March 8, 2026
We have all made big messes in our life. But often we look at other people who have messed up lives and we think: “Wow, they’re a mess!” Thing is, we only know what a mess is, because we’re a mess!
I’ll tell you about a big mess I was in. About 10 years ago, I got a letter from the IRS. You owe $13,000 in taxes. Told Kevin and he said, “You’re kidding!” We were feeling a lot of anxiety! We called the IRS. It turns out, Kevin had typed one digit wrong of his social security number on the tax return. We sent our taxes to the IRS, but they didn’t credit what we paid to our account. I’m picturing somebody out there with a SS number very close to Kevin’s getting a huge tax refund!
I’m wondering, what happened to the $13,000 we paid? Will we have to come up with $13,000?! It took a while, but the IRS eventually credited the checks we sent in. We didn’t need to pay another $13,000.
Maybe you’re in a mess right now, so big you don’t know how you can ever clean it up. It could be a financial mess, a relationship mess, a mess at work, or you’re in trouble with the law! There is a disaster in your life, and you’re not sure you can fix it or clean it up!
The good news is your mess can cause you to look up and draw near to God. Why did God send Jesus into this world? Because we are all a mess! We try to do good, but we sin. We need help!
Last Sunday we talked about maybe the most famous verse in the Bible: God so love the world, that he gave his only son, so that whoever believes in him will have everlasting life, John 3:16. The following verse, John 3:17, is also a wonderful verse. If you’re in a mess, you want to hear it. It goes, “God did not send his son into the world in order to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”
God didn’t send Jesus to tell you, “Do you realize what a mess you’ve made?!” No, God came into the world to rescue us from our mess, and to rescue us from ourselves. Because we are the issue behind most of our messes!
In John 4 there is a woman known as the woman at the well who meets Jesus, and her life is kind of a mess! So, we can see what’s it like when God shows up in your mess by looking at her story! Jesus is in Samaria, just passing through with his disciples. She comes to a well to draw water. Jesus is sitting there while his disciples are off finding food. Jesus is tired from a long day, it’s noon, and it’s hot outside. Jesus asks her to take her water jar, draw some water and give him a drink from the well. The woman and her jar are the only way Jesus can take a drink.
The woman says, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” Jews and Samaritans are related but have different views on religion and where you worship God. They can’t just agree to disagree about it. Jews and Samaritans stopped talking to each other over it. Their disagreement was a religious mess. Jesus doesn’t agree with this no talking rule. He talks to the woman.
“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” Jesus is saying, you’re going to want to talk with me, you’ll get a gift from God! There’s more than you think on the line here!
She says, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?”
Jesus says he’s talking about a different water, that will mean she won’t get thirsty again. A life-giving water that springs up and gives eternal life! The woman says, I would like this, so I never have to walk to this well again and draw water!
Then Jesus tells her to go get her husband to come. She says, “I have no husband.” Jesus says, “You are right when you say you have no husband.The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.” That was a lot of husbands back then, and a lot of husbands today! That’s her mess. Jesus knew all along the mess she was in. But he doesn’t condemn her. He doesn’t judge her. He doesn’t tell her, “I came for the saints, not the sinners.” Instead, Jesus sees her and her mess. The woman is just impressed that he knows all about her, and yet he’s still having a conversation with her. She says, “I can see you are a prophet.”
She says, “I know the Messiah is coming.” Jesus says, “I am he.” The woman responds to this by leaving her water jar, going back to her town and telling all the people: “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” Soon her neighbors meet Jesus, also believe, and say, “we know that this man really is the Savior of the world!”
This woman was in a mess when she met Jesus, and she didn’t deny it. Jesus understood her, didn’t judge her, and she came to believe and follow him. Jesus is the way out of a mess! When we’re in a mess, it’s usually because of what we’ve done. We make so many of our messes.
When we got the letter from the IRS that we owed $13,000, I thought, it’s not my fault, Kevin does the taxes. But every year, I sign the tax form, below these words, “I declare that I have examined this return and accompanying schedules and statements, and to the best of my knowledge and belief, they are true, correct, and complete.” I was not innocent of the mess! Because I didn’t look over the return!
So often when we make a mess, we want a quick fix. We want AAA to come fix the car. We want a get out of jail free card. Praying or confessing our mess to God isn’t much good! If I’m not going to proofread my tax return, what happens? I have had issues with my taxes since the $13,000 incident, because I didn’t proofread. If I’m not going to look at how I got in this mess in the first place, and ask God, what do you want me to do to change, nothing will change! I need to ask God, “How do I follow you and your way, and not me and my way?” If I don’t follow God, I will stay stuck in my mess.
When you decide, I will follow God out of this mess, you do things differently. You don’t blame your mess on someone else. I don’t blame it all on Kevin; saying he did the taxes. The woman at the well doesn’t blame her numerous marriages on bad luck and five rotten husbands. When you follow God, you own your mistakes and open your heart to the way of Christ. The good news is God doesn’t condemn us, and we can follow Him out of our messes!
The good thing about our messes, is we turn to God because of them. Bless this mess! It draws me closer to God. What God wants most, is a relationship with us. I’d rather have kids who aren’t perfect who I have a relationship with, than perfect kids who don’t speak to me. How I feel about my kids is a reflection of God’s heart. When we misbehave and make messes, God doesn’t condemn. He saves! God wants you and I to have a lifelong relationship with Him, listening to him and following his ways. Following God is best!
My homework for you is to think of an overwhelming mess you’re in. Jesus asks you to surrender to God. Give up on your selfish way. Let Jesus lead you and follow him out of your mess! When you surrender to God, God gives unearned favor, and undeserved forgiveness!
God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world. He sent his Son, Jesus, to save us from our sins, save us from our messes, and to have a lifegiving relationship with him! The good news is God doesn’t condemn us, and if we follow Him, He will lead us out of our messes. Amen.
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