The Woman At The Well – Sermon – John 4:1-42

Brother Jeff Price: Say amen to that tonight. It’s good for us to be here. Good to be at Campmeeting. As I look out to this congregation I just feel like the least in the kingdom. Got to be honest with you but I’ve never been more confident in the God of miracles to just take our broken words and all of these insufficient vessels and use them to deliver the contents of the Holy Scriptures right to the people and not just to ears that you intellectually process, but deep down into the conscience, right into the heart.

That’s the work of God, it’s the finger of God that does that and that is the thing that makes this book unique and separates it above all others because it is indeed the inspired record.

I just thought I would read you a passage. It’s been on my mind of late and, you all will be familiar with this that read your Bible, it’s found in the fourth chapter of St. John. If you have your Bibles tonight and you’d like to read along that would be fine, of course if you don’t, that’s fine too.

But I ask not that you listen to me because I’m standing here but this is for us. It really is for us. I couldn’t conceive all of the needs that are represented here tonight. I see the people filing in and the different ones and I don’t know all the situations. I couldn’t possibly address everything that everyone needs, I don’t know. I don’t know but God does, God knows, and through his word it’s a miracle that he can use the foolishness of preaching to attend and minister to each and every one. It is the balm that is in Gilead.

This is beginning. Let me begin here at the top of the chapter.

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 and departed again into Galilee. And he must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of the 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. For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat. And then saith the woman of Samaritan unto him, how is it that thou, being a Jew, asketh 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: whence then has hast thou this living water?

As I read these next few verses just pay attention to the contempt that you can sense in her voice, and almost this skepticism of who this strange Jewish man was that was talking to her anyway. She wasn’t going to talk to him.

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

You see, who do you think you are? I’m the one holding the water pot. So how is it that you’re going to give me water?

Jesus answered and said to 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.

Still deriding and contemptuous. All right what have you got? Give me some of this water. I mean she is the one in control of the situation, so she thought. She was the one holding the hammer; she’s driving the ship in this conversation. This man is tired and thirsty, and she’s got the water pot. He is relying on her for the water and he needs it and he’s asked from her to drink. So as this conversation begins to evolve you see her very confident and she is holding the hammer so to speak.

I don’t know who this man is but I know one thing he wants what I’ve got and I don’t have to do what he says, he’s the one begging from me. He’s asking me and now he’s telling me about this living water, so she says, “Oh yeah give me some of that I’d like to, not ever have to come back here ” with no expectation of what he might say. Listen, and 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: in that saidest thou truly.

And all of a sudden, what a dramatic change. Now who’s holding the hammer? All of a sudden she is sober to this awakening. She is confronted with her sin. Here all this time, she’s gone about her life, going about her day going to get her water, the sin is in her life and she’s not aware of it. And it was necessary and this story does personify the compassion that Christ had to reach out to her, but in that compassion he never compromised the message that the sin that was in her life was not going to be acceptable, and that was the first thing she had to deal with before she could continue to even talk to this man.

The first thing he says, he raises the flag there is sin your life. And not just a little bit. But nevertheless it didn’t make any difference. She was not convinced of that and I believe tonight that there are multitudes of people who are living in sin but will never be convicted of sin until they’re convinced of it. And that is why when we stand in the pulpit, God help us with this, if we’re going to follow these examples of these men in the Scriptures, It is necessary, you must tell the people that they are sinful and that sin is not going to make it with God. It’s enmity against God. It cannot be and before you can ever come into fellowship with him.

We were singing that hymn; we’ll get into that into that in a few minutes. If you’re going to worship him that is the first thing that you must deal with. So it’s not a statement of being judgmental or being harsh or being critical like some Pharisee, but you must understand that if there is sin in your life, it has to be dealt with. It has to go, and it takes the word of God to convince you of that.

That’s what he did, he told her. And it wasn’t just him, I was reading the other day about John the Baptist. Now, we hear the names of all these men, their legacy lives. These are great heroes. These are what Christianity is built on but their preaching offended a lot of people.

They weren’t making a whole lot of friends. They weren’t going for popularity. They weren’t trying to evaluate the situation here and say just the right things. They spoke what God gave them and the thing was that he preached repent. That’s what you had to do. You had to preach repentance and John the Baptist preached it. He told them their sins.

And there was such a spirit about him. It was something about him that would be hard for them for those people had never seen anything like this. They had seen the Scribes, they had seen the Pharisees, they had heard their teachings in the temple but this man came out of the wilderness. He was not dressed like they were dressed. He was of cut from a different cloth and there was something about him, there was something about his message that was convicting. It convinced them that they were sinners, and under such preaching, the people cried out, what shall we do? And the publicans cried out what shall we do, and the soldiers cried out like shall we do, and that was the reaction from all of the people. What shall we do because we’re convicted, we are condemned. We realize it, we’re in our sin, we’re sinners, and therefore that had to be dealt with. Now all of a sudden we’re back to this woman and she is talking to Christ here and she who is enjoying having a little bit of authority in this position. All of a sudden now she realizes right away, this is no ordinary man. You know why? It was true. That’s why. That’s why it cut her right here. That’s why she didn’t get all throw up and ready to fight and get all offended. It was true and she couldn’t say anything.

You couldn’t resist that. It was something to that that made her realize and here is her next comment.

Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

So I would like for us to, this seems like there are so many tonight. Wandering around going about their life, going about their day, same thing. No Conviction, no condemnation. But if you could see your sin like God sees it. And you all who have ever experienced genuine conviction of sin will remember that, and some of you who like myself who were young teenagers running around here on this camp around like a lot of you that are out here listening to me tonight are. And never understanding, never convinced. But when I saw my sin like God saw it, it was as black as the pit of hell and that’s the way I felt. You know why? Because it was true. That’s the way it was: guilty, condemned and it didn’t matter that I didn’t have a criminal record in a long list of sins of years like this woman, I was condemned. I was convicted and I needed a Savior, I had to be saved. And that’s when he wrote, he wrote over there to Titus, read that scripture today.

Excuse me just a second. I’m going to read you just a couple of verses.

We ourselves also were sometimes foolish. Let’s keep this in mind brothers and sisters, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another but after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared not by works of righteousness which we had done but according to His mercy, He saved us. And that was the difference that makes me a vessel fit that God could actually use. That He that siteth on the circle of the earth, brother read that passage at the service last night could actually reach down and operate on that corrupt heart, carnal heart and take such for an insignificant one. Look at the millions of all the earth and sit down and take time, I want to show you something. Come up hither. I’ve got more for you. That God could actually do that with a vessel such as me is the greatest miracle. You can say people talk of where’s the miracles and all that, I’m serious, they’re plenty, they’re evident.

We were singing that hymn a minute ago: “Brethren we have met to worship”. And let’s talk about that in a minute.

The story continues. Since this woman realizes that this man is a prophet, is no ordinary man, he’s obviously in touch with God. She has a question for him.

See there’d been this dispute for many, many generations between the Samaritans and the Jews. It would gotten so bad that the two were not even speaking and this is why she was so curious about why this man would even talk to her to start with. So that’s immediately where she goes and she asked him this question.

Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you 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:

So her question is, where are we going to worship, this is a big dispute about location, where are we going to worship? We say it’s here. Our fathers worshiped here. The Jews say it’s over here? Tell me what the truth is and his answer was neither here nor there. Option C is not on the map. It was not a physical location. The hour cometh and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. That implies to me that if there are true worshipers, there must also be false worshipers.

If you have true worshipers, you must by definition have false worshipers And isn’t it a great debate at times even today? Of where we’re going to worship and all of the emphasis is on the church and the location, and the style of worship, and the types of hymns, and everything that is natural. Still going on, and Christ’s answer is still the same that the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. You see this woman had sin her life. And it didn’t matter where she went to worship. Its false worship. You must deal with the sin first and foremost.

You can’t truly, genuinely worship the Father with sin in your life. The definition, a while back I looked this up and I can’t quote it or remember exactly, I remember the first definition of worship. There were two and three, the first was reverent love for a deity or object or something. Reverent love. That’s it. The second definition was the action through which this love is expressed. Now I suppose all over the world throughout all Christendom. People worship all kinds of ways, now I want to say tonight that I like the way we worship. I like it. Maybe I’m partial in that, that’s all right. But really, it has been a blessing in my life. It has been a benefit to my life, and when I say the way we worship I mean like what we’re doing right now and right here this week when we all get together and sing and clap and sing these hymns and raise our hands, now not everybody worships like we do, and that’s all right, I understand that. But one thing that’s pretty much universal and I don’t know, I’m no expert but it seems like everyone even all across the world that professes some manner of worship, they might sing different hymns. They might behave a different way, but they all raise their hands. Seems like everybody does that pretty well, not everybody but that is probably the most common denominator throughout all Christendom if you want to call it that. Everyone that practices worship. But what Christ is talking about has nothing to do with stomping and clapping and singing and shouting, and coming together in a group of people like we are here tonight and worshiping God.

True worship will occur when you are alone, and you give God your time, and you have your heart cleansed and there is no more sin. And God wants the best from you, and he doesn’t want an occasional worship. And you know how hard time is to come by especially if you’re raising family.

And what do you do with the first minute of time you get? And that’s the one God wants. When you give that to him and not out of obligation. Reverent Love, I worship you. I love you. I want to spend time you alone. It’s something different. Now I hope y’all understand, and I hope my life testifies how I feel about attending church and coming to church and congregating with God’s people. I’m not coming down on that at all, its part of it.

It is a wonderful blessing. But what I am saying is that you can be a part of a big congregation. And regularly on a regular basis engage in worship services and sing the hymns, and feel the emotion, and raise your hands and if there is sin anywhere in your life and you have failed to worship God in your prayer closet, in your quiet time, in your reading chair, it’s false worship, I’m sorry, that’s the truth. This is what Jesus is talking about, true worship. Someone that really loves me. It’s not so consumed in all the natural that they can’t see the forest for the trees and I’m right here. I’m right here in your house. I’m right in your room. What are you doing? What are you doing with that time? God’s a jealous God, He wants it. That’s worship. I give you the time. When you engage in moments like that, intimate moments with God, with your Bible on your knees in prayer and sometimes just in meditation when all the world is blocked out. And your heart has been cleansed and you can stand before God and feel comfortable, and feel at home and worship him. I know we go to God in trials in times of difficulty and we need to, but when you’re not having anything terribly wrong and you just come and lay yourself before God, I give you my time, I give you my life, I give you everything about me because I love you. I want to worship you. And the Father seeketh such to worship him. This is the kind of workers, the hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth and there’s no going out and doing something that’s contrary to the worship service or to the things that you have professed and the songs that you have sung and the consecration and the prayers that you have made during that worship service. That’s true worship. When you stay true. That’s worshiping God in Spirit and in truth. Truth is pure, it’s consistent. There’s no variation.

God is a spirit. And they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And when you understand and come to grips with your sin. And you have to face it like this woman did and realize how black and how impossible it is to ever get to God with that in your life and you will feel genuine conviction for that sin when you become convinced of it. And then you understand that God wants more than just to cleanse you of your sin, more than just to get that out of your life. He doesn’t see yours but you. He wants you. He wants everything that is about you, all your desires, he’s jealous over you. He’s jealous. And when you take your time and throw it into some pleasures of the world or something that you want to do, He’s jealous.

I want that time. I gave my blood for you. I redeemed you. You were bought with the price, you’re not your own. Glorify God with your body and with your spirit which are God’s, and simply I get it. Sing that hymn like man that wrote, O Love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee, I give thee back the life I owe, and from thine ocean depths its flow. May richer, fuller be.

It’s something different, it’s more. Now we’re talking about worship. Its two fold, remember this, you haven’t done the whole job when you come to church a certain number of times a week and sing the hymns and pray and, God has more for you, but when you have been in your prayer closet, in your time, giving it to God. However it is that you do it, totally devoted to him, committed to his cause, interested in promoting his kingdom, and you see that your life and your body, and the way you conduct yourself, and the way you run your business, and the way you operate when you’re driving down the road. Whatever it is that you’re doing, that these things actually is not neutral time, it actually glorifies God just like it does when you’re in church, and then you congregate with a group of like minded believers and you take these books and sing these hymns that some have been written for hundreds of years and sung by millions of believers and your heart tunes in and God comes, this is his will and this is what he is seeking for.

And listen I want to tell you. Y’all who, a number of you have an increased zeal of late for the Word of God and for congregating together and I thank God for everyone. And a number of the younger people been getting together and holding Bible studies. And as Brother Steve mentioned having prayer meetings like they did out today, and that’s a wonderful thing and I want to do what I can to promote such activity but I want to tell you all the Bible studies in the world cannot substitute your own personal time with God’s word. You’ve got to have it for yourself, you have to. God is a spirit and when you congregate with a bunch of people. It’s a great time but I want to tell you the emphasis can shift. There are distractions and the emphasis can shift from this (pointing between the bible and his own person) to what’s going on here(pointing to the crowd around him on the stand), and I’m not saying that it always does. Again God has a plan but what I am saying is if that is all of the reading time and the praying time that you get, God wants more than that. He wants you. And you can give him right there in your town where you live right, in your house, in your current circumstance you have time to give to God, I know things are busy and if you let the devil do it, he’ll keep you busy from daylight to midnight and you’ll come to bed so stressed out and so tired, you don’t have time to read. A couple of verses, I got that out of the way and go back at it again in the morning, and God is wanting more. I want true worship. Some time that you consecrate to him and just for no other reason say God I love you because you’re worthy.

The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: and he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. And upon this came his disciples.

Now remember they’re gone to the city to buy meat, they were not there. Jesus is sitting there at the well talking to this woman, and don’t forget that he’s thirsty, and he’s hungry, and he’s tired. He doesn’t feel like preaching a sermon but he did and thank God that he did.

He preached to multitudes of people. He stood in a boat one time, looked out on the multitudes, had compassion on him. Preached to multitudes. he preached to publicans. He preached to harlots, he preached to Pharisees, He preached to people of all description and it didn’t matter if it was thousands of them or if it was just one. And what a challenge that is. It challenges me. Because if all the preaching that we do is from the pulpit we haven’t done the whole job. That’s for me right there.

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.

Left her water pot, wait a minute. Remember she was the one holding the water pot, she had the means but Jesus had the water. You see the difference? What she cared for the water pot, living water, something different, something that she couldn’t see all of a sudden the guilt was, she had met a man that told all she ever did, this was the Christ. It didn’t matter that she didn’t have water to take back that day. There was something more precious, more in it. Just something that resounded in her. When she went back she start saying things these people had never heard from this woman. Come see a man that told me all…this is the Christ. And was such an unfit and unworthy and unlovable person God had turned a preacher out of that woman. And she went back and began to tell people, this is the Christ. This is the Christ. Look what he’s doing for me.

Come, see a man, that told me all things whichever I did: is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.

In the meanwhile his disciples prayed him, now she’s gone in the city and she’s left her water pot. She’d been digging with that water pot all those years, every day. How many of you all tonight have been doing that.

Every day all the time consciously or unconsciously using the mean natural temporal means using something, an instrument of Satan. An instrument of to sin to seek for that water, and you can bail, and bail, and dip, and dip, and year after year you will never find it that way. When she left her water pot. It was of no value to her anymore. When she left the natural, all of a sudden she didn’t need the water that was down in the well, she wanted what that man had. Living water, it was something different. And you see it’s evident and listen this is what the world will give you, this is what the world offers you. It’s what it wants you to have every day. It’s paraded out here before you.

There are more… it is just countless, it’s astounding the instruments, the devices that are paraded in front of you all leading down to pursue that happiness or that good time, or that pleasure or that satisfaction. And it’s just natural. you will never find it going down that way. And yet that’s what people are working for. That’s what everybody wants.

Let me finish this text. So the disciples come back,

In the meanwhile his disciples prayed him saying Master eat.

They come back, they’ve got their meat, they knew the man, they were taking care of him, they knew he was hungry, but he said into them. I have meat to eat that ye know not of.

I would like to be able to say that to the world, to the flesh, to the natural, to the devil. And when all the distractions that come by and want to catch your time, and want to catch your attention. and they’re so fascinating, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Something hidden. Something different. Something you can’t see, you can’t feel.

Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? Jesus saith unto them, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

Listen I sympathize sometimes with these disciples, they didn’t know what had taken place. They knew when they left him he was tired and hungry and they were going to, doing their duty. They were serving him trying to provide him, gone and bought meat and they come back and say, “Here eat.” and he didn’t. “I have meat to eat that you don’t know anything of… know not of.” And they said, surely somebody must have brought him something. Somebody has brought him something to eat.

They’re natural and you see they had no idea what had taken place. They still didn’t understand. They still didn’t know. And this is…the world is going to do that to you and come in offer you something. Eat, eat. Take this, take that. And it looks good. And there may not be a thing wrong with it but when you are truly worshiping God and you have been entirely sanctified you can stand on the words of Christ and tell that crowd, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of”

Content with very little. He never did get that meal I suppose, but it wasn’t necessary. You say, that was just, something good for him. He needed. He had a different mission, he had something better.

I knelt this morning for a few minutes beside the grave of a certain couple that I knew in my childhood.. And my parents took me to their house a number of times, and they were simple people. And they had a modest home and the furniture was less than fashionable and it wasn’t decorated real nice and it kind of had a certain smell to it like old homes and old people have. You all know what I’m talking about. There was probably someone in your congregation that you went and saw that lived the same way. And they had very little in life.

What makes them heroes? And I’m going to tell you what the world idolizes is a man that has it all. And what the world wants and strives after and if you don’t watch it, it’s what you’ll be going after. Someone that has all the toys and has the big income. And he has all the fun and he is cool. And he wears the stylish clothes, and his house looks like it ought to be in a magazine, and everything is just so and put together. And that man is, that man is so busy that he doesn’t know whether he’s coming or going sometimes. And he has everything that everyone in the world wants. And there are a number of them out there. And everyone wants a better lifestyle. A little more, a little bit better lifestyle, we all…man wouldn’t we? Everybody wants that right? Just a little bit more, just work a little bit more , more income and man it’s hard to make any more. You’re trying to get by but boy soon as the economy turns around I’m raring to go, I’m getting it back. And the toys and the cars and all of the stuff that impresses so many people and all big string of friends. And this is the man. Whether you realize it or not you might not like him but you like what he’s doing. When you’re not following God that’s the route you’re trying to go.

But I thought about this couple. They didn’t have that stuff. It was almost as if they didn’t know a thing about extravagance and a lifestyle of luxury. Even at times later in life when maybe they could have afforded a little bit better, they had no need for that, they lived just as frugal as they could. They had on gone through hard times and all, you tell me that well, they came up in the depression and all this stuff, and that true, and that does breed a different kind of people but what I submit to you is the reason they didn’t have all the stuff is because they didn’t need it. They had the thing that it was intended for.

Here’s the woman with the water pot. She’s going for the water. I’ve got the water pot, you need the water. You’re the one that’s thirsty, not me. I’ve got the water pot, see. And she had the water pot, but Jesus had, he had the things she was trying to get. He didn’t need that water, what did he need that for? Why is it that it’s so hard to grasp and so hard to see. So I think about this couple and there were multitudes of others. I couldn’t tell you, I couldn’t tell you about them all. You all know, I don’t have to explain it to you. You all have met people like that. You’ve known people like that. You’ve had grandparents and great grandparents, this is our roots and our heritage and most, all of us know exactly what I’m talking about. What is the difference now?

God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth and when those people came together they had power in prayer. They had something on the inside that when they got together it brought God to rend the Heavens and come down, and people listened to their preaching, and they had influence with you and with me and each and every different one of us. They weren’t the ones who were trying to be cool and trying to win your popularity and trying to be friends with you. They simply were servants of God. They didn’t know a thing about all that stuff, but they had, I’ll tell you one thing they had, they had a good marriage. You know how few people do. I’m not talking about the kind of marriage that just works out the problems and avoids divorce. But I mean the kind that really does, accomplish is what God designed it for and builds you up for the Kingdom of God and makes two into one and God can take those two that are knit into one and in His hand is a Jawbone of an ass. Samson said ,”heaps upon heaps with the jawbone of an ass have I slain a thousand men.” And in Gods hand two most insignificant people without a lot of money, and without a lot of popularity, and without a lot of stuff can conquer and drive, push back frontiers and drive back the enemy. That’s what God wants to do with those people.

See meat to eat that ye know not of and while the world looks and says Where’s your fun, where’s your joy. What is the source of you. What sustains you? Y’all aren’t having any fun. You aren’t doing, and all of a sudden he says, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of”

And I am astounded by that statement. Would love to be able to live my life where I can look on everyone who looks at me and say I have meat to eat that ye know not of. And when we do…listen this natural emphasis can cut pretty close. Let’s offer people the spiritual meat. I want to be involved with this church and I thank God that it has all these, has offered something spiritual. We get to a place where we offer something natural, and it might be fine. Like the disciples did and it might be nothing wrong with it and nothing good, but the emphasis on, you can have all the infrastructure you want to have and all the reasons to congregate and lots of activity and lots going on but there is something deeper when you say I have meat to eat that ye know not of. We’re not offering you a better lifestyle, it’s a better life.

Say ye not, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest?

I don’t need to remind you brothers and sisters that just a few hours ago we laid to rest a twenty year old young man. And others are struggling spiritually and losing their faith in God, and even turning around and walking out and leaving everything they’ve ever known and going after all, and falling headlong into the snares of Satan.

Say ye not, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth, receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours. 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;  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 Saviour of the world.

I don’t wanna be speaking a foreign language to you tonight. I just want you to, I’d like to ask yourself in these next few minutes, do you know, do you really know that meat is. What have you been working for and striving for? Have you worshiped God. Have you understood, really understood the sin that’s in your in your life. And when you come face to face with God, and all your sin, and all your life is stretched out before him. You think you’re just confident in the situation and you’ve got the hammer and you’re driving the ship in your hand, everything’s under control. It’s smooth sailing and when you meet Jesus, all of a sudden there’s an accountability. Because His holiness demands repentance. And in light of that and when you see that for what it really is, and I’m not trying to condemn anybody. That’s not my job, I told you that to start with. But if we’ll be faithful to the preaching of John and the preaching of Jesus.

That’s all the prophets did was tell the people their sin. That was their entire message. There are just volumes of it, cry aloud, spare not. Lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sin. Isaiah wrote in Chapter 62, For Zion sake will I not hold my peace. For Jerusalem sake I will not rest. He had some burden on him, and it wasn’t for his own popularity or for his own good but he knew that for the sake of Zion and for the sake of Jerusalem that he was going to have to tell the people their sins and it wasn’t an easy job but he had to do it. He had it to do. And indeed if we’ll be faithful to that, Peter did the same thing. What he do on the day of Pentecost? He stood up with the eleven and he began to preach and he told them this same Jesus whom ye have crucified, that was the one. He pointed the finger right back at them. And when saw their sin they were pricked in hearts and said, men and brethren what shall we do. That’s just the Word of God and it will be, I pray that we will be faithful to God’s word and let’s understand how many , we sing that hymn. Sometimes it was a thirsty woman drawing from a well, her life was ruined and wasted. And her soul bound for hell

And how many people tonight are just going about life like she was, with no idea of the guilt that is laid on them. Have not yet met the Master, have not been confronted. And he’s going to confront you with your life and with your, one time or another, will you listen to him tonight? Will you? We offer you Christ. Turn to Christ. Turn to Christ.

Then she met the Master who told her of her great sin. But if you’ll drink this water, and if you’ll leave all that stuff and leave your water pot, and leave the natural, and leave everything you’ve been striving for and working for and all your ambitions and all your dreams and everything that embodies who you are and lay it at the feet of Christ, he said he would give you living water.

Will the congregation stand. While we sing a song of invitation

Congregation:

There came a sound from Heaven, as a rushing, mighty wind.
It filled their hearts with singing, and gave them peace within.
The prophet gave the promise: ‘The spirit will descend,
and from your inner being, a river with no end’.

There is a river, That flows from deep within,
There is a fountain, That frees the soul from sin,
Come to this water, There is a vast supply,
There is a river ,That never shall run dry.

There was a thirsty woman, Who was drawing from a well,
Her life was ruined and wasted, Her soul was bound for hell,
But then she met the master, Who told of her great sin,
And if you drink this water, You’ll never thirst again.

There is a river, That flows from God above,
There is a fountain, That’s filled with His great love,
Come to this water, There is a vast supply,
There is a river, That never shall run dry.

[Inaudible 00:51:27]

There is a river, That flows from deep within,
There is a fountain, That frees the soul from sin,
Come to this water, There is a vast supply,
There is a river,That never shall run dry.

There was a thirsty woman, Who was drawing from a well,
Her life was ruined and wasted, Her soul was bound for hell,
Then she met the Master, Who told of her great sin,
And if you drink this water, You’ll never thirst again.

There is a river, That flows from God above,
There is a fountain, That’s filled with His great love,
Come to this water, There is a vast supply,
There is a river, That never shall run dry.