollars for this, at some point it's going to run out. This is not a source. This is a resource. The same way that your job is not a source. It is a resource. The same way your marriage is not a source. It is a resource the same way that your college degree is a resource and not the source. And too many people have lived their life paying for a resource instead of accepting the source.

23:08 Now, I think what Jesus was telling this woman, look at it in verse 14. You can see it. He said, and this is what I just want everybody to know. Just write this point down. Don't fall for the facade of fulfillment. Everybody's falling for the facade of being fulfilled. Well, I got a drink. You're about to be thirsty again. Well, I got a raise. You're about to be thirsty again because the money is only temporarily making you feel worth it. But there's a deep thing, the deep well that God wants to heal. and he says to this woman but those of you who drink the water that i give will never be thirsty again it becomes fresh and bubbling springs within them giving them eternal life now i don't know how many of y'all i know i got a lot of bougie christians now but i don't know how many of y'all remember playing outside in the summer and and your parents wouldn't let you come back inside no more and so you got hot I know y'all bougie over there but but back in my day like we'd be playing football or on the trampoline or basketball and they was like if you want some water you got to get it outside and I don't know what happened but there was an anointing that came from from the source and the faucet and if you ever got water hose water oh some of y'all know what I'm talking if you ever like I know some of y'all are like oh my god it's not smart water no this is dumb water, but it is the best water. And when you get real hot, you just, and you let it drip down a little bit and then you like, hold on, hold on.

24:51 There was nothing. Like, can I get somebody who agrees? That was nothing. You know. What Christ was saying is you can keep taking your thirsty self to something you have to pay for.

25:13 Or you can receive what I've already paid for. And it'll never run out because it's not connected to anything other than living water. something that'll keep running something that'll keep going until you tell me i don't want it anymore and the sad state of the world today is that God wants to fulfill every desire, every need. He doesn't want you jumping from bed to bed, from job to job. Some of us are having kids because we want somebody to love us. Come on, I'm talking about real stuff. Some of us are looking and searching for something that can only be found in living water. So this woman, she says, hold on. Is it really that good? Like you got the good, good.

26:13 Look at verse 15. She said, please, sir, give me this water. Then I'll never look, look at why she wanted it. Cause then I'll never be thirsty again. And I won't have to keep coming to these dark places. I won't have to keep coming here. I won't have to keep ending up with these type of people. I won't have to keep finding my significance by how many people like or scroll or buy my product. I won't have to. If I can get this living water where there's love, hope, joy, peace, besides anything I do, I won't have to keep coming and putting on this mask. She said, give me that water. But look what Jesus does in verse 16. Brother Luke will make me preach over here. Y'all don't know, Brother Luke. Thank you. it's Easter and you's bad in that suit, brother Luke. I'm about to preach just to you.

27:09 But look what happens. Verse 16, Jesus, after she says, give it to me. He said, real quick, one more thing. Go get your husband. go get your husband and the woman said um see what had happened was uh um like and Jesus said don't even say nothing you're right you don't have a husband for you have five husbands and you aren't even married to the man you're living with now you certainly spoke the truth this woman said oh my god I feel exposed you must be a prophet that's what the scripture says I want you to hear me say this very clearly because this is where people get messed up Jesus never gives you the satisfaction you want without first addressing your cycle She said give me the water she said what have you been going to other than me Go get your husband Oh five husbands she had five cycles of trying to be fulfilled in something that would not fulfill her. I don't know how many cycles you have. I ain't going to call nobody out and I don't want you to tell me your cycles. But if you do not understand that there is something you have been going to other than Jesus, he cannot offer you the full satisfaction of what you really need. He, and this is a beautiful thing about it.

28:38 He did not fix her cycles in that moment. He just wanted to make sure she was aware of them. No, you need to hear this because what religion tells you is clean it all up, get it all fixed and then come to Jesus. Jesus said, no, no, no, no. I want your heart. And if I get your heart, I'll help you change your habits. I just need you to know where you are. because what I'm about to do in your life is going to take you to a whole nother place and nobody's going to be able to get glory from it except me because you have to know where you are. It's the same question he asked Adam and Eve in the garden. He said, where are you? Now, there was only two people on the whole earth at the time. You think God lost them?

29:22 He didn't lose them. That was a self-awareness question. He was saying, where are you? He was trying to see if they could locate where they were. The same way I believe on this Resurrection Sunday. God's saying, what are you searching for? Where are you going to find it? Where are you? I want to give you living water. I want to give you that thing that don't ever run out. I want to give you that thing that you can share with others. See, when there's a living water, I can say, Charles, you thirsty, bro? You look thirsty right now. Get you some of this Brent you thirsty bro Get you some of this What you gotta understand is many of us Are trying to feed people from a supply that's run out We're trying to give advice from an empty place.

30:23 We're trying to raise kids from an empty place. We're trying to start businesses. And God said, you don't even have to be responsible if you would just let me give you the living water. So Jesus confronts this woman's cycles and then speaks to her need. And guess what the woman does? She came there for something very practical because she was thirsty. Everybody say thirsty. Yes, she came there. I just want to drink. She was going to get it and she met living water.

31:07 And the Bible tells us that she drops the jar that she came to get her water in. And she ran back in the town and said, yo, yo, I met a man that told me everything I ever did. Y'all got to come see he might be the Messiah. and it says that the entire town went to meet Jesus because they thought maybe this could be him. All I'm telling you is that God can take thirsty people and change their life and make them the catalyst for changed for an entire group of parched people. I believe that's the same thing God wants to do in your life. That's the thing that he's doing in my life. This woman left her jar and she said, can you come see?

32:01 And that's why we simplified Easter and I'm preaching because this is me as that woman saying, will you come see? come see a man who took every one of your issues every one of your pains every one of your dysfunctions every one of your ailments and diseases or diseases he took all of that when he went to the cross the bible tells us that god sent his only son to become everything that we would do and be and pay for the punishment so that we wouldn't have to.

32:44 The Bible says it like this in 2 Corinthians 5.21. It says God made him who knew no sin. He didn't do nothing. To be sin, to become homosexuality, to become lying, to become depression, to become cancer. Jesus wore all of it. And he said, I am.

33:08 I am everything that you will be. I am. The hurt you experienced when your family left you. I am. the lust that would keep you ravaged for a decade. I am. And he said, if you believe that I am it, you don't have to be it. If you believe that I took it, you don't have to live with it. It said that by what Jesus did on the cross,

33:44 we are healed. So I want you to think about what your soul's been thirsty for. I don't know what it is, but let me tell you, everybody in this room has been thirsty, searching, desperate for something that only God can fulfill. And he provided a way through Jesus. So when you see Jesus taking lashes and taking beatings in the passion, when you see the stripes and the blood pouring out of his veins, when you look how they mocked him, how they spit on him, how they abused him, how they beat him, that wasn't for sport. That was for me. That was for every area of thirst in my life where I would be searching for validation and God said Michael 2012 years from now is going to need to know he has a purpose and he's going to try to go to sex and he's going to try to go to people and he's going to be a people pleaser and he's going to try to do things that are out of the character that I made for him and he's going to need forgiveness so I'll take it for him. Every lash.

35:03 everything so you wouldn't have to live the way that you've been living no longer do you have to go to things that's going to leave you thirsty you want peace well Pastor Mike Weed is now legal is that what you want to pay for something that God gives freely his name is the prince of peace Thank you. you want love you don't have to go and do something for it it is who he is and many of us have been searching for a feeling desperate for a feeling thirsty for a feeling but God set a thirst trap what are you saying pastor Mike your thirst for whatever it is It's just evidence that you need Jesus.

36:01 and when I saw this our savior being stretched out the one statement that I never saw before I found it in John chapter 19 verse 28 it's the second to last statement that our savior ever said he said later knowing that everything had now been finished after they beat him and mocked him and he took everything just for us. He said he knew the scripture would be fulfilled. And look at the one statement that Jesus said before he said, it is finished. He said, I am thirsty.

36:47 What? The last thing that one of the last things he would ever say is, I'm thirsty. He said, everything that you would be thirsty for, I took it. And he said, the only reason that I would say I'm thirsty is because I just poured out everything that I had just for you. God, I'm thirsty. So they don't have to be. It is. Finished. And he gave up his life. They didn't take it. He gave it up for me and for you. Three days, earth stood still. And on the third day, the stone was rolled away. With all power, victory, healing, the defeat over depression.

37:46 the win over anxiety everything that you've been going through he rose again with all power and he stands now as the victorious one that has defeated death hell and the grave and all he's asking is will you now allow me to let you live the way that you were created to live standing all over this place Thank you. I got good news for you. You don't got to be thirsty no more. Because Jesus took it. Whatever you've been searching for, it's found in the living water. Today I want to pray for you. I want to give you the opportunity to receive the gift of Jesus. The thing that took me from being addicted, pornography, a manipulator, a liar, somebody who would cheat people.

38:44 not a good person on the inside, somebody who would put on a facade and do all this other stuff. I want to give you the opportunity to make the decision that did not make me a perfect man, but made me a progressing man. I'm not where I want to be, but I am not where I used to be. And I am on the path to being the best version of who God's created me to be. And I want you to have the same thing, but you won't get it going to the wrong place. Today, would you close your eyes and bow your head? and I want you to think about your relationship with God is where it is is God far away from you or is he close to you today I want him to be as close as you want him to be the Bible said he stands at the door and he knocks but somebody's got to let him in and today is the day that you can let him in I want you to pray this prayer with me I know religion tells me you got to change everything but God says I'll take you just how you are broken lost hurting confused somebody I even feel in the spirit said I'll never serve God again he's not holding you to that he was betting that this would be your your moment at the well and he could meet you right here and I want you to pray this prayer with me and as transformation church we're a family we're gonna put it all together for the benefit of those who are coming to Christ only God knows if you really mean this.

40:04 So I want you to say it with everything you have. Say, God, I need you. I've been thirsty, but now I want what you have for me. I believe you lived and you died just for me. And today I make you my Lord and Savior. Change me. Renew me. Transform me. I'm yours. in Jesus name