Where is your Samaria? | Nicole C. Mullen

when I was praying about what the Lord would have me share he dropped something on my heart and I'm gonna with you in a second but I want to introduce introduce myself in another way I know you may know me from singing but I'm some of you may not have heard my story and so I'm going to share a little bit of it today the Bible says that we overcame they overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony and so I think it's time for us to make sure that we're sharing our testimony underneath the blood of the Lamb amen amen I was born and raised in Cincinnati Ohio any Buckeyes out there all right all right one I'll take it all right come on girl born in Cincinnati Ohio my parents were deacons in the church my grandparents were Pentecostal pastors on both sides of the family yeah I love to say I was in church like eight nine ten days a week all the time and when I was around eight years old they were like - Friday nights in a row that the pastor gave the altar call and I remember sitting there and my heart was beating really fast my palms are sweaty and I knew God was talking to me it was like there was this invisible finger pointed into my chest and I was like God I know you're calling me up there's this Friday afternoon this Friday night but I had this conversation and I said I don't know if you know but in our church the age of accountability is not 8 it's 12 so technically I still have 4 more years to sin I was a smart kid I'm just saying and I really wasn't ready to cash it in until on that second Friday night on the way home my dad promised me not a spanking like some of y'all get those little sweet nice spankings he promised me whooping you know the weapon is it's a spanking on steroids with a song and a dance you had that didn't I tell you not to attest and I said oh I don't want one of those so I said okay god I got real spiritual real quick I said okay Lord if you get me out of this whoopin tonight I'm gonna give you my heart and that night he gave my dad temporary amnesia he completely forgot I'm sure I deserved it I don't know what I was doing in church probably talking eating passing gum something that we weren't allowed to do in church I'm not sure what it was but I didn't want to whooping and so I said god I'm gonna give you my heart and that night like I said my dad forgot I had remembered and I love singing this part y'all since God always keeps his promises I knew I had to keep mine so that night I went up to the room that I shared with my sisters nobody was around no pastors no parents no choirs no deacons it was just me and the god of the universe and that night I bowed my heart and about my knee beside my bed and I asked him if he would come into my heart I asked him if he would forgive me of all my sins because I mean I wasn't older than around eight but I knew what sin was I knew that I was born with this disease in my body and the only way to eradicate this disease called sin that affected everything got touched everywhere I want everything I said was for me to receive what Jesus Christ had done for me over 2,000 years ago and the grown-ups had told me that the same Jesus was the same yesterday today and forever he never changed and the power of the blood that existed back then still existed now so even at eight I had enough faith to hear to understand and to believe the Word of God and to act upon it and so that night when I made the great exchange with God asked him to forgive my sins ask him to come into my life to change my heart to do something good with my life I didn't have to answer words but my heart was sincere because he had you looked at me had you seen me I would have been that little girl that you wouldn't not have stopped before probably I was the one with one ponytail one this way one ponytail one that way I was the thumb sucker the fast talker still AM the bed wetter I was the shy one the least likely to succeed but God but God and so that night we made the great exchange I gave him my sin he gave me his right standing with God I gave him I hopelessness he gave me hope I gave him my past he said I has I have a future for you and we've been doing life y'all together ever since and it's been about old close to that's a long time I don't even know if I should tell your home but it's been about 43 years [Applause] around the age of 12 year I'm 51 y'all do the math I'm 51 okay throw down the fields chocolate and Jesus thank you very much okay but around the age of 12 we had something in our church called catechism and we would learn the rudiments of the faith and after we had learned it we would stand up front and the elders would come and they would lay hands on us and there was a lady in our church her name was sister Dottie and she was known to prophesy now you have people who profit lie you know I'm saying y'all heard somebody elder than God there wasn't the Lord and then there are those who prophesied sister Dottie she really did prophesy so she came and she stood in front of me as I was standing in front of the church and she said to me the Lord would say to you say not in your heart that you were small but you are great because I live within you and then she began to say what God told her to tell me he told her to tell me that he was going to take me around the world singing for him in the natural and impossibility he said he was going to give me songs in the night and I thought he meant he's gonna give me songs you know after like 10 or 11 o'clock at night and I was kind of cool with that because I was watching Charlie's Angels Baretta The Love Boat yeah I know what I'm talking about back in the day some of y'all just ask your mama's cuz y'all like were asking me but I thought okay he's gonna give me songs at night cuz I'm a night owl it didn't hit me until later on that he meant he was going to give me songs in the dark seasons of life for the night seasons of life he was going to show up as the light and he was going to sing over me and I can tell you today y'all if you've ever heard a song written are saying by Nkosi Mullen more than likely it was written in my night season it was written in the midst of crushing in the midst of breaking in the midst of heartbreak heart ache that's where Christ showed up because he's not afraid of misses he's not afraid of mishaps he's afraid of mistakes he does his best work with things that we would have thrown away that's the kind of God he is I want to share something with you today about being faithful and being fearless and it's a story that starts over in John chapter 4 I like to I love the scripture I love reading scripture I love talking about the Bible this is my favorite topic ever is the Word of God but before I get to chapter 4 of John I want to start with chapter 3 this happens before it and it says there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews the same came to Jesus by night and said unto Him we know that thou art a teacher come from God for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with them jesus answered and said unto Him verily verily i santé thee except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God Nicodemus said how can a man be born when he is old can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born jesus answered verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God that which is one of the flesh is flesh that which is one of the Spirit is spirit Marvel not that I said unto thee ye must be born again the wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hears the sounder of but chemists not saw once it come about whither it goeth so it's every one that is one of the Spirit Nicodemus it how can these things be jesus said I did a master bedroom I know it's not these things we speak that we do know and testify that we have seen and ye receive not our witness if I have told you earthly things and you believe not how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things and no man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven even the Son of Man which is in heaven and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life for God so loved world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life and my favorite says for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved can I get an amen somebody amen I'm gonna read from chapter four of John the book of John starting at the first one and it says now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized but his disciples so he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee now he had to go through Samaria let me who say I need to go through Samaria one more time I need to go through Samaria verse five so he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph Jacob's Well was there and Jesus tired as he was from the journey sat down by the well it was about noon when a Samaritan woman came to draw water jesus said to her will you give me a drink his disciples had gone into town to buy food the Samaritan woman said to him you're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan woman how can you ask me for a drink for Jews do not associate with Samaritans jesus answered her if you knew the gift of God and who it is that asked you for a drink you would have asked him and he would have given you living water sir the woman said you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep why can you get this living water are you greater than our Father Jacob who gave us the well and drank from it himself as did his sons and his livestock verse 13 jesus answered everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again but whoever drinks the water I give them with never thirst indeed the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life the woman said to him Sir give me this water so I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water he told her go call your husband and come back she replied jesus said to her you're right when you say you have no husband the fact is you've had five husbands and the man you now have is not your husband what you've said is quite true sir the woman said I can see that you're a prophet our ancestors worshiped on this mountain but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem woman replied jesus replied believe me a time is coming when you will worship the father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem you Samaritans worship what you do not know we worship what we do know for salvation is of the Jews yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth for they are the kind of worshipers the father seeks God is spirit and his worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth gonna say that woman time God is spirit and his worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth verse 25 the woman said I know that Messiah called the Christ is coming when he comes he will explain everything to us then Jesus declared I the one speaking to you I am he then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with the woman but no one asked what do you want or why are you talking with her then leaving her water jar the woman went back to town and said to the people come see a man who told me everything I ever did could this be the Messiah they came out of the town and made their way toward him meanwhile the disciples him rabbi eat something and I'm gonna stop there right now eventually the people believed because of her word I want to state y'all the Samaria was a place that no good Jew would have gone to it was the place that they deemed the people there forgive what I'm saying but this is what they would call them they called them half-breeds they were half Jew half pagan and no-good Jew would be caught dead in Samaria but Jesus said he needed to go through Samaria normally if you had to get from point A to point B and there was Samaria in the middle you would just take the long route and go around you would not go through it was that place it was those people we don't go there we don't associate but Jesus said he needed to go through Samaria he had an appointment he was about to break tradition stereotypes partisanship because he was a man on a mission you're hearing me his destination was to meet a woman and to offer her living water his mission was more important than the place that he rather not go this water was a connection between the two they both had a joint ancestor Jacob Jacob was the ancestor of the Samaritans and of the Jews and so this well this wall of water was something that was for both of them so as I was reading this a couple of days ago the Lord asked me he said Nicole who are those people for you where is your Samaria where would you rather not go who would you rather not associate with and so as he's asking me I'm asking you where is your Samaria what are the Samaritans in your life that you like and it's too messy now I'd rather not because if we're all honest y'all we all have them we all have them or it could be a place called loneliness but he says you got to go through a place called heartache you got to go through a place called rejection a place called not being popular a place called single yes a place called Mary there what is the place what is your Samaria back to the story when Jesus offered her the what were asked for the water the Samaritan woman she recognized the office and she was like like what's going on here y'all don't normally associate with people like us like why are why are we having this conversation but Jesus needed to go through Samaria I mean he was taken I need to go through Samaria last week I had a scenario that came up and I was like asked to do an event that I honestly I could not have done in my flesh I was like God if I do this people are gonna think that I've compromised my values and my morals or do you know how I am you know what I believe I believe a word you know and if people see me singing about you over there they may think I'm sad without and so I had this tug-of-war y'all I'm being honest I called my pastor and then I called why I reached up to my pastor his wife the music pastor another pastor and then another pastor trying to get all of them to tell me girl don't go just don't go and I was like lord I need wisdom because the Bible says over Psalm 1 blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful but here's a y'all know the scripture so I'm like lord I need godly wisdom and they all said we'd be praying for you they gave me their wisdom and said but you need to do what God puts on your heart and the Lord said to me you need to go through Samaria I did it the Lord was glorified and I tell a little bit more about it in a little bit but it was a hard call but it was not a place that in my flesh I would have wanted to go but I can't say and I'm grateful that the Lord was glorified and I had God connections because of obedience God is going to call you to take the living water his living water to people and places that may not be comfortable for you y'all it may not be kosher it may not be just what you want to do but if we say we love Him he said the proof of our love is to do what be obedient keep his Commandments so anyway we need to go through Samaria Jesus was physically thirsty so he asked for a drink he knew that her thirst was greater than his and so he was on assignment there are people who are thirsty all people who are thirsty Jesus asked the woman for water and she was surprised and he said basically I'm greater than Jacob does she asks are you greater than the then Jacob the Prophet and he pretty much said yes I am because He is God he said everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again but whosoever drinketh the water that I shall give them shall never thirst but the water that I give them shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life then Jesus tells her about herself about her issues he comes down to where she lives and he tells her he says go and get your husband because she's like I want this water like I want what you have like the water I have I'm gonna be thirsty again but you said you have a water that would make me never thirsty again so can I have some of that he said okay go and get your husband and she was like a half nine and what he was saying is go get the husband that belongs to you now I know that there are a couple of ways to interpret passage but I want to submit something to you just to think of as a possibility of what he could be saying the easy translation could be that he's saying you have had five marriages he said you have had five husbands so it could be interpreted that she has had five marriages she's been divorced five times and now she has a husband that is not hers let me submit that he could have also been said you have had five husbands five people husbands you've had Rachel's husbands Becky's husband you've had Cindy's husband Nancy's husband Charlotte's husband you've had five husbands and the one you have now ain't your husband either cuz you got to see at this point y'all she's coming to the well not when most women came to the well they came early in the morning or later at night when the Sun was not high she's coming at 12:00 noon she doesn't want to be seen she's an outcast she's the one that they talk about she's the one that those women are saying I don't get your husband away from her cuz she's a home wrecker I'm just saying she was not the popular one in town and had Jesus come just a little bit earlier he could have spoken to the good ones he could have spoken to the righteous ones the clean ones he could have spoken to the popular ones but yo he made sure that his Trek brought him into town at 12:00 noon when that one that Samaritan would be coming to the well and before he asked her for water he already knew he was going to offer her something else here at he knew her story and when he told on her when he was like this is your predicament this is what you've been in guess what y'all he had no stones in his hand no stones he didn't call her names he didn't call her partner my friend huh see I'm just saying he didn't call her you know I'm going to other terms I've got some young guns here don't want y'all you know I'm saying but he didn't call her names he didn't say shame on you girl get your own man no he saw the thirst on the inside of her and he said I have living water for you that can hydrate satiate the thirst in the well on the inside of you you want some do you want some because y'all he needed to go through Samaria he heard the cry of someone in Samaria we be found faithful will we do the same so she goes in or first she's there for a minute they're talking and when he first you know tell us her predicament she gets a little uncomfortable she's he affirms it she's like I can tell that you're a prophet he touched a nerve and now she's gonna change the subject she didn't go any further there sits like I could perceive you're a prophet um your people say that we need to worship in Jerusalem she changed it to religion a politics something other than home something other than what really would have touched me if Jesus was reading your mail what would he have said if he was putting your business out there what would he have said if he was telling mine he probably would have said yeah Nicole I know you because at the age of 20 you thought you were wrong girl and you married this guy you thought he was a black Apostle Paul cuz he said bless God up to everything and you were like oh he's so spiritual oh he's a spirit job until he started beating you dragging me out of the bed by your heels kicking you in the ribs until he went to the knife drew and started clicking them calling yeah that was you and then after you got out of that marriage Nicole I remember well before that I remember Nicole you were the one that laid in your bed praying that I would take your life coz you were so depressed you wanted me just to take you home yeah I had spoken over you when you were eight yeah spoke over you when you were 12 I gave you words but you wanted to die or he would have said and then after that was over you had a little chip on your shoulder because you thought I owed you something because you were a good girl you gave your heart to me at eighth catechism at twelve Bible School at 17 you kept yourself and you thought I owed you something so you had a little bit of a chip on your shoulder and said now this next one I can do it myself and so you did and so your foundation was a little off and you started compromising doing things that you should not have done and then after 21 years of being married an infidelity throughout it and your heart was broken and you had to practice forgiveness over and over and over again when you felt betrayed after 21 years Nicole guess what that one didn't work either would he have said that about me and then what he said remember I was the one who sang over you in the midst of your night season I was the one that when you were brokenhearted I came and I whispered hope I'm the one who spoke my word over here and brought me back to life in your spirit had died I'm the one who revived you I'm the one who said the very same God who spins things in orbit runs to the weary the worn in the weak I'm the one who told you when you call on Jesus all things are possible you can mount on the wings like eagles and soar I'm the one who breathe there are days when I feel the best of me is ready to begin and then there are days I feel like letting go and swing on the wind cuz I've learned and laughter or in pain how to survive I get on my knees I get on my knees and there I am before the love that changes me see I don't know how but there's power what I'm on my knees remember me remember me the one who gives songs in the night the one who spoke it when I was 12 the one who's still bringing it about the one who said I'm able to restore your joy and your hope the one who says I am your Redeemer I buy back your pain and your shame your a heartache your disappointment the one who said I'm able to work it all together for your good the one who never promised that it would all be good but I would work it together for your good if you love me and if you're the called according to my purpose what would he you said about you because that's what he probably would have said about me and then he would have reminded me of the gifts and the jewels that he gave me even in them at night season the gift of three beautiful children the gift of one who just released her album yesterday with her band called the new respects Jasmine yes ahead of a hard time John another son who's starting college next week 21 years old the one that I adopted when he was three and a half weeks they have any pictures they don't have pictures oh man my kids are cute too yeah maxi's he's 21 years old now he is a jewel he as a gift he was chosen and then another gift he gave me in the midst of my night season y'all in the midst of heartache in the midst of me crying because I just found out a new scenario of somebody else that was involved in our marriage that should have been in our marriage but God gave me jewels I have another son my baby he's 15 he is starting high school he's six feet four size 14 shoe pray from me he gave me baby girls club a club when we minister to young girls we have a model in Franklin Tennessee a model and believes another model in the country of Zambia this all happened y'all in the night season this all happened during this time God is good and he is faithful I'm gonna tell you the story this has nothing to do with my message probably but I'm gonna come back to it in a minute but I'm just reminded of it happen if y'all have heard of the Chinese bamboo tree Chinese bamboo tree I love the story for the rest of y'all who don't know it but you got this you take this little seed of a Chinese bamboo tree and you plant it in the ground you water it you fertilize it you make sure it has Sun you do this for a whole year and you come back you got nothing you do it again the second year you water it you fertilize it you make sure to have Sun you come back and now you have nothing you do it again the third year you water it you're fertilize to make sure it has Sun you come back you know it you have nothing you do it the fourth year and at this point you're probably thinking did I plant it in the right place is it still there should I just kick it Oh ain't nothing happening you water it you give a Sun you fertilize it after the fourth year now you have nothing you do it for the fifth year you're like okay Lord you got to come through your water in it I'm standing faithful and fearless I'm staying faithful and fearless faithful and fearless I'm not gonna dig it up I'm gonna remain faithful I'm gonna fertilize it I'm gonna water it make sure it has Sun faithful and fearless faithful and fearless faithful and fearless and at the end of that fifth year in the matter of six weeks that tree shoots up 80 to 90 feet above ground six weeks it's like it's going so fast you could practice it practically see it in motion it's growing and you say how long did it take for it to grow did it take six weeks no five years because what was happening that you couldn't see is that it was building such a deep and wide root system underground so that it could sustain the rapid growth that was going to come above ground and so for some of you I don't know what season you're in I don't know what's going on in your homes in your heart in your life but if you've been faithful and you've been fearless and if you haven't and you make up in your mind today that you're going to be faithful and fearless and ride this thing out in the name of Jesus then you too can be like that Chinese bamboo tree that sees the rapid growth even though you may not feel anything now even though you may not sense the root system that's growing deep and wide the same God that's able to do that as the same goddess able to do it in your life i decree it and I declared in your life in Jesus [Applause] back to the story all the lady heard Lord Jesus heard the cry of the woman he heard her plea for water he saw beyond what she was doing to the why he offered her a solution he offers you a solution she had daddy issues not other normal kind some of y'all may say I got daddy issues I thank God he gave me a great father he really did he gave me a great earthly father he was faithful to my mom for 54 years he loved us well took us to play tennis on Thursdays we were the only black family on the whole don't tell you it was before Venus or Serena okay there were just embryos we were already playing I'm just saying but taught me to play checkers he just taught me the scene taught me harmony at around the age of five to sing at the age of two he was my biggest fan and through the ups and downs of life through the crazy relationships the love of my father modeled for me the love of God he was the straight he was the steady he was the sturdy and December of 2016 he was sick for a week and I got to the hospital in time and by the time I got there he was tube DUP and they had you know wires all over him and my dad never missed an opportunity to worship he was a worshipper at heart he would find any reason to break out in a dance and a song and sing like not King Cole smooth all the women loved him but nobody could have him but my mom just saying and I knew that if he could hear me he would do his best to sing along and so I stood by the door as the doctors are working on him and I said come on dad we still need you we still need you when I call along cheese all things are possible come on dad I can mount on the wings like eagles and so push that when I call on Jesus then I heard a male voice singing along but it was not my dad's it was the heart surgeon I started singing with me every word every note and when I switched to cuz I know my redeemer come on dad I know my redeemer lives I need all of creation testifies none of his cold blue live my reading he said goodbye and he began his worship in another place worshiping still in spirit and in truth my dad is my hero I thank him for his consistency I crave and I longed for a man to love me as well as he loved my mom I long to see him again when my time comes but I honor him I respect him this woman I don't think she had such a story her daddy issues went back to Jacob but Jesus said the water I have supersedes that of Jacob's the father wants to give you a well that's gonna spring up living waters that go up to eternal life he offers it today my new album I my dad and I used to sing unforgettable all the time and we didn't get a chance to record it but my daughter Jasmine who had a new album that came out yesterday she was so gracious and she sang it with me my son's on the album too they're wrapping home brainwash but um the Lord is good we need to go through Samaria and sometimes Samaria will make us cry sometimes it will make us laugh sometimes it's a place that feels like doubt sometimes some areas dark sometimes it's scary sometimes we just don't want to go we don't want to be there but if we're obedient if we're willing and if we're obedient we will see God move we will see him offer water through us and as we're pouring it out giving it out we ourselves will be quenched he will quench our thirst my encouragement to you this afternoon said trust in the Redeemer the one who's able to buy back her pain and her shame knowing that he won't mock us he's not standing up there saying girl you got yourself into this now get yourself out he's not saying fake the funk the thing I love about him one of the things is that he allowed the woman had told the truth he told the truth about her when she affirmed it he said yeah what you said is true the truth and he said the father's looking for those who worship Him in spirit and in truth the truth of who God is and the truth of who you are the truth of where we are not pretending that everything is perfect the same God this is who I am these are my broken pieces can you take them can you remake them can you work them together for my good as you've promised because that's what a redeemer does y'all he buys back he says give me that divorce life give me that loneliness give me that depression give me that abortion give me that suicidal spear give me that whatever it might be give it to me give it to me give it to me watch me do something good with it because that's what is that's what he does

Channel: Soldiers For Faith

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Id: qEaqPRrsUio

Length: 38min 29sec (2309 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 06 2018