A Broken Woman Used by Jesus

Well, let me invite you, this morning to turn in your Bibles to John chapter 4. John, chapter 4 for a time of study in the word this morning. we're going to, we've been looking at John 3 and 4, looking at two encounters, of Jesus, one with Nicodemus in John 3, and then with the Samaritan woman in John 4. And as we continue in our study, through John 4 we come this morning to, to verse 28, and we'll look at verses 28 to 30 and tie together verses 39 through 42 also.

When my kids were younger, I used to say a poem to them, almost nightly, and the poem is entitled Opportunity by Edward Roland Sill. And I'll try to, I'll try to say it to you, but I also have it here on the screen. This I beheld or dreamed it in a dream. There spread a cloud of dust along a plain, and underneath the cloud or in it raged a furious battle, and men yelled and swords shocked upon swords and shields.

A prince's banner wavered. Then staggered backward hemmed by foes. A craven or a coward hung along the battle's edge and thought, Had I a sword of keener steel, that blue blade that the king's son bears, but this blunt thing, he snapped and flung it from his hand. Then lowering, he crept away and left the field.

Then came the king's son, wounded and sore bestead and weaponless, and he saw the broken sword hilt buried in the dry and trodden sand, and he ran and he snatched it, and with battle shout lifted afresh, he hewed his enemy down. And saved a great cause that heroic day. I love that. after, when I would say that to my kids, I would act it out more and I would hew my children down with a fake sword, much to their delight.

But I won't do that to you this morning. But there's a number of lessons in that poem. One of them is opportunity is what you make it. But another one of the key lessons that this poem leaves us with that serves our purposes this morning is this that the primary determiner of the effectiveness of a sword is the person whose hand is holding it.

Even the sharpest sword in the hand of a coward is utterly useless, right? But a dull sword in the hand of a champion, in the hand of the king's son, that sword, dull though it may be, can be an awesome and a mighty instrument of victory. Now I begin with that this morning because in John 4 this is exactly what we see. Jesus doing, you'll notice that the title of the message is A Broken Woman Used by Jesus.

In John 4, Jesus sits by a well and he begins a conversation with a Samaritan woman, and at the end of that conversation, he reveals himself to her as the Messiah and just the nature of the dialogue between the two of them. And how it culminates with him revealing himself to her as the Messiah, that by itself would make the story worthy of inclusion in the Gospel of John. But in our passage today, beginning in verse 28, we back away and we begin to see the broader scope of what Jesus is really up to.

Jesus' real intention is to bring salvation to the people of Samaria.

His real intention is to bring salvation. To the people in the city of Sahar, and his strategy all along, it now appears was to use this Samaritan woman as the first and the key instrument through whom this city will be reached. In other words, up to verse 27, we find the story of Jesus going about the process of picking up this broken woman and putting her in his hand so that he might now use her in reaching the city. This is actually a crazy strategy.

That none of us would have ever thought of. No one would have ever drawn it up this way if they're developing a strategy for reaching the city of Sahar. There were sharper swords available for Jesus to pick up, right? Jesus could have gone to a member of the Samaritan priesthood, highly esteemed for his morality by all the people of Samaria.

He could have gone to the mayor of the city if there was such a thing. He could have gone to the wealthiest or the most highly esteemed person in the city and thought, I'll, I'll reach him. I'll win him to myself, and then through him, I will. Win the city of Sahar to myself.

Jesus could have gone to an intact family where there's a mommy and a daddy and children who honor and obey their parents, and the family is an example of perfect family harmony, and he could have reached that family and said, I'll use that family as the sword by which I advance my cause in the city of Sahar, but he doesn't do that. He passes over the sharper swords and uses the doll and the broken one. Instead of using all of these others, Jesus goes to a five-time divorcee.

Living with a 6th man who was not her husband, and he decides to make her the key player in his plan to reach the people of Sahar.

He goes to a broken woman with a lot of baggage, a woman with a history of failure, with a history of sin, a woman who goes to a well half a mile outside of the city by herself in the heat of the day. In order to get water for herself, she doesn't want to see anybody. She doesn't want to be seen by anybody. She wants to avoid the scornful stares and the jittering gossip of the people of this town.

This woman's life and her moral choices have rendered her a moral outcast among her own people. Her life has been full of brokenness and full of disappointment. Her life no doubt has fallen so far short of what she would have dreamed as a young girl. I have no doubt that this woman by this juncture of her life would have viewed her life as beyond any usefulness to God.

She viewed herself, no doubt, as being past her prime. Her days of opportunity are over. She is a used up, has been already cast off by 5 successive men who ultimately found her useless to them, 5 men. have already picked up this woman and then cast her aside and left her in the dry and the trodden sand.

But in John 4, the king's son approaches and he sees this broken sword and picks her up and decides to use her. This woman, as she walks to the well, she awakens to this day. She has no idea what awaits her, and as she's walking to the well on this particular day, she doesn't know it, but she's about to be picked up by Jesus and placed in His mighty hands. She is about to reach on this day her most shining moment of usefulness in her entire life, a usefulness that will forever be enshrined.

In the pages of Scripture itself, and Jesus uses her as the most key and vital player in his plan to reach the city. This dull and broken sword is about to become a mighty weapon. We're going to see that in these verses. So let me just ask before we get into the text, how many of you would say, Pastor Milton, my life too has fallen short of what I would have imagined.

My life has been full of brokenness and failure. I've been a disappointment to myself and to others. I am a broken person with a whole lot of baggage. Raise your hand if that describes you.

All right, my hand is up. See, this is awesome. This is awesome. This is perfect because Jesus delights to use broken people.

Amen. Just like he uses this woman here. There's no more powerful force on earth than a broken person in the hand of Jesus reaching out to other broken people. And showing them how they can find wholeness in Jesus.

The effectiveness of a person in ministry and outreach to others is not determined by how sharp or strong they are in and of themselves, but by the one who's holding them in his hands, and he's the one, Jesus Christ, that we place our confidence in. In verse 39 of John 4, the text tells us that the people of this city, they believed in Jesus because of the word of the woman. The text is very specific. They believed in Jesus because of the word of the woman.

Now real quick, notice what this woman has already done prior to verse 28 that renders her words so anointed by God. She's asked for and received living water from Jesus. She's allowed Jesus to go to her sin issues, and she didn't walk away from him when he did so. She wanted to worship God and to get right with him.

She just needed to know, is it in Samaria, or is it in Jerusalem? And she puts this before Jesus, and is essentially asking him to be her worship director. And she opens her heart to Jesus' revelation of Himself to her. And so with that having happened, this woman is now positioned beautifully to be a mighty instrument in the hand.

of Jesus. And what we're going to do is make 6 observations regarding how this woman is used by Christ to reach her people for Jesus Christ. In John chapter 4, let's see, beginning in verse 28, let me just read these verses. It says in verse 28, so the woman left her water pot and went into the city and said to the men, Come see a man who told me all the things that I have done.

This is not the Christ, is it? And they went out of the city and were coming to him. Now we've already studied verses 31 to 38, so skip to verse 39. And from that city, many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified.

He told me all the things that I have done. So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking him to stay with them, and he stayed there 2 days. Many more believed because of His word, and they were saying to the woman, it is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this one is indeed the savior of the world. This is the word of God, and may God help us to understand His word this morning.

6 observations we'll make. As this narrative unfolds, regarding how this woman is used by Christ to reach her people for Christ. Observation number one, she goes to her people and invites them to come to Jesus. She goes to her people and invites them to come to Jesus.

It says, so the woman left her water pot. Jesus has just basically said, I am the Messiah. And upon that disclosure of himself to her, the woman immediately left her water pot and went back into the city and said to the men or the people of the city, come and see a man, and we'll stop right there. Notice that the woman leaves her water pot.

Her priorities have changed. She's no longer interested in getting water, which was her priority a few moments earlier. she had a chore to do, but now she is only interested in carrying the living water to the people of her town. The fact that she leaves her water pot at the well also indicates, what she's basically doing is marking the spot of her return.

She's saying this is exactly the spot where I'm coming back to. I'm leaving right now, but I'm leaving only to go get some people, and I'm coming back. And where this water pot is, this marks the spot of my return. And she says to the people, Come, come, implied in that is what she's saying is, I myself am going back.

I am going to this man, and I am inviting you to come with me as I go to this one that I am speaking about. We learned something just by the invitation to come. something important about evangelism. Evangelism is not simply sending people to Jesus, it's bringing people with you.

To Jesus. And there's a big difference there. I would encourage you don't, don't send people to Jesus. You go to Jesus, you keep going to Jesus and bring people with you.

You're inviting them to come with you as you go to Jesus. Parents don't send your children to Jesus. Don't send them to Jesus. You go to Jesus, and you bring your children with you to Jesus as they grow up in your home, may you on many, many occasions come to Jesus and be bringing your children with you as you come to Jesus to pray to Him and to worship to him.

worship him to where basically you're saying to your children, come, come with me to Jesus. That's very different than just sending them to Jesus. This is an amazing turnaround for this woman. This woman formerly was slinking around.

Out to this well in the heat of the day by herself, wanting to avoid people. She didn't want to talk to anybody. Now she wants to talk to people. She's actually going into the city to find people to talk to.

Jesus has changed her from being an avoider of people to one who's now going to people. And inviting them to join her in coming to Jesus. Formerly, she wanted to go to the well by herself. Now she wants to bring as many people as possible who might be willing to come with her.

So she goes to the city, and she invites her people to come with her as she returns to Jesus. There's a second thing that she does here that we can observe, and that is that she tells her people that Jesus had dealt with her sin. She tells her people that Jesus had dealt with her sin. She said, come and see a man who told me all the things that I have done.

She's inviting them to come with her to see Jesus, to behold Jesus, you have to check this person, this man out. What man is he? He's a man who talked to me. This Samaritan woman is saying, he told me something that right there is unusual, as we saw several weeks ago, men did not talk to women in public, even husbands were very careful and reluctant to speak to their wives or daughters in a public setting.

And yet this woman's going around town saying there's a man who talked to me, and when he talked to me, he told me all the things that I had done. We know exactly what she's referring to here, because earlier, Jesus had said to her, go get your husband and bring him back here. And she says, I don't, I don't have a husband. And he said, you're right in saying that, you don't have a husband.

In fact, you've had 5 husbands, and the man you're with right now is not your husband to have. And so that's what we know. Jesus said. He may have said more and it's not recorded, but that's the core.

He spoke to her, expressing his knowledge of her checkered marital brokenness, her marital history, and of her present ongoing sin. And this woman is now going around and here's her evangelistic method Come see a man who told me everything. That I have ever done. This is a man who knows the full history of my brokenness and my sin, my failed marital history and my present sin.

And not only does he know it all, but he talked to me. He talked to me. He crossed the gender barrier, and he talked to me. He crossed the ethnic barrier as a Jew and spoke to a Samaritan.

He crossed the moral barrier. This man is the Messiah, a holy one, and he spoke to one such as I, and he told me everything that I have ever done. And amazingly, he sought to relate to me and speak to me. As he did so, What she's saying is, I have found a man who knows me utterly and loves me still.

Come see a man who knows me. He knows the worst about me. He told me everything he knows about me, and he still talked to me, and he loves me still. As we've talked about before in previous weeks, men and women have 3 great needs first, to be known.

Second, to be loved. And third, to be known and loved by the same friend. And this woman is going around town saying, I found that friend who both knows me utterly and loves me totally. Now imagine, guys, this evangelistic approach being used today.

Imagine going around to people and saying, come, come with me, and I want you to see and get to know a man who told me everything that I have ever done, and I want you to meet him too. How well do you think that would go over with people? People would be thinking, right? They go, wait a minute.

So he, he told you everything you've ever done. That means he knows everything that there is to know about us, and he brought it up with you. So he knows you utterly, and he brought it up and dealt with you about your sin. So if I take you up on your invitation, then he's going to know me utterly, and he's going to bring up my sin issues.

And so we might think no one would take us up on that offer, but Jesus has already taught us in John 3 and 4 that those who are of the truth will come. They will come into the light, right? And everyone could see in this woman that here's a man who knows me utterly. He told me everything I ever did, and I feel safe with him, so safe.

I'm going back to him. They would know that this is a remarkable man full of grace and truth. Finally, there's someone with whom I can be fully known and at the same time safe and loved by this one who is full of grace. She says, Come see a man who told me everything that I ever did.

just a couple of observations here. Notice, well, let me just say this, some people in their stock approach to evangelism, their basic message is come see a law. That will tell you everything that you have ever done as opposed to this woman who says come see a man. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying don't use the law in your evangelism.

I think the law can be a powerful tool for evangelism, but there's a certain approach to evangelism to where it's become so stark to begin with the law that there are Christians that are afraid to begin their approach with Jesus. Like I'm going to ruin something if I start with Jesus. No, I got to start with the law. If all you do is start with the law, all you're going to succeed in doing is showing people that God made rules, and you broke the rules, and God's angry with you for it.

That can be effective. But when you look at the sweep of scripture, both Old and New Testament, there's the revelation of God first, within which you can then understand the greatness and the holiness of the law and the magnitude of our sins against Him. Guys, let me just free you up and your evangelism of the lost feel totally free to begin and end with Jesus. You're not going to go wrong.

You're not going to stand before God at the judgment, and he's going to say, what, I've got this against you. When you evangelize people, you started off talking about my son. What were you thinking? He's not going to do that.

you cannot go wrong. Nothing can show people their spiritual poverty more than presenting Jesus to them. This woman's approach was to start with Jesus, come see a man who told me everything that I have done, and notice that she's somewhat confessional in her approach. She doesn't say, come see a man who's going to tell you everything you ever did wrong.

That's not bad either. But she begins in a position, a posture of humility, come see a man who's exposed my sin. And let me talk to you about my sin that he has exposed before I speak to you about your sin. This woman's approach actually mirrors Jesus' approach to her.

When she walked up to the well, Jesus didn't start off by saying, Hey, have you ever told a lie? You ever stolen? You ever committed adultery? he didn't start that way.

He started off by saying, hey, can you give me something to drink? He modeled vulnerability, to her, to this woman, and then she's like, what are you doing talking to me? You're a Jew, I'm a Samaritan woman. And Jesus basically says, if you, if you only knew, this is how he begins.

if you only knew the gift of God, and if you only knew who it is who's talking to you, what's he doing? He's beginning with himself. In his approach to this woman, if you only knew who I was, you would have already asked me for living water, and I would have already given it freely to you. And so this woman is basically mirroring his approach and going to the people of the town saying, come see a man.

She's proclaiming Jesus to the people of her town. It's amazing. Jesus told this woman a number of things about, that were noteworthy. He revealed himself as the Messiah.

He offered her living water. She doesn't go around and say, Come see a man who gave me living water. Come see a man who knows where we're supposed to worship. Come see a man who told me that he's the Messiah.

She could have said all of that and it would have been fine. What is most stunning to her though, the thing that she wants to share is come see a man who who knows all my sin, who told me everything I ever did. That is the most startling thing to her, that has excited her about Jesus. He knows all of my sin, and he still spoke to me, and he still loves me.

This man knows me utterly and loves me still. Come and see a man. Who told me all the things that I have done. Notice this woman does not go to the people of her town and say, come see a man who told me all the things that my husbands have done.

Or come see a man who has told me all the things you judgmental people have done and the ways that you've treated me over the years. No, her focus is on herself and on her own sin. Had this woman ever been sinned against, you bet, you bet she had been sinned against. This woman, if she wanted to, could have focused on all the list of sins that so many people, each of her husbands and the people of the community had sinned against her with, and yet she's not even going there.

This is one of the marks of someone who's truly converted. What she's obsessing on is the fact it's her sin and that Jesus has dealt with me about my sin, and that's what I want to share with you all. This is the testimony that I think the world can hear a little more from us. We do right to speak against sins that are in our culture, but we need to be just as diligent in speaking against sin in ourselves, modeling humility and modeling repentance.

So that the world can see what that actually looks like, what true repentance looks like, what confession actually looks like, what true courage in facing our sins and failings actually looks like, because we have that courage, because we're safe in the arms of one who knows us utterly and loves us still. I would love it if the people in the world around us see the courage we show in facing our sins squarely, and they see that somehow we feel safe to do so because we know we're loved and for them to envy that.

That's what this woman is modeling here. There's a third observation we can make regarding how Christ uses this woman, and we're going to go more quickly through, through these, and that is she invites her people to join her in concluding that Jesus is the Christ.

She says, this is not the Christ. Is it? In her theology, the Messiah will know the hearts of people. He will know their history.

He will know all that there is to know about them. He will know all of their deeds, and He will deal with their deeds, but He will love them still. And Jesus meets these qualifications so beautifully, and she's saying to people, come see someone who knows all of my sin and loves me still. This isn't the Christ, is it?

And she states it as a question in a very deferential and curiosity inducing way. One commentator says her statement to them was phrased in a deliberately cautious way so as not to arouse antagonism to where she's preaching at people, but she's saying this isn't the Christ, is it? And she's inviting them to come, come and think with me. As I behold this man and try to fully figure him out, I don't want to stare at him and try to figure him out fully by myself.

I want to do so in community with all of you. Come and think with me. Behold with me. Let's figure him out together.

This isn't the Christ, is it? She says, as she invites them to come and behold Jesus with her, she invites them to join her in concluding that Jesus is the Messiah. Number 4. The following 3 points are more how God uses what she does.

God uses her testimony to provoke her people to faith in Christ. He uses her testimony to provoke her people in the city of Sicar. To faith In Christ. Look at how God uses her testimony.

Verse 30, and they went out of the city and we're coming to him. So the people here what this woman is saying, they know this woman. This is an amazing thing that this woman is going around saying what she's saying, come see a man who told me everything I ever did. This isn't the Christ, is it?

They stop whatever they're doing. Whatever their priorities were, they changed, they stopped what they were doing, they dropped everything. And they began to go out of the city where the well was, and they were coming to Jesus. Now look at what the text says next.

And from that city, many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified. He told me all the things that I have done. Please don't skim over that. This isn't people hearing the woman and saying, Wow, I, I wonder if what she's saying is true.

I think I'll go out and check this person out, and I will then arrive at my own conclusion. what this, the language here indicates. This woman goes around and says what she says, and upon hearing simply what she says, They believe whoever she encountered, he is the Messiah. They believe because of her testimony, and they began to go out of the city and come to Jesus, not in order to check him out and decide whether or not to believe, they already are believing in him, because of the testimony of the woman.

This is an amazing thing. They're trusting what this woman has said, so obviously this woman, with a checkered past, there's something that's going on that is changing the people's hearts and melting their hearts in some amazing way. I believe apart from the sovereign work of God and regenerating them to believe that they're, they're not only hearing the words that are coming out of the mouth of, of this woman, but they're also believing because of the woman from whom these words are coming.

They're like, we know this woman, we know her history.

We know her moral choices. And we know how even we've been treating her and she goes to the well by herself in the heat of the day outside of the city to avoid people, and yet here she is coming to us, and she is excited and she has found someone who knows all of her sin, and that's all that she wants to talk about, not our sin, not how we've wronged her, but what her sin is, and she's met someone who knows all of her sin utterly. And has told her and dealt with her about that.

And she's wanting to go back to him.

And she's wanting to invite us to join her and going back to him. They're witnessing here, very swiftly a radical transformation in this woman. And they look at the woman from whom these words are coming, and they listen to the words that are coming out of her mouth, they're looking at her countenance, her whole demeanor, and they're like, she has met the Messiah. And they believe They believe they're blown away.

They're blown away, and they believe and then began to go out of the city to see this one whom they already have concluded is the Messiah. Amazingly, there's a 5th observation, and that is that God uses this woman's testimony to cause her people to want Jesus to stay with them. This is, guys, when you, when you contrast what's happening right now with what happens in Israel and the Gospel of John, and all the rejection. And the Jews saying, we want to see signs, show us signs before we believe.

and then they're seeing signs and they're only believing in Jesus because of signs. And the people of Samaria, they've not even seen Jesus, they just heard a woman. A 5 time divorcee talking about Jesus, and they're already believing and dropping everything to come out to him. And not only do they come out to see Jesus, but look at what happens verse 40.

So when the Samaritans came to him, they were asking him to stay with them. And he stayed there 2 days. They didn't just come out to check Jesus out. They came out having already believed in him to try to convince him to come into their city and to live with them, and to stay with him.

If she's found the Messiah, then we're going to go get them, and we're going to keep them with us. That's their hunger. That's their desire for him. They want him to stay.

With them, would you have done that? Just, I want you to just marvel at what's happening here. If I were to tell you this morning that I've met someone who's on campus right now, not in this room, but he has a supernatural gift, he can read hearts totally and utterly. He knows everything that everybody is thinking all the time.

And not only that, but he, he very freely deals with people based on what he observes as he reads their hearts and knows their full history. And if I said to you, I really want you to meet him, how eager would you be to meet this person? And then would you say, oh my goodness, whoever that is, I want to go meet him and I want to bring him home with me. I want him to live with me.

Would you do that? That's what the Samaritans are doing. They're like, what, He knew this woman's sin history and he dealt with her about it. But we see that she feels safe with him and she's going back to him.

What an amazing person this must be, full of grace and truth. what? We're going to drop everything and we're going to go to this one before whose eyes we will be exposed to. And not only will we come out to Him, but our goal in coming out to Him is to get him to come and stay with us.

That's a mark of true conversion. True saving faith views Jesus as more than someone to come out and see. It sees him as someone that you want to have come and stay. With you.

Is Jesus just someone you come and see on Sunday? Or is he someone that you take home with you? And who stays with you Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and throughout every day of the week. Is he someone that you might read about in the Bible in the morning, or is he someone that you've invited to come and stay with you when you're making your music choices?

And your relationship choices. And your entertainment choices, and your life choices. Your priority choices. The people of Samaria, they just hear the testimony of a woman.

And they drop everything and come out to see him and invite him to come and stay with them. A final observation that we can make here. Regarding how God uses this woman to reach this city for Christ, God uses her testimony to take her people beyond the need for her testimony. It sounds weird, but you'll get the drift.

Verse 41, it says, and many more believed because of his word. Now it's no longer her word, but they're now believing because of his word, as he has spoken again, notice there's no signs or miracles. He's just speaking and they're believing in Israel, Jesus does miracles and people still don't believe. He, he just talks.

And people believe in him. Many more believe because of his word. And they were saying to the woman, it's no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this one is indeed the savior of the world. So they already believed when they heard this woman testify, they then come out to Jesus to persuade him to come and stay with them, and they succeed in getting him to stay with them for a couple days.

And upon getting to experience Jesus more fully, At length and more directly, they're now saying to this woman, it's no longer because of what you said that we believe. It's because of Jesus, we've heard him directly. And we now believe because of what we have experienced and heard directly from him. Commentators ponder why they felt the need to say this to this woman.

There's a commentator or two that suggests that this is a veiled swipe at this woman. We're not really believing because of what you said. It's because we've experienced him directly. But most commentators are right on target when they say that this is not a swipe at this woman.

This is like the highest compliment. That you can ever pay to someone who is evangelizing and sharing Christ with others. What they're saying is, to this woman is, what, what you told us was accurate. We found the reality of this one to be as great, if not even greater than what you had said when you testified of him.

We now believe in Jesus, not because of what you said, but because we've experienced the reality, and we believe. Think about your own story of coming to faith in Christ. At some point, we took somebody's word, right? Somebody said, You gotta meet Jesus.

You've gotta come to Him. He's a great savior, and he died. He was buried. He was raised.

He's at the right hand of God. He'll give you forgiveness and salvation if you will believe in Him. and God's spirit's working in your heart, and bringing you to a point of faith in that moment, but from a human standpoint, you're like, what, I'm gonna trust at some point, you said, I'm going to trust what's being said to me by a fellow human being. And you believed And then upon believing you begin to experience the reality of Jesus, and then you're weaned off of a dependence upon what that person said to you.

You don't believe any longer simply because of what that person said, but because of the reality of Jesus that you are now experiencing. This is the way it should be with us as mothers and fathers. Our children should grow up and say, I believed in Jesus at first because you told me about him, and I trusted you. But now I believe because I've experienced the reality.

of him. I'm happy my parents are with me this morning for a message like this. When I was 415, 5 years old, I prayed to receive Christ. I don't know what happened on that occasion, but that was the first time that I cried out to Jesus for salvation.

My earliest memories are of my parents speaking to me about Jesus. And what, I trusted them. I trusted my mom and dad as they were telling me these great things about Jesus. And I would say from a human standpoint, I believed in Jesus because I trusted their testimony.

But I would say to my mom and dad, Today at the ripe old age of 50, I don't believe in Jesus today. Because of what you said 45 years ago. I'm not dependent upon that. I believe in Jesus today because of all the reality I've experienced over these last 45 years.

And what, I guarantee you my parents aren't hearing me say that, saying, oh man. No, that's what they want. Imagine the reverse if my parents are talking to me today saying, do you believe in Jesus today? And I'm like, yeah, I believe in him.

Thanks for asking. And they're like, Well, why do you believe in him? I'm like, what, because 45 years ago, you told me that he was worthy of my trust. That's the reason I believe in him.

They would be very dissatisfied with that, right? They'd be like, Have you experienced nothing in the last 45 years of the reality of Jesus? That would wean you off of our testimony many decades ago. To believe in Him because of who He is and what you have experienced directly from Him.

This is what the people are saying to her, and this is wonderful encouragement to this woman. God has used your testimony to stir us to faith in Jesus. And we've now come to him and experienced him directly. And we believe in Him because of him that we have experienced and no longer simply because of what you told to us.

There's so much we can learn here. There's a wonderful pattern that we see here. I, I can't help but look at the story and think of the Garden of Eden. The serpent came to the woman first.

Tempted the woman with the fruit of the tree. The woman ate, and the woman went to the man and said, Eat this, and the man ate. Here in John 4, Jesus, meets a woman at the well. And he tempts her with living water, and she partakes, and she then goes to the people of her town and says, You've got to taste.

You have to partake. And they partake. And Jesus of all people uses the most broken woman. Of the city The most broken woman, why?

Because Jesus is the God of the broken sword. The God of the broken sword teaching us that we're never too broken for Christ. Then came the king's son. And he saw the broken sword hilt buried in the dry and trodden sand, and he ran and snatched it.

And with battle shout lifted afresh. He hewed his enemy down. No matter how broken you are, let yourself be placed in the hands of Jesus. Believe in him, in his hands.

You are a mighty weapon. He loves to use broken people. who find their wholeness in Him. May that describe all of us this morning.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. If you're here today and you've never allowed yourself to be placed into the hands of Jesus, To believe in him. Our prayers that you would do so today. That you would know that he is one who's all knowing and he, he knows your sin.

He already knows it utterly. You can't hide from him, but you're safe with him. If you will come to him and find your refuge in him, you are safe with him. Run to him.

He's the only one in all of the universe who knows you utterly and loves you still. Where else would you want to go than to this one? And for those of us who are believers, this is the one that we experience day by day, who knows us utterly and he loves us still, and we now are called to just go tell other people. Jesus tells this woman to just go get one man, and she goes and gets everybody.

Above and beyond. This is a wonderful calling. that Christ has given to us, and may we in our brokenness that may still persist as we're being made whole in Christ. May we realize that as dull as I may be, as weak as I may be in and of myself, if I am in the hands of Jesus and being wielded by him, I can be a mighty weapon just like this broken.

Woman Thank you, Jesus, for using broken people like us, and for making us whole. You are a wonderful savior indeed. We thank you for the opportunity, Jesus, to give up our offerings to you, receive these funds, do much with every penny that is given for your glory and the spread of this amazing good news about you. We commit ourselves to you in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said, Amen.