Our reading from which the sermon will be based this morning is John chapter 4, verses 1 to 29.
! And let me ask Douglas to come and read for us.
Now, when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John,
although Jesus Himself did not baptize but only His disciples,
He left Judea and departed again for Galilee.
And He had to pass through Samaria, so He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar,
near the field that Jacob had given to His son Joseph.
Jacob's well was there, so Jesus, wearied as He was from His journey, was sitting beside the well.
It was about the sixth hour.
A woman from Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
Give me a drink, for His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
The Samaritan woman said to Him,
How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from Me, a woman of Samaria?
For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
Jesus answered her,
If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you,
Give me a drink,
you would have asked Him,
and He would have given you living water.
The woman said to Him,
Sir, you have nothing to draw water with,
and the well is deep.
Where do you get that living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob?
He gave us the well and drank from it Himself,
as did His sons and His livestock.
Jesus said to her,
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.
The water that I will give him
will become in him a spring of water
welling up to eternal life.
The woman said to Him,
Sir, give me this water,
so that I will not be thirsty
or have to come here to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
Go, call your husband, and come here.
The woman answered Him,
I have no husband.
Jesus said to her,
You are right in saying I have no husband,
for you have had five husbands,
and the one you now have is not your husband.
What you have said is true.
The woman said to Him,
Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
Our fathers worshipped on this mountain,
but you say that in Jerusalem
is the place where people ought to worship.
Jesus said to her,
Woman, believe me,
the hour is coming
when neither on this mountain
nor in Jerusalem
will you worship the Father.
You worship what you do not know.
We worship what we know,
for salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming
and is now here
when the true worshippers
will worship the Father
in spirit and truth,
for the Father is seeking
such people to worship Him.
God is spirit,
and those who worship Him
must worship in spirit and truth.
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.
Just then,
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?
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.
Can this be the Christ?
This is God's Word.
Good morning.
My name's David.
I'm the associate minister here.
If you've got a Bible,
please turn to John chapter 4
and to that passage
that Douglas read for us.
I think it's the Canadian writer,
Douglas Copeland.
In his best-selling novel,
Life After God,
he makes this observation.
When you're young,
you always feel
that life hasn't yet begun,
but then suddenly you're old
and the scheduled life
didn't arrive.
And in that same book,
he reflects on his own life
with these words,
I felt sad
because I realized
that once people are broken
in certain ways,
they can't ever be fixed.
This is something
nobody ever tells you
when you're young.
It never fails to surprise you
as you grow older,
as you see the people
in your life
break one by one.
He's an interesting writer,
and much of Copeland's writing
underscores the undeniable reality
that we live in a broken
and fractured world,
a world of broken lives,
broken relationships,
often broken dreams.
As Copeland puts it,
we are all broken
in certain ways.
And I wonder this morning
if the Samaritan woman
of John chapter 4
might not have recognized
herself in Copeland's words,
because for her,
that brokenness
was self-evident,
a broken life,
a life that perhaps she planned,
but simply didn't arrive,
an empty and unfulfilled life.
The empty jar
she brought to the well
day in and day out,
a symbol of what had become
really the story of her life,
the story of a vessel
that could never be filled,
a thirst that never
could never be quenched.
It was a woman
who'd hoped that love
would have been the answer
to her aching spirit.
Like many,
even today,
she believed that love,
marriage,
a partner,
a significant other
would have given her life
meaning and direction
and fulfillment.
But a string
of broken relationships
had shattered
her romantic illusions.
Each Mr. Right
had turned out
to be Mr. Wrong.
She was a lonely woman.
Despite these past relationships,
nothing had seemed
to fill the void
that was at the center
of her life.
She'd been looking
for the answer,
but relationship
after relationship
had only left her
feeling empty inside.
You may have noticed
in the text
that she came alone
to the well
to draw water.
That was very unusual.
Normal for the women
of the village
to come to
draw water together.
But this woman didn't.
And you may have noticed
the hour
at which she came
to the well
by herself.
Verse 6,
it was about
the sixth hour.
That was noon,
sun at the highest,
its highest,
the hottest time
of the day.
Why on earth
would anyone come
to draw water
at that time?
Was it no coward
once said,
only mad dogs
and Englishmen
go out
in the midday sun?
Well,
this woman
was neither.
This was a woman
who was trying
to avoid other people,
an outcast,
someone with few,
if any,
real friends.
And her actions here
hint, I think,
at sadness,
loneliness,
and emptiness
about her life.
A woman familiar
with feelings of shame,
a reputation
standing in the community,
perhaps viewed
as being way
beyond redemption.
A woman whose youth
had passed her by,
tired of the pain
she felt inside,
she felt worthless.
Like the water jar
she carried
to the well,
her life was empty.
And in that,
of course,
she's not alone.
Her life mirrors
that of countless others.
Because we live
in a world,
don't we,
of lonely people,
tired people,
broken people,
hurting people,
people looking
for something
to fill the emptiness,
people looking
for something
to dull the pain,
another relationship,
another drink,
another fix.
Seeking,
searching,
but often never finding.
For the lonely trip
to the well,
read a lonely trip
to the supermarket,
or the retail park,
or the bookies,
or the pub.
And yet,
this woman's story
here in John 4
is not without hope.
Because in this account,
we see this woman
meeting the one man
in the world
who could turn
her life around.
The one man
who could ease
her pain.
The one man
who could heal
her brokenness.
The one man
who could infuse
her life
with meaning
and purpose.
And here in John 4,
we are,
as it were,
witnesses
of this Samaritan woman's
encounter
encounter with Jesus
of Nazareth.
And we see this lonely
woman drawn
into a relationship
with the one man
who changes everything.
The one man
who makes sense
of life.
The one man
who brings healing
and forgiveness
to the broken
and the burdened
and the desperate
and the guilty.
And it's this one man,
of course,
who is the primary
focus and burden
of John's gospel.
And Jesus Christ
is still
the one man
with whom
a relationship,
with whom
a relationship
can change
everything
for people.
And we see here
really unfolding
in John 4
a kind of
dramatic work
of God
taking place
in this woman's life.
And what I want
to do just briefly
this morning
is to highlight
a number of key elements
in that work
as we witness
this woman's life
being quite literally
turned around.
And the first thing
I want you to notice
is that this work
is a work
of divine instigation
in the first nine verses.
A work of divine instigation.
There's nothing
accidental
or happenstance
about this encounter.
Notice how John
tells us that
in verse 4.
Jesus,
he says,
had to pass
through Samaria.
Now,
I think that's more
a theological observation
than a geographical one.
Humanly speaking,
there was no necessity.
The route through Samaria
was generally avoided
by the Jews
who,
on no account,
wanted to mix
or meet
with Samaritans.
There's no suggestion
in the text
that Jesus
is taking
some kind of shortcut.
And I think
it's simply
John's way
of telling us
that this wasn't
a chance encounter
for Jesus.
This meeting
with the woman
took place
in the plan
and purpose
of God.
Jesus had to pass
through Samaria
because he had to
meet and encounter
this woman.
There's a sense
of spiritual
compulsion
about these events,
just as there was
about the whole
of Jesus' ministry.
Here's an appointment
fixed,
as it were,
in the divine calendar.
So he came
to a town
of Samaria
called Sychar
near the field
that Jacob
had given
to his son Joseph.
Verse 5,
Jacob's well
was there.
Jesus,
wearied as he was
from the journey,
was sitting beside
the well.
It was about
the sixth hour.
So Jesus
and his disciples
about halfway
through their journey
across Samaria,
they stop
at noon
near this town.
Jesus is tired,
he's weary.
The disciples
go into town
to try and get
some food.
Jesus is left
on his own
beside Jacob's well,
but he's not
on his own
for long.
Verse 7,
a woman from Samaria
came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
give me a drink.
The Samaritan woman
said,
how is it that you,
a Jew,
ask for a drink
from me,
a woman of Samaria?
So the woman
is shocked,
surprised by Jesus.
First,
by his presence
at the well
at midday,
and second,
by his conversation.
She's taken aback.
He,
a Jew,
deigns to speak
to her,
a Samaritan woman,
and ask for a drink
of water.
You'll notice
Jesus initiates
the conversation,
and immediately
she is left
wondering what's
going on.
Jesus' behavior
is not what
she was expecting.
For a Jew
even to speak
with a Samaritan
was a surprising
turn of events.
It was not
the done thing.
And it's interesting
that we see here
that Jesus
is not constrained
by the social,
racial prejudices
of his day.
not only that,
but in speaking
to an unknown
woman in public,
that was a very,
that was very
risky behavior.
Some rabbis
held that it was
even improper
for a husband
to talk to his
wife in public,
far less a strange
woman.
So Jesus
is pushing,
indeed crossing
the boundaries
of social convention
here.
He's reaching
across the barriers
that are so often
erected
to divide people.
He's crossing
boundaries,
Jerusalem to Samaria,
male to female,
Jew to Gentile,
rabbi to outcast.
He's not afraid
to take a risk
to minister
to this woman
and to meet
her spiritual needs.
Because he has come
in love and grace
to fill empty lives.
He's come not just
as Savior of the Jews,
but as the Savior
of the world.
He's come to connect
with the broken
and the hurting
of whatever gender,
nationality,
or culture.
He's come to break
down barriers
to touch
and transform
people's lives.
There's an old hymn
of Charlotte Elliott,
Just as I am,
thy love unknown
hath broken
every barrier down.
And we find
in this gospel
the climax
of this barrier-breaking,
boundary-crossing,
ministry of Jesus,
ministry of love,
at the end
of John's gospel.
As you remember,
Jesus hangs
on the cross
of Calvary,
on that rough wooden cross.
Again,
interestingly,
about the sixth hour,
Jesus again
cries out
in thirst
in order to save,
rescue,
sinful,
fallen,
broken men and women.
And so,
whoever you are
this morning,
whatever advantages
or disadvantages
you've had in life,
Jesus Christ
is not put off
by them.
He's not put off
by a checkered past
or the mess
you've made
of your life.
You can't keep
this Jesus
at a distance.
You can't hide away
forever behind
your barriers,
your morality,
your status,
your race,
sexuality,
religion,
culture,
pride,
whatever.
Because Jesus
has come
to break through
and to touch
the person beneath.
Here is a work
in which Jesus
Himself
takes the initiative.
It's a work
of divine instigation.
And that brings me
to the second thing here.
It's a work
of divine revelation.
Verses 10 through 15.
I think there is
a progression
that takes place
through this chapter.
As this woman's eyes
are gradually
open to see
just who
Jesus truly is.
The woman begins
as all of us do
from a place
of blindness
and ignorance.
And Jesus tells us
as much
in verse 10.
Jesus answered him,
If you knew
the gift of God
and who it is
that is saying to you,
give me a drink,
you would have asked Him
and He would have
given you living water.
If only this woman
had known
who it was
that was speaking
to her,
she would have been
the one
who was doing
the asking.
Not only that,
but she would have
received living water.
That's a phrase
used in the Old Testament
by Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 2, 13,
God declares
to His people,
My people have
committed two sins.
They have forsaken me,
the spring
of living water.
They've dug
their own cisterns,
broken cisterns,
that cannot hold water.
And so the living water
really is a picture
of God Himself,
the life and the vitality
that He brings to people.
And this is the water
that only Jesus
can bring
to empty,
parched human souls.
And the woman
like Nicodemus
in the previous chapter
doesn't have a clue
about what Jesus
is speaking about.
I think it's interesting
as a way of an aside.
I think there's
a very definite contrast
drawn here
between John 3
and 4.
In John 3,
Nicodemus,
a man,
a Jew,
a moral,
religious leader,
a Bible scholar,
comes to Jesus
at night.
Here in John 4,
it's an unnamed woman,
a Samaritan,
someone with a
mixed-up understanding
of the Scriptures,
a questionable past,
and who meets Jesus
in the middle of the day.
These two individuals,
you see,
are polar opposites.
The woman said to him,
Sir,
you have nothing
to draw water with,
verse 11.
The well is deep.
Where do you get
that living water?
Are you greater
than our father Jacob?
He gave us the well
and drank from it himself
as did his sons
and livestock.
Of course,
the irony is
that the living water
that Jesus offers
is not to be found
in any well.
It's to be found
in a relationship
with him.
He is indeed
one greater
than the patriarch Jacob.
He is the very water
of life.
He is the Word
made flesh.
He is the Son
of the living God.
Jesus said,
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.
The water
that I will give him
will become in him
a spring of water
welling up
to eternal life.
See,
the water
that Jesus speaks of
giving
is very different
to the water
that the woman
is thinking about.
The water
she has in mind
could at best
slake
a temporary thirst.
The water
that Jesus speaks of
penetrates
and satisfies
that raging
spiritual thirst
that is at the heart
of every human being.
The water
that Jesus gives
is not to be drawn up
from some stagnant well.
It is given
as a gift
that becomes
a bubbling spring
of eternal life
in the human soul.
This life-giving water
is only given
by Jesus.
It can't be purchased.
It can't be earned.
It can't be won.
It can't be merited.
It can only be received
by faith.
And it's only
as our eyes are opened
to see Jesus
that we are drawn
to rest our faith
and trust
and confidence
in him.
And it's only
as we trust him
that this living water
is poured
into our lives
and we become
new men and women.
You'll see that
by verse 19
the woman's estimation
of Jesus
has become
that of a prophet.
The woman said to him,
Sir,
I perceive you're a prophet.
By verse 29
she's telling the people
from the town,
Come see a man
who told me
all that I ever did.
Can this be the Christ?
You see what's happened
through this passage?
Her eyes have been opened.
The truth has dawned.
This woman is being led
out of the darkness
into the light
and life
of Jesus Christ.
She's being led
from the well
and her empty jar
to that spring
of eternal life
that is to be found
only in Jesus.
Sir,
give me this water
so that I will not
be thirsty
or have to come here
to draw water,
she says.
But before Jesus
will do that,
before he will complete
this work
of divine revelation,
there is something
you'll notice
to be sorted out
in this woman's life.
And that leads us
to the third thing here
that we notice.
Not just a work
of divine initiation
and divine revelation.
It's also a work
of divine conviction
in verses 16 through 24.
Look what Jesus says.
Go, call your husband
and come here.
The woman answered,
I have no husband.
Jesus said,
you're right in saying
I have no husband
for you have had five husbands.
The one you now have
is not your husband.
What you have said is true.
Before Jesus reveals
the truth about himself
to this woman,
he first of all
reveals the truth
about herself.
And it's an uncomfortable
conversation
as Jesus,
in a sense,
gets up close and personal.
He sees right
through her disguise.
He exposes her sin
and moral failure.
And Samus says,
O Lord,
you have searched me
and you know me.
You know when I sit down
and when I arise.
You perceive my thoughts
from afar.
You discern my going out
and my lying down.
You're familiar
with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue,
you know it completely.
Here is the God,
you see,
from whom no secrets
can be hid.
Here is the Lord himself.
There's nothing hidden
that Jesus cannot see.
Before his gaze,
your life is as transparent,
as a pane of glass.
He sees our thoughts,
our motives,
our hidden secrets.
He sees behind the mask
just as he saw
this woman
somewhat murky
and miserable past.
And he insists
that we face up
to our sins
and our failures.
For unless we do,
we will never receive
the life-giving water
that he alone
can bestow.
And Jesus puts his finger
on this woman's
kind of sordid past
relationships
and he brings it
all out into the open.
And we might say,
well,
is Jesus being cruel here?
Is he trying to
humiliate
and shame
this woman?
I don't think so.
He's trying to get
this woman
to be honest
about her life.
to face up
to the way
in which she's been
trying to fill
the emptiness
of her soul.
For her,
it was relationship
after relationship
after relationship,
but no lasting fulfillment.
Her life
littered
with a string
of broken relationships.
And Jesus wants her
to face the truth.
And that's often
an uncomfortable thing,
even a painful,
convicting experience.
One writer puts it,
she felt that her
spiritual disease
was discovered
and for the first time
in her life,
she saw herself.
That's a really important,
vital,
necessary aspect
of a work of God.
Our sin
needs to be exposed.
We have to see
where
our problem
truly lies.
And that problem
is a moral one.
Our emptiness
is a kind of
moral emptiness.
Our brokenness
is a moral
brokenness.
As Paul puts it,
we've exchanged
the glory of God,
the immortal God,
for other things.
And that rejection
of God
is to be seen
in human beings
looking for fulfillment,
satisfaction,
meaning,
in all the wrong places,
in our jobs,
in our ministries,
in our relationships,
our families,
our hobbies,
and it's all
just idolatry.
Jesus wanted
this woman
to see the emptiness
and hollowness
of her life.
He wanted her
to face up
to the truth,
a truth
that she was
hiding from.
J.C. Ryle writes,
until men and women
are brought
to feel their
sinfulness and need,
no real good
is ever done
to their souls.
Until a sinner
sees himself
as God sees him,
he will continue
careless,
trifling,
and unmoved.
Jesus wants us
to face
the uncomfortable
truth about ourselves.
He wants to take us
to that place
where we can say
with a hymn writer,
I tried the broken
cisterns,
Lord,
but ah,
the waters
failed.
Interesting,
the Samaritan woman,
when she's confronted
with this,
immediately tries
to change the subject.
She wants to move
the discussion
onto less
personal ground.
And, sir,
I perceive
you're a prophet.
Our fathers
worshipped on this
mountain.
You say that
in Jerusalem
is the place
where people
ought to worship.
It's the kind
of thing
that people
like to do
when they're
feeling a little
threatened
by the claims
of Jesus.
They want to
steer the conversation
away from
the personal
and the moral
to something
vaguer,
more abstract.
The question
she raises
is about worship.
Where should it
be offered?
On the temple
at Mount Gerizim
in Samaria
or in the temple
at Jerusalem
in Israel?
Who is right?
The Samaritans
are the Jews.
And Jesus says,
Woman, believe me,
the hour is coming
when neither
on this mountain
nor in Jerusalem
will you worship
the Father.
You worship
what you do not know.
We worship
what we know.
Salvation is
from the Jews.
The hour is coming
and is now here
when true worshipers
will worship
the Father
in spirit
and truth.
For the Father
is seeking
such people
to worship Him.
God is spirit.
Those who worship Him
must worship
in spirit
and in truth.
And Jesus
points out to her
that the time
is now at hand.
There will be
no longer
any need
of a physical temple
to have access
to God
because Jesus
Himself
is the true temple
of the living God.
It's in Him
and through Him
that men and women
will connect
with God.
worship is not
so much about
a place
as it is
about a person.
Salvation is
from the Jews
but it's not only
for them.
It's for the whole world.
Jews and Samaritans,
Gentiles,
all who come
to faith in Jesus.
And this woman
is a great example
of someone
who has spent
their life
worshiping
at the wrong altar.
we're all
worshipers.
We're all
bowing down
before something.
Everyone worships.
Everyone trusts
in something.
Everyone bases
their life
on something
that requires faith.
The writer,
I quoted this
a few weeks ago
in the evening,
a post-mortem novelist,
David Foster Wallace
once wrote this,
if you worship
money and things,
if they are
where you tap
real meaning in life,
then you will
never have enough.
Worship your own
body and beauty
and sexual allure,
you will always
feel ugly.
Worship power
and you'll end up
feeling weak.
Worship your intellect,
being seen as smart,
you'll end up
feeling stupid.
A fraud,
always on the verge
of being found out.
Whatever you worship,
if it is not
Jesus Christ,
it's going to
disappoint you.
This woman's need
for a man in her life
was really destroying her.
I wonder,
what are you looking to
to complete your life?
If it is not
Jesus Christ,
it will eventually
betray you
and leave you
disillusioned.
It will leave you
empty.
How important it is
to understand this.
If God is going
to do a work
in our lives,
our idols
need to be exposed.
It's not a painless
experience.
But it's only then
that we can become
worshipers of the Father
in spirit and truth.
What are you
worshiping?
If it is not
Jesus Christ
and the life-giving
water He brings,
then it is simply
a broken system.
a work of divine
instigation,
divine revelation,
divine conviction,
finally here and quickly,
a work of divine
transformation.
Verses 25 to 29,
the woman said to Him,
I know that Messiah
is coming,
called the Christ.
When He comes,
He will tell us
all things.
Jesus said to her,
I who speak to you
am He.
Literally,
Jesus says,
I who speak to you,
I am.
It may not be
a theologically
loaded response here,
but it's hard not
to be aware
that this is how
Jesus speaks of Himself
all the way
through this gospel.
Same Greek phrase,
I am.
Maybe a reference
not just to being
the Christ,
but to being God.
I am,
Jesus says,
the bread of life.
I am the way
and the truth
and the life.
I am the resurrection
and the life.
I am the true vine.
I am the good shepherd.
You see,
in a sense,
Jesus is the man
that she has been
searching for
all her life.
This whole passage
has powerful echoes
of these Old Testament
well encounters
where a bride
is wooed
by or for her husband.
And this woman here,
she had had six men.
Now Jesus is the seventh
and the last.
He is the one
who will lay down
his life for her.
Here is Jesus
making this Samaritan woman
part of His bride
and part of His church.
And it says,
Jesus reveals Himself
that this woman's life
has changed.
That is always the case.
It's as we come to see
who Jesus really is
in all His divine glory
and majesty
and in all His wonderful grace
and love
that we are drawn
to fall at His feet
and worship Him.
And this woman's need
like ours
was not for some
good advice,
some new religious ritual,
some spiritual techniques,
but for a relationship
with the living God,
a relationship
with Jesus,
a relationship
with the Savior
of the world,
a relationship
with Jesus
full of grace
and truth.
life.
And we don't have time
to look at the whole
rest of the chapter,
but there's a profound change
that takes place
in her life.
She becomes
a true worshiper.
She runs into the town
to tell others
and to bear testimony
to Jesus.
And her witness,
as we discover
later in the chapter,
has a profound effect
on the people.
Her transformed life
bears witness
to the power of Jesus.
Jesus.
Bruce Millen,
in his Bible Speaks Today,
commentary,
comments,
there are no more
attractive evangelists
than those
who have newly
discovered Jesus.
The disciples come back.
They marveled
that He was talking
with a woman.
No one said,
what do you seek?
Why are you talking
with her?
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.
can this be the Christ?
It's an interesting
little observation.
John says
that the woman
left her water jar.
She left the symbol
of her empty life
at the feet of Jesus.
For she had received
the living water.
She had found
the one person
in the world
who could complete her.
and her life
would never be
the same again.
Her empty life,
like the empty water jar,
was left
at Jesus' feet.
This poor Samaritan woman
with her empty,
broken life
utterly changed
and transformed.
And such is
that transformation,
we can almost imagine
her taking
to her lips
those famous words
of Horatius Bonner
with which we opened
our service this morning.
I came to Jesus
and I drank
of that life-giving stream.
My thirst was quenched,
my soul revived,
and now
I live
in Him.
What about
your life
this morning?
Who or what
are you really
living for?
Whatever it is,
lay it down
at Jesus' feet
and discover
for yourself
that life-giving water
that only
He can give.
Bring your broken life
to Jesus.
For Douglas
Copeland was wrong.
It can be fixed.
It can be restored.
It can be mended.
It can be filled.
Are you thirsty?
Are you empty?
Come and drink
these living waters.
Tired and broken,
peace unspoken,
rest beside
these living waters.
Christ is calling,
find refreshing
at the cross
of living waters.
Lay your life down,
all the old gone.
Rise up
in these living waters.
Come to Jesus Christ.
Drink
of the life-giving
waters.
Come and discover
for yourself
like the woman
of Samaria
a new life
in Him.
Let's pray.
Almighty God,
we thank You
and praise You
for Your goodness
and grace
towards us
in Your Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ.
We thank You
that He is
the living waters.
Lord,
may we come to Him
this morning
and indeed every day
and drink from Him.
May we know
what it is
to have our souls
filled
and satisfied
not with the
empty things
of this world
and this life
but with
the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself.
And we pray
these things
in His name.
Amen.