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Take your Bibles, and I hope you brought them. If you didn't, there's always Bibles in the foyers you come in. Grab one, give it away, do whatever. But you need to have a Bible and share it. Gospel of John.
That's where I'm going to encourage you to turn. John chapter 4. John chapter 4. And I know we always have the verses up here behind me, but there's nothing like opening that Bible and getting in God's Word.
John chapter 4. And I don't care if you have it on your phone. It's still God's Word. John chapter 4, beginning in verse 5. And I'm going to ask if you would stand this morning as we read God's Word. John chapter 4, beginning in verse 5.
And this is what God's Word shares. Then comes He, speaking of Jesus, to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour. And there comes a woman of Samaria to draw water.
Jesus says to her, Give me to drink. For His disciples were gone away to the city to buy meat. Then says the woman of Samaria to Him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?
For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, Give me to drink, you would have asked of Him, and He would have given you living water.
The woman says to Him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From where then have you that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
Jesus answered and said to her, Whosoever drinks of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.
But the water that I shall give him shall be in him, a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman says to Him, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come here to draw.
Jesus says to her, Go, call your husband, and come here. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. And Jesus said to her, You have well said, I have no husband. For you have had five husbands, and whom you now have is not your husband.
In that said you truly. The woman says to Him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is a place where men ought to worship.
Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour comes when you shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship, you know not what. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeks such to worship Him.
God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Let's bow our heads. Lord God, as we come before You this morning, we just thank You that we can be here in Your house.
Help us to realize that that makes this time right now in front of us, that makes it extraordinary. That there is nothing ordinary about meeting with the living God. that this is a special morning.
And Lord, that we have choices to make. We make so many choices in our life, but before us right now is a choice we have to make. We can choose to think about all the activities of today. We can choose to think about what we're having for lunch, or what we need to get done this week.
Or, we can set all that aside. And we can determine in our minds that we want to focus on You. That we want to focus on Your Word, our relationship with You.
And Lord, I pray that is the choice that we make. So Lord, just help our hearts and our minds to be directed to You this morning. And we ask and pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, and all God's people said, Amen.
You can be seated this morning. So in this account we have Jesus doing a very, what would seem to be an ordinary thing.
I mean, it's a pretty ordinary thing just to get a drink of water, isn't it? Don't we think of that as a pretty ordinary thing? And for you and I, it's a very simple thing that we probably do lots of times. You either grab a bottle of water, unscrew the cap, and take a drink, or you grab a glass and stick it under your spigot and get a drink of water.
Do you have to put much thought into that? You know, we think about water and it is not something that we really give much thought to. We kind of just take it for granted. And here we have an everyday situation.
Jesus at a well. That would have been just a spigot for you and I. They went to a well to get water. Now we find here that it gives us a location. Sychar, which they don't really know even where that was at.
And it says this is Jacob's well. They think they know where that's at. But you know, that's really not the most relevant part of this story. We find that Jesus is there at the well and He simply asks a woman for a drink of water.
That in itself, just that little thing was remarkable. Why? What was remarkable about that? What's that?
He doesn't have a need for a drink of water. What else was remarkable about that? What's that? Yeah, they're nationalities.
She was a Samaritan and he was a Jew. Now again, we kind of lose sight of some of the things that they would have been very aware of in that day.
And in that day, it says, and the woman makes it pretty clear because she was surprised that Jesus would talk with her. She says, how is it that you're asking me for a drink? Because you're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan and Jews don't have any dealings with Samaritans.
You and I may have a little hard time to kind of get that concept in our minds. But in that day and age, the Jews and Samaritans did not deal with one another.
They didn't have interaction. So for Jesus just to go up to this Samaritan woman and ask for a drink of water, that in and of itself was out of the ordinary. But the part of this story that's out of the ordinary doesn't end with that.
But I think there is a lesson to be learned in that. And that is, Jesus was willing to share with someone that the Jews typically didn't even talk to.
In Jesus' ministry, who did He share with? And I know we talk about this in church, but we need to think about it. Who did He share with? Everybody.
Anybody that He came across. He shared with tax collectors and publicans and sinners and all kinds of people. What lesson is there in that for you and I?
Share with everybody. Share with everybody. Do we? And just answer that question for yourself. You don't have to answer it out loud. But who all do you find yourself sharing with?
Is it only people like you or is it anyone and everyone that you come in contact with? You know, that is something I think in our lives that we need to constantly ask ourselves. You know, it says that God is no respecter of persons.
God doesn't care who that person is, what status they have, what socioeconomic level they're on, how much money they have, how much money they don't have. God doesn't care. Because guess what?
The amount of money you have in the end, does that make any difference at all? None. But in our minds, so often those things make a difference. Jesus shared with everyone.
And I pray that we are willing to do the same because there is a world that needs to hear about the message of Jesus Christ. So He shares with this Samaritan woman. And what He shares with her is...
Well, look in verse 10. Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that says to you, Give me to drink, you would have asked of Him and He would have given you living water.
There's our theme for Bible school, living waters. So what does that really mean? He would have given you living water.
What does that really mean? Eternal life? Holy Spirit? What did the woman think He meant? Physical water.
Because she said, Oh, that'd be great. I'd never have to come here and draw from the well again. That'd be great. She thought He was talking about a physical water, but Jesus wasn't. He was talking about a spiritual water that He could give her, that she would never thirst again.
So here's the reality we have to realize as we spend our lives here on this earth. We thirst, don't we? Physically and spiritually. Do you ever get thirsty? I mean, we're in the summertime.
Do you ever get thirsty? Do you ever get really thirsty? Do you ever get really, really thirsty? No. Really, think about it.
When was the last time you were really, really thirsty? When it's very hot. When it's very hot? You had too much salt. You had what? Too much salt. Too much salt.
You ever go on a hike and you forget to take a bottle of water with you? And there's really no water around to drink and you're just thirsty. I did. There are times in our life, very few really, when we understand what true thirst is all about.
I remember a few years ago, my youngest daughter, Leah, talked me into going on a several-day hike with her in West Virginia. And it was a two- or three-day hike, so you couldn't really carry all the water that you needed with you.
So she had these things that you put water right out of the stream in and it would filter it where it was safe to drink. How do you feel about that?
I'll tell you how I felt about it. Because some of the water she chose and picked out, and I'm like, that looks kind of gross. I'm not sure I want to drink that. So the first day, you know how much I drank?
Yeah, not much. By the second day, guess what? I was thirsty enough. And I'm like, all right, I trust that thing. And it was all fine. But I began to recognize what true thirst is all about.
So we get to the point where we can have true thirst in our lives spiritually or physically. But what about spiritually? What does it mean to thirst spiritually? What does that really mean?
What does that concept mean, to thirst spiritually? Any thoughts? What's that? To learn more about God? A dire need for His Word?
And here's the thing. Is anybody immune from getting thirsty physically? No. Nobody is immune from that. All of us can get to that point. Every human being on the planet, we need water.
Period. Without it, we will die. We all understand that, right? It's not a complicated concept. What we fail to understand is it is the same spiritually.
We have to be. We have to have water spiritually in our lives. Everybody on this planet thirsts. That means they're looking for something.
They need something in their lives. Nobody escapes that. Everybody has that thirst. And here's the thing. They try to look all different kind of places to satisfy that thirst.
We wonder why there are such things like drug addictions and pornography addictions and all kinds of addictions that people can have in life. They're trying to fill that thirst. They're trying to fill that thirst in their lives.
Some people rely on money or on jobs or on all kinds of things to satisfy that thirst that they have. That desire that they have. But guess what? None of those things is going to get them there.
None of those things is going to quench that thirst. But Jesus was telling this woman, I can give you water that will quench that thirst.
Not just temporarily, but permanently. And Jesus obviously was talking with her about a spiritual water that He would give her.
And I want you to look in verse 14 because there's a few things that I think that we need to understand. Jesus says, Whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.
But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water. Let's just stop right there. So the water that Jesus gives us. When we accept Jesus Christ into our hearts, when He has His forgiveness of our sins, when that's present in our lives, it says that He creates something within us.
Something that was not there before. That's what a creation is, right? He creates something within us. What does He create? What does it say? A well of water.
A well of water. I shall give him shall be in him a well of water. What is a well of water?
Continuously water. Never ending. Never ending. Something that doesn't run dry. You know, I was thinking a lot about that concept this week. You know, even for you and I. Then there was a well.
It was a big hole in the ground. They'd lower a bucket and draw water up, right? That was what they thought of as a well. What do we think of as a well? Yeah, there's a well casing six inches wide or something like that.
Goes down in the ground anywhere from 50 to 350 feet down to get water. So what's down there at the bottom of that well? A little puddle of water?
What's down there? You know, that concept fascinates me. And I'll share with you. I don't understand it completely. But down there under the ground, wherever you go to finally reach that water, there's a water table down there.
And so much of it is connected. There's rivers down there that flow. There's vast lakes down there. There's a water table that has billions of gallons of water in it.
Isn't that an amazing thought? It's all down there underneath our feet. But that's what a well taps into. That's what a well is. And Jesus says He will create in us a well of water.
Isn't that what He says? Shall give Him, shall be in Him a well of water. That means it's a huge supply. That's what we have so that we don't have to go thirsty.
And I'll admit, are there times in our lives when we begin to maybe feel a little dry, feel a little parched? That life gets a little rough? That it gets a little hard? Guess what?
We need reminded in those times that there's a whole well of water that we have access to. And that well will quench our thirst. It gives us hope. It can bring joy into our hearts and into our lives.
We have to remember that, don't we? Because we are good at forgetting things. Forgetting what we have access to. We have access to this well of water that we're connected to.
It would be like somebody who is extremely hungry and they're sitting beside a refrigerator that's full of food, but they forgot that that was there. What would you think of that?
Would you be like, hey dummy, there's a refrigerator right next to you. Open a door and get some food out. It's right there. Folks, as Christians, we have that same thing. We have this well of water within us that we have access to.
That in times that are difficult, in times that are hard, we have that well of water within us that's not going to run dry. I know a physical well can run dry. Some of you have had wells that run dry and you've got to dig a new one.
This well of water that Christ puts in us, guess what? Never runs dry. And not only that, it says that this well of water is going to spring up.
That's important. What does it mean to spring up? Shoots up and out.
Like a geyser. It comes up. That's what it means. It's going to spring up. When I was a kid where my grandparents lived, you'd go back a lane, there's a big pond, and then down the bottom of the hill behind the pond, guess what was back there?
A spring. Well, yeah, it was really, really sulfur. I mean, it was bad. But when I was a kid, it was always flowing. You could go back there and, I don't know, Grandpa or some of the family, they had hung a little cup, always hung on a little branch right by it.
And somebody had put a big thing of concrete there and it came out of a little hole in the side of the concrete. It's because there was a well down there that had enough pressure that it was just springing up.
It came up on its own out of the ground. You didn't have to pump it up. You didn't have to do anything. You just walked and it was just there coming up. And you'd drink it and it just hurt your teeth.
It was so sulfur. But that's a spring. And it says this well that he puts within us as believers should spring up out of us.
We don't need to, like, do a pump like this or put an electric pump on it. It should just naturally come up. What does that mean for us in our lives? It means it should be present.
It means it should be flowing out. And I remember this water flowed up and filled up a little concrete thing and flowed out. I don't know where it eventually went. To a little creek, I guess. But it was constantly bubbling and flowing out.
Is that what your spiritual life looks like? Because if it's constantly bubbling up, what does that do? It makes it so other people can see that.
So other people can get a taste of it. So other people say, Hey, that looks pretty good. I want some of that. That is what Christ gives us. But I think sometimes instead, and here's the reality.
I think that well did go dry, didn't it? That spring, sulfur spring. I think it eventually dried up. And I'm afraid that there's too many Christians that that's kind of happened in their lives.
They've let it dry up. They've not nurtured it. They've not let it spring out of them. They've not been willing to share it with other people. And eventually it dries up.
But folks, that is not what God intends for us. He wants it to be springing up out of our lives into everlasting life, not just for us, but for others. So they see it and can be a part of it.
This morning, the sermon is not complicated at all. It is this. What does the well in your life, the spiritual well, what does it look like? And I cannot answer that question for you.
I can't. The only one that can answer that is you and God. What does that spiritual well look like in your life? Is it flowing? Is it bubbling up?
Is it springing up? Is it coming up out of the ground so others can see it and experience it? Are you sharing it with others? Or is it just kind of drying up? Is it just a trickle or maybe not flowing at all?
Folks, here's a great thing. If it's just a trickle or not flowing at all, that can change. Because this is what Jesus wants for you. He wants this well of water springing up and flowing out of you.
You know, we talk so often about making a difference in our world. And we want God to make a difference in our world. But you know what? He does that through us. One person at a time.
One relationship at a time. And that's really what Jesus did. Think of all the individual people He talked with in His ministry. I know He shared with great masses of people as well. But so often it was one life at a time that He touched.
That He shared with. That He changed. And folks, He desires that out of us. That we take this well of water that is springing up within us and we share it with the world around us.
That's God's desire. And I pray. I pray that the well that's in my life is flowing strong and doesn't dry up. The question is, how is your will?
This world desperately needs a drink of the living water, doesn't it? Would you agree with that? You've got it. Don't you? Do you have it? Do you have the living water?
If you have it, I want you to say, I have the living water. I have the living water. What are you going to do with it? It's air. Air. Yep. Take it out of the water.
I mean, there's so many examples we could look at. But you know, picture somebody in the middle of the desert, parched, dehydrated, and wanting a drink.
How many of you would walk up to them and say, I've got plenty of water, but nah, none for you. Folks, our world is so thirsty. They need the living water.
And we've got a source that will never run dry. It's as simple as that. Share it. Share it. Let's pray. Lord God, I thank you again for this morning and I thank you for your word.
I thank you that you do create within each one of your people a well of water. You have a desire that that would spring up into everlasting life that it would just bubble and flow out of each one of us.
Lord, we also know that sometimes it runs down to a trickle. And we need reminded what we have access to for you and your spirit that will never run dry. And Lord, I just pray that you'd restore the well within each one of our lives.
That we would have a desire to share the living water of Jesus Christ with everyone that we come in contact with. That they would see it flowing out of us. That there is something different about us. Lord, I pray that each one of us would have that desire in our hearts.
And we ask and pray this thing in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.