Biblical Young Adulthood - The Wise Fool

  A Wise Fool

Great Commission Church - Olive Branch

JC Russell

Hey everyone! Welcome to Great Commission Church My name is JC Russell I’m the youth pastor here and I want to welcome you, I’m so glad God brought you here and I can’t wait to open God’s word with you, I had a few ideas when I was brainstorming for this, originally, I thought about talking about what biblical young adulthood looks like but eventually I landed on this premise. If I only had 30 minutes to talk to a young adult going through life in our culture today, what would I tell them? What would a mother pray her wayward son or daughter would hear. What do I wish someone told me when I was younger? If you think about it a young adult is kind of like a sophomore. Not completely inexperienced in life like a freshman but lacking the knowledge and experience of an upper classman. Do you know what sophomore means? It means a wise fool and if I’m honest being a somewhat young adult I can relate. I wrote this message with young adults in mind but there’s no limit when it comes to wisdom and truth, so whether you are 22, 42, or 82 the truth we look at today will be relevant to you. Whether you are a wise fool or not I believe God brought you here for a reason… If you were to ask me where in the Bible should I start reading from I would give you two answers especially if you are a young adult. I will always recommend the Book of Proverbs in the Old Testament and The Gospel of John in the New Testament, if you ever are confused and just want to know a safe place to start there it is. Proverbs shows the wisdom of God and The Gospel of John shows the Son of God. So tonight, I want to give you some verses from the wisdom of God and then I want to look at those verses being demonstrated in the life of Jesus to hopefully encourage you and show you the love of God in a way that maybe you’ve never seen before. But before we go any further let’s go to the lord. (PRAY)     I don’t know if you’ve noticed but seemingly everyone in my generation and younger have been lied to. We have been overpromised and underdelivered by the world. We have been asked to build our life on things that do not matter. We have been told that right is wrong, left is right, and up is down, what we thought was truth turned out to just be foolishness. Where scripture says buy the truth and sell it not, we were told ignore the truth and tell it not. So, preacher what words of wisdom would you give someone who’s grown up in a post morality and post truth world…… That’s easy I’d show them the wisdom of God and the Life of His son.   Proverbs 3:7 “Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil.” Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil. Proverbs 27:6 says this “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Do you have someone who loves you enough to tell you no. Do you have someone who loves you enough to say that’s not helpful. Find someone who loves you enough to wound you with wisdom and help turn you from the things that would harm you. But what does that look like and why is that helpful? Let’s look at the life of Jesus and if you stay with me, I think some of you are going to be set free tonight. This is what it look like when Jesus who is full of love…full of compassion…and full of wisdom steps in and get us to turn from evil and turn away from the things that are harming us. If you have your Bibles go ahead and turn to John 4:16-18. While yall are turning there let me catch us up, Jesus has gone into Samaria which is totally taboo, because historically Jews and Samaritans hated each other, Jesus then does something else seemingly taboo he talks to a woman at the well, and he offers her something called living water and this living water brings eternal life. Living Water is something used to describe God both in the Old Testament and the New. God is described as living water in Jeremiah 2:13 and John 7:38 and 39. So Jesus is offering this woman something that everyone needs……he’s offering her God. But before he gives her this living water Jesus does something strange. Something that may appear mean and hurtful but if you’ll stay locked in, I promise You’ll see why Jesus did it and you’ll see why it’s so beautiful.  So, let’s dive into the words of Jesus in John 4:16-18. John 4:16-18 after she asked for the living water. Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” Amen, I love this passage because of what it teaches us about who Jesus is and what Jesus wants to do with our life. So, what happens in these passages can seem kind of mean, this lady is ready to give her life to God, but Jesus tells her to do something. To go get her Husband and come here. Why does he do this? Wouldn’t it be easier if Jesus just gave her the living water? Like wouldn’t it be easier if Jesus just prayed with her? So why does Jesus do this? Everyone, write this down. Jesus does this because: He is the Messiah of the Mess. It’s not that Jesus didn’t know this was a sore spot for her, its’s not like Jesus was being polite and then was blindsided by the fact that she doesn’t have a husband. He knew. He knows everything about us. Jesus knew this was the most embarrassing and most painful part of her story. She doesn’t have a husband; in fact, she’s had five husbands meaning they have all either abandoned her, divorced her or died. Can you imagine the pain and the shame that she probably feels from this part of her past?  We all may not have 5 ex-husbands in our past, but we’ve all got something. Something that when we think about it, it either causes us real pain or real shame. Something that we think is too dark or too shameful to bring up in fact we think if anyone ever found out that we even struggled with this it would be game over. So now no one can ever know what I’ve done or what I’ve been thru. No one can ever really know me… So, God… if you even want me… you get me in my mask, not me in my mess.  Listen I don’t know what your mess is, I don’t know how you came in here. So many of us if we were at that well when we met Jesus he wouldn’t tell us to go get our husband, but I think he would say something like this. You want God? You want this living water then go and get your search history and come here. Bring me your self-harm. Tell me about your eating disorder. Bring me the Bible you haven’t read in over a year. Go get your girlfriend or boyfriend who you got a little too carried away with and come here. You want God, go grab the whiskey bottle under your bed and come here. Go grab the journal where you write your suicidal thoughts down and come here. Why would Jesus say this? Why would Jesus wound us this way Jesus does this because: He doesn’t want who you pretend to be, He wants you. Remember Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. If Jesus hadn’t brought up that hurt, I think there would have always been this little bit of doubt that says if God had really known what I’ve done or what I’ve been thru he wouldn’t really want me. If Jesus really knew about all my past husbands, he wouldn’t have offered me that living water. I can’t really come to Christ because I’ve still got this mess. Friend if that’s you tonight God has brought you here to set you free. Christ knows all of who you are, and he wants all of you today. Things don’t get better by leaving them in the dark let the light of God do wonders for your soul tonight. Believers hear this 1 John 3:20 says this: For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.” God knows exactly who you are tonight, and he still offers you living water. You can come to Christ with everything, He can be trusted with every single part of your life. Because he is the Messiah of the mess, even your mess. If you’re a believer God knew every single time you would sin, every single time you would fail him, every single time you would choose sin over him and he still chose you, he still paid for your sin at the cross. All of it past, present, and future, your debt has been paid in full. If you belong to Jesus, you are fully His and fully known by Him. One more thing I want us to learn from this and then we’ll wrap up. Jesus Doesn’t just bring up her past pains…… He brings up her present sins. Look at John 4:16-18.  Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. The one you now have is not your husband… Jesus doesn’t ignore the pain in her past or the sin in her present because he can save her from both… Likewise Jesus doesn’t ignore the pain in our past or the sin in our present because he can save us from both. Christ doesn’t come for the perfect because there are none. But he has come for you today. Whether you are 22 or 82 please if you hear nothing else hear me today. Jesus doesn’t wait for us to clean ourselves up and finally get our mess together he simply walks up says bring it to me… Romans 5:6 (NLT) says “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” The Bible says if you’re a believer you have been justified by faith and have peace with God.  That means if you have confessed Jesus as Lord then every time you feel the painful pull and remember everything wrong or shameful you’ve ever done remind yourself you have been declared not guilty by the judge of heaven. Christ came at just the right time and died not for the perfect, not for the people who have it all together. He came for sinners like us. Jesus doesn’t wait for us to clean ourselves up or finally get our sins together he simply walks up says bring it to me. So why does Jesus do this?  Because he is a faithful friend, and he is true wisdom. Friend, how will you respond to the king of heaven today? Will you stay a wise fool being wise in your own eyes or will you humble yourself today and hear the words of a faithful friend . Let’s Pray…………  –-AMEN--