Full Life in Christ

In this first Sunday message of 2026, Pastor Josh kicks off the year by inviting the church into the theme: Full Life in Christ. It is not just about doing more Christian things, but learning how to truly live out the gospel through daily, honest conversation with God. Using Jesus’ long conversation with the Samaritan woman in John 4, he challenges the church to stop hiding behind spiritual performance and start bringing real thirst, real cravings, and real struggles into God’s presence.

2026: Full Life in Christ Starts With Conversation

The heart of the year is not hype or vague optimism, but foundation. Pastor Josh frames the 21 days of prayer (and reading John together each morning) as training the church to sit with God consistently, not occasionally. The goal is simple but confronting: get in the place where you can actually hear from the Lord.

A major issue he highlights is how many faithful Christians still live with depression, insecurity, and relational pain, even while the Bible says “rejoice always.” That gap often comes from treating the gospel as something to study, but not something to experience and live. Full life in Christ is not only eternal life later, but a real, active life with Jesus now.

The Noise, the Masks, and the “Fake Success”

Pastor Josh points out how hard it is to have a real conversation with God when our minds are constantly filled with noise: endless scrolling, distractions, and shallow comfort. Then when we finally come to God, we often present a filtered version of ourselves.

One of the strongest lines in the sermon is the challenge to stop performing:

“His failure is much better than fake success in the presence of God.”

In other words, God would rather you bring your honest mess than a polished spiritual image. But the problem is many believers never bring anything real to God. They avoid the deeper questions, because they fear God may not want what they want, or they fear things will “fall apart” if God touches what is hidden.

What Are You Actually Seeking?

Pastor Josh keeps repeating one word because it exposes the heart: seeking. Jesus is seeking. The woman is seeking. We are always seeking something.

He says most people’s idea of “full life” tends to collapse into a few categories: being rich, being healthy, and being happy. He even uses his own example of cutting coffee and sugar, then realizing how dependent he was when withdrawal hit with headaches. It is a picture of how cravings reveal what has power over us.

The deeper issue is not that these desires exist, but what sits underneath them: we want to feel secure, satisfied, and significant. And when those needs are driving us, we keep chasing the next “water source” that promises relief.

Jesus “Had to” Go Through Samaria

In John 4, Jesus breaks cultural expectations by traveling through Samaria (a route many Jews avoided) and speaking directly to a Samaritan woman. Pastor Josh highlights that the text says Jesus “had to” pass through Samaria. It was not random. It was not coincidence. Jesus was intentionally seeking one person

This becomes a direct application for the church: if you only see life as accidental, you will miss God’s hand at work. God is often maneuvering circumstances, messages, and encounters to draw you toward the life He promised.

“Give Me a Drink”: The Doorway to the Heart

Jesus opens with a simple request: “Give me a drink.” The woman immediately raises barriers: You’re a Jew, I’m Samaritan. You’re a man, I’m a woman. Why are you talking to me?

Pastor Josh connects this to how we often respond to God. We pre-load excuses, shame, and self-protection. Some people are so used to things going wrong that when things go right, they feel uneasy, waiting for it to end. So they keep distance from God, assuming they are unworthy, and they never truly open their hearts.

Jesus’ response turns the conversation:

“If you knew the gift of God… you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

Christianity is built on gift, not earning. And that is difficult for hearts trained by performance, repayment, and shame.

The Noon Heat and the Hidden Life

Pastor Josh points out that the woman comes to the well at noon, the hottest time of day, when women normally would not come. It suggests she is avoiding people. She is hiding from the crowd, hiding from judgment, hiding from her story.

This becomes an encouragement and a warning: Jesus often meets people at their point of vulnerability, but we still need to stop hiding and start bringing what is real into the light.

Temporary Water vs Living Water

Jesus draws a line:

“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again… but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.”

Pastor Josh uses everyday cravings to make the point. Why do we crave what is bad for us? Why do certain desires keep coming back even after we “feed” them? He talks about how cravings are often learned and reinforced by choices over time.

The pattern is the same in every area: we chase something, we get a hit of relief, then the thirst returns. Wealth, comfort, approval, intimacy, success, pleasure. Jesus is exposing that the deeper problem is not the behavior, but the thirst underneath it.

Wanting the Gift More Than the Giver

When the woman asks for the living water, she still frames it as convenience: “So I don’t have to come here again.” Pastor Josh calls out the heart behind that: she wants comfort, not transformation. She wants the benefit, not Jesus.

He describes this as a relationship breaker: desiring the gift more than the giver. To land it, he shares a personal story about his brother calling their parents after years of silence with one message: “I need money.” The coldness his parents felt was the sting of being used.

Then he applies it to God and to all relationships: if you only want what someone can give you, but not who they are, that relationship becomes toxic. Biblically, this is the essence of sin: enjoying God’s gifts while rejecting God Himself.

“Go Call Your Husband”: When Jesus Confronts the Real Thirst

Jesus brings the conversation to the conscience: “Go call your husband.” Then He exposes her story: five husbands, and the man she is with now is not her husband.

Pastor Josh doesn’t use this to shame the woman, but to show how Jesus lovingly confronts the thing she has been using to try to satisfy her thirst. The question becomes personal for everyone listening:

“Who’s your husband?”

Who or what are you looking to for true satisfaction, security, and significance?

He urges the church not to judge the woman quickly, and also not to be harsh on themselves, but to be honest. This is where full life begins: not with filtered prayers, but truthful ones.

A model prayer he points to is essentially: God, I want your kingdom, but I feel my own kingdom wants to grow first. Help my desire.

Worship in Spirit and Truth

The conversation ends with worship. The woman tries to shift into religious debate about the right location, but Jesus redirects her: true worship is not about geography, ritual, race, status, or performance. True worshipers worship “in spirit and truth.”

Pastor Josh explains this as both:

• truth as in knowing God rightly through Jesus, and
• truth as in coming with a truthful heart, not a mask.

His vision for 2026 is a church that worships like this every Sunday and lives like this every day, where people leave service changed even by “one degree,” and that difference slowly reshapes marriages, workplaces, and house churches.

Conclusion: Don’t Let This Be Another January Moment

Pastor Josh closes by calling the church to consistency. Read John daily. Show up. Put your life in a position to hear from God. Do not wait for camp, a conference, or the “right feeling” to get serious.

Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Build the habit. Rewire the defaults. Let your body submit to the Spirit. And as 2026 begins, keep asking the question that frames the whole year:

God, what is my full life in You? What do You want in my life?