-Transcript-
00:36 All right, welcome back to the cafe today.
00:41 We are in John 4 and we are going through a five-part series on Jesus and what we can learn from him as he goes to and deals with that Samaritan woman and by virtue of her many in Samaria and the great work that the Lord did there
00:56 and we’re learning so much about the traits of Jesus and last episode we discussed God’s providence the idea that where God guides he provides but more importantly the Christian
01:10 that’s close to God will have God’s guidance and you know the Bible says to draw nigh to him and he’ll draw nigh to you and that we must cleanse our hands as filthy sinners we must get right
01:21 and I think these are instructions that God gives us as to how we are to live for him how we are to live for him right and we see God’s instructions his guidance coming to us when we have a clear conscience before him now you’re saying
01:38 well brother Clark I’m not perfect are you no I’m not perfect I’m perfectly imperfect amen there’s no way I could be perfect on this earth neither can you but what we both could do is go to God in repentance
01:49 and earnest repentance just when we even feel that sin might be coming upon us that we might have messed up when we know that the situation is not gone as it should that we see trouble in our life you know I don’t know any Christians that repent before God
02:04 and God reprimands them for repenting before God but I know many that God rewards with closeness by repenting before him and so we’re not saved by works amen
02:16 we’re saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone and at the same time as the book of James points out without works our faith is dead it’s nothing and so we must go to the Lord and seek him earnestly
02:27 repent before him draw nigh to him get in his word and then we’ll understand what he might want us to do and isn’t that the desire of every Christian to do the will of God
02:36 so we were in John 4 and we’re just a few verses in so I’ll just start from the beginning again as we had last time John 4
02:46 and when therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John though Jesus himself baptized not but his disciples he left Judea
02:57 and departed again into Galilee and he must needs go through Samaria and that’s where we put it in park and talked about God’s providence you know why would Jesus need to go through Samaria
03:10 who gave Jesus that command to go through Samaria why culturally that was not thought upon as a good idea at that time why biblically we can see the Samaritans didn’t get along with the Jews why Jesus chose to do it
03:21 why he needed to do it was I believe because of his prayer life because of his obedience to the father and because the father in his great foreknowledge knew the book of John to be written
03:30 knew that this scripture be in here knew that the Samaritan woman would represent many of us sinners here today knew that we could get so much of it
03:37 and so that’s why God had called Jesus to do it and Jesus in his perfect obedience did it verse five then cometh he to a city of Samaria which is called Sitchar near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph
03:51 now we talked last time as well about how Jacob and Joseph Jacob being Israel the patriarch right and you know we go all the way back to father Abraham right you have Abraham who is justified by his faith
04:05 and Abraham on Sarah at very old age have Isaac right and Isaac was like the the cherished child amen the one they never thought they could have of course they had tried to do it their own way with Ishmael
04:19 and Hagar the bond woman but God forgave that amen blessed Ishmael anyways and in the long run after many years of patience by the way there’s so much we can learn about Abraham and Sarah
04:32 being patient and being obedient not perfect but being obedient there’s a lot of lessons there they have Isaac and then Isaac he’s just a beautiful picture of God’s grace and mercy and love and we’re studying Isaac right now in our Bible study here at Heartland Community Baptist Church in Lincoln to North Carolina
04:52 specifically on Sunday nights and we see Isaac as a non-confrontational as loving and all the rest he’s wonderful he’s like a diplomat in in the scriptures and we see Isaac and Rebecca
05:05 they’re going to have Jacob amen and then you got Jacob and Esau and all that comes with it amen and so with Jacob we have a well here he was building the wells and that was in Gerar actually where Isaac was doing well
05:20 and building these wells not having a problem and we’ve got Jacob here and what we see is verse 6 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
05:38 and again you can look at all of this idea of Jacob giving the parcel of ground to Jacob’s well the living water there’s so much there that’s rich in history which helps us understand that the Old Testament the New Testament they serve each other perfectly
05:55 and they all point to Jesus and there cometh a woman in verse 7 there come with a woman of Samaria to draw water Jesus sayeth under her give me to drink okay
06:06 so here we are in verse 7 of John 4 and we see our point come into picture our point for today is purpose and here in verse 7 it says there cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water Jesus sayeth under her give me to drink so here we see there is a purpose to why Jesus went to Samaria
06:28 and there is a purpose to why he asked her to give him water it was not just that he couldn’t get the water himself though she may have had a bucket or a cup or something that he could have used but he’s God amen
06:42 God would have supplied it I believe it but he wanted to prove a point and illustrate his deity verse 8 for his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat
06:54 so again God’s providence he allowed just Jesus Jesus and this woman to be alone because it probably would have gone differently if the disciples were around at least it would have been more awkward verse 9 then sayeth the of Samaria unto him how is it that thou being a Jew asketh asketh drink of me which am a woman of Samaria
07:11 for the Jews have no dealing with the Samaritans so we’ve already gone through that Jesus answered and said unto her if thou knewest the gift of God who it is that sayeth to thee give me to drink thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given the living water
07:27 and so Jesus is letting her know and here we have a tongue twister amen a tongue twister we have Jesus answering her because she said well you know how could you ask me you being a Jew me being a Samaritan
07:43 and he answers her and says if thou knewest the gift of God so if she knew the gift of God and who it is that sayeth to thee give me to drink right if you knew who I am right then you thou wouldest have asked of him
07:57 and he would have given the living water so this one is we’re on edit number two or three on this particular point and the reason why is Jesus is saying if you knew who was asking you for water right you you
08:10 you probably would have given it but hey you know what you would have asked him or God and he would have given you living water so it was kind of like this double point of you know if you knew this was God
08:21 you’d be obedient of course and then you’d ask yourself you’d say okay well if you’re God what can you give me could you give me life could you give me health could you help me out of my problems this woman had problems like we all do in
08:33 verse 11 the woman saying the woman sayeth unto him sir that was nothing to draw with and the well is deep from whence then hast thou the that living water so she’s still taking him literally and she’s still maybe maybe in her mind pondering this but on the outward way she’s just asking him how are you going to get this living water
08:53 verse 12 art thou greater than our father Jacob which gave us the well and drank thereof himself and his children and his cattle and so here again we see the old testament coming into play we see the idea of Jacob’s well the symbolism in that and uh it’s got to make God kind of chuckle a little bit because she’s saying are you greater and Jesus of course is much greater than Jacob amen he is God in the flesh
09:16 verse 13 Jesus answered and said unto her whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again
09:24 verse 14 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 all right so Jesus is drawing a comparison
09:37 and he’s using something earthly to point out something spiritual which God often does in helping our simple minds grasp these deep theological concepts these deep christian beliefs that we can only understand sometimes if Lord gives us an example
09:54 and gosh I learned so well from examples I love examples I need examples I’m a visual learner I’m an audio type of learner I can read all day long but I have to kind of train myself when I read
10:04 and here the Lord allows us to picture a well with water in it and he draws a comparison and says those that would drink that water they would thirst again they would thirst again
10:17 it wouldn’t satisfy forever and anybody or everyone drinks water you know you drink some water what happens after a while you’re thirsty again it might be an hour it might be eight hours but you’ll be thirsty again
10:26 and the Lord is saying here of the water that he has you’ll never thirst again and the idea is that when we seek Christ and we accept Christ as Savior our spiritual needs
10:36 and that can be fulfilled in the needs of our heart the needs of our mind and the needs of our soul our deepest needs are satisfied for an eternity our deepest needs are completely taken care of you know
10:59 if you have water and you’re hot and you have a big glass of water and you quench that thirst and you’re good what happens you don’t need water anymore until you get thirsty again
11:09 and what the Lord is saying is when you have me and when I when I am king in your heart and you don’t have any other idols and you don’t have anything above me and you live for me
11:19 and you are seeking me daily and you are drinking of me and feasting on me and who I am right when you do that you then you will not no longer thirst you will no longer have a desire for another God
11:31 or a different God or some unusual thing spiritually because you’ll be full have you ever met anybody that’s a Christian that lives for God and says I just wish there was another God
11:38 or a God on top of this God or a little more of God I can’t get you know quite what I want from God spiritually and I’m not fulfilled no of course not when you seek the Lord he delivers in abundance
11:55 and that’s a picture of the wine at the wedding at Canaan that’s a picture of feeding the thousands the multitudes that’s a picture of the fish breaking the nets everything that Jesus did amen
12:07 he did in abundance because God gives in abundance our cup literally runs over and when we take time to think about what he’s done we realize how blessed we’ve been in this life
12:18 how abundantly blessed we’ve been and how he has given us so much including his time and his patience and his long-suffering nature to just allow us to be here today sinners that have been set free by Jesus Christ
12:34 and the most abundant loving gift he could ever give was giving himself amen we couldn’t do it no one else could do it we can’t earn our salvation our works don’t save us our pedigree
12:43 doesn’t save us our bank account doesn’t save us church membership doesn’t save us nothing saves us but the blood of Christ amen the sinless spotless lamb that died for us on the cross
12:52 and we see here that there is purpose in living for God understand number one your purpose is to draw close to him and drink of that living water and you will be satisfied
13:04 the idea that Christians are joyful that idea is that the joy in your heart is around Jesus that you have no need you know the bible talks about this idea as we draw closer to God of wanting nothing the idea that we don’t covet anything
13:19 that we don’t desire anything because we have everything we need in God I’ve seen billboards and signs that says Jesus is the answer to all your problems and
13:27 I’ll have two reactions number one I’ll be like amen that’s true and number two I’ll imagine a lost person just rolling their eyes and there those Christians go again
13:46 and just make a blanket statement like that because in this world so many things are not black and white but one thing is crystal clear Jesus Christ is the answer to all our problems and our purpose should be found in him in who he is and he was compelling that Samaritan woman to look to him the one with all the problems the one with all the heartaches the one with all the broken relationships
13:56 he was compelling her saying look if you look to me you’ll be satisfied but what do many people do they look to the things of this world unfortunately let’s look to God today
14:05 let’s look to him for our satisfaction and our purpose and he will deliver abundantly
14:11 thank you for joining me take care God bless and amen