The Woman at the Well, Part Two (John 4:16-30)

Hey, good morning, everybody. How are you?

Good, good, good. Glad you're here.

If you don't know me, if we've not met, my name is Gordon.

I'm one of the pastors here. I just want to say thanks for

coming and glad you're checking out Vita Springs and hope you

enjoy the morning. Go ahead and open up your Bible

to the book of John. We're in John for a while.

We're in chapter 4 by now. If you don't have your own

Bible, grab one from the seat in front of you and there's

actually the page up on the screen today will be in John

chapter 416 through 30, page 889 in the the hard black Bibles.

If you haven't been with us in the book of John, John has given

us a very specific purpose for why he writes this whole gospel

and why it's different than some of the other gospels.

He is showing us those signs and miracles and interactions with

Jesus that most help us see that he is God, He's the Christ so

that we can receive life. And it'll be really clear today

that the only way to receive true eternal life is through

Jesus. And so John is helping us see

that. Last week we went through Part 1

of the story of the woman at the well, if you weren't here last

week, we just put all our teachings on Spotify.

So it'd be really easy to go back.

And I would encourage you go back and listen because we

really need last week and this week to, to understand what

Jesus is saying. But if you're here and you

weren't here last week, don't worry, I'll, I'll, you know, try

to try to make it clear what's happened up to this point.

What we learned last week is Stanley's are bad.

Coffee is bad. If you were here last week, it's

an inside joke. If you weren't, you'll catch it

on Spotify. No, there are those things that

we go to for life that can't satisfy us.

And Jesus is the only thing that can satisfy us.

And so here's the things we learned from last week.

Jesus left Judea and went to Samaria, an unclean non Jewish

region. Also that he could have this

interaction with the Sumerian woman at a well and he knew she

was thirsty, like on a soul level she's thirsty.

And through this interaction he uses brilliant brilliantly.

He uses the idea of physical thirst for physical water to get

at this deeper hidden soul level thirst that only he can satisfy.

And so she's still stumped by the end of the teaching and not

quite getting it. And so we pick up in verse 16

and he gets a little more underneath the surface trying to

get at her heart against because Jesus loves the Samaritan woman

and he wants her to receive his living water.

So this last week the take away was only Jesus.

Jesus can satisfy our spiritual thirst.

This week the take away is that only Jesus can bring us into

true worship. Worship in the fullest sense of

the word, like not just worship through singing, but worship in

like how we honor God, how we live our life.

It's our thinking, it's our actions, it's our heart, our

motives. All of that is our worship to

God. And only Jesus can bring us into

true worship. Someone once said we're all

heretic somewhere, we just don't know where yet.

And the take away would also be only Jesus can show us where we

have imbalances in our thinking. We have contradictions between

our head and our heart, we have errors, we're flawed, we're for

the rest of our life, we're steadily trying to grow to full

knowledge, which then effects our worship.

So we're all heretic somewhere and we need Jesus to help us

today to know where. So before we start reading, I'm

just going to give us a moment to quiet our hearts, to tune

into God, to push away distractions, whatever you come

in dealing with which it might be different for all of us, but

just have those things come to mind and bring it to Jesus in

prayer. And then I'll read and pray for

us and teach. All right, verse 16 Jesus now

says to her, all right, go call your husband and come here.

And the woman answered him, I have no husband.

Jesus said to her, you are right and 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 as disciples came back, they marvelled 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 the town and said to the people, come see a

man who told me all that I ever did, can this be the Christ?

And they went out of the town and we're coming to him.

Let's pray, Jesus, we don't want to just come to you today with

just our minds. We don't want to just worship

you with our actions. We bring you our hearts today.

Lord, we need you to change us from the inside out.

We can try and try and try to worship you in a way that is

honoring and still fall short without your help.

And so help us from the least mature to the most mature this

morning. Help us, let me, even as I teach

Lord, not just speak truth things from a a clear head, but

also let it be rightly affected by the truth.

I pray, Lord, that all of us would experience more of your

living water, be brought into greater, fuller, more abundant

life and anything else you want to do on us today.

Lord, we give you permission, we pray all these things in your

name, Amen. All right, so we start out and

again, the woman was not getting it.

She's still thinking of physical water at a physical well.

And so Jesus changes subject and he says in verse 16, they've

been talking about water. They haven't said a thing about

a husband or her life or and he just goes for it.

Go call your husband and come here.

The woman answered him. I have no husband.

Jesus said to her, you are right.

You've actually had five husbands and the man you're now

with is not your husband. And the way that's read, he's

not just simply like you're dating a guy that's not your

husband. You've been seeing a guy.

The way he says it, she is romantically, physically

involved. You could say she's she's living

with her boyfriend, a man who is not her husband.

And so Jesus cut straight to her heart and he exposes her sin

quickly. The Bible teaches pretty clearly

that all sexual contact outside of a marriage between one man,

one woman, is sin. That's something that God has

deemed wrong. And so for the woman to be

called out by Jesus as living in a sexual relationship with a man

who's not her husband, immediately he's cut to her

heart and she knows it. I don't think she's fighting on

him. It's probably why when he first

mentioned go call your husband, she held back.

She just said, well, I have no husband.

She didn't share any other details, just just that.

But the woman's busted and Jesus calls out her sin.

Now why would Jesus, meek and mild, call out a woman's

sinfulness? We like the sight of Jesus, that

is forgiveness and grace, and he is all of those things, yes, and

yet all of us squirm when someone starts to like, poke at

those hidden areas that we try to keep buttoned up.

And Jesus, even though he is meek and mild, he is full of

justice and he is holy, and he knows that sin holds us back

from life. And so in order to get to living

water, sin has to be dealt with. It has to be exposed.

And so you, I, I see this as Jesus's kindness to the woman.

Now he went all the way from Judea to Samaria, compelled by

God, I believe, to interact with this woman.

And so it's not coming to condemn you.

Remember a few weeks ago, John 316, He did not come into the

world to condemn the world, but in order to save it.

Jesus is coming. He's kindly exposing sin so that

he can apply his forgiveness to her personally, individually.

The first application for today. Until our sin is dealt with, we

cannot receive living water and we cannot become God's true

worshippers until our sin is dealt with.

Now, to help us today with where we're going, I want to show a

grid up on the screen. Go ahead and put that up there,

David. So to be God's true worshippers,

we need to worship in spirit and truth, and we're going to kind

of steadily work through these different quadrants.

This was just what was helpful for my brain.

So I was trying to figure out like, wait, so where's the

Samaritan woman in all of this? And why is she not a true

worshipper yet? And where are we?

And I think Jesus is saying there is one quadrant that is

true life, that is living water. One quadrant, all the others are

false worship. Until our sin is dealt with, we

cannot receive living water. And we're going to learn about

what is true worship and how to get there.

But as I was making this, I was thinking of the verse in Matthew

7. Jesus talks about broad is the

path that leads to destruction, but narrow is the road that

leads to life and only if you find it.

And if you just looked at that graph, it's a small portion.

There's a lot of people that either, well, I'll, I'll get

into explaining, but there's a lot of people that fall in the

truth, no spirit. There's a lot of people that

fall in the spirit, no truth. And Jesus is helping expose,

reveal what is true worship. So the first category we're

going to look at, go ahead and show us the bottom left.

This is no spirit, no truth. This is where we all start out

as Christians. The Bible teaches us we're full

of sin. Jesus here is getting at her

sinfulness because this is where we have to start.

You could say step one is repentance.

Ephesians 2, one through 3 says about all of us.

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you

once walked, following the course of this world, following

the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at

work in the sons of disobedience.

That's what we were before Jesus, among whom we all once

lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires

of the body and the mind. And we're by nature children of

wrath like the rest of mankind. Until sin is dealt with, we

cannot become Jesus's true worshippers.

And so a real quick application for us, whether you're Christian

or not a Christian sin holds us back from life.

And so where are you hiding sin? What does Jesus need to expose

in order that you can receive life?

And it could be all kinds of things.

Maybe it is sexual sin. Maybe it's holding on to

bitterness. Maybe it's been lying to a

spouse or a friend. Maybe it's a harsh word to a

kid. I mean, anything we let Jesus

expose what he says is sinful and we turn from it so that we

can have life. And so just a quick moment for

any of you that Jesus is catching in sin and maybe he's

using this moment to expose it. What are you going to do?

You going to hold on to it, keep it hidden and hold yourself back

from life? Or are you going to bring it to

Jesus and ask for forgiveness? Let him deal with it.

So let's go on in the verses, Jesus shines light on her

sinfulness and then also he shines light on what is false

worship and true worship. So verse 19, she says, Sir, I

perceive that you are a prophet. You think he's just called out

something that no one else that he could not have known.

He's she's never met this man in her life.

Sir, I perceive you are a prophet.

And then she brings up a theological question, a question

of worship, true worship. Our fathers, the Samaritan

people, our fathers worshipped on this mountain.

But you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to

worship. And so which one is true?

Please help sort it out for me. You seem like a prophet.

I trust what you say. She's not ready to call him God

or Messiah yet, but she recognizes that He could

probably help sort this out. 1st, we need to realize what

mountains were in this time. Mountains represented this place

that you go up to to meet with God.

You're closer to Him. You're drawing near to Him.

And for the Samaritan people, they would have recognized Mount

Jerusalem as the mountain where you go to worship.

And the Jews would have recognized Jerusalem that is up

on a hill in the temple at the top.

That's where you go to worship, and worship here literally means

to kiss the hand. Have any of you seen the old

animated Robin Hood movie? I was a 90s kid and so I don't

remember when it came out, but I just remember that was like one

of my favorite movies where Robin Hood, the Little Fox and

his guys, they like go to King Louie and they kiss his hand and

they steal his rings while they're at it.

But it's it's the sign to kiss the hand to worship.

It's the sign of coming to pay your respects, bowing in

reverence, acknowledging he's king, he's authority.

It's honoring him as he deserves.

That's worship. We could define it simply as

worship is bringing honor to God.

So each group believed the other was engaging in false worship.

And I think by her asking this question, actually bringing it

up, it shows that she's seeking what is true.

She's trying to sort out, I want to be a true worshipper of God.

Show me, is it this mountain or that mountain?

Possibly even it's maybe her asking which mountain am I

supposed to go to, to sacrifice for the sin that you just

exposed, Which altar would bring me back into right relationship

with God at this point? That's how you dealt with your

sin. You sacrificed an animal and

that blood paid for your guilt. And so is it the Jerusalem or

Mount Jerusalem mountain? Jesus said back 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.

So in response to her question, Jesus says a few things here.

One, believe me, she does not know who she's talking to right

now. But do you realize who she's

talking to right now? She is looking God in the face,

asking what is true, honoring worship.

And Jesus is saying, woman or Madam, believe me, Jesus is the

perfect one to sort out what is true worship and who are God's

true worshippers. Chapter 1, John, the apostle

John who writes this, he introduces Jesus as the true

light and lights reveal or expose.

They show what's hidden and they shine light on what's real,

what's true. And so Jesus here has exposed

sinfulness, and now he's exposing, revealing what is

false worship. He doesn't shy away from saying,

like, OK, soon the mountains are going to be irrelevant.

It's not going to matter if you go to Jerusalem or here.

It's about worshipping in truth and in your heart.

OK, that's coming. But still he's saying there is

such a thing as true and false worship.

He doesn't shy away from saying look up until this point the

Jews have actually been God's true worshippers.

The Samaritans. You guys got it wrong.

Someone interpreted the Bible incorrectly as that future place

that God would choose to bring him worship.

It's not Mount Jerusalem and Jews are actually the ones who

have salvation. And so I, I just think that's

important for us cuz we live in a day where truth is up for

grabs. OK, people would say, well, it's

great that you have your religion.

I love that for you, but don't tell me what I'm supposed to

believe or I love that you have that belief.

I don't quite, it's clearly stated in the Bible.

I don't quite agree with that. It doesn't feel right for me.

OK, truth is all up for grabs and this is important for us.

The Bible lays out objective truth.

It just makes sense that if God created the universe, the

heavens and the stars with a word, and He created us to be in

relationship with them, that He's the one who defines how we

honor him. We go to him and say, God, what

do you require of me? What do you require of me?

Not What am I willing to bring to you?

What am I not willing to bring to you?

I'll do this, but I won't do that.

Jesus is the one who shines light on what is true worship

and the fullest sense of the Word.

So God's defined truth, including the true object of

worship. And Jesus tells the woman you

worship what you don't know. You don't quite have the right

object of worship. You don't quite have the right

way of worship. You worship what you don't know.

Now, I love bow hunting and so I need to practice to get better

at shooting my bow and arrow. If I don't know what to aim at,

there is no shot. I'm going to hit the target.

Right, it starts with what you know.

You could say belief guides, practice.

If you don't know what is truth and what to worship, there is no

chance that your life is going to be lived in honoring worship

to the right object. If I don't know the right thing

to be aiming at, well, here's a story not about bow hunting, but

it's just a fun story from my childhood.

I came home one time with dad and it was dark and I saw an

armadillo. And we lived out in the country,

and anytime we saw an armadillo that tore up Mom's garden, we

killed it. And so dad ran in to get the

gun, and he gave it to me. And I was like trying to find it

and couldn't. And so he just snatches the gun

and tries to get the armadillo. And I'm like, pointing out like,

no, it's over there. It's like, OK, I think I see it

boom. And he shoots and my football

goes flying up in the air. He was aiming at the wrong

target there. It was unclear.

He was aiming at what He didn't know, and he didn't hit the

right thing. And so for us, if we're going to

live our lives in true worship to the right object, we have to

know the right object, and we have to go to objective truth

about what He lays out for us. God, who are you?

Who do you say that we are? What do you say is sin?

How do we deal with sin? What do you require of us?

What is worship? What do you want from me?

OK, I'll give it. True worship must be informed by

God. Worship that is not informed by

God is false worship. This category, if you put the

second one up here with the woman, this is where she's at.

She's not in true worship. She has some spiritual

practices. She does go to an altar.

She does sacrifice, presumably, and yet it's not.

It's worshipping what she doesn't know, and so it's false

worship. So where do you get your truth?

Who's told you how to worship the Internet, the world, the

culture? Did you know, by the way, that I

learned this on the Internet? The world's smartest man said in

a few years AI will confess that Jesus is the Christ.

He just reasoned out that it's the most supported logical

conclusion about who is truly God.

And so he, I think his name, his name, I wrote it down.

Young Hoon Kim believes that AI will eventually believe in Jesus

Christ. But who do you get your truth

from? Is it another person?

Joseph Smith can't tell you true religion.

Buddha can't tell you true religion.

Muhammad can't tell you true religion, only Jesus Christ can

lead us into true worship. Let's go on.

In the story verse 23, Jesus says the hour is coming and he

adds, and it's now here I'm bringing it, it's through me

when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and

truth, for the Father is seeking.

Think about how the Father sent Jesus from Judea to Samaria to

interact with this woman. The Father is seeking such

people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who

worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

So Jesus adds the hour's coming and it's now here to hint to her

about His death and resurrection, which is still

hidden, but He knows it's coming.

Upon my death and then my raising myself back to life,

worship and the nature of worship will forever change.

It'll be different. He's saying there's a new era in

salvation history. The Jews have had it right up

until this point. But everything's going to

change. And if you just think about one

example, when Jesus said it is finished, what happened to the

curtain in the temple? It tore in two and the temples

irrelevant. It's not about this mountain or

that mountain. And then Jesus becomes our

temple. He sets up resident in us

through the Holy Spirit. And now it doesn't matter where

we are. We can come to God and honor him

from our hearts. It's irrelevant this place or

that place. So that's what he's telling the

woman. So if you want to receive living

water and be a true worshipper, here's how.

Worship in truth and worship in spirit.

And so let's go to quadrant 3 and let's just talk about what

it would look like to be all truth.

But let's assume for now, no spirit.

What would this be? Worship and truth.

It's having the right object, maybe even the right manner of

worship. You know what you're worshiping,

and maybe you even know how to do it.

You do the right things. This is knowing the one true

God, but with a cold, lifeless, unregenerate heart.

It's dutiful religion. It's lukewarm Christianity

without a heart that's engaged. That's not what God's seeking.

That's not true worship. This is the Pharisees that we

see characterized all through the New Testament.

They follow the law to a tee. They memorize the whole Old

Testament. You look at them and you're

like, man, you are packed full of truth.

You, you certainly know your stuff, and yet they miss the

point, they miss the heart of it, they miss God's intentions,

everything that a Pharisee would do, it's unpleasing to God.

Maybe everything is too extreme, but I I think it's what's saying

it's going to be void at the end of your life if you don't also

come to God in your heart. This is Nicodemus from a few

weeks ago who's wrestling to try and figure out Jesus.

What are you saying born again? You remember that week?

Just like unless you're born again, unless you have a

spiritual rebirth, you will not inherit eternal life.

You do not have living water. This is the story of the rich

young ruler kept coming to mind as I was thinking about these

verses. And again, if you're not

familiar with Christianity or the Bible, that's OK.

These are just they're stories that Jesus and interactions that

Jesus has that inform us, tell us so much about the nature of

worship. If you do know the story of the

rich young ruler, he comes to Jesus and he says, teacher, I've

followed all the commandments from my youth.

He was blameless. He was religious.

What must I do to inherit eternal life and Jesus tests his

heart. He says go sell all your

possessions and come and follow me.

Follow me with your heart. And at the end it's it's

troubling for him. He leaves sorrowful.

He's not willing to do it. You can do everything right and

you can have the correct object of worship that today this would

be. You can give a credible

profession of faith. You can tell me about the

gospel, and yet that alone does not equate to true worship.

This one's hard. This was hard for people in

Jesus's day who were morally good and did all the right

things, and this is hard for us today.

What do you mean a good person doesn't have eternal life?

What does God lay out for true worship?

This was really frustrating for the disciples.

After the rich young ruler, he went away and Jesus says

something like how difficult it will be for a rich person to

enter the Kingdom of God. And the disciples are like, well

they literally say who then can be saved?

If it's not the rich guy who followed all the commands from

his youth, then who can be saved?

And if I look back on my life, if you don't know me, I grew up

in church. My great grandpa moved from

Delaware to Florida to be a part of a Mennonite church planting

movement. He helped establish a healthy

church in the Panhandle of Florida and that's how the

yoder's got there. And then my grandpa grew up in

that church. He was even an interim pastor

for a time and heavily involved my whole life.

My dad, my family heavily involved my whole life.

I'm pretty sure I was born and then like a week or two later

I'm in church and we did not miss a church service and I love

the church. It was a great experience.

I served in youth when I was old enough you couldn't serve until

you were in 6th grade. So as soon as I became 1/6

grader, I started helping in the nursery and then youth group.

And then I would sit there for all three services and be behind

the camera and put the thing up on the screen.

And I, I think of like what Paul says at one point, the apostle

Paul, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. I was a non denominational

Christian of non denominational Christians.

I did everything right. And if you looked at me from the

outside, you'd say, oh, certainly Gordon's a true

worshipper. And it bugged me because I had

people that would come up to me and they would look at the

outside and they had no clue what was going on in the in the

inside, but they would look on the outside.

Oh, Gordon, you're so mature for your age.

And it went to my head and all I can tell you really love God.

And that's the part that bugged me because I knew what was going

on in the inside. And you would say, like the

disciples in frustration, if they can't make it into eternal

life, then who can be saved? It's frustrating, It's hard.

The conclusion that Jesus gives to the disciples in that story,

he looks at them and said with man it is impossible.

He confirms their theory. Who then can be saved with man?

No one. No amount of your efforts, no

amount of your good deeds. You can spend your whole life

doing all the right things to the right person and it's still

impossible to be saved. But Jesus adds thankfully, but

with God all things are possible.

Only Jesus can bring us into true religion.

The frustration is good because it gets us to a point where

we're just like I'm at the end of myself.

I OK Jesus. I give up, I surrender, I'll

quit trying to do it myself. I know that I can do everything

perfectly and yet still my heart has selfish motives.

I do things just for me. I lie, I cheat, I steal, I lust,

I can't fix my heart. It is Jesus indeed impossible.

Help me. You exhaust yourself just trying

to do it yourself. And it's really good when Jesus

gets us to a breaking point where we come to him and say,

Jesus, please help me, what must I do?

And then Jesus adds the second part of true worship.

Show quadrant 4. In order to receive living water

and become God's true worshippers, we must worship in

truth and and spirit. We need both.

All the other quadrants are false worship.

Only this one's true. We have to worship in truth.

We have to know the right object and we have to worship in a way

that He is laid out as truly honoring to Him.

And this word spirit, it refers to that inner part of us, our

heart, our soul. It's why He brings up the fact

that God is spirit. Have any of you seen God the

Father? He's spirit.

He's everywhere He's felt, but you can't see Him.

It's like God, like Jesus saying to Nicodemus a few weeks ago,

it's like the wind. You sense that it's going, but

you don't know where. God is spirit, He's immaterial,

He's invisible. And in the same way God created

humans in his image with the spirit, we're more than just

skin and bones. We're more than just a mind with

reason. There is a inner hidden

spiritual reality to all of us. All of us have a spirit.

When our flesh and our bone and our brain dies, we still have a

spirit. And so Jesus is teaching us, you

can't just worship God with part of you.

You can't like compartmentalize and break it off.

And I'll give you my mind, I'll give you my even my actions, but

you can't have my heart, Jesus saying you need both.

Now that inner part of us, we've already made clear it's full of

sin. Our thoughts, they come out of a

perverse heart. Our actions, they come out of a

prideful heart. Our behaviors, they come out of

a selfish motive. And so until he fixes our heart,

we cannot be worshippers in spirit.

Listen to what Ezekiel 36. This is a word that God spoke

through the prophet Ezekiel long before Jesus came.

It says, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be

clean from all of your uncleanness or sin and from all

your idols. I will cleanse you.

And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put

within you. And I will remove the heart of

stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

And I will put my spirit, capital S spirit within you and

cause you to walk in My statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Now we're getting somewhere. If you trust in Jesus, if you

get to the end of yourself, Jesus, it's impossible, please

save me. And he gives you a new spirit.

He takes out that sinful heart. Now that new spirit causes you

to worship in a way that honors God.

Now you can worship in spirit and truth, but you need both.

And until that happens, you are not God's true worshipper.

And this is what he's bringing the Samaritan woman to.

It's why he goes after her sin. It's why he highlights her

thirst. And when she's still just

thinking physical thirst, he's like, no, your sinful heart is

thirsty. And it cannot be satisfied

without me. It's impossible without Jesus.

Only Jesus can lead us into worship in spirit.

You can say only Jesus can bring us into the 4th quadrant which

is spirit and truth, true worship.

I kept thinking of Jesus talking about I am the way, the truth

and the life, or even I am the door.

Like if you see that, can you put that last image up again?

We all start at the bottom and we're all trying to get to the

top, and Jesus is the only way to get in.

You can be so close. You can be the Samaritan woman

right there at the gate. You can be Nicodemus so close

right there at the gate. And unless you go through Jesus,

you do not have living water or eternal life.

Now I want to close with the woman's response, how the story

finishes. And then I want to come back

around to what it looks like to worship in spirit and truth for

the Christians. But first I hope that if you

realize I do not have living water, I am not a true

worshipper, but I want to be in your heart.

Come to Jesus and ask him. Jesus, would you cleanse my

sinful heart? I realize it is impossible to be

satisfied and impossible to know you unless you do it.

Put your trust in Him. It doesn't mean you have to go

to Jerusalem or Mount Jerusalem. You can do it right there in

your seat. Come to Jesus in your heart and

ask for salvation. Verse 25 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 and Jesus said to

her, I who speak to you am he. You are looking at the face of

God. This whole conversation about

true worship, it prompts her to think about Messiah.

Like I think she's realizing what just came out of his mouth

and how this feels right now. This is, this is not just a

prophet. This might be the prophet, the

prophet, promised prophet who will come and tell us all

things. And so she like, I think she

fishes for something from Jesus. I know that Messiah is coming

and when he comes, he's going to tell us all things.

And then Jesus takes the bait. I know it's me.

Just then the disciples come back.

They marvel 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? And they went out of the town

and we're coming to him. The woman does three things.

First, she leaves her water jar. She throws her Stanley away.

I think, I think it's a double meaning from John.

I think he's trying to tell us like she left those things that

would not satisfy her. She didn't care about the water

anymore. That's number one.

Number two, she she's working out.

Is this the Christ? She is in the process of being

saved. She doesn't flat out say it, but

you can hear it from her heart, right?

Her proclamation, Can this be the Christ and she goes in and I

and she ends up there. I have to believe she ends up

there and she goes into the town and she tells that's the third

thing and we'll see in the next couple weeks or next week, I

think that the the Samaritans are coming to him and it results

in an unclean city seeing Jesus and receiving living water.

Wow, wow. The disciples wanted to stay in

Judea. Let's talk about worshipping in

spirit and truth. How do these come together?

I want to read a quote from a guy we all know and love.

His name's Tony Randestel. Tony.

Tony's our lead pastor. And we were working out.

We were talking about this teaching.

And he had just read a book about worship and truth and

spirit and had his own thoughts written down.

And I kept trying to come up with my own way to say it.

And this was just super helpful. So, Tony, can I read your

scribbles? OK.

Worship in spirit and in truth. Here's I think a summary of what

we've been talking about. True worship is not about a

location. It's primarily a spiritual

action that depends on truth. Example, you could be in an

ornate cathedral in Jerusalem, bringing bars of pure gold to

God, believing that that is what will please God because it is

not rooted in truth. It's it won't please them.

It's not true worship. Or you could also be in the most

theologically sound church in all the world, singing the most

theologically tight lyrics, but without any faith or spirit,

without your heart engaged. It's not worship to God.

True worship is not about a location or a style.

It's about one, a person. And Jesus says I am he.

Two, it must be rooted in truth. It's not just a feeling or an

experience. Three, it must be in spirit.

It's a soul activity that comes from a regenerate heart.

Doesn't that pretty much sum up what we learned?

And so how do we come together in spirit and truth?

Christians, I'm just going to keep throwing the graph up

there, David. Christians, our goal through our

whole life, we're in the 4th quadrant.

Our goal is to get to the very tip top.

That's where Jesus is. He's our Good Shepherd who leads

us through this life to full maturity.

And it's not just one or the other.

We get that mixed up. We look at someone who is full

of truth and they can spat off Bible verses and they do all the

right things. And we say, whoa, he's so

mature. Or we look at someone that is

they're on fire, they're running hard, they do everything.

They've got all these stories and if it's not grounded in

truth, we we call that maturity. Maturity is both.

God is seeking worshippers who have truth.

They have a good foundation. They love the Bible.

They know what he says. Till their last day, they are

scouring the pages of Scripture. Jesus form me, shape me, teach

me, help me. And we are constantly checking

our heart to make sure that it's engaged and alive, not letting

it fall behind. And you could say even with the

Holy Spirit in us, we're not just working on our own physical

strength. We're constantly asking the Holy

Spirit to be our help, our power, our strength.

It's both. And so where do you fall?

If you put yourself somewhere on that graph, where are you?

Jesus wants us in the middle, balanced up and to the right

till we reach full maturity. Now, if I was to talk to some of

you who are new Christians, you're new in your faith

typically. Typically there's a lot of fire.

You're on a high, everything's exciting, and you just want to

run hard. You want to go do everything.

And that's great. Keep all of that.

And yet you need to pack yourself with truth.

You need to develop good Bible habits.

You need to make sure you're aiming at the right target,

you're doing the right things. Otherwise your arrows are going

to end up all over the place. And then I think typically,

typically for mature Christians who have been at it for a while,

it's hard to keep a fire stoked, isn't it?

You ever tried to keep a fire stoked?

It's hard. It's like constant putting more

wood and fuel on the fire to keep it hot.

And as older Christians, it it feels hard.

We can kind of depend on our knowledge or our truth or our

foundation and forget that what's pleasing to God is that

we come to Him in humility, with a heart that's alive.

We need both. Our whole life is journeying to

the top and we're constantly catching where where there's

lack. Let me try to figure out what

else to say and wraps up. I had examples of what those

look like, but I guess my point, I'll just trust trust on it.

Jesus is the only one that can lead us into true worship.

I would encourage you during prayer ministry, reflect on

where you're at in your Christian journey and where does

he want to help you grow and mature?

Do you want to help your heart? Have you been in a rut?

Are you experiencing apathy? Are things dry?

Seek Jesus. One of the best things for me

was people giving me good books, like good books from people,

like biographies of people who lived a life on fire.

And it inspires me. It wakes me up.

One time Kurt gave me a book called Gospel Wakefulness.

I think he could tell that my heart was a little cold.

Gospel Wakefulness, I forgot it on a plane and never finished

it. But sorry, Kurt.

Thankfully Jesus helped my heart to come alive.

But Holy Fire by RT Kendall, man, was that helpful for my

spirit to come alive. And are you maybe your spirits

alive and you, it's been a while since you've been in your Bible.

You had a good habit for a while and it's kind of falling through

the cracks. You feel like you could use some

meat again. It's kind of just maybe that's

what it is, but only Jesus can lead you into true worship and

only Jesus can lead you into maturity.

So seek him, ask him for help. At Vita, we want to strike the

balance of both because this is the kind of worshipper that

God's looking for. And so we teach from the Bible

at every gathering. We open up and we go straight

verse through verse and our small groups.

We love the Bible and we want as a people, we want to love the

Bible. And then even in worship through

song, we want truth packed songs, not just the ones that

tickle our emotions. If our emotions are tickled, we

want it to be because of the truth that we sing.

Does that make sense? We don't want smoke and hype.

We don't want to like woo you to worship God.

We want a truth packed songs and authentic from the heart

worship. And so I want to challenge all

of you to do that now. What a great time to like seek

God and ask Him for help that He would engage our heart and our

mind through song. So why don't y'all stand with

me? We're going to worship to a few

songs and then I'll come up to lead us through prayer.