There were three ministers who went to a pastor’s convention and were all sharing one room.
The first pastor said, "Let's confess our secret sins one to another.
I'll start. My secret sin is I don’t take time to pray for my church
members but my members think I am a prayer warrior.”
The second pastor said, "My secret sin is that I just hate working and
preparing the sermons. I copy all my sermons from those given by other
pastors."
The third pastor said, "My secret sin is gossiping and, oh boy, I can't wait to get out of this room!"
We laugh at that, but if we are honest, we probably all have had secret sins in our life. Sins that may haunt us…sins that may still control us…even sins that we have asked for forgiveness from, but still have an impact on our daily lives.
You are probably familiar with John 4:1-42 which tells the story of the Samaritan woman. This is a fascinating encounter to me. Here was a woman with a very sordid past and her sins weren’tsecret. Everyone in her community knew her to be promiscuous and I’m sure the tongues of the townspeople were kept pretty busy talking about this sinner. She definitely wouldn’t have been one of the “in” crowd with the other women because more than likely, she may have slept with some of their husbands. She would have been an outcast.
So why in the world would Jesus choose to speak to this despised woman at the well? If you read this text, you will see that He planned this encounter. Jesus chose this time and this place and this woman to be a part of a setting where He would, for the first time ever, formally and explicitly unveil His true identity as the Messiah. I would have thought He would have done that for the first time before a large crowd, like a Billy Graham crusade, to have a much greater impact. Instead, He selected this sinful, promiscuous woman to be the first to hear it. To me, that is amazing.
He told her…because He knew of her past. He told her…because He knew she needed a Messiah. He told her…because He knew she would tell others. Because of her willingness to tell others about the Messiah, because of her willingness to be vulnerable and confess to others about her sinful past, many came to know Him as their Lord and Savior. Jesus knew that this area was on the verge of accepting this living water that He was offering. That’s why He told his disciples that the field was ready for harvest there in Samaria. And because of one woman, being willing to spread the word, many were saved. Notice that these people told the woman that they no longer were just taking her word for it that Jesus was the Messiah. They had heard it for themselves and now believed. You see, too often we think we must do the saving. We don’t! We just have to be willing to tell those whom we see about our Jesus, about what He has done for us, and the Holy Spirit will make sure they see it for themselves.
You know, this woman could have wallowed in her sin, feeling like she wasn’t worthy of accepting the living water. Obviously, she wasn’t proud of what she had done and the sins she had committed, and she could have continued on in this sinful life, feeling like she could never be forgiven for all she had done. I think it is easy for some of us to do that too. We’ve done things in our past which we are not proud of, and even though we know that Jesus says He will forgive us of those sins, we continue to hold on to them, feeling shame and embarrassment. That is Satan making sure we don’t live a victorious life in Christ. He wants to keep us down and discouraged.
What an impact this despised, sinful, outcast woman ended up having on eternity! If she could be used to make a difference, don’t you think you and I can be too? Jesus can take us, with all our failures, with all our sins – secret and not so secret – cleanse us and allow us to be a living vessel for Him. What an honor and what a privilege. Now is the time to quit wallowing in our past and feeling that there isn’t any hope. There IS hope in our Messiah!
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