Living Water

Introduction

Thank you for being here this evening. Fine psalm service. No, we have so many talented people here. Most churches are crying for good song leader, and every service you have a different excellent song.

I’m just really amazed that we have so many talented people. I’d like to talk a little while tonight on how to approach someone that you would like to influence. This is quite a problem, and I think that there’s an art involved, and I think that we should understand it. And a good example of it is in John the fourth chapter. I’d like to read it to you.

If you can’t read along.

Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sipho, near it to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 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. For disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou being a Jew, ask us to drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

A 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 the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be to him like a well of water springing up unto everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not. He that come hither to draw. Jesus saith unto her, Go call thy husband and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband.

Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. And that thou said thou truly. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art prophet. Our fathers worshiped 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, and ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship you know not what. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh and now is. When the true worshippers shall worship the Father in the 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 cometh, which is called Christ. When he has come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I have speaking to thee and he.

1. Establish a Common Bond

And so these Jewish apostles, steeped in the traditionalism that they had, condescended to go into the village of Sidbar and there to buy food. And while he was there, a woman came, and it was the sixth hour, it was noon, and she came to draw water. Now, this told Jesus’ story, because the women traditionally came to the well at dawn in the cool of the day. And there they would visit, and they would exchange the news and the dews of the that they had encountered. They would draw their water while it was cool, and they would return to their home. But this woman came alone. She came at the height of the heat of the sun. She came at noon. And while she was there, Jesus looked at her, and he wanted to make her acquaintance in order to convert her to discipleship.

And yet, how should he start? Should he start out and say, Now, lady, I want you to sit out over there a minute. You’re going straight to hell, and I’m going to straighten you out. Everybody over this section is looking a little nervous. I didn’t really mean to point that way. I was just trying to illustrate. Did he start in this fashion? He could have said, Now, lady, I have something I’d like to explain to you, and this is what it is. But he didn’t do any of those things. The only thing that they had in common, and he desired to establish a common bond. If you want to influence someone, the first thing you must do is to establish a common bond. And the only common bond, a Jewish teacher and a Samaritan woman who did not so much as know one another.

The only common bond that he could see was that here was a well, and he was thirsty and had no way to dip water, and she had a bucket and a robe. That’s not much in common, is it? Well, we can’t have everything. If you want to influence someone for Christ, if you’re waiting for an engraved invitation, uh, we may as well forget it, because we’re not going to get that. We just have to accept the bond, the common bond that we can find. If it’s a small bond, then we have to start in a small way. But you want to start this way. So Jesus looked at the woman and said, Give me to drink. Well, now this woman, uh, we have her courteously answering him.

2. He Didn’t Come to Be Offended

Uh, how is it that you, a Jew, uh, would ask me a Samaritan for water? Don’t you know that Jews and Samaritans have no dealings with one another? That wasn’t the way it was at all. She was just as waspish and as sarcastic as she could be. Oh, we’ve got a thirsty Jew here. You want me to give you some water? Well, now listen here to thirsty Jew. I’m a Samaritan. Don’t you know you’re not supposed to ask me for water? Just do without. Well, he’s not often much of a start, is he? If he’s going to establish a common bond. And I must realize, and you must realize that Jesus came to accomplish something when he talked to this woman. He didn’t come to be offended.

Now keep that in mind. If I had been in the place of the teachers, I would likely would have been insulted. Now look here, I want you to understand that there are a lot of nice people that are Jews, and I want you to know I’m one of them. But he didn’t come to be offended. And I was born in the state of Texas. And when I was very young, I was off to one of the northern states, and someone found out my originship, and he says, Oh, we’ve got a text in here. And I looked at him and I said, That’s right, and I can back it up too. I was ready to fight. Of course, that isn’t a force of wisdom. Jesus could have said, I he could have been insulted, but that wasn’t what he had started the conversation for.

3. Intrigue Her Curiosity

He could care less about those things. So Jesus answered very kindly. And here we see him intrigue her curiosity. He says to her, Jesus answered and said, and to her, if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. Now here she was out in the middle of the day, an outcast, shunned by the companionship of her fellow women in this village of Sikar. She couldn’t come out at the pool of the morning because of their uh uh uh cause of their hostility to them. She chose rather to buy at the noontime scorching sun and their scorching tongues. And here this man says, if you knew who we were talking to, you wouldn’t have to come out here every day at noon and get water, because I am able to give you living water.

And she thought about that. Now he can’t do that, and I know goodwelly can’t do it, but just in case it can, I better find out a little bit more. And she was still ready to really set him down and to uh to just fix him good because of saying such a thing. So the woman says, and I want you to notice the salutation this time, sir, she is polite. Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with. You’re going to give me living water, and you don’t even have a bucket, sir. That’s what you call discretion. You don’t have a bucket, sir. You see, she was planted on both sides of the fence. Well, and the well is deep. From whence then hast thou that living water.

Well, at this time, had I been in the place of Jesus, I would have blown it again. Because I would have said, Lady, you don’t understand. I was really telling you, uh just trying to get your curiosity. What I want to do is preach you a gospel sermon. Uh-huh. I knew you couldn’t get the water. And you can’t ever drink either.

She says, Our call greater than our Father Jacob, which gave us the well and drank thereof himself and his children and his cattle. But listen to Jesus. Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drink of the water I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be unto him a well of water, spring up into everlasting life. And she thought, you know, he’s stirred. And if I just had that water, I could really fix that bunch of women. I would just sit down there and they’d go out there every day. And drink the draw water, and I just sit back and just smile and drink the water, and you’ll live forever.

4. Go Call Your Husband: Changing the Subject

And what the joke be on them. And so she said, give me this water. And Jesus still didn’t explain. Lady, ladies. Really, uh, I was just saying this. What I really had in mind, I was talking about the gospel. I knew you couldn’t do it. But he didn’t answer. He said, Go call your husband. Well, that was where her problems all began first. That was why she’s out here now at noontime in the heat of the day, drawing water instead of it in the early in the morning. And she was a bit sniffy about it. I don’t know whether there’s any such word as sniffy. I got into that word. I didn’t know I was going to say it, and I’m stuck with it. But you understand, she was a bit sniffy about it.

She said, I have no husband. And Jesus said, Lady, you told the truth that time. You’ve had five husbands. And the man you’re living with now, you’re living as his mistress and as a kept woman, and he doesn’t even think enough of you to marry you. But you’re so scared you can’t catch anybody. You’re just living with him anyway. And that’s the reason the women are not having anything to do with you. And you know what she said then? She said, sir, I perceive that thou or the prophet. Now, listen, I want to ask you a question. Our fathers say that in this mountain is the place where people ought to worship, and you say this Jerusalem. Now, about this mountain, Jerusalem. Jesus wouldn’t have anything of that.

He knew good and well she was changing the subject. You know, sometimes when I preach a sermon on baptism, and I lay it out on the line, just like it ought to be laid. Somebody will come by and they’ll pat me on the shoulder and they’ll say, Call me, it took courage to preach a sermon like that. It doesn’t take any discouragement to preach on baptism. That’s the safest sermon in the world. Because all of you have been baptized. And I could preach on it from here to eternity and not step on one of your toes. But if I preach on giving, or I preach on morals, or I preach on Christian living, somebody’s been talking to that preacher. And he wanted to change the subject.

Jesus was talking about her five husbands of the man she was living with that offered her husband. And she all of a sudden wanted to know about the room woman the mountain question. She just all worried about that. What about that? Jesus just wouldn’t have anything to do with it. He said, ladies, that salvation is from Jews, and that the time is going to come and people aren’t going to go to this mountain of Jerusalem either to worship. They that worship him truly are going to worship him in spirit and in truth.

5. Worship in Spirit and in Truth

Spirit and truth.

No, I don’t know. Tell me. What did you do when you worshiped in spirit and in truth? Because that’s the only way people can worship God. Jesus says, God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. Well, to worship in truth is to worship according to the authority of the scripture that God has given us. And to worship in spirit is to worship within the sincerity of our being. Because we’re spiritual beings. If I just have the form of truth, but I’m a big hypocrite, or if I just come up here and I sing scripturally, but my mind is seven miles away, I may be singing and worshiping in truth, but I’m not worshiping in spirit. Because I’m not doing it in the sincerity of my being.

And the only kind of worship that God would accept is a combination of spirit and truth. Because God is a spirit. And when Jesus said that, the lady said, Well, I know that someday the Messiah is going to come, and when he comes, he’ll tell us all things.

6. The Enthusiasm of a New Convert

That that whole thing was just to establish a common bond, intrigue your interest, lead her a little bit on to where she would say this. If he had gone up and he had kicked his head and he would said, Good afternoon, I am Jesus the Messiah. May I have a drink of water? It just would not have worked. He had gone through all of this for a reason. And that reason came out when she said, Well, I know that someday the Messiah is going to come. And he’ll tell us all things. And you know what Jesus said?

I would speak to thee and he.

We went down into that crummy little village down there to get for you. Jesus says, I’m not hungry. He never did get his drink of water either. And they were puzzled. But I know that that woman, her life has changed. And you know how I know it? Because she came up in the heat of the day. And she came up to draw water. But when she left, the Bible said she had got her water pot. And she went back to the village and drowned a pathetic. She went to the middle of the village. And she said, Come see a man that told me everything I ever did. She couldn’t speak of any scholarship. She couldn’t speak of anything but the enthusiasm of a new convert. But that enthusiasm is what tells it what influences people.

You know, and I went down into uh town once, and I sat down in a woolwork store and ordered a glass of iced tea. And a casual quaintness, he had a list and a rapid speaking voice that I never could understand a word he was saying in direct a chatterbox. And I couldn’t get this. Every time he ordered a glass of tea, I he made a profit on it when he got it in the store. And he was so excited about it, and I couldn’t make heads in the tales of it. But I did make out that a friend of mine that when he came here and ordered a glass of tea, he made money out of it too. And I knew I could understand him.

And I walked three bucks to find out what it was all about. And it turned out to be mutual fun. And I was, he was so enthusiastic, though. He was just bumming over. He was so excited. And we asked people to become Christians like we would offer them a cup of tented tea.

But you’re going to go to hell if you don’t drink it, so you might as well have some.

Conclusion

Don’t go off and offer well at your duty. You’re going to go to hell if you don’t. Get excited about Christ. And you’ll find that you’ll lead people to Christ. And if you haven’t accepted Christ, and you like the woman at the well, you’re going to have to forget something too in order to come to Christ. You’re going to have to forget about all those people and what they’re going to say if you obey the gospel of Christ. You’re going to have to forget about all that family and what they’re going to do and what they’re going to say and how they’re going to react. You just got to forget it all. Well, for every one reason I can give you to come to Christ, you can take a 500 good reason why you should stay away.

But that 500 reason, you just got to sweep it aside, and you’ve just got to forget it. Just like the woman forgot her buttons. And you’ve got to have this one reason. And that one reason is Christ. And I’m wondering if there’s someone here tonight that can forget. That can forget your fears and forget your anxieties. Oh, I understand and I sympathize. And I want you to know also that God sympathizes. And God understands your fears. And I want you to know equally well that if you have the courage and the faith to step forward and obey Christ tonight, that he will not let you down. Do you think that when you made a step like that to believe and obey and you’ve got to find it into him?

That he’s going to turn his back on you. You’ve got to forget all of those things. And you’ve got to remember just one thing. That God will most just truth. He accepts all his worshiping in spirit. And in truth. If there’s someone who is right, it’s outside of life. You’re sitting with place now. But there’s no fear. And the Lord gives God in your heart that says I ought to be right. But if it was taking some soft wheel and tenderly easy, Paul and I ought to come, but I dare not. I just come off. My friend, I understand. And God understands. But do not realize that we used to die to earn. That the fear is bringing him to I don’t come off. I don’t count thy on that terrible call.

But he did. And he didn’t hesitate. He didn’t say, I’ll do it next to you. He didn’t find a side conscience by saying, I know what my duty is. And if you may not think, don’t worry about me. If you’re here, my friend, don’t drive your conscience. Don’t tell your conscience. Don’t worry about your conscience. I know what I mean, and I’m going to do it.

It takes you away. There are many, many reasons you should not come tonight. But there is just one, and that one reason is quite and can forget the rest and the most we must go and be faithful.