The Fulfillment Quotient

A sermon preached by Dr. Peter James Flamming, Pastor
First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
August 1, 1999

Text: John 4: 4-30

We know about I.Q. We even have heard about E.Q. – Emotional Quotient. But have you ever thought about F.Q. – Fulfillment Quotient.

Most of us have a deep desire to find fulfillment in our lives. On a scale of 1 to 10 how fulfilled do you feel these days? We can trace our quest for fulfillment through four circles, each one inside of the other.

The outer circle might be called the Respectability Circle of Fulfillment. Here we seek to be fulfilled by being well thought of, successful, are concerned about our status, about having the right opportunities, and the right friends.

The next circle might be called the Relational Circle of Fulfillment. Now we are dealing with the relationship we have with family, with friends, and with God. When these are in good shape we feel good about life. When they are fractured, we despair.

The third circle we might call the Purpose Circle of Fulfillment One of the great fulfilling purposes in life is to have a purpose in life. This is what motivates us and gets us up on Monday morning.

The final and most inward circle we might call the Spiritual Circle of Fulfillment. This is the God circle, the eternal circle. This is the circle that lasts through to eternity. When this circle is strong and healthy, the other circles can go through radical readjustment and we survive with God’s grace.

Incidentally, Jesus’ life was devoted to the last three circles. He spent almost no time worrying about the outward circle of respectability, and was totally concerned about the other three, his relationships, his purpose, and his relationship to the Father in Heaven. In contrast, we spend most of our energy on the outward circle of respectability, and almost no time on the other three.

Cutting to the Core

Now the question is, is it possible to get to the spiritual circle without going through the three outer circles? For most of us the answer is, it would be difficult. We often discover our spiritual core through our relationships and our search for a meaningful purpose in life. But what if those three outer circles are not possible?

Consider Sychar. It was the sixth hour, or noon. One o’clock for the ancients was morning not the middle of the night. Jesus and his disciples come to a little village called Sychar with mudbrick houses with flat roofs on dirt streets. It is noon. The summer heat has forced everyone into the shade of the homes, or beneath trees. The only store that stays open is the little shop that sells food in case outsiders come through, such as Jesus’ disciples. The small children are supposed to be taking their naps but then, as now, that is always up for grabs.

In the midst of the summer noontime heat a woman slips out from her home. Her shawl is drawn loosely over her head. The water pot with which she will carry her water for the day is carefully balanced on her head as she walks all alone to Jacob’s well, the only tourist attraction in town.

The well is not far from the village, but today it is not deserted as it usually is in the noonday heat. A man, a Jewish man named Jesus, asks her for a drink of water. Communication begins and Communion begins.

Communion?

Communion in the Old Testament is carried by the Hebrew word chabar. It meant bonding, or joining together. It was used of the sharing of a home, of a couple, of nations in alliance. It is a togetherness word. When for the Greek world the Old Testament was translated into Greek, the word used was koinonia. Whatever word you use, communion in the Old Testament is a word between people. In the New Testament Christ brings us communion not only with each other but with God. Communion and communication

come from the same root. This is the Christian gospel: that God wants to communicate with us, have communion with us, have fellowship with us, bond with us.

As a result of this bonding, Jesus is able to speak to the woman who has come to the well about springs of living water, eternal water, that does not dry up but keeps being replenished. What Jesus does is take this woman to the inner circle right at the start. He has no other option.

She has no possibility of ever being respectable. She is a woman. A prayer of the extremists of that day went like this: "Lord, I thank you that I was not created a dog, a Gentile, or a woman." Thankfully this has changed. I like to think Jesus had a major part in changing that although we men seem threatened by Jesus’ approach.

She has no possibility of having a healthy relational circle of fulfillment. We discover that she has been married five times and is now living with a man who is not her husband. (John 4:17,18)

She has no real purpose in life except to survive, which is why she has gone to the well to get the water at noonday to avoid meeting other more respectable people. However, we might want to notice that after Jesus has connected with this woman, she grasps a noble purpose indeed. She goes into Sychar with an invitation to "Come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Can this be the Messiah?" (John 4:28,29)

Our Lord went right to the heart of things with this woman. He promises to supply even her struggling person with the water of eternal life. He says that this water would flow from our innermost being. The word translated "innermost being" is sometimes translated appetite, or even hunger. He is talking about that inner Circle of Spiritual Fulfillment. Why is it that this kind of inner fulfillment is so rare? Do you have it? How can you get it?

May I suggest we follow the three little baby steps the woman took, each one of which is a huge step into the pool of living water.

You are known by God

Begin with the woman’s declaration about Jesus, "He told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?" No magic here. No fortune telling here. No crystal gazing. What we are looking at is the simple truth that God knows everything about us but loves us anyway and wishes to transform us little by little from what Larry Crabb has called the inside out. He has a book by that title.

I began the service with that awesome prayer from the Book of Common Prayer,

Father in Heaven, Before Whom all hearts are open, All desires known, And before whom no secrets are hid. Cleanse Thou our hearts through the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit.

The first step to fulfillment in God’s presence is to be ruthlessly honest with God about ourselves. Have you ever noticed how many of the Psalms are prayers that peal back how the Psalmist is really feeling? We are so afraid to really let God know what we feel when God knows anyway. When we begin to share all of life with God, we discover it is not the end of everything, but the beginning of all things with God.

Leave Something Behind

The woman leaves her water pot, which is why she went to the well in the first place. (John 4:28) For some of us who take communion this day we do well to leave something behind.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if tomorrow when our custodians come to pick up the discarded bulletins, they could pick up some inner baggage we have left behind. They might vacuum up some bitterness, some hatred, some sins left behind, and some attitudes we have trashed. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if they could pick up some discarded worries, some fears, and some anxieties.

The woman left her water pot because she had found an inner spring of living water that dwarfed the clay pot she carried. What might we leave behind when we connect with the Lord today?

You are loved

The good news about Jesus our Lord is this: He knows us through and through but loves us still and all.

Tony Campolo remembers a time when he was asked to be a counselor at a middle school camp. It was one of those camps when you wanted to sing, Where have all the good guys gone? It was a mean spirited crowd. And mean spirited middle-schoolers can pick on others like the mischief. One was particularly picked on. His name was Billy and he was suffering from cerebral palsy.

How they picked on him! When he was walking across the campus in his sometimes slow movements they would mimic him. At the table they would mimic his pattern of eating. One day when he asked, "Where…is…the… crafts…shop. . . ." They mimicked him – It’s…over…there…, Billy.

Compolo says the camp was so bad they even brought some baseball players who had increased their batting averages by praying, to try to influence the kids. Nothing worked.

On Thursday morning it was Billy’s cabin’s turn to give the devotions. Billy had been appointed to be the speaker. It was clear that the rest of the cabin had put him up there so they could later mimic him. As he dragged his way to the front you could almost hear the giggles and the snickers rolling over the crowd.

Never able to speak swiftly, in front of everybody it took Billy almost five minutes to say just seven words. He said, Jesus … loves. . . me . . . and . . . I . . . love . . . Jesus.

When he finished there was dead silence. Nobody moved. Suddenly there were guys bawling all over the place. A revival broke out in the camp after Billy’s testimony. Campolo says he is amazed at the number of missionaries and ministers he meets, literally all over the world, who will say to him, "Remember me? I was converted at the camp where Billy spoke."

We are loved by the one who took the bread and the wine and said this is going to be like my body and my blood, which I give to prove my love for you.

Three little steps with huge leaps toward eternity: Experience that God knows all about you, so you can be honest with God about where you are. Experience the love of God. Let God love you! Leave something behind that has been clogging up the living water of life that needs to run through your inmost being.

A Spiritual Level of Power and Fulfillment

In Ortberg’s book is the story Tom Schmidt sent him about Mabel. It was a state-run hospital, understaffed and overfilled with senile and helpless people. Schmidt went there twice a week for four years but always felt relief when he left. On a particular day he was walking down a hallway he had not visited before, looking for a few who were alive enough to appreciate a flower he wanted to give them. Down at the end of the hall was a woman strapped in a wheel chair. She was blind, mostly deaf, and her face was eaten up with cancer. He found out later that she was 89 years old and had been there alone for 25 years.

Tom doesn’t remember why he spoke to her. But he put a flower in her hand and said, "Here is a flower for you. Happy Mother’s Day." She held the flower up to her face and tried to smell it. Then she spoke rather clearly and said, "Thank you, its lovely. But can I give it to someone else? I can’t see. I’m blind you know." That made him know she was no ordinary person.

For three years he visited her weekly and got to know her story. Raised on a farm, she and her mother managed the farm until her mother died. She managed it alone until she became blind and came to the convalescent home 25 years previous, her health in something of a downward spiral. Sometimes Tom would read Scriptures. If he stopped to turn the page she would often continue it by memory. And if he sang a hymn she usually knew all the words.

He became aware that this was no ordinary person and he began to write down what she said. During one hectic week he asked himself, ‘I wonder what Mabel thinks about all day?" So he asked her. She said, "I think about my Jesus." He thought for a minute about how difficult it was for him to think about Jesus for even five minutes. "Well, what do you think about Jesus?"

She replied, "I think about how good he’s been to me. He’s been awfully good to me in my life you know. . . I’m one of those kind who’s mostly satisfied with my life . . . Lots of folks wouldn’t care what I think. I’m kind of old fashioned. But I don’t care. I’d rather have Jesus. He’s all the world to me."

And then Mabel began to sing an old hymn: "Jesus is all the world to me, My life, my joy, my all, He is my strength from day to day, Without him I would fall."

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