At a Well but not Doing Well

Amen.

That was such a blessing.

Don't you enjoy hearing young people sing to the Lord?

It's hard to go after that.

John, chapter four, please.

John, chapter four.

While you're turning there, I'll read a few verses from Revelation on that note of that song.

It says, after this I beheld and lo, a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands, and cried with a loud voice saying salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb.

And then in verse 12, it says, saying, amen.

Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power, and might be unto our God forever and ever.

Amen.

And that's encouraging to think about.

God is on his throne, is he not?

Amen.

That's a good reminder.

John, Chapter four.

Tonight I would like to ask a question in just a little bit, but this evening we're going to look here at a common story that we've heard.

It's the woman at the well.

We know it that way.

The woman at the well.

And as we think about the woman at the well, let's see where we can find some parallels for our own life and glean something from her testimony.

I think that'll be helpful for us tonight.

And I guess my question would be this.

Are you in survival mode or revival mode?

Survival mode or revival mode?

And when I think about this woman here at the well, I kind of titled this chapter here.

At a well, but not doing so well.

At a well, but not doing so well.

The Bible says in verse number one.

We'll look at verse number four.

And he must needs go through Samaria.

Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

Now, Jacob's well was there.

Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well.

And it was about the sixth hour.

There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water.

Jesus saith unto her, give me to drink.

And so we think of a well tonight.

And thinking of this woman and also thinking of Christ himself, Jesus went to the well for multiple reasons.

Number one.

The Bible already told us in verse number four that he must needs go through Samaria.

I believe that one of the reasons why he needed to go through Samaria was, number one.

It was God the Father's will for him to do so.

But the purpose behind God the Father's will was to meet this woman at a well.

There was a divine appointment set up by God the Father.

And Jesus, as he walked perfectly in line with the Father's will, met this woman here at this well.

Another reason why Jesus would be at a well.

And he tells us here as well.

If you look at number seven, give me to drink.

Jesus was thirsty, and Jesus was tired.

He was exhausted.

And yet in his exhaustion, I find it very interesting that he didn't seclude himself to the point where he was unreachable.

But he reached out to a soul that was thirsty, and he met that need.

And so there's two thirsty people here.

Jesus is physically thirsty, and the woman is physically thirsty.

And also her greater need is the spiritual thirst that she has.

And she doesn't know where to find satisfaction there.

But she will soon.

Look at verse number eight.

For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.

Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, how is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria, for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.

Jesus answered and said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

The woman saith unto him, sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.

From whence then hast thou that living water?

Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children and his cattle?

Jesus answered and said unto her, whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.

But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

The woman saith unto him, sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

Jesus said unto her, go call thy husband, and come hither.

The woman answered and said, I have no husband.

Jesus said unto her, thou hast one well said I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband.

In that saidst thou truly?

The woman saith unto him, sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

Jesus saith unto her, woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the father.

Ye, worship ye.

Know not what we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.

But the hour cometh, and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

For the Father seeketh such to worship him.

God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah is cometh, which is called Christ.

When he is come, he will tell us all things.

Jesus saith unto her, I that speaketh unto thee am he.

And upon this came his disciples and marveled that he talked with the woman.

Yet no man said, what seekest thou?

Or why talkest thou with her?

The woman then left her water pot and went her way into the city and saith to the men, come see a man which told me all things that ever I did.

Is not this the Christ?

A well is a place where dissatisfied people come to be satisfied.

Jesus came to this well here to meet this woman that was drawing and she was completely dissatisfied with life.

She thought that she'd go to the well that day like she had every other day, just to satisfy and survive for the next day.

She thought that, well, here we are, it's near the middle of the day and it's time for me to go get water.

I'm not allowed to go in the morning, or if I do, I'll be ridiculed and mocked and made fun of and I don't want that.

And so I'll go when people like me go.

And she recognized that she was a sinner and understood that she was looked down upon in society.

And so she's surviving.

She's not thriving, she's surviving emotionally and spiritually, just in survival mode.

And then there's Jesus.

And Jesus interacts with her and engages in meaningful conversation with her.

And it was quite a take back for her to have him even speak to her.

And you see that played out there.

It wasn't normal and it would have been looked down on for Jesus, a Jewish man, to have been communicating with a Samaritan woman like he was with her.

I would say that there's two wells to draw from in this life.

You're either drawing from the world's well or you're drawing from the well of living waters.

Both of them are satisfying, there's no doubt about that, in different ways, but only one of them remains satisfying and will never run dry.

If you've known Jesus for any real amount of time or legitimate amount of Time in your life, you found it to be very true that life brings a lot of mess and a lot of things happen that you never expected.

And difficulties come and trials find their way into your life.

But Jesus never leaves.

And satisfaction in him can be found at any point.

He truly is the fountain of living waters.

The Samaritan woman here in the story met the one who could satisfy her like no one else and nothing else ever could.

I want us to see here and consider that people are searching for purpose and satisfaction when I see this world.

And we're trying everything in culture now and we're trying to make anything okay and everything should be accepted.

Anyone's truth is okay.

As long as they can say that it's truth for them, it's fine.

Moral relativism is rampant today.

Churches are in decline, and yet Jesus is still available to every person that would seek him.

Jesus is available.

Satisfaction can be had, satisfaction that can extend beyond their mortal life here on earth.

And yet we see people that are drowning, people that are hurting and struggling.

We know people like this in our own families.

We know people like this in our neighborhoods.

We know people like this at work, people that need to drink from another well, people that are surviving.

I noticed in verses 7 through 11 that she was really just living without purpose as you see here.

She's just in, honestly for her, kind of a meaningless conversation here as she's talking.

And Jesus begins to engage in a more deep conversation as it goes on.

But it's very obvious here that she's really living with no purpose.

And what the well represented before she was saved was just daily survival, a pointless existence.

Do you remember what that was like before you were saved?

And the things that mattered to you then really have no bearing in your life now.

Isn't it funny?

The things that used to get you excited or used to make you happy for a moment's time now they bring you.

They don't bring you the same satisfaction, do they?

In fact, some of those things, if they're sin, they actually bring the Holy Spirit into your heart in a way that is convicting.

And so your life radically changes at the moment of salvation.

And the Holy Spirit's influence works in you.

And you experience what you were made to, where you were made to find joy.

And you begin to find out that joy, not just temporary happiness, but everlasting joy and living waters, can be had through the person of Jesus Christ, religious history and pedigree.

She starts to talk about that, and she talks about it in such a way that Honestly, as I read the passage, it doesn't sound like she's real connected, if you know what I'm talking about.

You ever been talking with a family member?

Someone that, you know doesn't really have any real connectivity to the word of God or with a local church?

But if you start to talk about spiritual things, they'll immediately jump into a conversation and they'll tell you everything they know, as if they're the authority in the room on how to know God.

And then usually after they've said everything they know, they get quiet.

And then sometimes an opportunity presents itself.

And that's kind of what I see here with this woman at the well.

She talks about this association that she has with this well.

And she talks about Jacob in verse 12, which gave us the well and drank thereof himself and his children and his cattle.

And really she's just talking about here a passionless association.

There was no real meaning or passion behind what she was talking about.

She was really just talking to Jesus, thinking that she was giving him a history lesson about this well.

And I'm sure Jesus had no idea what this well was all about, right?

He knew everything about it.

He could have sat in the teacher's seat there and told her everything about that well and everything about Jacob.

But he lets her talk about her understanding, her spiritual understanding of this place where she survives.

But I think it's good to stop for just a minute and think about something.

Keep your place here and just turn back a couple pages to John chapter one.

This is an important thing for all of us to remember.

I heard it again today, actually, in a video.

And you hear it often when people are speaking of God and speaking of the children of God.

And they will usually reference, many times people that don't really understand the word of God and the doctrine of God's word.

They'll reference God's children as anyone alive.

All God's people, all humans are God's children.

Now that sounds so nice, but it's so full of error.

If you look at John chapter one, you'll notice something here in verse number 12.

But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.

What's another way to put that?

How about this?

God has no grandchildren.

Think about that for a moment.

Who are those that can be called the sons of God?

Well, John chapter 1 and verse 12 tells us here it's those that believe on his name.

I would even say to young people, maybe people that have been in a religious home for a long time, but have never had a real, dynamic, meaningful relationship with the Lord Jesus for themselves.

I would say to you this.

If.

If you're riding on the coattails of your parents or someone else in your home, or even riding the coattails of your pastor or some other spiritual influence in your life, but you have no real relationship with Jesus Christ, no personal walk with him, I would say that you are in survival mode at best, and you need Jesus Christ.

She was living without satisfaction.

The well represented many different things after she was saved.

It would represent eternal provision to the end of God's glory and also for her good.

It also represented personal satisfaction and personal salvation.

But she was living without satisfaction.

Living for physical satisfaction will leave you damaged, full of regrets, and still yet wanting.

And so people today, they run after the same things they've run after for eons.

They'll run after money and power and even substances and physical relationships, materialism, a career, maybe popularity, you name it.

We've tried it over and over and over again in every generation, but it's never yet found people truly satisfied.

Her lifestyle represented religiosity and physical pleasure.

Which brings me to a passage I'd like to read in the book of Hebrews.

The Bible says in Hebrews, chapter 11, in verse number 25, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.

There is pleasure in sin.

We cannot deny that we are flesh and blood.

But the pleasure does not last forever.

The pleasure does not last forever for the drunkard does it when he wakes up in the morning in a stupor.

And that's putting it nicely.

The pleasure runs out for those when they run away from their family and go enter into a different relationship with some other person and wreck and ruin a home.

There's no lasting pleasure there once that home has been ruined.

But the devil would say to you, well, enjoy this.

Look how enticing it is.

Enjoy it.

And we fall for it.

We fall for it because we're flesh and blood.

Her lifestyle represents religiosity, physical pleasure.

Living for spiritual satisfaction will always leave you fulfilled, though.

And here she's about to be filled like she had never been filled before.

And so people, in a sense, are searching for purpose and for satisfaction.

I cannot say accurately that people are searching for God, because I believe that God is the one who is chasing after us.

And we see that all through his word chasing after us.

Even in salvation, we see a God that even though we've rebelled against Him.

He's looking for us and he's looking for that one sheep that has gone astray that is willing to admit their sin before a holy and a righteous God.

But also, it's interesting to think that God here is searching for true worshipers and soul winners.

And he turns this woman into just that, a true worshiper and a soul winner.

We didn't get into the verses here about how she goes and tells many people about Christ and how when Jesus comes back, there were many that seemingly had heard about Him.

I wonder why she had found something that was satisfying that she could not keep to herself, and it was Jesus.

There are false worshipers and there are true worshipers.

Look at verse 23 once again.

But the hour cometh, and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

For the Father seeketh such to worship Him.

He's the one seeking, looking for someone that's willing to open their heart to him so that he can pour into them fountains of living water.

And then he says to her, verse 24, God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ.

When he is come, he will tell us all things.

Now it's interesting to stop here for just a moment and recognize a small or one likeness between the Samaritans and the, if you will, full blooded Jews.

Each of them, all of them were looking for a savior.

They were all looking for the Messiah.

They were all looking for the Christ.

Now they worshiped in different ways and it's interesting to note that neither party was worshiping in spirit and in truth.

Worship.

One was worshiping in truth.

The Jews, they worshiped in Jerusalem and they had the law and they had the Torah, which many of the Samaritans would reject.

But you know what?

It's interesting to find that the Samaritans, they were able to worship too.

And they did, but without some of the truth of God's word they were lacking.

And so they made up for that in their spirit, if you will.

And it's always dangerous when we worship God in truth with no spirit.

Have you ever sang a song in church and then realized you finished that song and really don't even know what you sang about?

That's a good example, right?

Of when we worship him with our mouths, but our spirits are in another place.

But how about the other end of it?

Have you ever seen in places where there's really no Substance to the worship.

And what I mean by substance is doctrine.

Do we learn about God from the music that is being sung?

Do we learn some trait about him that is recorded and accurate to scripture?

Or do we find ourselves questioning the holiness of God?

You see?

See, that would be a good example of worshiping him in spirit, possibly, but neglecting true doctrine.

And so neither of these groups were worshiping in spirit and truth, and he recognizes that.

And then she says in verse 26, Jesus saith unto her, I that speaketh unto thee am He.

He reveals himself to a Samaritan woman as the Messiah, as the Christ.

And she believes.

And then she goes and she tells others about who she's found.

I would say that there are false worshipers, there are true worshipers.

But may God's people here at Heritage Baptist Church be people that worship him in spirit and in truth?

I think there's a good balance in music that we sing to the Lord and play before him in this church, and that's a very good and a healthy thing.

Sometimes some churches get to the point where they say, well, if it ain't in my hymnbook, well, then I ain't singing it.

As if God stopped using people to write music, as if he fell asleep.

And all the music writers could know nothing more about God.

But then there are others that say, well, that stuff is just so old and boring, I don't want anything to do with it.

And they neglect the rich, beautiful language and doctrinal emphasis that many of our traditional hymns have.

There's a danger in either of these extremes, and I appreciate and love the fact that our pastor recognizes that there needs to be.

There needs to be an understanding that God is still using people to write music, and very good music.

In fact, we just heard a wonderful song by our teenagers, didn't we?

I'm so glad that God put it on the heart of someone to write those words.

How many times have you heard that song, maybe even in the car and sang along with it?

If you're like me, that's where you really get at it.

When I'm, like, alone, that's when I really sing a song.

Now, I can't sing for nothing, but I know I really enjoy when no one else is around.

And I can just sing songs like that and know that I'm worshiping before the Lord.

And God hears that, and he accepts that praise and accepts that worship.

And I believe that it's a good thing.

True worshipers worship God in spirit and truth.

False worshipers have nothing more than religious experience to draw from.

And that, my friends, is a shallow, dissatisfying well to draw from.

You know, it's interesting as you look at verse number 28 here, it says, then the woman then left her water pot and went her way into the city and saith to the men, come see a man.

Which told me all things that ever I did.

Is not this the Christ?

Then they went out of the city and.

And came unto him.

She became a soul winner when she recognized who Jesus was and how satisfying he could be in her life.

The natural response for her, and I would say the natural response for anyone that recognizes that Jesus is king and that there is water that is living that can be had by any person.

The natural response is to go and tell someone else.

It's not just the natural response, but it's actually the command from our Savior as well that we are to go and to teach and preach to all nations.

And we have to give the gospel to every person.

Every person needs a preacher to every creature.

And so God can use you to spread his gospel, reach your network of people.

Well, what was her network of people?

Unfortunately, it was a lot of different men.

And that's exactly where she goes to tell people about Jesus Christ.

And yet it works.

She went within her realm of influence.

The people that she knew when she told them of Jesus, and their lives were changed as she brought them to Christ.

Now, who do you know that I don't know?

Who do I know that you don't know?

Every person God gives influence to.

Some greater influence than others.

Yes, but everyone has a level of influence that God would have you use to tell someone, that person, those people about him, so they too can be satisfied and not just living in survival mode.

Tell your story of God's glory in the next few verses.

You'll see that that takes place.

And she goes and she tells many.

And many Samaritans believe the Bible says in verse 39.

And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him.

For the saying of the woman which testified, he told me all that ever I did.

So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them.

And he abode there two days.

And many more believed because of his own word.

How interesting is that?

That Jesus uses this Samaritan woman that is a known sinner in her area.

And her testimony was so strong, her life change was so obvious that everyone around her said, I'm thirsty too.

I could take a drink right now.

I could really go for something that satisfies for longer than just a day, longer than just a week.

I'm tired of the rat race.

I'm tired of the latter.

I'm tired.

And they went to Him.

And the Bible says, and many more believed because of his word.

And so what do we do once we've found the water?

We share it with others.

And then we let God do the rest.

Right?

We let God do the rest.

The results are up to him.

The Bible says again, many more believed because of his own word and said unto the woman, now we believe not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.

What an amazing testimony of an unlikely person doing something for the Lord that changed the lives of many.

How can God use us?

How could God use you?

Well, I guess I'd first ask you this.

Are you thirsty tonight?

Have you met Jesus?

Are you relying on someone else's word that you are a believer or are you a believer?

Are you relying upon your attendance to this place or you're getting wet over here in this place or your service in this place or this place or this place or anywhere else in our church ministries?

Or are you resting in the fact that you've dived into the well of living water and you've drank of the satisfying soul water that is Jesus Christ?

And you can say, I've drank from that well and I'm satisfied.

Jesus will always satisfy.

I hope that you know him.

If you do know him, be like the woman.

Go tell someone.

Remember when you first got saved and you just had to go tell more people and you had to go tell more and more and more people and there was an excitement about the thing and then after time you maybe it becomes a little bit more perfunctory or duty filled and then that sense of duty overrides the sense of genuine excitement to see someone else drink of that water.

It'd be good for us if we were to spend some time in prayer and ask the Lord to bring us back to that place so that we can become excited about those things once again so that many more will believe.