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[0:00] Is Connie in here? That's a pretty serious thing.

[0:14] ! You know, it's like...

[0:34] Turn in your Bibles this morning to John chapter 4, verse 25.

[0:50] Last week I was asked a question that I was reflecting on here just a couple minutes ago as I was praying. An individual asked me the question, so when are you finished preparing to preach?

[1:08] And my answer was when I walk away from the pulpit. The truth of the matter is, is that the process of preparing to preach is one that is, for a pastor, kind of a life-consuming responsibility and blessing.

[1:26] And the work of preaching is one that depends heavily upon time with the Lord, time in the Word, and your prayers.

[1:45] And so there is a sense in which I don't know how it's going to go until it's done. But having said that, I've got to tell you, this is an awful good passage.

[2:02] Oh, I mean that. Let me read it to you. Beginning in verse 24, Jesus said this.

[2:16] He said, God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ.

[2:28] When he comes, he will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I, who speak to you, am he.

[2:40] Just then that his disciples came back, they marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, What do you seek? Or why are you talking with her?

[2:52] So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, Come, see the man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?

[3:03] They went out of the town and were coming to him. Let's pray. Father God, this morning, our hearts, as we take this passage in mind and we read it, we are drawn to remember the passage in Zechariah where you, through the mouth of your prophet, declared that it's not by might nor by power but by your spirit.

[3:36] And so it is my prayer, and I know it is the prayer of your people who sit here this morning that know Christ and are informed by the scriptures, that your word would have free course this morning, that it would produce fruit that brings glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, that it would be used by you to continue the process of shaping and forming our frail lives to look more like the Lord Jesus.

[4:09] So as the result of our seeing the Lord Jesus in this passage, that we would be less consumed with ourself, less afflicted by the challenges and hardships of life, more earnest and affectionate for the things of eternity, more passionate for the souls of lost mankind, more humble, more joyful, more tender in our relationships with others, so that in all things, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the one who has redeemed us from the pit and who is actively engaged in changing us from who we used to be to who we will be, in that process of progressive sanctification, would be the one who is glorified not only in saving us, but also in this wonderful, unbelievable work of changing us.

[5:15] So allow your word to do a wonderful work today, that this day, the Lord's day, March 22nd, will be one that, while maybe not written in the fly leaf of our Bible, will be one written on the pages of our heart as a day when your word and your spirit affected your child deeply, to the glory of Christ.

[5:46] Amen. I want you to think back just for a moment as we take this passage in mind, that when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming earlier in the book of John, he made that statement, behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.

[6:06] Clear, undeniable announcement of who the Lord Jesus Christ was and what he had come to do. Behind that opening statement that John the Baptist made, then we find a series of incidents in which we find the Lamb of God interacting with people.

[6:27] The first one is Nicodemus. And you remember he was the ruler of the Jews who came to Jesus by night. And I would probably say that Nicodemus didn't get it at that time.

[6:41] That's pretty clear. And the spiritual truths, the matter that was in the Bible, even though he was a scholar and understood all of the Old Testament pretty well, he just didn't understand that the issues of spiritual life, in fact, more important than that, the issue of salvation and conversion was not just a matter of improving your behavior and kind of following all the rules and regalia that went with being a Jew.

[7:12] It was really the matter of the work of the Holy Spirit and bringing conviction and then the transformation of the heart. But we have Nicodemus on one side and then we have, guess what? We go from a Jew of all Jews, a classic illustration of the perfect Jewish man, and then we go to what?

[7:30] A Samaritan woman. I mean, and we're not talking about one of the prima donnas of Samaritan culture, are we? We're talking about an absolute low life, a person who was shunned by her culture and her community and who was afraid, in some sense, of being around the rest of the crowd because she knew she wasn't liked.

[7:49] And here we have Jesus meeting this woman at the well. And as we look at this passage and we break it down in verse 25 on through 30, since one of the responsibilities of preaching is to be clear, I'm going to give you the outline ahead of time.

[8:07] That doesn't mean you can go home and say, well, I know the three points. And I can't always say that in every case the outline is just this easy, but today, for whatever reason, it works fairly simply.

[8:19] So it comes down to three Cs. And you who know me know that I am not one of those guys who got a major in alliteration. It's just like, here it happened, it's a blind hug finds acorn time.

[8:30] Here we go. Confrontation, confusion, and conversion. Confrontation is the first thing. Confusion is the second thing. Conversion is the third thing.

[8:40] And so you kind of track your way through the passage and you see these things and actually it wasn't forced. It's there. Confrontation. Verse 25.

[8:52] The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming. He who is called Christ, when he comes, he will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he.

[9:08] The story of the Samaritan woman as it kind of rolls out in front of us in John chapter 4 is broken down in several steps as we worked our way through it.

[9:20] We saw, first of all, a tired Jesus sitting down by the well at Sychar and engaging a woman in conversation. That interchange led to spiritual things.

[9:35] And Jesus actually exposed her sinful heart with a fairly simple little statement of saying, go call your husband. We do know that what the woman did after she was convicted of her sinfulness is that she did what is usual and normal when people are convicted.

[9:52] The first thing that happens is they try to avoid the subject and move away from the conviction. And she tried to do that by bringing up a theological distinction between the Jews and the Samaritans and she hoped that that would kind of divert the attention away from her own heart and it didn't.

[10:11] Instead, what Jesus did was he really address the issue of what genuine worship is. And if you look there in John chapter 4, just mark what Jesus said in verse 23, the hour is coming and now is here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

[10:38] Well, what Jesus was saying in that passage and we don't want to move away from it, it has to be part of our understanding of the frame in which Jesus was ministering to this Samaritan woman and the frame in which actually all of us engage in ministry to other people.

[10:52] He was saying this, true worship is really all of who you are invested in the glory of who he is. And can I tell you something at the end of the day, think with me, we are either engaged in worshiping him or we're engaged in worshiping ourself.

[11:10] We're all worshipers all the time. Do you understand that? And how do you know when you're worshiping yourself? Everybody smile. Everybody look at me. Hey, up here. Come on. Up.

[11:21] Look here. When we're worshiping ourself, we're kind of given to being moody when things aren't going our way. I mean, hey, you know how in the, you know, Dagon was really upset when people weren't doing the things he wanted and Dagon would do what?

[11:36] I mean, everybody knew when Dagon wasn't be worshiped. How did we know that Dagon wasn't happy? What did he do? I mean, there was thunder and clouds and all kinds of, if you're worshiping him, you're not so caught up by how other people are treating you and all of God's people who are not the least convicted by this thought said, amen.

[11:58] Right? When we're engaged in self-worship and things aren't going the way self-thinks they ought to be, guess how we act? Moody, a little pouty, a little unhappy, very easily offended.

[12:16] There's a little phrase that we've used over here in Maranatha called high OI. Does anybody know what high OI is? It's called a high offendability index. And people who have a high OI are people that are specialists in self-worship.

[12:34] Coming back around to the circle so we understand where we are, we find here is Jesus helping this woman understand that true worship is really all about God and means putting all that you are into it.

[12:47] And as she addresses this problem or as Jesus addresses this problem, we find that the woman tried to step away from it and when Jesus made that statement about listen, true worship is really all of who you are being caught up with who God is, she tries one more time to dodge the subject.

[13:07] How do I know that? The woman said to him, verse 25, I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ, when he comes he will tell us all things.

[13:18] It's like, hey, I heard you but I'm not real sure I have to buy into what you say but I'm going to wait until the authority comes, that's the Messiah. Don't press me right now with spiritual truth, I'm waiting to hear it from and what does Jesus say?

[13:38] I'm glad you brought that up. I'm him! I like that. You got it, I'm the one! You know, here is the woman saying, I'm feeling uncomfortable with this business of sin first, you know, the husband deal, and I'm feeling uncomfortable with this worship thing but we're going to try to wait, we'll kind of delay until the real Messiah shows up.

[14:11] And what does Jesus say? let me tell you something, you're thinking about distracting me first with an argument about location and then you're kind of dodging the subject and here's the reality is true worship, true worship is all about who God really is and what he wants from our heart and that's what Jesus was drawing this woman to understand in this moment is, hey listen, it's about who I am and who you are that is on the cusp of the moment.

[14:44] Now as you look at this passage and you recognize what Jesus says in verse 26, I want you to understand that it is one of only two places in the New Testament where Jesus explicitly declares who he is.

[15:02] That's pretty interesting because you'll remember over and over again the Jews were, they kept on coming to Jesus and saying, you know, tell us, are you really the Messiah?

[15:14] Their understanding of the Messiah, by the way, was not the Savior of mankind's sins but they were looking for someone to kind of rescue them from their political problems. Hey, everybody out there, it's kind of like in the Jewish culture all of their Facebook posts were about politics not about spirit issues.

[15:35] How many of you understood what I just said? That's it. Everybody understand that one? It's like they were all caught up in concern for the political condition. I mean, and let me tell you something, Rome was absolute trash and by that extension the Jews were living in a pretty repressive environment and so if Facebook had been around in the ancient world, I bet you that 99.8%, 2%, 0.10%, forget it.

[16:04] How many of you know that I don't do well at math? Is that a secret? Okay. There was a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very small part of the Jewish population that would have been concerned about anything but politics and Jesus, when he would do these miracles, they'd say, well, are you the Messiah?

[16:21] And what they were really saying is, are you the one that's going to clean up Washington? Washington. And Jesus would come back and say, well, hey, listen, I'm not about cleaning up Washington, I'm about taking care of your heart. That's what he did with this woman, okay?

[16:34] And that's not in my notes in case you want to email me about that one later. Here's Jesus, he says, I'm the one, I'm the one, I'm the one. And it's pretty interesting because here is this woman, she's been convicted by her immorality, she's been convicted by the fact that her worship is just kind of ritual and being in the right place, you know, doing the right kind of thing and whatever, and Jesus says, hey, listen, real worship's about the heart.

[17:05] And then she tries to dodge that one and Jesus says, hey, you want to hear what the Messiah thinks? I'm here. I'm here. And so I want you to understand as you look at this passage that you can't step away from the illustration we have of the grace of God in getting a hold of the hardness and the darkness of man's heart.

[17:26] I like that. And that's one of the reasons why in the process of witnessing and sharing the gospel with other people, when I was younger, I used to become pretty animated in winning arguments for Jesus.

[17:40] How many of you have been there? Winning arguments for Jesus. I took class one and class two, did pretty well in it, and I could persuade anybody to drink fire water on a moment's notice.

[17:52] Hey, you know, I'm in your space and you better believe in Jesus or else. I've learned that that doesn't work. You know, how many of you know what a reversionary clause is when you sign a contract?

[18:05] How many of you know that? I mean, I had people pray the prayer in front of me and the minute I left, guess what happened? Whew. He's gone. Jesus wasn't that way.

[18:18] He just allowed the work of grace to do its part in affecting the heart of people, and here's this woman. She says, yeah, well, I want to dodge this one too, and he says, you can't dodge me.

[18:31] I'm right here. And so we understand that grace is what convicts us of our sins and opens blinds eyes so people can see Jesus. He's got to do that work. We can't force it, but there is convicting power when the Spirit of God is at work in people's lives, and you'll see it.

[18:49] Let's come to a second part. I want you to read this here, and I don't want you to think about low lives. They didn't get it.

[19:00] If I was a disciple, I would have been all over this spiritual moment. Follow me? I want you to look now in verse 27. Then, just then, his disciples came back.

[19:11] Where had they been? They went into town to get a McDonald's, you know? I mean, they were hungry, and so they went to get a little snack from Samaritans, you know? And snacking from Samaritans was okay, just don't be at the well.

[19:25] And so here they are. They come back, and they marveled, and that word marveled is pretty interesting. We'll get to that in just a minute. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, and no one said to him, what do you seek?

[19:38] Or, why are you talking with her? So, confusion. We have confused disciples. Now, look at me. Look at me.

[19:50] These disciples were confused because they didn't understand what Jesus' work was. Why did Jesus come?

[20:04] Come on. If you know the answer, look up. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save Samaritan women.

[20:18] Am I right? And here are the disciples. They come scampering back from having gotten their hamburgers and whatever else, and they come, and here is Jesus talking to a woman at the well in Samaria.

[20:32] And so, by the way, none of us here are the disciples. Am I right? We're a lot more mature and a lot more spiritually advanced than the disciples, and we understand that this business of drawing breath, this side of glory, is really all about one thing, and it's about seeing people come to Jesus, right?

[20:53] That's why you invite your neighbors over, and that's why you minister to the people around you, and that's why when you go to work on Monday, the ambition of your heart is not to earn a living, but to see people come to Jesus, right?

[21:10] Low life disciples. They come booking in, and they see Jesus talking to this woman. Now look at that word. Put your finger on it. There's something about translation.

[21:21] They marveled. Okay? The word that is used here talks about like, what is this? It's the same word used in Acts chapter 7 where Stephen is preaching about how Moses was blown away when the bush was on fire and it wasn't burning, right?

[21:44] Marveling, in a biblical sense right here, is not kind of this, huh. It's like, whoa! What is this? What is this? And the thing that was just beyond their little pea-brained grasp was that their teacher, the one that they had left their profitable careers to follow fishermen, you know, I mean, whatever they were doing, they had sold it all out to follow Jesus and the one they were following was at a well talking to a woman.

[22:20] Oh. By the way, Jewish culture drew a strong line between the sexes.

[22:38] An open conversation between a man and a woman that was not a man's wife, child, or blood was absolutely unacceptable. Crass and wicked men and women did flirt.

[22:53] Happened all the time. But men and women that were each, that were at least sensitive to the civil decorum of the day and to the relationships that were marked by Old Testament purity, and Scripture as well, were pretty careful.

[23:13] And so, truth of the matter is is that rabbis just didn't talk to women, period. By the way, just as a sidebar, ladies, I like all of you.

[23:30] Do you understand that? But I know some on occasion have thought that I've been just a little standoffish. I'm not a rabbi, but I am pretty careful. Okay?

[23:42] Enough said? Here was Jesus talking to a woman. I mean, a woman. A woman who was a Samaritan. I mean, it was like over the top.

[23:54] How do we know it was over the top? Well, can we read verse 27 with a little bit of realism in it? I'm going to do that for you. Everybody listen.

[24:05] Don't be offended. At the end of the day, if you have a question about what a pastor says, at the end of the day, what you really ought to do is not check what your sensibilities are, but how it fits the Bible.

[24:16] Everybody agrees, right? Okay, so we're going to do this and you can go back home and kind of, you can Google it. That means you don't have to be a specialist in Hebrew or Greek to get it.

[24:29] Okay? Here we go. Verse 27. No one said, what do you seek or what are you, why are you talking with her? Can you kind of parse that a little bit for yourself?

[24:40] Let me do it for you. Why are you flirting with her? Is that a fair rendition? Nod your head if you think there's probably a good chance that that's a little bit of what they were thinking.

[24:50] They didn't say it. Do you follow that? Men didn't talk with women. Case closed. The only time that men talked to women were, if they were courteous, blood relative, not blood relative, off page where they shouldn't be.

[25:14] And here is Jesus doing something that stepped beyond the bounds of what these people understood. And they were kind of taken back by it. They did, what's going on?

[25:26] Well, here's the heart of the issue for the disciples. And the truth of the matter is that the disciples had a small view of Christ's mission.

[25:38] I want you to mark that out. They had a small view of Christ's mission. And see, they had drawn a tight circle around what they thought ministry was.

[25:54] And that tight circle did not include Samaritans, and it didn't include women. End of discussion. And so here they come, they find their rabbi, their teacher, the one who they're following, engaged in a conversation with a woman, and it just literally blew their socks off.

[26:15] Now, forget flirting, but stop and recognize something. It's a fair question we can ask ourselves. Have we drawn unchrist-like circles that exclude some people that Jesus came to save?

[26:30] I want you to think about that. Hey, what about the kids that don't respect your lawn? Or mess up in your parking lot?

[26:42] Or the neighbors that are just too loud? I moved into a neighborhood that has people closer. And some of the songs that I would care to forget, they happen to love.

[27:01] And so I've got to decide, am I going next door and knock on their door and say, listen, I paid taxes here and I don't have to listen to that junk. People drive down the street, you know, and I don't understand it.

[27:15] I understand why people are deaf today. But I mean, when your windows are rattling, I was at the stoplight and I could hear every word that was being said in the car next to me.

[27:30] And I looked over and I thought, maybe he's got his windows down. He had his windows up and they were literally shaking with the, how many of you know what I'm talking about, right? Okay, here's the deal. We're not talking about that.

[27:40] We're talking about the attitude we have towards people that aren't in our circle. Don't be small-minded with your prejudices. I want to encourage you to look for gospel opportunities in those moments at the well.

[27:58] When you're driving, you're in the mall, you're across the fence, and you're talking with people who have no hope and you're the one representative that Jesus put in their space to make a difference for all of eternity and you want to have an attitude over their music.

[28:19] I got to tell you, he came looking for sinners and he found me at the well.

[28:36] And if I understand what he did for me, it means I don't get all bent out of shape over little issues that in the scope of things don't count for a hill of beans. Oh, let's stop for a minute so we understand something, by the way.

[28:50] You're not going to do very well at the momentary moments at the well if you can't do reasonably well with people that you get to practice with over and over again.

[29:02] How many of you understood what I just said? Let me say it again slowly because I know it's a tough one. You're not going to do well, you're not going to do properly.

[29:14] Forget the well part. You're not going to do properly, you're not going to be effective at those little moments when you get to bump into low-life sinners that desperately need Jesus in those rare incidents at the well if you can't do well practicing with people you see every day at home or here in the body of Christ.

[29:36] Everybody smile. This is one of those smile moments. if you're sitting there and you tell me you care about lost mankind but you're torqued out about somebody else in the bride of Christ, there's something wrong and it's not with Jesus.

[29:51] It's your heart. And having smack talk about the fact that well we're not doing real well at evangelism and you're over there just complaining about someone else in the family and say get over it.

[30:06] Practice here. Go out there and light it up. All God's people said, Oh wow, I need a Kleenex. Convict me Lord of being petty at the cost of the gospel.

[30:29] Can you write that on your paper? I'll say it again slowly. Convict me Lord of being petty at the cost of the gospel. Now do you understand why when you preach you don't know what's going to happen until it happens?

[30:52] Well, let's come to the best part. Conversion. The Samaritan woman had come to this well at the off hour.

[31:03] woman had come to this well at the off hour. Because she wanted to avoid the people who disliked her.

[31:17] And she came with one agenda and Jesus found her. And we know that as a result of Jesus finding her everything changed.

[31:28] Verse 28. So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, come, see a man who told me all that I ever did.

[31:40] Can this be the Christ? Let me say this and mark it. And I want you to hear this clearly because one of the things that is a problem in our culture.

[31:53] How many of you understand that coming to Christ is simple? But just because you say a prayer doesn't mean you have the deal.

[32:07] If there is no evidence of a genuine change in your life and your affections, don't fool yourself to think that saying 17 or 31 words made any difference at all.

[32:23] Well, anyway, salvation changes our values and our life agenda. I love 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17.

[32:33] Let me say it to you here. It says, if any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creation. And that word that is used there, creation, is a word that conversion is used exclusively for God's activity in doing something supernatural.

[32:57] Conversion is not a decision to kind of improve yourself by following a new set of rules. It is the power of God that gets a hold of a nasty, broken, ruined sinner whose life is an absolute mess and comes with broken humility and says, I am desperate in my condition.

[33:19] I need you to do something in me and salvation takes us from death to life and we're different. We're different. I think it's frustrating sometimes to listen to people talk about their faith in Christ and their conversion, but Matt, there's no evidence.

[33:41] There's no evidence. Turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter, you're in John, go to the right, John chapter 6, John chapter 6, Romans.

[33:55] I want Romans, not John. It's a habit right now, we're in the John part. But we're going to Romans chapter 6, verse 1 through 5. Salvation is change.

[34:07] Salvation is change. Let me read Romans chapter 6. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? In other words, hey, since we've been saved, can we just kind of, you know, bebop our way through, acting just like we did before, but you know, at least we said the prayer and we got, you know, kind of some of the vocabulary, we're learning songs and all that kind of stuff.

[34:30] He says, by no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ, Jesus, were baptized into his death?

[34:41] In other words, in his death, our death took place. We were buried therefore with him in baptism in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

[34:56] Underline that. Circle that in your Bible. Newness of life. So that we might walk in newness of life. If you cannot recognize something significantly different from where you used to be to where you are now as the result of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, there's something wrong.

[35:18] Salvation changes our view of self. I want you to mark that down. I want you to underline that. I want you to bold that. Go back to John chapter 4.

[35:30] the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, I'll never forget. There's an excellent book by Stuart Scott called From Pride to Humility.

[35:50] And I remember several years ago when I gave a copy of it to the deacons. Asked them to just read a little part of it. We were working on something together and I said, so let me have you fill in this little statement.

[36:04] If people really knew me, they wouldn't, guess what all the deacons thought would be the next word? Like me. If people really knew you.

[36:17] If people really knew you. Because of the nastiness of our hearts. Do you understand what I'm saying?

[36:31] Here's a woman who went into town and what did she say? You follow me? This is a woman who was a serial adulterer.

[36:46] You follow me? Did she have a good reputation? Everybody really liked this girl. They loved to invite her over for family fun because while they were in the kitchen, they were worried what this girl was doing with their husband.

[37:05] Got that? This woman runs back into town and she says, you got to meet him. He knows all about me.

[37:19] There's a little part in the story that's missing. You know what it is? He still loves me. He's ready to forgive me for all of that. He's ready to give me complete forgiveness for all of my sin.

[37:30] He accepts me unconditionally. I love what it says in Ephesians chapter 1 where it says, we are accepted in the beloved. I love being able to say to people as I share the gospel with them, Romans chapter 10 verse 11 says, whosoever believes in him, can anybody finish the rest of it?

[37:48] You ought to know this, shall not be ashamed. Salvation changes our view of self.

[37:59] By the way, mark this. Just because salvation changes our view of self doesn't mean that the enemy of our souls does not want to keep on torquing us back to the way we used to be.

[38:11] Satan is always there saying, do you remember the value system you used to work under? Do you remember how bad you felt about yourself? I want to bring you back to that place. How many of you understand what I just said?

[38:24] That's what Satan's all about. Here's a woman who ran into town and said, let me tell you something, I want you to meet the man who is the hero in my story. It's not me, it's him, it's Jesus.

[38:37] Jesus knew her secrets and her sin and yet he was ready to give her complete forgiveness for everything and that was all that counted. that's the way it is.

[38:50] What Jesus thought about her life trumped every other thing. Can I say that slowly? Because I know that Satan plays this card. What Jesus thought about her life trumped every other thing.

[39:06] I like that. to have the burden and the shame of your life lifted by the forgiveness of Christ is overwhelming.

[39:19] healing. I recited the passages in Romans chapter 10 verse 11 and Ephesians chapter 1 verse 6 and I want you to mark them for your later education.

[39:36] But one other thing I want you to see here is the woman's view of Jesus changed. Back she went into town and she makes an interesting statement that may be a little confusing on the surface but we need to think with us.

[39:49] Think it through. She goes into town. She says can this be the Christ? Was she asking a kind of a democratic answer? Let's take a poll.

[40:00] What do you think? Is that what's going on? No. How do we know that? Well if you look at verse 39 many Samaritans from the town believed in him because of the woman's testimony.

[40:12] She didn't go around saying I have a question for you. Do you think this is Jesus? Do you think it's a Christ? No. She was going around saying I want you to meet the one who is the Messiah who has given me complete forgiveness for all of my sins and everybody's looking at her saying all of your sins?

[40:26] Do you know that we know what kind of sinner you are? All of your sins? Verse 42. They said to the woman it's no longer because of what you have said that we believe.

[40:39] She couldn't have been just saying is this the Christ? Now why did she ask it this way in the passage we're looking at there in verse 29. You remember this woman had a testimony in town of being fast and loose with sex.

[40:55] Agreed? Would she have been the perfect person to be bear testimony to the deity of Christ and to the holiness and glory of the Savior of lost mankind?

[41:06] Answer is no. And so she exercised a little decency and caution in speaking gently. And by the way, questions are a pretty good way of bringing conviction.

[41:19] Do you know that? It works. Is your life a mess? You mean what I'm living isn't the way it's supposed to be? Questions work.

[41:30] So here's the woman comes into town. She says, hey, is this the Christ? So I want you to understand this morning that you sit here maybe like Nicodemus.

[41:45] Remember Nicodemus? Curious but not convicted. He knew something was missing in his life. There was a void and an emptiness but he really was too caught up in himself to come to grips with the desperate condition of his soul.

[42:02] And can I tell you? Until Jesus brings you to the place of brokenness where you see the bankruptcy of your soul, there will be no remedy. There will be no conversion.

[42:14] bad news, you've got stage four cancer and you're dying. Good news, Jesus is the only solution and you have to trust in him or you're going to hell.

[42:31] Well, some of you could be sitting here, not like Nicodemus, but like the woman before she knew Jesus and every time a little bit of conviction comes into your life, you kind of try to skate away from it.

[42:43] Oh, I'm uncomfortable. I didn't like that. That kind of makes me feel bad about myself. And the woman dodged and dodged and dodged and what did Jesus do? He kept on chasing her down.

[42:54] And so some of you have been sitting here and every time you turn around, the spirit of God is still convicting. Can I tell you there's a way to stop that? Huh?

[43:05] It's like, I get it. I need him. I can't undo the mess. All right. And here's the woman.

[43:17] After she knew Jesus and she knew that she was loved by Jesus and she knew that she was forgiven by Jesus and she was overwhelmed by his grace, she spent the rest of that day doing the very simple and logical thing of letting other people know who he is.

[43:34] grace. Let me tell you something.

[43:46] What we do together is enjoyable, but it's really not the main event of worship. The main event of worship will be when we who know Christ gather together in the presence of the Lord Jesus, the Savior of our souls and we without any impediment, without any cloud over the struggles we have in life, we will worship him with unending glory.

[44:17] What we do here is kind of encourage our souls for what he wants us to do out there. Do you follow that? There are women at the well.

[44:35] There are men in your neighborhoods. There are children in your school. There are mothers in your group. There are people where you work whose lives are broken and ruined by sin.

[44:51] And if you have been caught up with the sweetness of Jesus, you know what you do? Come see the man who told me all that I ever did is not this the Christ.

[45:12] Let's pray. Holy Father, the truth of matter is, is the Lord Jesus is the supreme lover of our soul and the one who has called us to redeem us from the pit.

[45:34] And it is so unbecoming for us who know the Lord Jesus Christ to have our lives clouded by the ugliness of our own ill-spirited thoughts.

[45:48] When we in the presence of Christ may enjoy true worship and go out to a world that is broken and dying and plead with them with tenderness and passion that they know the one who knows us.

[46:10] Today's a day of conviction. Some are here and don't know Christ and I would plead with you, Lord, that you would draw them to see their sin and to confess their brokenness and trust in Jesus.

[46:24] There are some here today that are believers whose lives are clouded by issues that have compromised the sweetness of their testimony. And it really comes down to this.

[46:36] They need to be repentant and humble. And ask you to renew their affection for the Lord Jesus that they may minister to the world around them.

[46:50]  And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.