Just one quick glance at your Newsfeed and it should be as obvious to you as it is to everyone else: Something is wrong–with the world, with people, with all of it. No one would suggest otherwise. We ALL know something is terribly wrong, which begs the question: what–or who–can set it right again? 

Have you ever heard of the expression, “Two sides of the same coin?” It refers to a situation where two things appear superficially to be opposites of one another, but they are in fact fundamentally alike. I think last week’s message and this week’s message are a great example of this.

Last week we read about a conversation that Jesus had with a social, moral, and religious outcast. “The outcast of outcasts”, we said, right? She was a woman, five times married and was now living with a man who was not her husband, who went to the water well to draw water at noon because she would rather brave the heat of the day than face a crowd. She was obviously desperate…

This week we will read about a conversation Jesus has with not an outcast but an insider in every way imaginable–socially, morally, religiously, you name it. We might say he was “put together” or he had life “all figured out.”

Superficially, these two could not appear to be any more different than they are, but spiritually, they were one in the same. And if these two, who were as different as we could imagine, had this in common spiritually, I think it is likely many of us share this same spiritual diagnosis as well.

Every person in the world wants what will make him or her truly happy. As a result we are all desperately searching for the person, place, or thing that will meet our expectations, needs, and wants; searching for that which will fully and forever satisfy our deepest desires.

What–if anything–can satisfy this never-ending thirst? 

Pastor Rick Chitwood helps us to see when sacrificing our freedoms for others is loving.