Sir Give Me This Water

Well, let me invite you to turn in your Bible to John 4. John chapter 4, we're going to be looking at John 4:1 through 15 today. As we're looking at this mini section of the Gospel of John, looking at John 3 and 4 where we're observing Jesus' encounter with two people, Nicodemus in John 3, and the Samaritan woman in John 42 vastly different people and yet united in their lostness. And we learned much about ourselves.

by, we find ourselves in Nicodemus, we find ourselves in this Samaritan woman. We also learn a lot by sitting next to Jesus and just watching the way he is as he interacts with lost people. We learn volumes about how we interact with those who do not yet know Christ also. If you want to give a title to the message this morning, it would be, Sir, give me this water.

Sir, give me, this water. Let me read John 4:1 through 15. Say, therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were, he left Judea and went away again into Galilee, and he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a city of Samaria called Sicar near the parcel of ground.

That Jacob gave to his son Joseph, and Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from his journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the 6th hour, and there came a woman of Samaria to draw water, and Jesus said to her, Give me a drink, for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Therefore, the Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

Jesus answered and said to her, 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. She said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water? You are not greater than our father Jacob, are you, who gave us the well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle.

Jesus answered and said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst. But the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. And the woman said to him, Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here. To draw.

Guys inside. Of every human heart. Is an infinite thirst. that can only be quenched.

By Jesus Most people who have this infinite thirst, which is everyone, don't realize what their thirst ultimately is for because they think they are really thirsting for the things that they are chasing. And they think that if they can just obtain that thing that they are pursuing, then their thirst will be quenched. But there are some In life who do succeed in fulfilling their wildest dreams, they chase after goals and they achieve their goals even above and beyond their wildest imagination, and they, the fortunate ones, or maybe the unfortunate ones, are dismayed upon achieving their dreams to realize that they are just as thirsty as they ever were.

If not more so, and they above all people know.

That there is a thirst inside of them that nothing on earth can satisfy. Only, only Jesus can satisfy that thirst. They don't know that only Jesus can satisfy their thirst, but they do realize that having all these things that I dreamed of having and pursued for all of my life, these things do not quench my thirst. Most of you have probably heard of Boris Becker, the tennis champion who won Wimbledon at the age of 17.

He said in an interview, I had won Wimbledon twice, once as the youngest player. I was rich. I had all the material possessions I needed. It is the old song of movie stars and pop stars who commit suicide.

They have everything, and yet they are so unhappy, and I had no inner peace. Sophia Loren of Hollywood fame. Another one who, a beautiful woman, had attained great fame. And money and relationships in her life, she said, in my life, there is an emptiness that is impossible.

To fill. It's another way of saying there's a thirst. That nothing I have found yet. Can quench.

Tom Brady is the quarterback of the New England Patriots. The guy's a stud. He's got the looks, the athletic prowess, the athletic achievement. He's won 3 Super Bowls.

He's been to 5 Super Bowls, has a beautiful wife, and has the respect of millions of people. But he's a man who's driven by a thirst that he has not yet been able to satisfy. After he had won 3 Super Bowls in the days leading up to his appearance in his 4th Super Bowl, he was being interviewed on the 60 Minutes show, and in that interview, listen to what he confesses. He says, Why do I have 3 Super Bowl rings and still think there's something greater out there for me?

maybe a lot of people would say, hey man, this is what it is. I've reached my dream, my goal, my life is great. But me, I think, God, it's got to be more than this. After he said that, the interviewer.

Asked him What's the answer, Tom? And Tom Brady replied, saying, I wish I knew. I wish I knew. This morning we're going to become acquainted with a woman of Samaria.

Who did not have 3 Super Bowl rings. But she did have 5 rings. Or technically 4 going on a 5th 1. I'm talking about wedding rings.

And if you were to talk to this woman prior to the incident recorded in John 4 and said, what is the answer? What is the answer? She probably would have said, I wish I knew. I wish I knew, or she might have said, I think I know the answer, and it's this 5th guy that I'm with right now.

I think finally my thirst is going to be quenched through him. She might have said that. Although she would have said, but I'm not marrying this guy yet because she's already cynical enough to know this may not work out just like the other relationships. This is a woman who has been driven throughout her life by her thirst.

And she has gone from the arms of one man to another, to another, to another and to another. And she's never been able to get this thirst quenched. But in John 4, she finds the one that her soul has been thirsting for all of these years. She comes to understand her thirst.

She sees the one that she has been thirsting for, and she finds the answer. To that question of what she's been looking for and thirsting for, or more accurately, the answer finds her. And once that answer finds her, a locomotive could not have stopped this woman from broadcasting to the world, the answer to her soul's need that had discovered her in the person of Jesus. There are two critical points in the dialogue between her and Jesus in John 4, and one of them is in verse 15, that's where our reading of the text stopped because that's as far as we're going to get this morning and that is when she looks at Jesus and says, Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty.

And then there's another critical point that we'll look at next week where she's speaking to other people in her town and says, come and see a man who told me all things that I have ever done. This is not the Christ, is it? But what we'll focus on today is that critical point in verse 15, where she turns to Jesus, and she says to Jesus, Give me this water so that I will not be thirsty. And we're going to observe what Jesus does to bring her to that critical point where she is looking to him.

In this way, You see, guys, we all have a thirst that only Christ can satisfy. But we, we need him to help us to understand that. We need him to help us to understand our thirst. We need him to introduce himself to us and to bring us to a place where we actually come to him and say, give me Jesus, give me this living water, so that I will not thirst anymore.

Jesus does this for the Samaritan woman, and the way we're going to frame things as we look at the passages, we're going to observe 4 things that Jesus does to bring the Samaritan woman to a place where she is asking him for the thirst, quenching water. that only Jesus Can provide, Four things that he does. She starts this day as lost as ever. By the end of the day, she has been found, and she understands these things and where to go with her thirst, but it's because Jesus stepped into her life and did 4 things to bring her to that point.

The first thing that he does is he comes into her world. He comes into her world. This is really a staggering thing if you back away and think of the macro picture. John 1:1 begins with in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.

John 1:1 begins with Jesus in heaven. In the glories of heaven in relationship with God the Father. He's far away from the brokenness of this world. But John goes on to say that this one who from all of eternity past was with the Father, he came into the world that was made by him.

And the world did not know him, and he even came into his own, the Jews, and they did not receive him. At the beginning of John 4, we find Jesus among his own, the Jews in the region of Judea. But Jesus leaves Judea, and he goes into literally foreign territory as we're going to see of Samaria, and comes into the city of Sicar. And just outside of that city is a well, and Jesus goes to that well and sits himself down and waits.

For this woman to come by. This is the one who in eternity past was with the Father, who now in John 4 sits beside a well and waits for a lone single woman to come walking by to draw water. What a distance has been traveled. And yet Jesus was willing to travel that distance to enter into her world and to educate her about her true thirst and the fact that he was the only one that could satisfy that thirst.

He says he left Judea and departed again into Galilee, and he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a city of Samaria called Sicar and Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, therefore, being wearied from his journey, was sitting there thus by the well. I love what one writer says, William Barclay, he says, here is the beginning of the universality of the gospel. Here is God so loving the world, not in theory, but in action.

This is not just Jesus hanging out with his fellow Jews. This is him going into Samaritan territory, quite literally in a lot of ways, foreign territory. This is the beginning of the unfolding of the universality of the gospel. We heard in John 3, in verse 16, God so loved the world, and we see the beginnings of the unfolding of that here.

In John 4 where he leaves Judea, where the Jews were, and goes into the region of Samaria, where the Samaritans were. Now, just, I'm gonna try not to get bogged down here, but just give you enough information to understand the significance of what's happening. You see here on the screen behind me, a map. And right here is Judea.

This is where Jesus is at the beginning of John 4. This is Galilee, right up here. This is where Jesus wants to end up. And, and so he's got to travel up there from Judea to Galilee.

normally, what the religious Jews would do. is if they're in Judea, they would not go through Samaria. They would go around Samaria to the eastern side of the Jordan River and then they would travel up and then after they were past the region of Samaria, they would come over and find themselves in Galilee. If they were to make a straight journey through Samaria, it'd be about a 3 day journey.

To go around the long way and bypass Samaria was about a 6 day journey, but they were willing. To experience the delay because they didn't like the Samaritans and they wanted as little to do with them as possible. but it says in verse 4, look at the text, it says that Jesus had to pass through Samaria. That word had, you might want to underline that word.

It's the same word used in John 3:7, where Jesus says, You must be born again. You have to be born again. And then in John 3:14, Jesus says, the Son of Man must be lifted up. And here, We learned that Jesus must go through.

Samaria In the cosmic saving purposes and plan of God, it was necessary for Jesus to go through Samaria because as we're going to see, he has a divine appointment with one woman. Who will be coming by the well to draw water. and this is where I don't want to get bogged down on, there's a reason the Jews and the Samaritan, Samaritans did not Samaritans. New word, Samaritans.

there's a reason they didn't like each other, back. In the 700s BC, the Assyrians came in, attacked the northern kingdom of Israel, deported most of the citizens in the northern kingdom, and then they, they brought in a lot of other inhabitants in the Assyrian kingdom to dwell in that very land where they had just deported the Jews from. The remaining Jews that were in that region intermarried with these Assyrians that had been Moved into the area, creating a hybrid mixed race and the religions mixed.

It became a very idolatrous religion with some elements of Judaism or the worship of Jehovah over time.

They ended up rejecting the idol and embrace the worship of Jehovah, but in a limited way, the Samaritans claimed to worship Jehovah, but they rejected most of the Old Testament revelation. The only books of the Old Testament that they believed were inspired were the 1st 5 books of the Old Testament. OK, so they claim to worship Jehovah. They only use the 1st 5 books of the Old Testament.

Well, later, the southern kingdom of Judah, they, they ended up being sacked by the Babylonian Empire and after many decades of having been deported, they came back. to Jerusalem and to Judea, and this group of Jews coming back from the Babylonian captivity wanted to rebuild the temple. We see this in the book of Ezra. And it was then that the Samaritans approached them and said, hey, we worship Jehovah just like you do.

Can we help you rebuild the temple? The Jews said, no, we don't want you to have anything to do with this. Just get away from us. And that didn't do much for their relationship.

the Samaritans became very offended and upset. They sought to oppose the Jews at every turn. A couple of generations later, the Samaritans built their own temple on Mount Gerazim, OK. and that was in the 400s BC and that temple stood for a while until there was a conflict that broke out between the Jews and the Samaritans in around 128 BC and the Jews destroyed their temple.

Again, that didn't do. Any good for their relationship with each other. So understand that the Jews hated the Samaritans. There were centuries of conflict between them and the Samaritans hated the Jews as well.

And yet, what's interesting is that Jesus insists here on going through Samaria. By the way, write down the reference Luke 9:51 to 53 where you actually see it's not just the Jews who hated the Samaritans, they hated The Jews too. In fact, if you're traveling from Galilee on your way to Jerusalem to worship God and the Samaritans know that, don't expect accommodations from them. In Luke 9, Jesus was up in Galilee.

He wanted to come down through Samaria. He sent his disciples ahead of him to set up accommodations for them en route to Jerusalem. And look at what happens. It says in Luke 9:53, they did, the Samaritans did not receive Jesus because he was traveling toward Jerusalem.

The attitude was, hey, you need accommodations? Great. Yeah, we got plenty of space. Where are you heading, by the way, Jerusalem, to worship God.

Oh, actually, we're booked. We have no room. We have no room. There's stories of Samaritans insulting Jews that would travel through Samaria on their way to worship God in Jerusalem.

And so the attitude of most religious Jews was if they had to go from Judea to Galilee, their attitude would have been, I must go around Samaria. I must avoid Samaria, but Jesus' attitude is, I must go through Samaria. I insist on it because it's the plan of God, because there is a woman that I want to talk to. And so he travels through Samaria, Jacob's well was there just outside the city of Sicar.

Jesus was tired from his travels, and he sits himself by the well, and in verse 6, we learned that it was about the 6th hour, which means the 6th hour after sunrise, which means about Noon. OK. During the heat of the day, Jesus is now sitting here wearied. Sitting by the well and look at what happens next.

It says, and it was about the 6th hour, verse 7, and there came a woman of Samaria to draw water. She has no clue. She's not walking to the well saying, man, today's going to be an amazing day. I'm gonna be Whatever happens today is going to be recorded on the pages of scripture.

People will be reading of what happens in my day thousands of years from now. No, she doesn't have a clue. This is a woman just engaging in an ordinary routine and going to get water. I'm struck by The ordinariness of this, right?

This is as ordinary as a woman today running to the grocery store on an errand to just get some groceries and then be back home. That's what this woman is doing, and Jesus invades her ordinary. Because he wants to do something really epic. In her life.

We can learn something from this even as we seek to minister to the lost. Those who do not yet know Christ, let me say it this way. Guys, don't wait for obviously epic moments to come before you minister Christ to others. The ordinary moments will do just fine.

In fact, they're even better. Now, there are epic moments, right? Paul and Silas, Acts 16, in prison singing hymns at midnight and an earthquake happens and the earthquake shakes everything up. The doors of the prison open, the chains fall off.

The Philippian jailer sees that and he's like, oh, the prisoners have escaped. I'm going to kill myself, and he starts to fall on his sword and kill himself. Paul says, Hey, don't kill yourself. We're all here.

The Philippian jailer then looks at Paul and Silas and falls in front of them and says, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? That's an epic moment. And there's no doubt what to do in that situation. I'm sure Paul didn't look at Silas and say, I don't know.

Is this the right time? To share the gospel with him. Let's think about this. no, they knew, it's in epic moments like this, exactly what to do.

But sometimes we sit around and wait for those moments. We wait for our neighbor to come running over to our house saying, I just had a dream where God showed me the judgment to come and I'm frightened and I've come over to my house and see, I brought my family with me, show us what we must do to be saved. We wait for those kinds of moments, and what, they don't come when all around us are the ordinary moments that are electric and on fire with possibilities and opportunities for us.

This ordinary moment is on fire.

We may not have seen it. Jesus sees. This ordinary moment as absolutely electric and on fire with epic possibilities. And so as you're seeking to impart Christ to others through word and deed, don't wait for the epic moments.

Look for the ordinary moments. That neighbor of yours that's walking around the street, step into his or her ordinary, that coworker that's sitting at the break table like they do every single day, eating the same lunch every day. Take a seat and enter into his or her ordinary, that relative of yours who gets up to wash the dishes after a meal like they often do. It's so ordinary.

Come alongside of them and enter into their ordinary and then Christ to them through word and deed, whether they're Christians or not. Guys, in our relationships with one another and in our interactions with the lost, the ordinary moments are the ones that are electric with possibilities and huge potential, and Jesus invades this woman's ordinary. And something truly epic transpires. Let's follow his example.

As we look at this woman though, at noon coming to this particular well, Let me give you two questions that scholars and commentators find themselves asking at this point of the narrative, and that is 1, why this well? And number 2, why at noon? like, why this well? What's interesting is if, if you look at where this well was, in fact, if you want to know where it is today, there's a Russian Orthodox church built right over the well.

So you have to go inside that church and you can actually still draw water from, this well, but this well by all accounts was about 0.5 mile outside of the city of Saiar where this woman lived. And so she had to walk 0.5 mile to go to this well, and you may say, well, of course she would, if that's where she got water. What's interesting is by all accounts there was abundant water in the city of Saikar. There were water sources in the city, but she bypasses those and goes out of the city half a mile.

To this particular well, and the next question is, why does she go at noon. This is unusual, although it's not totally unheard of. Most women would go to the well to draw water early in the morning when it was cool or in the evening when it was cool in preparation for the next day. This woman in the heat of the day.

Makes a half mile journey passing other water sources within the city to come out to this particular well at 120 to get her water. And commentators and scholars speculate as to what is going on and why this is indeed so. And you begin to start getting a feel for what that might be when you realize that this woman has had 4 husbands and she's now with another man who is not her husband. the Samaritans embraced the 1st 5 books of the Old Testament.

That's enough revelation to know that this woman is not living the life that she should be living according to the law, especially in being with this 5th man that she's not even married to. This is a woman that by all indications, was a moral outcast, even in her own Samaritan society. Listen to what a couple of writers say. Curious is the fact, this is FF Bruce.

Curious is the fact that the woman should have come to this well at all, for there was plentiful water nearer her home. The woman had a bad reputation, and the explanation may be very simple. She chose the time and the place to avoid other women. Who would look down on her and scorn her.

And judge her. John MacArthur says this woman would rather walk the extra distance in the hottest time of day than face the hostility and scorn of the other women at the closer well earlier or later in the day. This is a woman who in all likelihood is reduced by her lifestyle to having to come out to this well at this time of day, half mile outside of the city. Because she can avoid running into people.

In doing so. This is a woman who clearly is not looking for fellowship, not looking for sisters to hang out with. She's looking to just go where no one is, where she won't be judged. And she rightly could be judged, and little does she know that there's a man sitting at that well.

Jesus Christ waiting for her. that's like really good news for all of us. It doesn't matter how, how bad we've messed up the sins that we've committed, and maybe we're being judged by other people unfairly or maybe fairly, and we just chart a course just to be alone. And some of us can share testimony, some of you can share testimony that it's there, that Jesus was waiting for you.

Because when no one else wanted to talk to you, he did. When no one else wanted anything to do with you, he did. When everyone else judged you. He entered into conversation with you.

And sought to be your savior and the one who quenched your thirst. So what does Jesus do to bring her to this place where she would come to him and say, Give me this water that you have? The first thing he did is he didn't wait for her to somehow figure out a way to come to him. He came to her and he invaded her world.

He entered into her ordinary and is sitting there waiting for her. Little does she know as she approaches this well. That the one sitting there Who grows larger and larger as she approaches the well. is the sovereign king of the universe, and he's the one she's been thirsting for all these years.

There's a second thing that Jesus does. To bring this woman to a place of coming to him and asking him to satisfy her thirst, and that is he speaks to her and ask her to give him a drink. says there came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus, remember, he's sitting there wearied, tired, and thirsty, and he said to her, Give me a drink.

This is just Jesus is just, He's unpredictable. He does things the opposite of what we would think. if you were Jesus, and you were the source of this woman's satisfaction, you were the thirst quenching, soul fulfilling, all sufficient reservoir of water of life to satisfy her for All of eternity. If you were him and you were all of that, and you knew you had a divine appointment with a woman like this, and you could have control over what setting would you begin a dialogue with her, would any of us in this room have ever thought, Here's the setting.

I'll start off tired and exhausted. Sitting by a well, thirsty, and I'll ask her. To give me something to drink. I'll be the vulnerable one who admits my need.

And ask her. To address my need and get me something to drink, none of us would have drawn it up this way. And yet Jesus draws it up this way. And speaks to this woman.

And he's the first one. To acknowledge need. And to ask her to give him something to drink. I think another lesson that we can draw from this is that it's, it's touching to me.

This woman is as lost as any woman can be. And yet Jesus Basically admits a need and is asking this woman to address that need and give him something to drink. And as this woman did that, no doubt, Jesus took the water, drank it, and thanked her profusely for it. Oh, thank you, thank you.

Jesus allowed himself to be blessed by this utterly lost woman. and the, the lesson here, if I can say this right, is in our interactions with the lost. don't treat lost people as projects, like you're my project. I'm the one who has what you need.

You have nothing that could ever bless or benefit me. That's the way this relationship works. Just, just be my project and let me give to you what you need. You need the gospel, you need salvation.

And let me be an agent through which that comes. That it's good to see yourself partly in that way, but you need to realize this person is an image bearer of God who displays the image of God in very powerful, significant ways, though in a diminished and marred way as a result of the fall. And as a result of the common grace of God, that lost person can actually be a God-given blessing. To you, right?

Receive that blessing. And when someone who's not a Christian blesses you, give God the thanks for the blessing that they are to you in the common grace of God. I'm reminded, thinking about this, a mechanic friend of mine who doesn't know the Lord, I've been able to witness to him and take him to breakfast a number of times and a former neighbor of ours and, and he just hasn't come to a place where he's, run to Jesus. But in the common grace of God, there's really good qualities about this guy that God's used to bless me.

And one time this, this guy did a really great thing that helped me out in a major way, and I just was thanking God for him, and I even said, hey, can I stop right now and pray and thank God for you and the way that he's used you to bless me. And he's like, yeah. so I got to pray over him and to celebrate, as it were, the common grace of God in his life and the way that God used this man to be a blessing to me. It's just, I don't know, it just says a little something about Jesus that he would put himself in this vulnerable position and to allow himself to be served and blessed by this woman who at this point is as lost as anyone can be.

He says, give me a drink. This is also significant from a lot of standpoints. Jesus in just speaking these words is crossing so many barriers. He's crossing the divine and human barrier.

No one deserves to hear the voice of God and survive. And yet this woman is privy to the voice of God through Jesus asking her for a drink. And she lives to tell about it. a massive divide between God and man has been bridged here and Jesus being here in the presence of this woman and asking her for a drink.

There's also a gender barrier that's being crossed here. Back in this day, Jewish men, especially religious Jewish men, did not speak to women in public. In fact, the rabbis would not even speak to their own wives in public. They would not speak to their wives, their sisters, or even their daughters.

In a public setting. In fact, there, there was a group of Pharisees that were called the bruised and bleeding Pharisees because not only did they not talk to women in public, but when they saw a woman approaching them in public, they closed their eyes so as not to even look upon them, and with their eyes closed, they would run into things. Hence, They were called the bruised and bleeding Pharisees, and people would see a Pharisee like that running into something and they're like, whoa, what a holy man.

I want to be like him when, when I grow up.

But they didn't, they didn't, for a rabbi to be seen having any conversation with a woman in public was the end of his reputation. And yet here is Jesus, speaking up. And he's not afraid to be seen talking to this woman. In fact, later the disciples are going to see it.

They're going to marvel. They're going to be stunned that he's talking to this woman. And he speaks to her, Give me a drink. He's crossing a moral barrier.

This is the Holy One of God speaking to a woman who is in her 5th relationship. With a man, and he's also crossing the ethnic barrier. This is what stuns the woman. In fact, she says, it says the Samaritan woman therefore said to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman.

It says for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Literally, that expression has no dealings means Jews do not use with Samaritans. And the idea is they do not use the same utensils that Samaritans use. And so like Jesus is not just asking her for something to drink, he's asking her to give him something to drink in her utensil.

That's a staggering thing for a Jew to do. And this woman would have handed him, something to drink in her own defiled, according to Jewish, understanding, this defiled utensil, this defiled cup, and Jesus, he's not afraid to be defiled and he's not afraid to drink. From her utensils. Jesus is a barrier dividing savior.

He crosses the divine human barrier, the gender barrier, the moral barrier, and the ethnic barrier in his effort to reach this broken woman who's been thirsty all her life, and she doesn't even know what she's been thirsting for, and he wants her to know that it's me. I'm the one that you have been thirsting for all your life. So he speaks to her and he asks her to give him a drink. She's amazed by this.

Jesus then responds by doing a third thing that brings this woman a little bit closer to that point where she says, Sir, give me. This water so that I will not thirst and that is he reveals himself to her as the one with the true living water. He begins to reveal himself to her as the one with the true living. Water.

In verse 10, it says, and Jesus answered, and he said to her, look at what he says. Let's break it down this way. He says, if you knew the gift of God, he's saying to this woman, there are two things that you don't know. And if you knew these two things, these two things, you would be speaking very differently right now.

If you knew, number 1, the gift of God. If you knew the gift that I'm holding in my hand, The gift of God. If you knew the heart of God for you in this moment, if you knew my heart towards you in this moment, Jesus is holding this incredible gift that he knows is going to blow this woman away. He knows that in a moment, he's about to impart this gift.

And he's like we are when we put a lot of effort into a particular gift that we want to give to someone, and they don't have a clue what they're about to receive. You ever been in that position, the giving position of a surprise gift that is really going to thrill someone? Imagine the excitement that Jesus feels as he sees this woman walking towards the well. He's like, she's going to be blown away.

She, and just, in just a short period of time, she's going to walk away from here, and her heart's going to be just springing and overflowing. Radically changed. I, I got a great gift for her. And he says to this woman, and she doesn't have a clue, so she's like, what are you doing talking to me?

And he's like, oh, if you knew the gift of God, and if you knew who it is, who says to you, give me a drink, if you, if you knew the gift that I want to give you, and if you knew who I am. Look what he says. You would have already asked him. You would have already asked him, and he would have already given you living water.

What are they? 20 seconds into this conversation? And he's like, if you knew the gift of God, and if you knew who it is who's saying to you, give me a drink, you would have already in these last 20 seconds asked him. To give you living water, and he would have already in these 20 seconds given you that gift.

You see the eagerness, like how swiftly he's ready. Just, you would have already asked and I would have already immediately exploded with the reply and eagerly, quickly, decisively giving to you the very thing that you would have asked me for if you knew the gift of God, and if you knew who it is who says to you, give me. A drink See, this is why people many times do not come to Jesus. They're guided by their thirst.

They're driven. We admire driven people that are driven by this thirst. ultimately, at the bottom of that thirst is a thirst for Jesus, but what? They don't know the gift of God, and they don't know who this one is sitting by this well.

And so they think, oh, I know what I'm thirsting for. It's this relationship. I know what I'm thirsting for. It's a million dollars.

And then they get the million dollars. I know what I'm thirsting for. It's that $2 million. I know what I'm thirsting for.

It's that man, and then that relationship breaks, and now what I really need and what I'm thirsting for is that other man, and then that other one and that other one and that other one. Because they don't know the gift of God. And they don't know who it is who's talking here to this woman beside the well. He says, you would have already asked.

It would have been the first thing out of your mouth, and I would have immediately given to you. Living water. When you come to Jesus in your brokenness, And You say even I'm a moral outcast and I deserve to be. I don't blame anyone in my life for wanting nothing to do with me.

But Jesus, I'm coming to you. I've gone to so many other things trying to quench my thirst, and none of it is satisfied. And I'm realizing that what I really thirst for is you and I'm coming to you and asking you to give me living water. Jesus will not reply by saying, what, I appreciate the request.

Give me a week to think about it. No, he replies instantly. He's eager. He's an eager savior.

If you will but come to him. She said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. I don't know if this is true or not. Two writers that I read said the well was 100 ft deep.

And that at the bottom of the well it was a spring of water that didn't flow above ground. You had to drop a bucket or a container very deep into that well in order to obtain the spring water that was underground spring water. However deep it was, she says it was deep. She said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.

Where then do you get this living water that you're talking about? You are not greater than our father Jacob, are you, who gave us this well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle. Jesus is making some bold claims here. if you really knew the gift of God, and if you really knew who I am, here's how you would be behaving.

And she gets the point that he's talking like he's big stuff. And she's like, are you saying you're greater than our father, Jacob? That brings us to the 4th thing that Jesus does that brings her right to the edge. of asking him for this soul quenching.

Water, and that is Jesus makes astonishing promises to her about the water that he gives. Jesus answered and said to her, he points to the water in the well, he says, everyone who drinks of this water, shall thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. The idea is they'll never go thirsty, not that they'll never experience thirst pangs again, but they'll never go thirsty again.

it'd be like if I had a, like a Ralph's gift card up here and, and I put a million dollars on that gift card. I could stand in front of you all this morning and say, whoever receives this gift card from me. We'll never go hungry again. I'm not saying by that that you'll never experience hunger pangs.

You won't come to me three days later and say, I got the card, but I felt hungry this morning. You lied to me. That's, you, you wouldn't say that. You would know that what is you'll never go hungry again.

You'll never be hungry without recourse to satisfy. That hunger. And so the idea is whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him, shall never go thirsty again. He'll never experience thirst pangs without recourse, without an abundant supply from me to satisfy his thirst.

But not only will it satisfy your thirst, But look at this, but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. That water, that living water that you drink in from me, it will go down into you and form a pool and then a spring, and it'll just begin to bubble forth for eternity. Inside of you. And you will never go thirsty again.

Because I supply an eternal supply of flowing, living water that flows straight from the throne of God. Write down Revelation 22:1, when we get to heaven, we're going to see the throne of God, and then coming from the throne of God is the river of life. And we're like, whoa, so this is where it all, all originated from, that I experienced and tasted. When I was on earth, that's all, when when we're drinking of the water of life now, and it's quenching our thirst in the person of Jesus and in relationship with him, we're we're basically just downstream of that, of that river that goes all the way up to the throne of God and flows from him infinitely.

This is a staggering promise, and the woman hears what he says. And in verse 15, We'll close with this. She says, sir, Give me this water. So that I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.

This woman is admitting her thirst. She's understanding that Jesus is the one to come to with her thirst. She's humble enough to ask. For him to give her the living water.

She's posturing herself now, in the vulnerable position. The conversation started with Jesus saying, give me something to drink. And this part of the conversation comes to a conclusion with the woman say, saying, no, you give me something to drink. Now, let me say this real quick.

There are a lot of writers look at this request by this woman. And they'll use language like, Man, this woman is still understanding Jesus in a crassly, literal physical way. That she's still thinking Jesus is only talking about physical water. That may be possible, but But understand why this woman was coming to this well.

To draw water in the heat of the day. I think there's an element where this woman is realizing this is not just physical water, this is truly soul satisfying water, and she's saying to Jesus, Sir, give me this water. So that I will not be thirsty, and keep living the lifestyle that renders me a moral outcast, that reduces me to having to come out of the city, a half a mile to this well in the heat of the day. Change me, satisfy my thirst.

So that I am not thirsty anymore. And I don't do the things that I'm doing now. And I'm not reduced to this lonely life. Of coming to this well to draw water in the heat.

Of the day. If you're here today. I don't know How you've understood your thirst and what drives you, but we need to be more aware of, at the bottom of so many things we do is a thirst. We don't think of it this way.

We think, whoa, what drive? I'm driven. No, you're thirsty. You're thirsty.

When you're roaming the internet, just bored and, this has happened to me, you're looking for something. There's something. You're, you're drinking, but, it's not filling me. What are those things that you pursue to satisfy your soul's thirst and it doesn't satisfy?

When you're on Facebook and you're counting up how many likes you got for something you said, What are you looking for? Where does that come from? At the bottom of that is a thirst. And you have a God.

Who's far greater than any one of your Facebook friends who may like something you said. You have a God who loves you. And who's chosen you? And who Saying I want a relationship with you.

And I can give you living water that will blow you away and totally satisfy you. The days of this coming week, just evaluate your actions. Why am I doing what I'm doing? And is there thirst at the bottom of this?

And why am I not running to Jesus? And if you've never run to Jesus in the first place, You've got a loving savior, an amazing savior. Who today is invading your ordinary. And he's introducing himself to you and he's saying, my name is Jesus.

And I'm the one you've been thirsting for all your life. Come to me. And let me fill your soul like nothing else can. Let's pray together.

The Lord has touched your heart or spoken to you in any way that you just want to give voice to your response, just put that on the back of the connection card that's in your bulletin. Prayer requests, praise items, let us know that. We'll be happy to pray over those things as a staff. Put those on our church family prayer sheet if you want us to do so.

If there's any way we can minister to you, let us know. You're here today and you've never run to Jesus, Please do so today. You can run him right there where you're seated. Come talk to me afterwards or there's so many smiling faces in this room who would be utterly thrilled to talk to you.

There's a table outside and one of our pastors is going to be there and he would be ecstatic to speak to you of Jesus. Lord Jesus, what a savior you are. You think of everything, you think of everything. We love your style, we love your way, we love who you are, we love what you provide.

You are good. You are bountiful, and we are so grateful. That you have found us. We also thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you.

We ask that you would receive our giving this morning, receive these funds and do much with every penny that is given in this offering for the glory of Jesus and for the spread. Of this message. About this one so wonderful as Jesus. In His name we pray, and all God's people sin.