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[0:00] It says, and he must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

[0:13] 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. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.

[0:26] For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?

[0:38] For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

[0:54] Let's pray. Dear only Father, Lord, I just thank you for this opportunity that we have to just gather around your word a little bit and talk about this living water. Just be with the bitners as they are away. Give them safety as they return tomorrow.

[1:06] Be with the message today. Help it all to be from your words this morning. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. You may be seated. Thank you for standing. As I was studying for this sermon this week, I thought it was rather ironic that the sermon is talking about water.

[1:25] And by the way, the time of day during John chapter number four is about 12 o'clock noon in a desert city. All right. So it is very hot. It was very ironic that I chose this week to do that, though, because it was extremely, extremely hot this week.

[1:40] All right. How many of you had to stop what you were doing outside and go get a drink of water this week? Anybody have to do that? Just a few people. All right. Some of you have the nice, nice business shops. All right.

[1:50] You never have to go outside and feel the heat that everybody else is experiencing. All right. No. The Burrs, I talked to Brother Clayton before the service, they went to Six Flags on Wednesday.

[2:01] Wednesday was the day that the heat index reached 117 degrees. All right. Me and Brother Tyler were talking about it. Brother Clayton had to, that was the only day he could get off. So they went to Six Flags, was talking to him about it.

[2:13] He said it was very, very hot, and you had to make sure you were hydrated. Brother Tyler said, I'm not man enough to do that. I probably just would have eaten the money and just not gone. All right. That is, that is some bad, bad heat.

[2:26] And when it is that hot, we do have to make sure we stay hydrated. Well, quite some time ago during World War II, sailors who became stranded on life rafts in the ocean often faced a very terrible temptation.

[2:40] They didn't have any fresh water left. So they were tempted to either drink of the seawater that surrounded their life raft, or just go without water at all.

[2:50] And oftentimes what they did in great need of water, they would go and get a drink from the ocean. And many times the immediate satisfaction was there.

[3:02] They were satisfied. They quenched their thirst a little bit. But before long, they realized that they were now thirstier now than they were before. It's funny how a person can be surrounded by this water.

[3:17] But if it's not the right type of water, then you go thirsty. And that's what was happening to these sailors. Some of these sailors died drinking of the seawater.

[3:29] They were dying before the people that didn't drink anything at all. Why is that? They were drinking of the wrong water. I think the problem with society today is we are drinking from the wrong water.

[3:43] We are not drinking from the living water that Christ is offering. We are drinking of the same water that the woman at the well was drinking from. The water that if you drink it, you're soon, very soon, going to become thirsty again.

[3:58] So I have a very quick question to ask you this morning before we begin. What well, what water are you drinking of this morning? That is going to be the thought that we're going to dive into.

[4:11] But first, let's get a backstory or history. It's very widely known in our Christian realm that the Jews and the Samaritans didn't really like each other.

[4:22] They didn't have an affinity for each other at all. And there are several reasons for that. That it was going on for several hundred years, their feuding was. There were several reasons, but one of the biggest reasons was actually religiously.

[4:35] The Samaritans only believed that the first five books of the Bible, otherwise known as the Pentateuch, was what they should heed to or what they should listen to. That's what they referred to as their Bible.

[4:46] But the Jews wanted to listen and learn from the entire Bible. So the Jews looked at the Samaritans and said, you guys are unclean. You guys are basically half Christians.

[4:58] You're not doing everything the right way. So they would do everything in their power to make sure that they did not associate themselves with the Samaritans. Which brings us to our passage of scripture here.

[5:12] Jesus, being a Jew, is going from Judea to Galilee. And there are three separate ways to get from Judea to Galilee. The quickest way is to go through Samaria from Judea, go through Samaria, get to Galilee.

[5:27] But the route the Jews would often take, they would go around. There were two routes around. It took a little bit longer, but the Jews hated the Samaritans so much, they thought they were not as good as them, so they would take the routes around Samaria so they wouldn't have to go there.

[5:44] But I see in verse number four, it says, and he must needs go through Samaria. So we already discussed, there was two alternate routes that Christ could have taken.

[5:55] He could have taken two alternate routes instead of going through Samaria. So why did he do it? And why does the Bible say he must needs go through Samaria?

[6:06] It's very interesting. Because Jesus, being a Jew, he shouldn't want to go through Samaria. Samaria doesn't have good people, by the way. They don't have a bunch of saved Christians. They have a bunch of people that aren't doing the right thing, aren't living the right life.

[6:19] But he must needs go through Samaria. My first point this morning is the pursuit of the Savior. The pursuit of the Savior.

[6:31] I see that during our story here, it says in parentheses in verse number eight, that the disciples had gone away into the city to get meat. They went shopping. They were doing all the things that they needed to do.

[6:44] And here's the deal. It could have been very, very easy for Christ to have just gone with his clique. Gone with the disciples. If we're not careful, I know this happens in school, high schools.

[6:56] But if we're not careful, church can become like this. It can become very clique-ish. Certain people only talk to certain people that they have stuff in common with. Like these people over here, they're talking about sports.

[7:06] These people over here, they're talking about cars. These people over here, they're talking about politics. Everybody's got a clique. But then somebody new walks through the door. That lost person, that Samaritan, walks through the door, sees everybody in their cliques, and they walk right back out.

[7:21] Because they say, that's not a church I want to be a part of. That's not a church that has the living water that I'm looking for. Jesus Christ went out of his way to make sure he reached one person.

[7:35] So first of all today, if you're that one in here that says, I don't have the living water. I'm not saved. I've never asked Christ into my heart. Let me just tell you, Christ is actively pursuing you. Oftentimes how we look at it is, God loved the whole world.

[7:49] God came to save the whole world. That is true. But on a more personal basis, he's after you. He's not after everybody else. He's after you. I would imagine the majority of people in here probably are saved.

[8:02] There might be a couple, though, that aren't. And that's who Christ is pursuing today. Christ is pursuing those that are unsaved that don't have that living water.

[8:12] But here's the deal. Christ can pursue you all day long, but he can't force you into salvation. Christ can run after you, but eventually you have to make the choice to come back home to him.

[8:26] I have a dog. His name's Murphy. Now, Murphy, he's a good dog. If you've ever been to my house, you've seen him, and you've seen how he drives me crazy sometimes. This morning, as a matter of fact, my morning went terrible because he threw up all over our floor.

[8:38] So it was fantastic. But I love my dog most of the time. But every now and then, Murphy gets the idea to dart out the front door when it is left open.

[8:49] And when he darts out the front door, I have to chase him. Because the reality of the matter is when he runs too far away, he's going to get lost. He's not going to be able to find his way back to my house. He just won't. So I've got to chase him.

[9:00] So if you ever see me running around Gainesville, I'm not like Brother Tyler exercising. I'm just chasing my dog, all right? And I'm running around trying to chase him. And you know what? When I call his name and he is playing, sniffing, doing whatever, it seems like he has gone deaf.

[9:17] He can't hear me. He doesn't know that I'm calling his name. He's running around like crazy. He's going to get hit by a car. But he doesn't know that. Only I do. Only I can see the dangers that he's putting himself into.

[9:27] But I am chasing after this dog. And only when Murphy gets tired of playing and running around does he decide that it's a good idea to just stop and walk back to me.

[9:39] And the problem with that is then I've got to walk a mile back to my house. I'm carrying this 50-pound golden doodle over my shoulder trying to get him home, all right? That's what Christ does.

[9:51] Christ is after you, Allah Center. Christ can see the danger you're putting yourself into. Christ can see the direction that you're going and what the ending entails. Christ can see that. That's why he's pursuing you.

[10:03] But it's not until you choose to come back to him that you can truly be saved. Christ can't force it upon you. He can't. I have a mixed relationship with AI.

[10:15] I kind of like AI, but I really like ChatGBT. I did a lot of things for Vacation Bible School using ChatGBT. It's a great, great tool. But you know what ChatGBT can't do? It cannot make its own decisions.

[10:28] It can only give you information that has been programmed into it by a human being. That's the difference between AI and you. You have the free will.

[10:39] You have the decision. You have the choices that you can make. God could have made us like a robot. He could have done that. Men are not the first ones to figure out the idea of a robot.

[10:50] God could have done it. God could have forced us, every single one of us, to worship him and to follow him. But he didn't do that. Because he wanted you to choose him. He wanted you to choose that living water.

[11:05] I just find it very interesting. He must need to go through Samaria to find that one soul. And it says in verse number nine, Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?

[11:25] For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. What we do as human beings, we look on the surface. We take things for surface value.

[11:36] And that's what this woman at the well is doing. She doesn't really understand the whole principle about what Jesus is talking about. Jesus wants to give her living water. And all she sees is, you're a Jew.

[11:47] I'm a Samaritan. We're supposed to hate each other. I'm supposed to not like you. You're supposed to not like me. Why are you talking to me? And it says in verse number 10, Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

[12:13] Jesus was following the Father's plan. It says in Luke chapter number 10, verse 19. This is one of my favorite verses. Or 19 verse 10, I'm sorry. One of my favorite verses in the Bible.

[12:24] It says, For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. God's plan for Christ was to seek and to save that which is lost. Did you know if you were a Christian, God's plan for you is to seek and to save that which was lost.

[12:42] That's what God's called us to do. But I love the fact that Jesus didn't just tell us to do something. I don't enjoy it when people tell me to do something, but I know they've never actually experienced it in their life.

[12:56] I'll use an example. I think I've used this before. One of my professors in college didn't like him very much. I was at a Bible college. There are bad professors at Bible colleges too.

[13:06] All right. And he told us a long time ago, he said, Well, I am not the stage of Christian that has to mow the lawn. I'm past that.

[13:17] I'm beyond that. I don't have to do that because I'm a higher Christian than they are. I don't like it when people say that because Jesus was washing people's feet. I have to imagine that Jesus's stage of Christianity that he was at was high above washing somebody else's feet.

[13:35] I like it when somebody shows me by example how to do something. I don't like somebody telling me to go scrub a toilet if I know they've never scrubbed a toilet in their life. I like somebody showing me how to do something by example.

[13:51] And that's what Christ did. Christ didn't just tell us to win the lost. He showed us how to do it. He said, Watch what I'm going to do. And he just, it wasn't an easy thing. It wasn't like one of your friends walking up to you and you talked about your Sunday morning message.

[14:05] This was out of his way. Probably not the greatest journey in the world. It's super hot. And Christ reached a woman in Samaria.

[14:16] Where is your Samaria? Where is your woman at the well? Who is your woman at the well? Because everybody's got one. Everybody's got one where it might not be the easiest thing to do to go tell them about Christ.

[14:28] To go out of your norm and reach them with the gospel. It was way out of the Jews' norms to ever talk to anybody from Samaria. But that's what Christ did. So first of all, if you have not drank from the living water, Christ is pursuing you today.

[14:44] But also, if you are saved, Christ pursued you. You should pursue other sinners as well. Because Christ did it. My second point.

[14:56] Firstly, we have the pursuit of the Savior. And then we have the thirst of the soul. The thirst of the soul. Let's look at verse number 11. It says, I find this crazy that the woman at the well is saying, You can't be better than Jacob.

[15:30] Jacob's the one who gave us the well. Jacob's the one who first drew in the well. You're not better than him. What are you talking about? How are you going to draw me water when you don't even have a pot?

[15:42] You don't even have a bucket. What are you going to do, Jesus? And it says in verse 13, Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.

[15:57] But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

[16:09] She is stuck. The woman at the well is very stuck in her way of thinking. She cannot get out of her head physical water, physical thirst, physical satisfaction.

[16:22] That's where she's at right now. And a lot of times that's where we, even as Christians, are at. Physical satisfaction comes above spiritual satisfaction.

[16:34] Looking to humans, looking to see what others are doing, that's who I want to model my life after, not Christ. There was a man, and I do not want to deride any person, especially from the pulpit.

[16:48] I'm just going to tell you a couple facts that I know. There's a man, a great preacher. I've heard him many, many, many times on audio, but I got to attend a youth camp one time, listen to him preach.

[17:01] I know Pastor Tyler has heard him at a youth conference. He actually got saved under his preaching. I'm sure several of you might know his name. His name's Kenny Baldwin. And this week he was arrested for sending inappropriate photographs to a teenager.

[17:20] A teenager that, by the way, he met in church. And I got to thinking about that. A lot of people were saying how hurt they were, how troubling it is that a man of God like that, probably top five famous Baptist preachers in America.

[17:35] And he messed up. And if you're not careful, looking on social media can be a very, very bad plan, especially at things like this. But nonetheless, I looked at Facebook.

[17:46] I did not heed my own advice. And I looked at Facebook, and several different comments, several different people were speaking and saying, Man, that's why I left the Baptist church.

[17:56] Because a man like that, that would preach one thing, and then they get caught doing another. I would never go to a church like that. And I got to thinking.

[18:09] And man, their argument seemed pretty founded. Like, this guy's a famous preacher. He's preached many things. Many salvations have occurred under his preaching and his leadership.

[18:20] So what do you even think when something like this happens like that? It doesn't make any sense to me. It doesn't make any sense to us. But the problem is, other people have begun looking at preachers, have begun looking at pastors, have begun looking at people, and idolizing them, saying, Man, one day I want to be that kind of Christian.

[18:42] I want to be that kind of Christian when I grow up, instead of focusing and looking at Christ alone. Guess what? At church, there are a bunch of sinners that come into this building.

[18:54] There are a bunch of filthy, filthy people. And I'm not supporting what this man did. It's vile. It's disgusting. But let me just tell you, if we're looking at that man and saying, Well, he couldn't follow God.

[19:06] If he can't do it, we're not going to be able to do it either. Focus on Christ. What happened with this man is, he forgot to focus on Christ alone. And that's what Jesus Christ is trying to get across to this woman.

[19:17] He's saying, Stop worrying about all the physical things that can satisfy you. Stop worrying about this water. I've got something far greater for you to draw from today.

[19:29] Look at me. Stop looking at everything else. This world is filled with obstacles. This world is filled with sin that gets in our way, that makes us dart over and look the other way.

[19:41] Keep your focus on Christ. Because if you don't, sin will catch you. It will. If you don't keep looking on Christ, you're going to go wayside very, very quickly.

[19:52] Keep your focus on Christ. She's focused on physical things. What can make her physically feel good? But here's the thing.

[20:05] It should not, this living water is not just for those that are looking for salvation. It's for Christians too. We should be constantly drinking from that living water. But right now, it seems some of us have taken the immediate satisfaction of that seawater.

[20:21] Man, that looks good right now. We drink that seawater. We realize, man, I need more of it. We keep drinking. Before long, we're so far gone. We're so far away from the Lord because of immediate satisfaction.

[20:35] The Bible says sin only lasts for a season. It doesn't last very long. One day, you're going to stand before the Lord. Hopefully, you're not going to be one of the ones that hears, depart from me for I never knew you.

[20:52] Hopefully, you're one that hears, well done, thou good and faithful servant. But so often, it seems like the immediate satisfaction, that's what's winning.

[21:04] Are we drinking from that living water? Are we fulfilling that thirst that we have? Man, you see so many people trying to fulfill their thirst with things, with little pet sins that they have, with things that right now seems fun.

[21:19] But you're just going to thirst again and again and again and again. The word of God, that is what fulfills our thirst. Let me just tell you, Jesus is pursuing you too.

[21:33] Jesus wants to give it to you. But again, you have to choose the living water. Christ can't choose it for you. Man, if I could choose, I was talking to Brother Caleb about this this morning.

[21:43] If I could choose who gets saved, everybody around us would be saved. But I can't. Neither can you. Neither can Christ.

[21:53] They have to decide and choose to follow Christ. However, it's our job to pursue them too. Christ pursued you. We need to pursue them.

[22:05] The thirst of the soul. How thirsty is your soul for things of the word, for things of the Lord? Because if you're thirsting for things of the world more, it's just because you're drinking the salt water.

[22:18] It's just because you're drinking the salt water and it seems good. But one day it's not going to be. God can see the dangers you're putting yourself in by following the world.

[22:29] Just like I can see my dog getting hit by a car if he wasn't careful. God can see the dangers of you living the life that you're living. You have to be the one to change it though.

[22:39] You have to say, you know what, Christ? You've chased me long enough. I want to come back to you. The thirst of the soul. Thirdly, I see the exposure of the heart.

[22:50] The first two points seems pretty easy. Christ is laying everything out. I'm giving you a gift. I'm giving you living water. Man, if this is all there is to it, I'm all for this. Verse 16.

[23:01] This is where you lose a lot of people. Jesus saith unto her, go, call thy husband and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband.

[23:14] Jesus said unto her, thou hast well said, I have no husband. For thou hast had five husbands and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. In that sits thou truly.

[23:27] Are you carrying around to sin like the woman at the well was? Because God told you, leave it here today. Leave that sin here because I want to give you something far greater than that sin you've been dealing with.

[23:41] She's had five husbands. Now the person she's living with isn't her husband. Her love life is crazy. Talk about like a love octagon or something, all right? It's not a great deal for this lady.

[23:53] She's not in a great place. But Christ says, I can make everything better for you if you just turn your life over to me and take this living water. It says in verse 19, the woman saith unto him, sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

[24:08] She's still missing it. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. This is crazy to me.

[24:20] Jesus just pointed out the biggest sin in her life, the sin that she thought she was hiding from everybody else. And she says, man, Jesus, you must be a prophet.

[24:31] You're a fortune teller. This is crazy. But then she says one of the most random things that she could say. As a back story, one of the biggest reasons why the Samaritans and Jews, again, were feuding, the Jews believed you had to worship at the temple.

[24:46] The Samaritans worshipped up on a mountain in a cave. And she brings it up. She says, okay, Jesus, you've told me all that now. Maybe you can help me out with this problem I've been having.

[24:57] Should I worship at the temple or where I'm worshiping right now? Answer me that question. Now she thinks that Jesus is just a guy that can answer all her questions. That can give her all the help she needs.

[25:07] Maybe this is the guy. This is the answer. It says in verse 21, Pretty much what Christ says here is it doesn't matter where you worship.

[25:40] Worship in the mountain. Worship in the temple. But at the end of the day, the only thing that does matter is who you're worshiping. Who you're following. That's what Christ tries to tell her.

[25:52] He says, listen, everything else in your life has been crazy, has been terrible. I'm not the guy you think I am. I'm not a prophet. I'm not all this. But I'm the guy you're supposed to be worshiping.

[26:04] You see, the focus was still in the wrong place. First, she was focusing on physical water. Then she's focusing on her thirst, what she thirsted after. Now she's focusing on where to worship.

[26:17] And Jesus has to rattle her a little bit and says, look, none of that matters. It matters who you are worshiping.

[26:27] That's who it matters. And, man, it must have been pretty terrible for her to realize that, man, Jesus knows all my sins. This guy knows everything I've done wrong.

[26:38] Everything that's happening, he knows. Did you know Jesus Christ knows your heart too? He doesn't just know the people he talks to in the Bible.

[26:50] This isn't just a storybook, by the way. This really happened. This is truly God's words. Christ knows your heart too. If Jesus Christ was beside you all day long and you did the exact same things that you normally would, would Christ be disappointed in you?

[27:10] Because, by the way, he sees it all. The Holy Spirit, if you're saved, is dwelling in your heart. He sees everything that you're doing. When you're sinning, when you're doing the wrong thing, Christ sees it.

[27:22] Christ knows your heart. Is your heart in the right place this morning? My mom's here, so I guess I can use this illustration. Anybody ever heard of a mother's intuition?

[27:33] Mother's intuition, okay. How many of you think you have mother's intuition? Yep. Yeah, several of you. Okay, I do not, all right. But any time when anything used to happen to me when I was a kid, I could bank on it that no matter how secretive I thought I was, my mom always knew.

[27:50] I don't know how she knew that. I don't know how she knew any of what she knew. She had her ways, I guess. But she always found out what was bothering me, something that I did wrong that I thought I hid from her, all kinds of things like that.

[28:01] And now I see my wife, Emerson, will come crying and babbling to me. And I'll have no idea what she's talking about. And I'll say, go see mama. And Tiffany yells at me saying, babe, all she wants is this.

[28:14] Mother's intuition. She knows. Emerson didn't even have to say anything to her. She already knows what she wants. But let me just tell you, your mom doesn't really know everything about you.

[28:25] But you know who does? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ knows everything. He sees everything you've ever done. He knows every deep, dark secret you have. I've heard several pastors mention this.

[28:41] If we were to broadcast, if we were able to broadcast your thoughts into the church today, the thoughts of your heart today, how many of you would be, don't raise your hand, how many of you would be ashamed of what's on the screen?

[28:58] I think I might be sometimes. I think I might be in that same boat. God knows our hearts. You can fool me. You can fool Pastor Tyler. You can come dressed to the nines.

[29:10] You can come in a ballroom gown. You can come in a tuxedo to church. You can do that. And we can say, man, he's dressed up nice. Man, he looks like he's ready to worship the Lord. And your heart can be dark.

[29:23] You can fool us. But you can't fool God. And that's what Christ is proving to this woman at the well. Man, you can fool everybody else. You fooled maybe your town in Samaria, but you can't fool me.

[29:39] And she still missed it so far. It says in verse number 24, God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

[29:50] Christ extended grace. The amazing part about this is Christ knows your heart and he still gives us the opportunity to turn back to him. Romans 3.23 says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

[30:04] Every single one of us have problems. Every single one of us. Christ decides to extend grace. And you can say, man, I'm living the wrong kind of lifestyle.

[30:15] I'm just not living with God. Christ could never save me. I've heard that many times before. Jesus went out of his way to a lady that his people were supposed to hate.

[30:27] That is living obviously a scandalous life. And he still extended grace to save her. Christ wants to save you. If you sit in here and have not never drank of this living water.

[30:43] Today's your opportunity. Don't leave this room without drinking of the living water. But also, those of you that are saved, Christ still knows your heart. You should still be drinking from that living water.

[30:56] You shouldn't be drinking from the well of the world. You should be drinking from Christ's well. It says in verse number 25, the woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah's cometh, which is called Christ.

[31:11] When he has come, he will tell us all things. How convenient is that? The woman at the well has finally gotten there. After all these verses in John 4 of her not understanding Christ, Christ puts it as plainly as he knows how.

[31:27] And she says, man, you sound about like this guy that I heard is coming. You sound like the Messiah we've been told about. Verse 26, Jesus saith unto her as plain as he can say it.

[31:41] I that speak unto thee am he. Point number four, the revelation of the Messiah.

[31:52] The revelation of the Messiah. What's amazing about the woman is through all of this entire story, she does know about the Messiah.

[32:05] She knows he's supposed to come. But the problem is until these next couple of verses, it never reaches her heart. She knows the Messiah is coming.

[32:16] She knows Jesus has the answers. But it's all up here. You might have come to church your whole life. But let me just tell you, that does not get you into heaven.

[32:32] Being the best person you can be does not get you into heaven. We have a step up on a lot of people. We're in church. We're hearing Christ's name preached.

[32:43] We know the story of Jesus Christ. There are a lot of people who don't know that. We have all the information. There are a lot of people that don't know. We have the information. But man, I've heard the analogy.

[32:57] So many of us will miss heaven by about 12 to 18 inches. From your head to your heart. That's how a lot of people are going to miss it.

[33:09] Christ is pursuing you. Christ is offering it to you. Christ wants you to come. I think of the prodigal son. The father of the prodigal. We preached on, or Pastor Tyler preached on the prodigal a couple weeks ago.

[33:22] The father has to wait until the son is willing to come back. But when he is, the father's chasing him. The father wants him to come back. But it has to be the son's decision.

[33:34] It has to be your decision today. Christ wants you to come. I know there are many people in here. Saved people that want that one to come forward.

[33:45] To drink of that living water. But you have to decide it. Don't leave that information in your head. God knows your heart. Don't leave that information in your head. Get it to your heart.

[33:56] Get it to where it belongs. And it says, very quickly. In verse number 28. The woman then left her water pot. And went her way into the city.

[34:08] And saith to the men. Come see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? I find this very interesting.

[34:22] As we close. This woman at the well. Comes to the well. For water. Very very hot day. 12 o'clock. Desert city. Very hot.

[34:34] She needs water. She needs to hydrate. When she has this encounter with Jesus Christ. I never see her actually drink a drop of water. But not only that.

[34:47] Verse 28 says. She left her water pot. At this point in time. Her water pot is probably one of the more valuable things that she's got.

[34:59] That's how she can get water. That's how she can stay hydrated. That's how she stays alive. She just left it there. Anybody can take it. She just left it. Why in the world.

[35:11] With the whole reason she came down there. With her water pot. Was to get water. Why would she leave it? Because she found something infinitely greater. A lot of us are carrying a water pot today.

[35:25] We carried a water pot into the services today. Whether that is friends that we've got. Whether that is things that we're holding on to. Not willing to let go for Christ. Whatever it is.

[35:36] There are a lot of us that brought a water pot in here today. And a lot of us are probably going to leave this room. Still holding on to that water pot. What the woman at the well realized.

[35:48] Is I have to drop everything else that I've got. If I'm willing to accept Christ. If I want that living water. Everything else. Should be back burners.

[36:00] She had to get her priorities. Straight. Where are your priorities at today? When someone truly encounters Christ. Their priorities change.

[36:12] What are you prioritizing? Are you prioritizing your job? Your friends? School? Or are you prioritizing Christ? That's what Christ was trying to get through to the woman at the well in Samaria.

[36:26] He said you have to change the direction that you're going. You're not living for me. You're not living for. You're living for yourself. A lot of us are carrying that water pot living for us.

[36:37] That water pot makes us happy. That water pot made this lady happy. And she left it when she realized that Christ was greater. She realized that the living water. The everlasting life was greater.

[36:48] And I find it amazing. In verse 29. She could have told everybody. Guys. Guess the guy that talked to me. Guess who talked to me? He didn't talk to you.

[36:59] He talked to me. Yeah. Jesus Christ. That Messiah that we're waiting on. He talked to me. Not you. It's not what she did. She pointed everybody to Christ. She said guys. Leave everything else.

[37:11] Focus on Christ alone. Nothing else matters. A little Samaritan woman. That was living in sin. That had no business.

[37:23] Coming to Christ. Or getting the grace that Christ showed her. No business. If Christ didn't go to her. I don't think she'd have ever heard the true gospel.

[37:35] If Christ never went to Samaria. Didn't go out of his way to a place that he was supposed to hate. If he never went there. She might not have ever heard the gospel. There are people like that in your life today.

[37:45] Aren't there? People that if you don't go pursue them and tell them. They might never hear the gospel again. They might never hear what Christ has done for them.

[37:57] If you don't go tell them. Tell them about the living water. Because if you're drinking from it. You'll know how great it is. You'll know that that is the only water.

[38:07] We'll ever truly need. Seawater tastes good at the time. But ultimately it's going to leave you thirsting for more. Are you going to leave your water pot here today.

[38:19] And realize that the only thing you need is living water. Are you going to leave the water pot of life. Of the world that you've got hanging on your shoulders. Are you going to leave it here today?

[38:31] Jesus still wants to meet thirsty people. But you don't need a water pot. You don't need a bucket to draw with. All you need is a willing spirit to come to Christ.

[38:41]  Go ahead and bow your heads and close your eyes.