John 4 - Wade Branch

Good morning everybody. It's good to be here with you

today to worship together and I'm looking forward to our

study. We have together in John chapter

John 4 · chapter mention

4, if you'll get your Bibles, their turn with me to John

John 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4, we have some really interesting things to consider.

I just hope I don't get in the way of what God has for us

because these are the words of life.

These are words from God himself that he penned for us and if we

ever lose sight of that, if I ever lose sight of that, then

I'm missing the whole point. So I hope I just don't get in

the way that this morning and we're going to study through a

little bit of John chapter 4 beginning in verse 5 will go

John 4 · chapter mention

through almost to the end of the chapter and we'll cover a little

bit from Hebrews chapter. 12, will take a little bit of a

detour but those are going to be the two places we spend pretty

much all of our time this morning.

So John chapter 4 beginning in verse 5, we're going to start

John 4 · chapter mention

reading there. It says, so he came to a city of

Samaria, which is called sychar near the plot of ground that

Jacob gave to his son. Joseph.

Now Jacob's, Well, was there, Jesus, therefore being wearied

from his journey set this by the will?

I like that little detail that Jesus was tired, he felt the,

the pains and the tires of his traveling of the things he deals

with on a daily basis. There are simple things like

that, that shows Humanity of Jesus just a little nugget.

He said, thus, by the will, it was about the sixth hour and now

with their time keeping this was about noon, it's about the six

six hours after day right after daylight.

So, about noon, a woman of 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. Then the woman of Samaria said

to him, how is that you being a Jew?

Ask a drink for me, a Samaritan woman for Jews have no dealings

with Samaritans. So we're going to start to see

the who this woman is that. He's talking to.

I want you to picture and going outside the city letting his

disciples, his friends, go off into the city, to get some food.

He's got some business to take care of outside and he goes and

he sits and he waits. And this woman comes by Now this

is the Middle East. So if you want to picture them,

these are not white people. These are Middle Eastern and she

comes along in the middle of the day and a couple things we have

so far about her. And that this is noon, and that

she's a Samaritan. And she first of all, she brings

up this this controversy. She's like I'm a Samaritan.

You guys are Jews. You don't have anything to do

with us now for a little background that this goes back

to a lot of history between the two.

You had the northern and the southern kingdoms that kind of

divided under some some Shoes. The Samaritans broke off and

when they were taken into captivity by the Assyrians, this

warning people, the Samaritans kind of got Unfaithful.

The Jews kind of stuck with it. They dealt with all the

struggles of being an under captivity and they handled it

pretty well. But the Samaritans, they started

intermarrying, they didn't really hold on to their faith.

They didn't really stand strong. And so the juice all that they

have when you guys doing that's just compromise and so they look

down on them but when they finally got free when the

Israelites were all free. And out of this captivity.

They wanted to rebuild the Temple.

They were in to rebuild Jerusalem and and the

Samaritans, tried to hop on board with the juice plans and

the Jews were like, no, you guys left us, you were Unfaithful and

you didn't hold on to things like we did you, you were

compromising. So no, we don't want your help

and that, turnaround, that made the Samaritans mags, they just

wanted to help. And so they started sabotaging

their building process and so this cause just a lot of beef

between these two groups and so that's kind of the backdrop for

this, this woman comes and this this Jew Who wants to talk to

you and she's like, what are you doing?

Talking to me? Then there's, you're going to

kind of see there's an edge about her that she just she's

got a lot of things that make this kind of a conversation.

She doesn't really want to be happy.

And there's a. So she's an outcast based on

her, subgroup of God's people, you have the juice, you have

God's people, then you have the Samaritans within that they're

kind of an outcast group. But there's another detail.

She came at noon. Now, during this time and this

place in the world when they would go to draw water, they

don't you don't want to be spending that much time out in

the desert, in the middle of the day because it's hot.

And so what they would do is they would go to draw water in

the mornings. They would go out before got

real hot but this woman came out at noon, that's the heat of the

day. That's the middle of the day and

so what we can learn from this kind of picture that's being

created is that as that this woman doesn't want to be out

there when everybody else is out there, She was an outcast even

within our own subgroup of the Samaritans.

She was out there trying to avoid all the the group that

goes out in the morning. She didn't want to go out with

everyone when they all went together and talk either had

their interaction. She was avoiding that she went

out by herself. And we're going to see why in a

little bit, has a lot to do with how she's handled her

relationships. So, you have this woman, who is

really an outcast of the outcast, and Jesus wants to talk

to her. Jesus answered and said, to her

verse 10, if you knew the gift of God and who it is, who says

to you give me a drink, you would have asked him and he

would have given you living water.

So he came up asking for her to get him some water and he starts

to turn into a spiritual conversation and she doesn't

quite get it yet, but he's telling her that he has the

Living Water she needs. We'll get to more of that in a

minute. The woman said to him, sir, you

have nothing to draw with and the well is deep.

You don't have a bucket, you don't got rope, what you gonna

do? You are you greater than our

father? Jacob, who gave us the well, and

drank from himself, as well as his sons and his livestock,

she's got this Edge about her. Like what are you gonna do?

What do you have your? You can't handle this.

You don't have anything to get the water with Jesus answered

and said to her, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again.

but whoever drinks of the water, I shall give him will never

thirst, but the water that I shall give him will become in

him, a fountain of water springing up into everlasting

life, He gets real deep right here.

The woman says to him, sir, give me this water that I made that I

may not thirst nor come here to draw.

She's like, I don't want to have to keep making this trip.

We just flip on the tap and we got water right there.

But this lady's, like, I don't wanna have to keep walking out

here in the middle of the day and the heat, avoiding the

public, avoiding all these people.

I don't really want to talk to you because they're too good for

me. Can you just give me that water?

Jesus said to her, go call your husband and come here. the one

the woman answered and said, I have no husband Jesus said, to

her, you have well said, I have no husband for you have had five

husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband in

that you spoke true. So, Jesus is getting all in her

business, the woman said to him, sir I perceive you're a prophet

our fathers worshiped on this mountain and you Jews say that

in Jerusalem is the place where we're not to worship.

Before we go on to that, he calls her out, he brings up her

life and so she starts to see that he's different.

But why is she different? Why is she the outcasts she's

had five. Ins.

And she's now living with this guy who's not even her husband.

We're starting to see more of a picture of this woman and why

Jesus comes to her this woman came out to get water

physically. She was thirsty, physically, but

Jesus is coming to her for a more important reason because

she's thirsty spiritually. He comes out to this woman,

who's going through his been through the wringer, trying to

be satisfied by her relationships, trying to get the

intimacy, the love, the appreciation, and the affection

of these men, and she's running through them.

And she's on her sixth right now, and she's not even married

to him. It's like she's given up on

that. Maybe she's cynical, maybe she's

frustrated, she's been through it.

And she wants more than that. She's tired of where she's been.

She's tired of what, she's seen and Jesus came to provide what

she really needed. This whole dialogue is Jesus

trying to show her that he has Living Water.

She knees, he has the water that's going to satisfy her.

It's not these relationships, it's not these.

The love from these guys that's gonna do it.

It's the love from God that's going to replace and push out

that need for all the love from these guys from these people.

And I want you to start to consider for yourself, I want to

consider for myself. What are things in my life like

that? What are things that I look to

for my value things, I Look to to give me validation things

that I'm trying to take my self-worth in because Jesus

says, you're gonna drink of that water.

In a metaphorical sense, you're gonna keep drinking from this.

Well of these guys, you're just trying to leech off of, but it's

like wringing out a dry rag. You're not going to get anything

out of them. What are areas in my life like

that areas that I'm trying to take identity in areas.

I'm trying to take satisfaction in the aren't Christ.

He says, I am that well of Living Water, you come to me,

and I will provide what you need.

I will give you that water. That'll let you never thirst

again. Don't go to the dryer racks and

try to get water from those. He's right here, waiting for us.

And to this, she sees that he calls her out for her life, but

this is how she responds, sir. I perceive you're a prophet, our

fathers worshiped on this mountain.

And you Jews say that in Jerusalem is where one is, is

the place where one ought to worship.

So people have always read this and I've always heard this

taught like she's asking him. Oh wow.

I have this profit from to. Here's a chance for me to ask,

you know, you guys say to worship here, we say to worship

here. What's right what's truth?

But she never asks a question. There's no question mark there.

She just brings up to me a religious defense or a religious

issue to kind of deflect from the situation.

I've heard that plane whenever you try to start a Biblical

discussion with somebody, they can start to see and they're

like, okay I see a religious. Well here is this religious

difference. I have you know what you guys

say this you know the Buddhists say this the Muslims say this

what you can really know they. Go high-level Theology and they

just want to kind of glaze over and say, well what can we even

know you guys say this? We say this and I think that's

what this woman is doing. She's deflecting from the guilt

and the sin that she sees in her life, she's deflecting from the

mess that's in front of her because she doesn't want to deal

with this. That's how I see her responding.

Jesus said, to her woman, believe me the hour is coming.

When you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem

worship the father, you worship, what you do not know.

So, she wanted to bring up these differences and try to get into

this conversation. That kind of takes it away from

her and more to who can really know.

But Jesus says, the problem is, let's not even start there.

He's not even going to get into the question of the specifics

yet. He's going to start by saying

you don't even know who you're worshipping.

So how can you please God, how can you really do?

What God wants. If you don't even know who he

is, he says, you're worshiping me.

You don't even know. We're going to get into this

more in a minute, but that's where the root of all this

starts. And before we really need to, I

don't know. Get consumed with the rest of

things. We have to focus on that first.

Do we know who we came into worship this morning?

It's so easy to come in here and just sit down and start singing

the words and open your book and sit there.

And amen, the prayer or whatever, sit there through all

this. But do we really know?

Who we came into worship this morning.

Because otherwise, Jesus says, yeah, you do it, like all these

other things, maybe you have the cup, you got this stuff, right?

You're singing. You're doing things well, but do

you even know me? That's where we have to start.

We have to prepare a heart for this.

We'll get to more. We're going to get into that a

little bit more in a second. What he says in verse 23, the

hour is coming. And now is when the true

worshipers will worship the father in spirit and Truth for

the father is seeking such to worship Him.

So he takes this conversation and he's trying to show her that

God is looking for a deeper relationship with her.

He doesn't just want this this facade that she's created.

He doesn't just want this facade of a religious life where she's

in kind of the nation where people are religious.

But she's not really in it. He says you got to be spirit and

Truth. There's true that we have to

follow, of course, but he wants to get into her spirit.

He wants to dive deeper and he wants her to know, God and her

spirit, and he's trying to weed out the sin and the mess.

That is in her life, by showing her that God has loved ones in.

He wants the spear because if he's not in a spirit, he's not

even there. He's not even really there with

her because she doesn't really even understand who she's coming

to. My question for us is, do we

know God? Are we doing things?

Because we see like this rigid outline of what's supposed to

happen and we're kind of following the outline but

there's nothing really filling the center.

Is there anything coloring in the outline that is God's plan.

Is there a spirit in you? That is filled with God's

spirit? Is there life in you?

That's from God. Or is it a facade where you

live, like the Samaritans inside, but this woman was

really outside. Jesus wanted to come to her.

Jesus specifically went outside and waited to come under.

So if that is you, if that is me, Jesus sitting here waiting

for us, he's gonna meet us at a point of time and maybe this is

that point in time, maybe we all needed to be right here to hear

this right now. Like Jesus is waiting for us.

To show us right now. He wants us to refocus.

He wants us to redirect. The woman said to him, I know

that Messiah is coming verse 25, who is called Christ when he

comes, he will tell us all things.

So she just kind of still wants to put her arms length and she

says, well the Messiah is going to come and he'll handle it all

and he'll tell us I just just wait till that happens.

And I see more deflection. She just she wants him at arm's

length, L doing the Messiah comes.

Jesus said to her, I who speak to you and he Can you imagine

how she felt? They've been looking forward to

him this whole time. Looking forward to this guy

who's gonna come and he's going to save them from their sins.

Is gonna come and save them. And being Everlasting savior, a

mighty God. He would be there with them and

he's standing right in front of her and she didn't even realize

it says, yeah, it's me. I can imagine the look on her

face. Now word, I am, he is the same

phrase used in the Old Testament.

When Moses said, you know, what am I going to do when they ask

me, you know why, how can we really believe that God sent

you? And he said, tell them I am sent

you. My translation says I am he, but

that's really italicized that he is not there.

He just says, I who speak to you a.m., he's using the phrase.

I am a phrase that only God can say I was I am and I will be his

the present at all times. and Jesus said that right in her

face, At this point his disciples came and they marveled

that he talked with a woman yet. No one said what do you seek or

why you talking her maybe it would have looked suspicious

looks suspicious, but nobody said anything verse 28, the

woman left, her water pot, went her way into the City and said

to the men come, see a man who told me all the things I ever

did? Could this be the Christ?

Then they went out of the city and came to him.

So while that's going on verse 31, in the meantime, his

disciples urged him saying Rabbi eat.

So they went and got him. Some Food.

They came out and they're like, you gotta eat something.

You're already tired from all this walking.

What are you doing? Get some food.

Jesus said to them, my food is to do.

The will of him who sent me. And to finish his work.

I want to zero in, on this, because this is something that

is, you know, very unique. And when Jesus says, that's

different from most of the others in this account, and if

we're going to call ourselves Christians, that's that's a real

thing. It means christ-like.

And so Jesus is mentality right here, we need to have.

He says, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to

finish his work. Do you not say?

There are still four months and then comes the Harvest.

Behold? I say to you, lift up your eyes,

and look at the fields for their already, white for Harvest.

Jesus is food. What gets him going?

What makes him satisfied? What takes care of him?

What gives his Spirit going and serving God.

Can we say we're christ-like in that?

Can I say I'm a Christian if I don't have that mentality.

Let's contrasted with the woman. What was she got?

Satisfaction was these guys. She was running through trying

to get her love and affection from them.

But Jesus said, the thing that gets me going to thing that

sustains me and what I need to survive.

Is to do God's Will and to serve God here to do the will of him

who sent me. He says, you know, you guys are

looking at this Harvest. Like, you understand, you know,

we in the valley, have a lot of AG, we understand, you know,

it's tomato Seasons about here for the harvesting and stuff you

guys say, well, we got about this long and the tomatoes are

going to come off. Will start the plant operations

will start getting the crap out of that.

He's like, you pay attention, open your eyes.

You're looking at all these physical things, you know, when

the Harvest is here, you know, the crops are coming, but you

don't even realize the Harvest is already here.

Behold, I say to you the open your eyes, look at the fields

for our that are already white for Harvest.

And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal

life that both he who sews and he who reaps may Rejoice

together. He's going next level right

here. He says, you can labor for

something that's gonna last forever.

And you're a lot of times, I think, the way I see, and I

think many of kind of people in my circle, see is like, what we

got. All this work to do to try to

convert people and trying to save people.

He's like, it's already white and I've seen that in some of

our Circle, some of the young guys who've been converted

recently, they they've kind of come to us and they kind of fall

in your lap and you feel like I got all this work to do all the

sudden they're they're, they're growing and they're with you.

So it's not like we have to all the time.

Just do all the work. Put in all this effort to get

everybody where they need to be. Maybe we just need to realize,

we need to be out there. Planting watering doing what we

can. And it's going to say that God's

already started. This work.

Other people have already labored for this.

There's already a lot going on. What's an interesting fact of

our existence is that we we share information.

So it's not like each person has no idea what's going on the

world. They understand that there's

this man named Jesus. They understand that they have

guilt. They feel guilt.

There's a lot of things that we all share that we can use to

balance off of. There's already a work going on

in people's lives. He says, it's already white for

Harvest like the I think that idea.

Is kind of like cotton. Like it's already.

The cotton has already sent on top.

Just go get it. Are we doing that?

Always sitting in the on the tractor I do it.

Just waiting for everything to happen like we got a lot of work

to do today. Got a lot of sweat is about to

happen. I don't really want to do it.

I think I'll take another break. He said the fields are already

white for Harvest. Get out there and get going for

in the saying, is true one sows. And another reaps I sent you to

reap for that which you have not labored others have labored and

you have entered into their labors, that's the mentality.

We've got to have is that we're not the only ones working here,

we just need to put in our effort, do our part and good

things will happen. Jesus said, I am the True Vine.

If you abide in me you will bear fruit.

Jesus, guaranteed us that He guaranteed us, we will bear

fruit if we are in the vine if we are in him.

Now if we try to do work apart from the vine if we try to do it

work on our own and just say you know Jesus I got this.

He's like you're not gonna have any fruit obviously he's if a

branch is laying on the ground. It's not going to do anything.

It's not going to grow obviously.

Says, but if you are in Christ, if you put in the effort, you

put in your time and work and try to reap for him, try to.

So for him, it's gonna happen. Good.

Things are gonna come for me. We can be guaranteed to that.

And many of the Samaritans of that City believed in him

because of the word of the woman who testified, he told me all

that I ever did. So this woman went in and she

told people specifically what happened to her.

She went and got real with people and she didn't just say,

you know this guy Jesus she said here's what he told.

She got specific and showed exactly how he had affected her.

So when the Samaritans had come to him, they urged him to stay

with them. And he stayed there two days and

many more believed because of his own word.

So, this woman started a big change.

Many people started coming to them because she just walked in

and was like, guys, this is the savior and this is what he did

for me. That's pretty simple for us to

follow. If we show people our lives and

say, you know what, this is, how where my life was?

This is what I was doing, this is what I was feeling.

This is what happened in my heart and then Jesus came and

everything changed. They're going to respond because

they're going to want that. They're going to see that.

We have feelings that everybody shares.

We have guilt. We have feelings of depression,

we have feelings of struggles that everybody can relate to.

So if we share with them, how it works specifically with us, get

out there to share with people because things will happen.

And that's what happened with this woman.

She just got out and shared it and many more believed because

of his own word. Then they said to the woman.

Now we believe not because of what you said for, we ourselves

have heard him and we know that this indeed is the Christ, the

savior of the world. So it started with her bringing

them around showing in the Christ but they went and they

looked for themselves and they were like, wow, you're right we

ourselves have heard. If seen this we found this out

for ourselves and people were all going to have to.

We're all gonna have to do that. People are going to have to do

that when they come to Christ, they're gonna have to find him

for themself. There can't be some surface

level facade about this, We're all going to have to do that.

Have we all done that? Or is this something someone

else has told us? So we've kind of gone.

Okay, yeah, I'll go with that. They said we ourselves have

learned as we've seen I want to go back a little bit to what

Jesus said in verse 22. You worship what you do not

know. And as I think about, you know,

some of the things we can take from this one of the first

things is understanding who who God is and and trying to get a

better picture. So we can kind of make some

ground in this process of me being more.

Like he wants us to be and Hebrews.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

Chapter 12, helps me get there with this if you want to turn

over there with me now, I want us to get a, just a picture of

who that God is this morning. So if we're not there yet, we

can get our hearts ready for the rest of the worship, get our

hearts ready to see God for the rest of the week in the way he

truly is. Hebrews 12 verse 18, the writer

Hebrews 12:18

there says, for you have not come to the mountain.

That may be touched and that burned with fire and to

Blackness and darkness in the Tempest and the sound of trumpet

and the voice of words so that those who heard it begged, that

the word should not be spoken to them anymore for they could not

endure. What was commanded?

And if so much as a beast touches that mountain it shall

be stoned or shot with an arrow. And so terrifying was the sight.

That Moses said, I'm exceedingly afraid and trembling The writer

of Hebrews is like getting in our face and he's trying to show

us who were dealing with when we come to God, who were dealing

with. When we come to this almighty,

God, and he references back to the Old Testament when Moses was

going up to get the the word from God and God said, I'm going

to be up on this mountain. You come up to me and just you

and tell everybody. If anyone comes up to that

mountain touches it, they die. Okay, if it's an animal, I don't

care if it's a person, you shoot him with an arrow, don't even go

get him thorough Stoneham from there.

They need to die and they couldn't handle that.

That was too much for them. Like whoa, this is crazy.

And that's how God has shown here is.

He's this glad he's this Tempest, he's this storm, he's

this Darkness, this Blackness, this fire, You're typically we

deal with things that we can just go up and touch.

We can handle, we can manage the writer of Hebrews has shown us

that you can't just deal with God like that.

We can't just go up and touch him.

He says, he's like a storm. And the closest thing I can

remember to this is when I was at backpacking with my dad and

my brothers during deer season quite a while back.

I think I was like 12 years old. As my first trip.

We were up glassing this Ridge, sitting on top of this mountain,

looking for deer and off. In the distance, we were kind of

watching a storm that was way off out.

And but it was a clear day for all around.

Us, is blue skies and stuff. And while we were sitting there,

one of those storm cells came in behind us and we didn't see it

and it came on the top of the mountain where we were sitting

and it started. Dropping hail and got dark

quick. Lightening was dropping all

around this trees, were blowing up the tree, my brother was

sitting under blew up and the logs were flying past his head.

When he was running down the mountain, it got dark, it got

scary and hail was dropping, and I thought I was gonna die.

It was absolutely Madness. The lightning.

You could just feel it wasn't just like you saw lightning on

the distance and then you heard the strike.

It was around you, when it hit and everything, went white when

it hit. That's the closest I've ever

felt to this kind of power. And that's what Moses said.

Moses said, I'm literally shaking coming before this.

God, I'm trembling just being here.

And that kind of power in front of that presents.

He goes on to say but you have come to Mount Zion and to the

city of the Living. God, the heavenly Jerusalem to

innumerable company of angels to the general assembly and Church

of the firstborn who are registered or enrolled in

heaven, to God. The judge of all to the spirits

of just men made perfect to Jesus, the mediator of the New

Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better

things than that of Abel. When we go through our days, the

world takes the edge off. Off of God, they want to soften

them out, making kind of this idea.

You can kind of capture and say, well, I believe, in this thing,

I like to believe in God or whatever, but God has an edge to

him that we can see from the descriptions of him as a fire.

And it's consuming thing But he goes on to say as we just read

he kind of has a change of tone. He says, but you come to this

innumerable company of angels and like a festival Gathering,

it's like a celebration, you're coming to your coming to this.

God, who wants to bring you in? Yes, he's dangerous.

He's terrifying but now we see him starting to gather us to

start of Welcome us in We learn from the New Testament that

Jesus brought us near by his blood.

He brought us close to this God, that's terrifying and scary and

real and big. To where we can come to this

mountain style and he welcomes us.

Can you believe that that's written for you?

He's welcoming you. Whatever situation you're in and

life. However, big your your struggles

or whatever you're going through seems right now that's the

reality for you. To Jesus, the mediator of the

New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks

better things than that of Abel. See that you do not refuse him,

who speaks for they did not Escape, who refused him, who

spoke on Earth, much more, shall we not Escape if we turn away

from him? Who speaks from Heaven, whose

voice, then shook the Earth. So he's saying these people who

are down here when they heard the command, hey, don't come

near this mountain. Or you'll die.

Don't come touch this mountain or you'll die and when they

heard that they're like, this is too much, this is crazy.

That's nuts. Your your your irrational?

I'm not dealing with that and they want to just turn away from

that reality. They didn't want to deal with

it. He says don't turn away like

they did because God didn't just let them go for that.

They were held accountable for that mentality.

And for that reality, they wanted to push out.

So we have to see this reality of God and we can't just push it

away. We have to deal with it.

He says Don't just run away because they're just like it

happened on Earth. God didn't hold him Guiltless

for that. God speaking from heaven right

now and he says you're not going to be held guilty as if you walk

away from it. Now either we're in the same

boat as then we have to take this information, we got to take

this even though it's even though it's hard to process even

though it's hard to kind of understand and keep it the

Forefront and keep God in that place.

He says, we have to deal with it.

We can't walk away from the Earl's.

God's not going to hold us Guiltless.

But now he has promised saying, yet once more, I shake not only

the Earth, but also heaven. Now, this yet once more

indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as

of things that are made that the things which cannot be shaken.

May remain. What do you just say?

Is that everything else is going to be shaken up?

Everything's going to go away the ground.

You're standing on is going to go away.

Whether it's from Life, circumstances, it breaks, you

down it, messes up your life, whether it's from just the

reality that God is going to burn up this Earth.

This is To be left standing showing us the everything we

typically deal with is temporary.

He's saying so hold on to what can't be shaken.

All this is going to go away, but if we hold on to the thing

that's above us, that's not going to be shaken.

We need something that to hold onto that when the ground goes

out from underneath our feet. We can hold on to something

stronger and bigger and above us. hold on to God, he's saying,

Therefore since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be

shaken. Let us have Grace or let us be

thankful another translation. Says by which we may serve God

acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

For our God is a consuming fire. That helps my perspective a lot

because when I read that it makes me amazed that he would

even care about. He is that big, that terrifying

that awesome. And yet he would send his most

precious thing. He owned the most precious thing

he could offer his son. Who also came from free will.

Like that's who I'm dealing with and they did that for me.

Typically, we have relationship where someone's either big and

above you, and they could do something great for you, but

they won't because they don't care about you.

God combine the two and he says, yes, I'm big, I'm great and I'm

amazing, I'm terrifying all those things.

But he's also like, Come All You weaken, or have you laid?

And I'll take care of you. I'll give you rest.

Take your yoke upon me and learn from me for.

I am gentle and lowly in heart. God is the most beautiful.

Come on combination of those two things.

So, do we know that God this morning?

Jesus said you don't even know who you're worshipping.

Our perspective, I think really needs to start there to realize

the magnitude of God, because then we can start to see the

beauty of the rest of it. so, few lessons, we learned this

morning that I just want to highlight Is that we need to see

God for all that he is to really worship and like he wants us to,

we can all see him and all this power and all his might.

Because so we can know that when we do the things we do, when we

worship the way we do that that matters and it's not just

saying, yeah, you're doing things right?

But do you even know me? I think we've looked a little

bit into that this morning and a little process for us is we're

trying to put these things into a into our lives is Jesus said

told the woman to drink of that living water, and she would not

thirst again and that if she did, that, it will become in her

a Fountain of Living Water. He said that would happen, but I

wanted to add one more step. Because if you don't, if you're

not thirsty, you're not going to drink, right?

Like if you're full, and you're feeling kind of, you know,

Waterlogged or whatever it is. You don't if you're not thirsty,

you don't want to drink. So, what we got to do is we got

to get thirsty first and Matthew 5, Jesus says that whoever

hungers, and thirsts for righteousness, will be filled.

So if you're hungry, you're going to eat.

If you're thirsty, you're going to drink it simple.

Are you thirsty this morning for righteousness?

That's a question. I have to ask myself today, are

you, am I hungry my thirsty for it?

I, if physically, I don't have to ask myself if I'm hungry or

not. I didn't eat breakfast this

morning. So well, I'm hungry.

It's a simple. Yes, or no question.

But sometimes I can convolute that when I think about, you

know, my spiritually thirsty. Hmm, no.

Its you know what? You know what, you're not if

you're hungry and you're thirsty you're getting after it, you

know, I need this for my day, if you don't read one day you're

like man I don't feel right. If you're not reading the Bible

York, man, I miss the don't feel, right?

I have spent time to talk to God today, I don't feel right?

That's how you know, you're hungry for it, you're thirsty

for it. But what Satan can do is you can

draw us away to where we're not even hungry for it and we can

starve without even knowing it. So we got to get thirsty and

went for thirsty for we will drink of that living water.

And he says, we're going to be satisfied in him.

We're not going to need that. That self-esteem kick that that

self-image kick were, I have to create this image of myself

because that's what's really going to be great for me and

everyone will see me this way. Know we come to Christ for our

value, we come to him to satisfy our needs.

And like this woman and became a fountain inside of her, and she

just went and showed people. And it changes them, and many

came to know Jesus. Is this happening in us tonight?

If it's not happening, if it's not coming out of you, Then in

reality, we're probably not even drinking.

Because Jesus says, if you do drink, it will come out.

It's a fountain effect. You can't put water in a

fountain and not come out. It has to go somewhere.

So, if it's not coming out, are we really drinking?

Because Jesus says it will, and if we're not drinking, are we

really thirsty? Do we really want it?

Because Jesus said, that's the person who's going to be filled.

That's the person who's going to be satisfied in this life.

And from not you can start there.

That's a great place for me to start.

It's like the root of all of it and that's one of the prayers.

I'm going to add to my prayer list.

This week is like, help me one more, help me to be thirsty for

it to, I actually feel the need for and I will come get it.

And the Harvest is here, he told us that it's ready for us to

come get we got to go out and get people because they're

ready. Don't feel like all the burden

is on. You God is has already put in a

lot of things into place. All the people who are in our

circles can be reached in certain ways, just trust that

and back to this woman, God used this woman where she was at,

maybe you feel like your life's a mess, maybe you feel like

you've gone through the wringer. This woman came to a point where

she had five husbands. She was living with a man, she

wasn't married to And Jesus used this woman for all these things

and she is in the Bible as an example for us.

She didn't have to get things straightened up at home.

She'd have to go work out all of the mess.

That was created. Before, she could have this,

this relationship with Jesus. Before she could have this

living water, fill her She didn't have to go unweave that

web of family messes. She had created, none of that

happened before. She had all these good things

happen to her. She'd have to fix everyone's

opinion of her. All at once.

She have to get her life to a certain place before God could

work in her. That's what the things I think

we struggle with a lot is you know, when I get my life to this

place and this time and everything works out, then I'm

going to go and I'm going to talk to somebody about God.

No, she was in the middle of all this and she just went and told

people, it was right in the middle of a parched life, a

broken home and outcasts spirit that this woman found Christ and

let others to Christ. Don't hold yourself back from

coming to this and for making yourself useful to God, we can

be Our Own Worst Enemy. That's how God works throughout

the Bible. He uses that Harlot not

prostitute in the in the lineage of Jesus.

He uses the the people who are at the lowest of the low, the

outcasts of the outcast of whatever your situation is, from

top to bottom, Jesus will use you and he has time time again

and that's the message from this woman and great things can

happen your life from here forward, if you'll just let it

happen. If you're not a part of this,

this family, if you're not adds Jesus body to to learn him, you

can do that right now. We learn from these from the New

Testament. If we hear the word and we

believe it, we can be saved that we can repent of our past lives

change, and be added to the church.

After we confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

And before, baptized for the remission of our sins is our

brother parade and Acts 2:38. We see examples of this and you

Acts 2:38

can be added to Christ's body that way.

You can contact his blood and you and if you've already done

that but you're like, you know what, I need to refocus.

I need to get to where I am feeding off.

Living water again. You can pray to God from your

seat. You can take care of that by

yourself, but if you want to do that with us, you need anything.

You need to work out publicly. We can do that with you if you

like while we stand while we see.

We thank you for listening to our podcast, put on by the

Church of Christ at 22:15 plans. Road in Bakersfield, if you

would like any additional information or you would like to

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